After almost seven decades of separation characterised by acrimony, cold war resulting in families being torn apart, the South and North Koreas are on the verge of making history by coming together as brothers once again.
Though the development is so sudden, nay, belated, it should be welcomed by all lovers of peace the world over. On April 27, 2019, the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un and South Korean President, Moon Jae-In, met at a South Korean village of Panmunjom, in what is called Panmunjom Declaration for Peace, Prosperity and Unification of the Korean Peninsula, making Kim the first North Korean leader to cross the 38 parallel since the Korean War.
The fratricidal war began in June 1950 when North Korea with the support of Soviet Union and China invaded the United States-backed South Korea. In a way, it was an extension of the cold war by the world’s super powers, using the Korean Peninsula as the battle ground. By the time the smoke vanished, the erstwhile one entity was torn into two countries. The flurry of activities leading to the historic meeting was breath-taking and equally startling.
The North Korean reclusive leader, who has been on self-imposed isolation, has over the years, conducted powerful nuclear tests, launched intercontinental ballistic missiles and even threatened to fi re missiles to the US territory. Indeed, Kim has launched up to 85 missiles into space and conducted four nuclear tests since 2011. On the other hand, President Donald Trump, upon assuming office, never disguised his aversion for the diminutive Rocket Man. North Korea has always been on the US Evil list. The newly appointed Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Mike Pompeo, had hardly warmed his seat when Trump dispatched him to North Korea to work out details ahead of their planned meeting.
The historic meeting of the two Korean leaders is just the first step. And the entire world has been watching the unfolding drama with cautious optimism. The Koreas’ separation has seen different US presidents come and go without much commitment to ending or dousing the palpable tension in the region. It is, therefore, gratifying that signs of peace are in the horizon even at a time when the most controversial person in the US history is at the helm of affairs as president. Whether the new development is as a result the balance of terror, or genuine concern for peace, Trump’s sabre-rattling or Kim’s stunts is immaterial at this point in time.
The development also throws up many socio-political implications. For the families and communities torn apart, the rapprochement is emotional and heart-warming; it will resolve the humanitarian crisis engendered by the decades of separation.
Tens of thousands of families had fled the North to South Korea at the onset of the war and family reunification has been impossible since then. More than half of the 130,000 families that once applied to join their loved ones in North Korea have passed on, while less than half of the remainders should be in their 80s. No doubt, the rapprochement will heal the wounds of the past.
Tension in the region and across the world will reduce. The 28,000-strong US troops stationed in South Korea obviously targeted at North Korea might have to be reduced. Hostility between the two neighbours will cease. Proxy conflicts among US, Japan, China and Russia over the peninsula will also reduce drastically. A joint military operation might be in the offing, so the North will have to refrain from missile and nuclear tests. On the economic front, the reunion will help the North’s infrastructure and modernisation efforts. Although the economic union can be hamstrung by the United Nations, resolutions which state that both countries would “need permission on a case by case basis from the UN Security Council,
” it is hoped the goodwill and excitement in the air would convince the UN Security Council to agree to this. Taking a cue from the defunct West and East Germany which were torn apart by the Berlin wall towards the end of the World War II, the re-unified Germany has since forged ahead as one powerful nation.
In the case of the two Koreas, a seamless transition can be forged if China which controls North Korea and the US which controls South Korea are committed to the reunification of the two Koreas. About seven decades of separation under different ideologies and control of external forces is no fluke.
The task ahead is a herculean one, but with commitment on both sides and less external influences, it should not be an impossible mission to accomplish.
