The Korean War is the longest standing U.S. conflict. While it no longer consists of active fighting, hostilities between the warring parties have remained high, resulting in the extreme militarization of the Korean Peninsula. Why do need a Korea peace agreement, and how can we achieve peace on the Korean Peninsula? Read below for answers to these questions, and more.
Why do we need a Korea peace treaty or agreement?The Korean War (1950-53) never ended but was merely suspended by an armistice agreement between North Korea (representing the Korean People’s Army and the Chinese People’s Volunteers) and the United States (representing the multinational United Nations Command). While the Korean War no longer consists of active fighting, hostilities between the two parties have remained high, resulting in the extreme militarization of the Korean Peninsula.
Without a peace treaty or agreement, war could break out at any time. And if war erupted on the Korean Peninsula today, it’s estimated that as many as 300,000 people would die in the first few days of conventional fighting. Because of provisions in the U.S.-R.O.K. Mutual Defense Treaty and the Sino-North Korean Mutual Aid and Cooperation Friendship Treaty of 1961, such a conflict also has the potential to escalate into a much larger regional war with China.
Negotiating a peace treaty or agreement would not only end the Korean War, it would be a crucial step toward denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula by providing North Korea with the security assurances it says it needs. A peace treaty or agreement that normalizes relations would also improve the humanitarian conditions for millions of North Koreans, who rely on humanitarian aid to survive. And it would be a step toward shifting resources away from endless wars and toward more basic human needs.
Members of Congress can support H.Res. 152, which was introduced by Reps. Ro Khanna (D-CA), Barbara Lee (D-CA), and Andy Kim (D-NJ) and calls for declaring a formal end to the Korean War. The resolution also “supports ongoing diplomatic engagement to address the nuclear- and ballistic missile-related activities of North Korea.” Its premise is that we need to end the ongoing state of war in order to get to denuclearization. Trust is needed to negotiate.
The main parties to the Korean War were North and South Korea, China, and the U.S. (as head of the UN Command). Except for the U.S., all parties have since declared peace or normalized relations:
The U.S. is a key party to the ongoing war as it has wartime operational control in Korea. If war resumes, the U.S. will command the U.S.-R.O.K. combined forces and execute the Pentagon’s operational plans.
Americans do not want more war; it’s time for the U.S. to formally end the Korean War and replace the armistice with a peace agreement.
From Liberia to Northern Ireland, women have been instrumental in making peace agreements.
Research shows that the participation of civil society groups, including women’s organizations, makes a peace agreement 64 percent less likely to fail. And when women participate in peace processes, the resulting agreements are 35 percent more likely to last at least 15 years.
Including women’s equal participation and full involvement in peace agreements is also a commitment of both UN Security Council Resolution 1325 and the U.S.’s Women, Peace and Security Act of 2017, which recognize the crucial role that women play in conflict prevention, management, and resolution.
But it’s not because of gender that many women are powerful peacemakers; it’s because they are advocates of feminist peace. Feminist peacebuilders believe that dialogue and cooperation, not weapons and sanctions, are the most effective routes toward creating genuine, long-lasting peace and security for all people.
U.S. officials who have succeeded in freezing North Korea’s nuclear weapons program argue that Pyongyang will give up its nukes only when it no longer feels threatened by the U.S. The best way to remove the threat on both sides is to establish peaceful and normal relations.
In his 2019 New Year address, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said his country will “neither make and test nuclear weapons any longer nor use and proliferate them.”
At the U.S.-D.P.R.K. summit in Vietnam, North Korea offered to end all nuclear and missile tests and dismantle the entire Yongbyon nuclear complex under U.S. supervision in exchange for a partial lifting of sanctions. According to leading nuclear scientist Siegfried Hecker, who has visited the nuclear site four times, Yongbyon is “the heart of their nuclear program.”
As long as the United States and North Korea were engaged in dialogue, North Korea honored its commitments.
From 1994 to 2001, North Korea froze its nuclear program under the Agreed Framework (negotiated by the Clinton administration). North Korea restarted its nuclear program when President George W. Bush reneged on U.S. commitments and declared North Korea part of the “axis of evil.” North Korea accelerated its nuclear weapons program during the Obama administration, when the U.S. did not engage at all.
The only way to know if we can trust North Korea as a negotiating partner is by negotiating and holding them to their word.
The state of war is used by governments to justify national security states. Ending the Korean War will go a long way toward improving the human rights of Koreans and Americans.
Engaging North Korea through cultural and humanitarian initiatives and integrating them into the global economic community are more effective means of bringing about change in North Korean society than isolation through sanctions.
Sanctions take a significant humanitarian toll on the North Korean people, restricting the work of humanitarian aid organizations. While the North Korean government is responsible for the well-being of its people, the U.S. and UN also play a role in affecting the day-to-day conditions of the North Korean people through the imposition of sanctions.
If we are truly concerned about the human rights of the North Korean people, we should end isolation and sanctions, such as removing obstacles for inter-Korean economic cooperation.
Decades of sanctions and isolation have not had the intended effect on North Korea. To the contrary, pressure and isolation through sanctions have only strengthened North Korea’s resolve to become a nuclear power.
North Korea says it will give up its nuclear weapons only when it feels the U.S. no longer poses an existential threat to its country. The only way to remove the threat on both sides is to end the Korean War and normalize relations.
At the U.S.-D.P.R.K. summit in Vietnam, North Korea offered to end all nuclear and missile tests and dismantle the entire Yongbyon nuclear complex in exchange for a partial lifting of sanctions.
Economic engagement and integration of North Korea into the global economic community is a more effective way of bringing about change in North Korean society.
The legal basis of the U.S.-ROK alliance is the Mutual Defense Treaty of 1953. A peace agreement between the U.S. and North Korea has no legal bearing on the Mutual Defense Treaty, which can only be terminated if either side chooses to do so. Ultimately, the question of whether or not U.S. troops should remain in South Korea should be determined by the South Korean people.
As a legal instrument, a peace agreement would formally end the state of war and raise the legal bar for justifying the use of force. (By contrast, an armistice is a temporary ceasefire and therefore a weak safeguard against the resumption of active fighting.) The 1953 Armistice Agreement was meant to be temporary, and its text calls for its replacement with a political settlement for peace.
A peace agreement may not be the only way to resolve the longstanding Korean conflict, but it would be the clearest political expression by all parties of their intent to establish new relations free from past enmity and create the conditions for all parties to begin to draw down their arms.
Of course, a peace agreement alone does not guarantee peace. Ultimately, the political will of the people and commitment by governments are necessary to ensure the agreement is honored. That is why the role of U.S. Congress and civil society is critical for lasting peace in Korea.
We believe the two Koreas should decide their own fate. Ending the war will give Koreans the space and freedom to determine how they want to move that process forward. Keeping war on the table never allows for such dialogue and debate.