TODAY'S PERSPECTIVE

Korean Peninsula Reunification: Is it still viable?

By: Kunny Habbibah Ilmi

North and South Korea have been divided for more than 70 years, ever since the Korean Peninsula became an unexpected casualty of the escalating Cold War between two rival superpowers: the Soviet Union and the United States. The Division of Korea began at the end of World War II in 1945. With the declaration of the Soviet–Japanese War, the Soviet Union occupied the North of Korea, and the United States invaded the South, with the boundary between their zones being the 38th parallel. Today, North and South Korea run different political systems, North Korea installed a communist regime, and South Korea is using capitalism.

The division of Korea has been a nightmare for some people. Many families separated because of this. During the Korean War, they even had to fight their brothers or sisters. The Korean War began on June 25, 1950, when some 75,000 soldiers from the North Korean People’s Army poured across the 38th parallel, the boundary between the Soviet-backed Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to the North and the pro-Western Republic of Korea to the South. This invasion was the first military action of the Cold War. However, now those two countries live in very different ways. South Korea is continuing the liberalization, and North Korea is closing their country –disconnect their people from the world- So it was seemed impossible for both of them to reunite.

Ever since the Cold War split Korea in two, people have been making noises about how it might be put back together again. There is still hope that Korea will be a single sovereign state. The survey also said that more than 7 out of 10 residents of Seoul, South Korea, said the reunification of South and North Korea was necessary despite soured inter-Korean relations. There is a potential reunification for them, and it has been started. The process towards unity was begun by the “June 15 North-South Joint Declaration” in June 2000. It was reaffirmed by the “Panmunjom Declaration for Peace,” “Prosperity and Unification of the Korean Peninsula,” in April 2018, and the joint statement of the United States President Donald Trump and North Korean Chairman Kim Jong-un at the Singapore Summit in June 2018. In the Panmunjom Declaration, the two countries agreed to work towards a peaceful reunification of Korea in the future. The decisive move also is seen when North Korea held a Pyongyang Concert in 2018 and invited some South Korean singers, including K-pop stars. This event gave hope to many people in Korea because it was rare that North Korea allow to held a concert.

Although North and South Korea are still officially at war – the armistice signed in 1953 brought an end to hostilities but did not deliver peace – relations between the two countries have been surprisingly cordial of late. Since April 2018, three inter-Korea summits have been held involving the South’s president, Moon Jae-in, and the North’s supreme leader, Kim Jong-un.

However, there are still needs to occur if they want to reunite. First is about trust in each other. North and South Korea may try to build peace together, but the trust between them has already gone. Since North Korea develop its nuclear industry, the security dilemma in South Korea appeared. It is because of the threat that North Korea spread. North Korea utilize nuclear power to produce military weapons. They also did six atomic tests conducted in 2006, 2009, 2013, twice in 2016, and in 2017 and those tests build distrust between them.

The second thing that must be done before the reunification is to determine the system to be applied if they become one state again. Now they contrast systems, and they still stand firmly with their own. But it doesn’t mean that they can achieve their dream to reunite. They must learn from Germany reunification, which was immediately done. The people had an intense longing to reunite. They wanted to live in peace, so they decided a single system to be applied.

So, is the Korea Reunification still viable? If we look at these two requirements, the answer is: For now, it is not. The reunification will not happen soon. Both South and North Korea still hold their ideology very firmly, and they are still debating on which system is the best for Korean People. Also recently, on June 16, 202, North Korea blew up a building where its officials and their South Korean counterparts had recently worked side by side. The North Korean warning aimed at South Korea has steadily been escalating in intensity for more than a year. North Korea wanted to send a message for South Korea: Your matchmaking diplomacy between our leader and President Trump is failing.

If we see what happened recently, the reunification of Korea is still has a long process. Both of them are still not in ‘real’ peace. The people of Korea may have goodwill to be a unity, but the officials may not. It may happen, but not soon.