[Opinion] Let Us Make Peace Using the `Axis Of Evil`

Korea-U.S. summit conference was held in Korea, while tension is intensifying in the Korean peninsula due to the U.S. President George W. Bush’s `axis of evil` utterance. First of the conference’s outcomes was that possibility for war in the peninsula was denied, which relieved the people, and the second was that the two countries agreed to deal with the matters of weapons of mass destruction through dialogues. Analysts say that the Bush administration succeeded in restoring the Korea-U.S. relationship, which has been creaking since its inauguration, to certain extent through this summit conference. However, it is still a far way to go, as the two nations seem to have different views of methodology in dealing with North Korea’s weapons of mass destruction and conventional weapons. Kim Jung Il, North Korean leader, left such a bad impression to Bush that the U.S. president defined the North as the `axis of evil` regime. Bush made it clear in the joint press interview right after the summit conference that he has no trust in Kim Jung-Il’s administration, which permit no freedom to its people but starve them. Although he used somewhat gentle expressions in the historical speech at Dorasan Station, Bush reminded the world of his hardline policy against North Korea by saying that he "will not allow a dangerous regime to possess dangerous weapons."

He also expressed a firm will that North Korea must show some change in attitude to meet South Korea’s humanitarian and economic efforts shown through the sunshine policy. The two leaders agreed on the principle of peace maintenance in the Korean peninsula, but they displayed clearly different opinions on how they should achieve it. Then, what kind of measures must we take to achieve that peace in the peninsula by leading mutual assistance with the U.S. and opening North Korea?

Firstly, the U.S. must be allowed to play an appropriate role in not only North Korea’s nuclear power and missiles, but also in its conventional weapons. So far, the U.S. led negotiations for nuclear power and missiles and South Korea was responsible for conventional weapons, but cooperation measures between the two nations must be sought as the U.S. is showing a determined position of preventing terrorism after its terror tragedy. For conventional weapons, we typically think of tanks or combat planes, but what the U.S. is concerned with are the 8,000 cannons stationed within 100 miles from the Demilitarized Zone. North Korea’s artillery power is capable of launching 400,000 to 500,000 cannon balls per hour, and they are protected under over 4,000 underground facilities, which make the Koreans and the U.S. soldiers in Korea feel most threatened. Among the weapons, 500 long distance cannons are able to reach Seoul to make `sea-of-flames theory` possible.

Therefore, the U.S., which went through the nightmare of terror, must understand the attempt to push North Korean conventional weapons backward not only for the sake of Koreans, but also of the American soldiers stationed in Korea. The reason why the sunshine policy is criticized for lack of apparent results, despite its establishment of foundation for inter-Korean exchange, is that the security situation in the Korean peninsula has not grown particularly better. As for the U.S., which has fear of terror, it is an urgent matter to get rid of threat against its overseas army. The matter is difficult for us, and it may be wise to let the U.S. handle the issue. It is, definitely, not the loss of the nation’s sovereignty.

Secondly, it is to greatly increase economic support for North Korea. The sunshine policy had been criticized for `scooping out`, but it is not so much for preventing war and maintaining peace in the peninsula. What is clear is that the sunshine policy did create the foundation of inter-Korean exchange. Let’s think objectively. Considering that a combat plane costs about 130 billion won, the economic aid until now, which was given for peace and humanitarian acts, is not excessive. Criticism for the sake of itself must be restrained.

It perhaps was our fault to have raised the dream of unification too much in the process of reinforcing the sunshine policy. We must, now, take cold views to make peace in the Korean peninsula by eliminating weapons of mass destruction and pushing the conventional weapons back. When we succeed in transforming the Korean peninsula into the central axis of prosperity in northeast, the dream of unification will naturally be achieved as well.

Kim Kyung-Min (Professor of International Politics, Hanyang Univ.)