International Observation: The Peninsula Situation Has Been Alleviated and DPRK and US Are Expected To Resume Talks

Early in the morning on July 7, after 16 hours of hard negotiations, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and the Republic of Korea reached an agreement that Korean companies can resume operating in a joint industrial zone, and that they will keep negotiating about this matter. Quite a lot of countries and people welcome the re-initiation of talks between the North and South Korean governments and the improvement of their relationship, thinking that this will further ease the tension in the Korean Peninsula. Interestingly, America, who has always maintained a high profile in the peninsula’s affairs, has yet to comment on this deal. International society might focus on when North Korea and America can restart talks.

Resuming contact between both parties indicates that having dialogue is the only feasible way of solving the problems of the Korean Peninsula. It works between North and South Korea, and also between North Korea and America. Recently, North Korea has shown its will to resume the dialogues in various ways. On June 16, a spokesman for North Korea’s national defense committee suggested having meetings with America and conducting “wide and sincere” negotiations regarding easing military tensions, converting the truce mechanism to a peace mechanism and other issues that are of high concern to both parties. A week ago, during the ASEAN Foreign Ministers Forum held in Brunei, the North Korean foreign minister reiterated the country’s wish to open unconditional and direct dialogues with the United States in order to ease the stressful situation in the Peninsula. On the one hand, America has shown its willingness to have reliable talks with North Korea. On the other hand, it stresses that North Korea must fulfill its international obligations, including adherence to the resolutions passed by the United Nations Security Council to show its determination in abandoning nuclear weapons. It is apparent to most that each side has different goals and aspirations, which may make a dialogue difficult.

The nuclear weapons issue of the Korean Peninsula has deep roots in the aftermath of the Cold War and demonstrates the severe lack of trust between relevant parties, especially the relationship between North Korea and America. Decades of disturbances on the Korean Peninsula shows the world that only by addressing the root cause of the problem — in other words, insisting on having talks and balancing the concerns of different parties — can this problem be tackled fundamentally. As long as North Korea has a positive shift in its attitude and is more willing to talk, others should take it seriously. Although many doubt that North Korea is sincere about the peace talks, as it does not seem willing to change its stance on owning nuclear weapons — and keeping in mind a convoluted past and present, which makes it impossible to undo the knot between North Korea and America through just one talk and guarantees an uneven process of dialogues — having the dialogues is better than not having them, since passive waiting cannot bring about a nuclear-free peninsula. If we get too hung up on the preconditions and conditions of the dialogues, not only will the talks not happen, but some positive but rare opportunities might be missed. If that happens, the situation might slide back to where it was, which will not do either side any good.

Facts prove that a battle-free, chaos-free and nuclear-free peninsula is in each party’s interests. A stable and peaceful peninsula benefits everyone, whereas a chaotic one harms everyone. The ice surrounding the nuclear issue of the peninsula has to be melted with concerted effort. China, who constantly insists that the peninsula have no nuclear power, remains peaceful and stable; it has exerted a lot of effort in promoting multilateral talks and relaunching talks among the six parties. America would also be of great significance in maintaining prolonged stability of the peninsula and even creating peace in the region, if it could stop going about with its head high in the air, take a constructive stance, use diplomatic wisdom, relaunch the talks and promote mutual trust.