The Only Way to a REAL Peace on the Korean Peninsula
Greetings from Korea. I wish that I could attend this important event in person.
Let me state the following upfront:
• I support peace on the Korean peninsula.
• I support a diplomatic solution to the North Korean nuclear threat.
• I support ROK and U.S. engagement with the north.
• I do not support a weakening of the ROK and ROK/U.S. military capabilities.
• I believe there can only be success for the U.S., ROK, and Japan through strong ROK/U.S. and Japan/U.S. alliances and trilateral cooperation.
• Despite the above, I think we must accept that North Korea may have a continued hostile strategy and therefore while we prioritize diplomacy, we have to remain prepared for the worst cases. I hope I am wrong here and that Kim Jong Un will dismantle his nuclear weapons and seek peaceful unification that leads to a free and unified Korea. But I do not think that is likely, so we need a superior political warfare and military strategy to achieve peace by settling the “Korea question” as per paragraph 60 of the 1953 Armistice Agreement – the unnatural division of the Peninsula – once and for all.
The question is: will an end-of-war declaration contribute to peace if there is no change to the conventional and nuclear and missile forces in the north? How will the security of the ROK be maintained by an end-of-war declaration? Paper and rhetoric do not trump steel and the amount of North Korean steel north of the DMZ is an existential threat to the South.
Before we can even discuss the efficacy of an end-of-war declaration, we need to make sure we understand the nature, objectives, and strategy of the Kim family regime. To that end we must be able to provide a positive answer to the following questions:
- Do we believe that Kim Jong Un has abandoned the seven decades old strategy of subversion, coercion-extortion (blackmail diplomacy), and use of force to achieve unification dominated by the Guerrilla Dynasty and Gulag State in order to ensure the survival of the mafia-like crime family cult known as Kim family regime?
- In support of that strategy, do we believe that Kim Jong Un has abandoned the objective to split the ROK/US Alliance and get US forces off the peninsula? In other words, has Kim Jong Un given up his divide-to-conquer strategy – divide the alliance to conquer the ROK?
If the answer to those questions is negative, then an end-of-war declaration and even a peace treaty will not ensure the security of the ROK or prevent a resumption of hostilities. We must understand that Kim Jong Un is conducting political warfare to subvert the ROK government and ROK society and drive a wedge in the ROK/US alliance. He is conducting blackmail diplomacy by using increased tensions, threats, and provocations to gain political and economic concessions. He is pursuing advanced warfighting capabilities, in particular nuclear weapons and missiles, to support his political warfare and blackmail diplomacy strategies while preparing for eventual unification by force to ensure regime survival.
If not an end-of-war declaration, then what? The ROK/U.S. alliance must heed the strategic clarity that President Biden and President Yoon provided on April 26, 2023, in 26 words: “The two presidents are committed to building a better future for all Korean people and support a unified Korean Peninsula that is free and at peace.”
This requires a new strategy based on a human rights upfront approach, a sophisticated and comprehensive information campaign, and the pursuit of a free and unified Korea.
The sad truth is the only way there will be an end to the nuclear program and military threats as well as the human rights abuses and crimes against humanity being committed against the Korean people living in the north, is through the achievement of unification and the establishment of a United Republic of Korea. It must be secure and stable, non-nuclear, economically vibrant, and unified under a liberal constitutional form of government based on freedom and individual liberty, free market principles, the rule of law, and human rights as determined by the Korean people. In short, a United Republic of Korea (UROK).
