On Wednesday, South Korean Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong said Seoul and Washington have “effectively” agreed on a draft declaration that would finally put an official end to the Korean War.
Chung said the US and South Korea have discussed “the importance of the declaration” and are now considering ways to start negotiations with North Korea on the matter. South Korean President Moon Jae-in ultimately favors reunification with the North and sees the end of war declaration as a vital first step.
“Our government views that an end-of-war declaration is a crucial step that we must go through in the process of achieving complete denuclearization and a lasting peace settlement on the Korean Peninsula,” Chung said.
While the fighting ended in 1953, a peace treaty was never signed to formally end the war. The US has been standing in the way of the declaration, as many hawks in Washington view the move as a “reward” for Pyongyang.
Since President Biden took office, peace talks between Pyongyang and Seoul have been stalled. “Our government views that an end-of-war declaration provides a very useful opportunity to resume dialogue in a current deadlock in talks with North Korea,” Chung said.
In September, Kim Yo-jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kin Jong-un, released a statement speaking favorably of the idea of declaring an end to the war. “We have discussed the end of war declaration at several opportunities in the past since we have appreciated of the necessity and meaning of the [declaration], which can be the beginning of the establishment of a system to ensure peace on the Korean Peninsula,” she said.
It’s about time.
South Korea’s economy and North Korea’s military will make one heck of a combination.
I’m curious whether a unified Korea casts its lot with the USA or with China.
The North’s nuclear weapons and military at Busan (Korean War time Pusan last holdout perimeter) almost within sight of Japan is as much a fear for the US and Japan as the US military on the Yalu is for China.
That is what Kim wanted from S Korea 3 years ago when the Delutional made a trip to meet him for photo ops only…. US & S Korea were sitting with thumbs up their *** all this time…!
The evil empire will never agree to ending the war. The Korean status quo pays generous dividends to the entrenched military bureaucracy. They will never give that up. Shameful that they are giving the Foreign Minister false hope.
Won’t happen. The US will give the DPRK an ultimatum wrt nukes and sanctions and the DPRK will tell the US to take a hike. The US does not really want a truce with the DPRK to ever happen as then there would be no reason to continue to use S. Korea as a stationary aircraft carrier armed with nuclear missiles, war planes and soldiers.
No peace until the Americans occupiers leave South Korea….that much is crytal clear!
Whether before or after peace, a real peace would require the US to leave. That is one big reason the US does not want a real peace.
A reunification of the Korea’s is in the interest of all concerned parties. The virtually insurmountable issue is its form of governance, its economy, its constitution and the future of the Kim’s.
It is not in the interest of China, which famously does not want the US on its Yalu River border with North Korea.
It is not in the interest of the US, which uses the frozen conflict as an excuse for another version of its bases in Okinawa.
It is not in the interest of either the US or Japan for South Korea to join the North if they combine to be a larger and richer nuclear power. Important interests both North and South see that as something of value that the North brings to reunification.
It is not in the interest of many of those South Koreans who fear an extreme version the same burdens West Germany faced when uniting with its East.
It is not in the interest of those North Koreans who actually fear capitalism in its extreme Southern version. They might seem to us to be deluded, but they exist, and South Korea is a very hard place now for even those few who have escaped from the North.
A focus on the actual awfulness of so much of the North’s system simply does not see the other interests. There are many. They are the reasons there has been no interest in progress for the last 70 years.
This is a joke. Hasn’t anyone heard of a “White Peace” before? The war ended almost 70 years ago. No need for a piece of paper saying so.
That war killed my first cousin, Johnny, before I was born. He’s buried at Arlington.
He was a medic who was shot rendering aid to a wounded soldier.
I never got to meet him. Say his name…Johnny