By Yang Moo-Jin
Professor and vice president for public affairs
University of North Korean Studies

The nation this year marked its 76th National Liberation Day after overcoming its dark history and pursuing freedom and independence from Japanese colonial rule. Removing the yoke of occupation should have been the beginning of a new prosperity for the people and foundation of the country. Unfortunately, Koreans experienced the tragedy of the Korean War amid the global atmosphere of the Cold War. This fratricidal conflict split both the country and the people into two parts. Forming a united country is the final step of liberation, but achieving unification today given the state of inter-Korean relations is far from easy. This is not an objection to a united Korean Peninsula, but rather a proposal to seek peaceful coexistence and de facto unification because of the difficulty in immediately accomplishing reunification in a physical and institutional sense. This is why the methods devised through national consensus in the Republic of Korea aim to achieve the goal in a systematic and gradual – not radical -- manner through peaceful coexistence, reconciliation and cooperation.

The incumbent Moon administration has emphasized peaceful coexistence more than any of its predecessors. Right after taking office in 2017 amid an extremely volatile atmosphere caused by North Korea's nuclear weapons program that triggered the threat of a second war on the peninsula, President Moon Jae-in in July 2017 made his stance clear in a speech at the Korber Foundation in Germany that he would neither seek reunification through absorption nor artificial means. Based on the understanding that the North's nuclear program originated from uncertainty over the preservation of its regime, this speech amplified the peace process by inducing Pyeongyang to give up its nukes and guiding it toward the path of peaceful co-prosperity.

This policy has produced much fruit. Inter-Korean relations and the North's ties with the U.S. remain in a stalemate at the moment, but these cannot disparage the results of the inter-Korean peace process so far. If not for the ''spring of 2018,'' the North's provocations would have continued and the peninsula could have gone into an unstable spiral of peace. A series of inter-Korean summits provided an opportunity to reverse the hostile relationship between North Korea and the U.S., and this led to the historic inaugural summit between the two sides. Thanks to the Moon administration's efforts toward peace, the Biden administration of the U.S. made its direction clear of respecting existing agreements between Pyeongyang and Washington such as the joint statement concluded at the June 2018 summit in Singapore. This holds significance considering how a new U.S. government often reverses course and policy after an election. Though regretful incidents occurred on the way such as the demolition of an inter-Korean liaison office, the achievements of the peace process so far must not be forgotten like the Panmunjom Declaration, the September 19 Comprehensive Military Agreement and overall peace management of the peninsula. If not for such agreements, each tense moment in the region could have negatively affected the Korean economy and made life here far more unstable in the era of COVID-19.

The direction for moving forward is clear. The peace process must continue. The opportunity for unification will come naturally when inter-Korean relations are restored for the sake of peaceful coexistence and the framework for co-prosperity is formed. Firming the ground for sustainable peace is important while leaving all skepticism or hesitance behind. To this end, both Koreas must remove all factors that threaten peace. North Korea has to give up its nuclear weapons and find a way to guarantee the stability of its regime. It must also resolve its chronic international sanctions and economic difficulties. Its southern neighbor, meanwhile, must run a win-win project for coexistence to induce the North toward the path of peaceful coexistence. As the framework of decades-long distrust and confrontation under the 1953 armistice cannot instantly disappear, the two sides must begin dialogue and cooperation in areas showing higher potential. Cooperation in quarantine, medicine and health care, and disaster management offer win-win potential to both sides. The issue of separated families on both sides of the peninsula is another wound to heal. Thus, the two Koreas need to begin cooperation in humanitarian sectors as in the past, when Koreans helped each other in difficult times.

Lingering instability in inter-Korean relations has been exemplified by the restoration and abrupt suspension of the communication network between Seoul and Pyeongyang. Global politics over Sino-U.S. tension also poses an obstacle to the Korean Peninsula. And questions remain over whether Seoul's policy toward Pyeongyang can change due to the political circumstances within South Korea. What is clear, however, is that building a peace structure through peaceful coexistence is the only way to ensure the safety and prosperity of the Korean nation. We must not forget that taking each step in this direction is the only shortcut to true liberation.


Translated by Korea.net staff writer Yoon Sojung