North and South Korea Making Peace Without US 'Help'
by John Lawrence, September 21, 2018
President Kim of North Korea and President Moon of South Korea have met together 3 times this year. Moon traveled to North Korea just recently for a meeting September 20. Evidently, President Moon is not hung up over a "complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula" like Washington is. The two Korean Presidents realize that they don't need Washington's OK before they go ahead and normalize relations between the two Koreas. Nevertheless, Kim has asserted that complete denuclearization is the goal. They are going about it in the right way with mutual respect shown by both sides. Washington wants Kim to kowtow before they will agree to anything. That's not the right way to make peace.
If Kim and Moon can work out an amiable relationship and normalize relations between the two Koreas, then the US is the odd man out. South Korea may well at some time tell the US to pack their bags and go home. They're not needed any more. It remains to be seen what the US would do at that point. Would they insist on staying despite South Korea's telling them to get out? Would they impose sanctions on South Korea for "dealing with the enemy"?
The Guardian reported:
The third meeting comes with talks between the US and North Korea over Pyongyang’s nuclear programme having made little progress since a summit between Donald Trump and Kim in June. Trump cancelled a trip by his top diplomat last month. While North Korea has repeatedly agreed to working towards the “complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula”, experts warn the language is vague and fails to address key US demands that the North give up its nuclear weapon unilaterally and allow weapons inspectors into the country.
Despite the difficulties, Chung said Kim’s “trust in Trump remains unchanged”, and that he had not spoken negatively about Trump to anyone, even his closest advisers. Kim also complained the international community had not appreciated steps already taken by North Korea to end nuclear and missile tests, according to Chung, and revealed he had shut a missile launch facility.
However, experts have warned the North could reopen its only known nuclear tests site at Punggye-ri, which it said it closed in May.
Chung also said Kim hoped to end hostilities between North Korea and the US by the end of Trump’s first term, which ends in January 2021. North Korea has consistently pushed for a formal end to the 1950-53 Korean war, which ended in an armistice instead of a peace treaty.
South Korea’s diplomatic overtures have also highlighted a growing rift between Seoul and Washington, with US officials frustrated by the pace of nuclear negotiations and South Korean authorities focused on improving ties with their unpredictable neighbour.
North Korean state media echoed many of the same statements conveyed by officials in Seoul, with language that emphasised denuclearisation as a shared responsibility, not one for Pyongyang alone.
The North’s official Korean Central News Agency said: “Noting that it is our fixed stand and his will to completely remove the danger of armed conflict and horror of war from the Korean Peninsula and turn it into the cradle of peace without nuclear weapons and free from nuclear threat, he said that the North and the South should further their efforts to realise the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.”
So North and South Korea are making peace while the US sits on the sidelines like an angry bully who will not accept peace between North and South Korea unless they do it on the US' terms. It's the US way or the highway. The final result will probably be a peaceful, reunited Korea, but one which is not aligned with US interests. Will they be the first nation in the world to stand up to the US and tell it to remove its military bases and personnel from a united Korea or will a united Korea remain at war with the US? Or will Trump try to take credit for creating peace in the Koreas? Time will tell.