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SPEAKING
FREELY
Korea: Awkward
anniversaries
By Tom Tobback
Speaking Freely is an Asia Times
Online feature that allows guest writers to have their
say. Please click here if you are interested in
contributing.
BEIJING - On July 27 it will be exactly 50 years
ago that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the
People's Republic of China and the United Nations signed
the armistice that brought the Korean War to an end. On
both sides of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) there will be
ceremonies to commemorate this event: communist groups
around the world will celebrate the North's victory over
the imperialist forces, while the 16 nations that came
to defend South Korea under the UN flag will remember
how they rolled back the communist aggression.
Celebrating these old alliances will underscore
the division of the Korean Peninsula, and in that sense
it should be a painful affair for both Koreas. However,
Pyongyang has managed to turn its memory of the Korean
War into resistance against the US imperialists, which
continues until today and is in fact the main
legitimizing force of its regime.
With the
arrival of the crab-catching season, the North and South
have started accusing each other again of violations of
their territorial waters. On Sunday the South Korean
navy even fired warning shots at North Korean fishing
boats. Last year similar incidents led to a naval clash
with four deaths on the South Korean side. If the issue
of the Northern Limit Line (NLL) acts as a barometer for
inter-Korean relations, we can surely expect more
fireworks soon.
Before we get to the armistice
celebrations in July, another Korean anniversary will
pass: on June 15 it will have been three years since the
inter-Korean summit between Kim Jong-il and Kim Dae-jung
in Pyongyang. The result of this historic meeting was
the June 15 Joint Declaration, in which the two leaders
agreed to improve economic cooperation and promote
reunification. Since then, some progress has indeed been
made: South Korean tourists were able to cross the DMZ
by bus for the first time last February to visit the
Mount Geumgang resort in the North, but that road was
closed again after two weeks.
Reconnection of
the railway lines in the east and the west has been
delayed so many times that the latest agreement at the
difficult economic talks at the end of May to hold the
ceremonies next Tuesday seems far too optimistic. The
same goes for the announcement that the Kaesong
Industrial Park will finally have its ground-breaking
ceremony at the end of June. Pyongyang and Seoul have
allowed their workers, women, athletes, and families to
meet each other, share their sadness about the national
division and issue nationalist statements calling for
reunification; nevertheless on a government level trust
remains thin. As a result of the nuclear crisis, today
both sides are using the Joint Declaration merely to
criticize each other's behavior.
Pyongyang
recently claimed Seoul was violating the Declaration by
"hurling mud at the dignified system of the DPRK" when
South Korean National Security Advisor Ra Jong-yil said
about Inter-Korean cooperation that the North's regime
should be distinguished from its residents. When chief
North Korean delegate Pak Chang-ryon threatened with an
"unspeakable disaster" at the economic talks last week
if the South would turn to confrontation, Seoul
suspended the talks, saying that such a statement went
against the Declaration. After two days of impasse, they
suddenly managed to agree on yet another optimistic
timeframe for some cooperation projects. These two
examples show that even without outside powers involved,
the two Korean governments do not easily find common
ground.
Pyongyang does not miss a chance to
bring up the Declaration whenever it gets the impression
that Seoul is getting too close to Washington, as with
President Roh Moo-hyun's US visit and joint statement
with President George W Bush on May 14. The North Korean
regime is aiming at nationalist and anti-US feelings in
the South with its mantra of "achieving reconciliation
and reunification by our nation itself under the banner
of the June 15 Joint Declaration".
President Roh
has a hard time aligning his strategy for the nuclear
crisis with Washington without damaging inter-Korean
relations. Pyongyang keeps waving the Declaration and
accusing Seoul of pro-US servile diplomacy, while it is
further building up its military under the "Songun"
army-first policy. With all that artillery aimed at
Seoul, no half-working Joint Declaration should reassure
anyone in South Korea.
Tom Tobback is the creator and
editor of Pyongyang Square, a website
dedicated to providing independent information on North
Korea.
(Copyright 2003 Tom Tobback.)
Speaking Freely is an Asia Times
Online feature that allows guest writers to have their
say. Please click here if you are interested in
contributing.
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