International
meeting
2011
World Conference against against A & H Bombs
Lee Tae Ho(General Secretary), Park Jung Eun (Director, Team of Peace and International Solidarity)
People’s
Solidarity for Participatory Democracy (PSPD)
Republic of Korea
New approach toward
eliminating threat of nuclear weapons and military tension in Northeast Asia:
Necessity of a preemptive action of peace
1. North-South military conflict and
another cold war structure in northeast Asia
The sinking of South Korea’s warship “Cheonan” and a North-South
exchange of gunfire on Yeonpyeongdo island have helped increase a new Cold War structure
in Northeast Asia, including North and South Korea. After these incidents, the Lee Myung-bak government adopted the so-called “proactive deterrence” strategy and raised
the level of military retaliation against North Korea beyond
“proportionality”. While fortifying five islands in northwest waters, the Lee Myung-bak government drew up concrete operational plans to occupy North Korea
to dismantle
facilities of weapons of mass destruction in response to a sudden and contingent political change there.
The ROK and the United States
have strengthened their military cooperation more than ever. At the 42nd Security Consultative Council meeting(SCM) in October 2010, the defense ministers of
both governments promised to 1) officially specify an “unstable state” of the North in joint statement
and strengthen readiness to respond to regional provocation by North Korea
and a contingent situation there; 2) create an “extended deterrence policy committee” to strengthen the nuclear
umbrella and increase the missile defense capability, and 3) promote “ROK-US cooperation in dealing with challenges to large-scale global security.”
Immediately after the regular Security Consultative Council Meeting(SCM), Korean
National Defense Minister Kim Tae-young made controversial remarks in the face of
national policy audit in the National Assembly that would regard participation in the MD program as an accomplished
fact.
The
crisis of the Korean Peninsula is, in particular, offers an important turning point that will help the ROK and the United States resolve their old differences. The ROK is requesting
that the United States
defer the returning to the ROK of its right of wartime control until 2015. In exchange for accepting
this ROK request, the United States could receive ROK guarantee in many ways such as diversion of defense burden sharing costs, the readjustment
of ROK-US
FTA negotiations, dispatches of troops to Afghanistan,
and sanctions against Iran.
The
crisis on the Korean Peninsula and the strengthened ROK-US alliance is leading to promoting defense
cooperation between Japan, ROK and the United States. After the sinking of the “Cheonan,” the US
government succeeded in having Japan’s ruling Democratic Party change its public promises in regard to the
relocation of the US Marine Corps Futenma Air Station. An atmosphere is being created to put emphasis on military cooperation also between South Korea and Japan. When the ROK-US joint military exercises took place on the East Sea
in July last year, four Japanese Self-Defense personnel attended as observers. It was also learned that the South Korean forces
observed Japan-US joint exercises. The South Korean government in 2011 agreed with Japan to promote bilateral military
cooperation by considering an
Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreement (ACSA) and a General Security of Military Information Agreement
(GSOMIA). However, both South Korea and Japan still keep silent about the possibility of
concluding a Japan-ROK military agreement.
In
the meantime, ROK-China relations are worsening. They could become the worst
since they were normalized. While the Lee Myung-bak government has made efforts to upgrade its relation
with the United States as a
strategic alliance, it has done
little to develop partnerships with China. Unlike in the past, China directly
expressed its unpleasant sentiment about
the stronger ROK-US military alliance. China reacted strongly to the ROK-US joint exercises involving the USS George Washington, which took place immediately after the
Yeonpyeongdo incident. The USS
George Washington was
operating within an area of 1,000 km,
which covers the whole of North Korea as well as key Chinese regions like Beijing
and Shanghai.
This aircraft carrier was initially supposed
to participate in the ROK-US joint
exercises conducted just after the “Cheonan” incident. However, in the face of Chinese opposition, the vessel
could not enter the West
Sea.
The
conflict has been expanded to the Southeast Asia.
With naval ships of the US Pacific Fleet
being deployed in the region, potential factors for
conflict are becoming real.
2. Six-Party Talks in a stalemate
The
Six Party Talks have been suspended since North Korea conducted its second
nuclear test in 2009. Diplomatic discussions recently began cautiously to resume talks between the North and the South
Korea as well as the Six Party Talks. However,
the mistrust and conflict that arose between the South Korea-US side and
the China-North Korea side in the wake of the sinking of a South
Korean warship appears to
remain deep.
In the US view, there is still a room for considering that maintaining close relationship with South Korea would be more beneficial in geopolitical terms than holding uncertain and difficult negotiations with North Korea. Furthermore,
even if the US and other countries in the
region might want to have bilateral talks with North Korea or to hold the Six
Party Talks, they will not be able to sit at negotiating table anytime soon because the South Korean
government maintains its position that North Korea’s apology over the sinking
of the naval ship and the attacks on Yeonpyeong Island must come first.
In
May, South Korean government secretly met with the North and proposed resuming
the North-South summit on condition that the North shows its regret over Cheonan-sinking
incident by using words that can be taken by the South and not by the North, as
an apology. However, North Korea disclosed the fact of negotiation and rejected the South Korean proposal.
Since
then, there has been dim
chance for the
two sides to build bilateral
cooperation in order to resume their summit meeting and break the deadlock. Recently the Korean
government allowed civilian aid of wheat flour and diagnosis equipments for
prevention of malaria to North
Korea. It’s first allowance for civilian aid
to North Korea,
which has been prohibited by sanction measures from 24th May 2010.
But it is not clear if the South Korean
government, which has stressed the instability of North
Korea and maintained hostile attitude to North Korea,
can easily get away from its own trick.
North Korea, which twice conducted nuclear tests, has
continuously calling on relevant states to “recognize North
Korea as a nuclear weapons nation and to
negotiate.” This call is a heavy burden
on member states of the Six-Party
Talks. There is a high possibility that North Korea
continues taking this position until
2012, the year defined as the “First
year as a strong and
prosperous country.” Because of this, some people are skeptic of North
Korea because it has no willingness to abandon nuclear weapons from the beginning and in the future.
However,
whether neighboring countries consider North
Korea as nuclear weapons state or not, in order to have North Korea sit
at the negotiating table, totally new
conditions should be presented.
Since
facing UN sanctions in 2009, North Korea made public its uranium enrichment work and in 2010, it invited
Dr. Siegfried Hecker and opened
its uranium enrichment facility, which
has an estimated 2,000 centrifugal
machines, to the press. Later, the issue of North Korea’s nuclear program moved to a stage where themes regarding plutonium
extraction, uranium enrichment, nuclear weapons, and energy problems need to be dealt with comprehensively. Until recently, the ROK government has
maintained a position that “the Six-Party Talks should be held after a report
on the uranium enrichment
program is adopted by the UN.” At the end of February
this year, the U.N. Security Council discussed the question whether to adopt the UEP report made by the expert
panel on sanction against North
Korea. However, the discussion was
unsuccessful because China
proclaimed that the issue should be discussed at the Six-party talks. This shows
that hostile situation, which looks like a new cold war era, formed in North East Asia. Such phenomenon has been foreseen when
the South Korean and the US
government took the matter of sunken warship Cheonan to U.N. Security Council
meetings, although the question has not yet examined thoroughly.
Finally,
double standards held by the ROK government and by Japan
and the United States
in regard to the “the use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes” or the “safety of
nuclear materials” are also making the
situation difficult.
While
urging North Korea
to nullify its nuclear reprocessing facilities, the ROK government is enabling
itself to possess such facilities and calling for the completion of the South
Korean nuclear cycle program. To this end,
the ROK government of President Lee Myung-bak is seeking
to revise the ROK-US nuclear agreement.
With India,
it already reached an agreement for bilateral nuclear trade. Worse still, India is not a member state to the
NPT and is a country that possesses nuclear weapons. Such double standards towards nukes are making the North Korean nuclear issue more
difficult to be solved.
Surprisingly,
this attempt continues even after disaster at
the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Still south Korean government seeks
export of NPP abroad, new construction of NPP and reoperating old nuclear power
plant in Korea,
which outlived its life and suspended operation for various reasons. The Lee
Myung-bak government announced that it will use the Nuclear Security Summit
scheduled for March 2012 in Seoul
as a forum for sale of South Korean NPPs.
3. Necessity of new approach
Looking back on nuclear talks