KEY TAKEAWAYS
- South Korean President Moon Jae-in is trying to convince the United States to declare an end to the Korean War.
- North Korea’s continued refusal to engage in dialogue should not induce the U.S. and South Korea to rush to yet another bad agreement with Pyongyang.
- A peace treaty ending the war should require reduction and redeployment of North Korea’s array of artillery and maneuver units that are deployed near South Korea.
Despite North Korea’s ongoing nuclear weapons buildup and provocations, South Korean President Moon Jae-in is trying to convince the United States to declare an end to the Korean War. While the 1950-53 war seems a relic of the past, North Korea today poses a very real security threat.
In his waning months in office, President Moon is increasingly desperate to jump-start dialogue with the recalcitrant Kim regime and secure his legacy as a peacemaker on the Korean Peninsula. President Biden should reject Mr. Moon’s entreaties while continuing to highlight the importance of the bilateral alliance to deter North Korean adventurism.
Hampered by international sanctions from offering economic largesse to the North, Mr. Moon resurrected his peace proposal during a speech to the United Nations in September. He asserted that a declaration ending the Korean War would create “a new order of ‘reconciliation and cooperation’ on the Korean Peninsula [and] make irreversible progress in denuclearization.”
The Biden administration quietly rebuffed Seoul’s entreaties but was forced to disagree publicly after South Korean officials repeatedly announced Washington was on board and on the cusp of releasing a joint peace document. The U.S. correctly recognizes that a peace declaration should not be made as an upfront inducement simply to get Pyongyang back to the table. Any such declaration must come as part of a comprehensive denuclearization agreement.
North Korean officials quickly rejected Mr. Moon’s peace proposal as interesting but premature. Before considering Seoul’s conciliatory offering, Pyongyang demands significant concessions, including ending allied military exercises, reducing U.S. forces in South Korea and removing international sanctions. The regime has long emphasized that a peace declaration could “never be a bargaining chip” for getting its nuclear weapons…[Continue Reading]
