Parties must say no to war and chaos on Peninsula

As the only party to come up with a relatively comprehensive prescription for ending the protracted wrangling over the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s nuclear weapons program, with its proposal that the United States and the Republic of Korea suspend joint military drills and Pyongyang to suspend nuclear/ missile tests, Beijing is trying everything possible to make sure that war and chaos do not materialize on the Korean Peninsula. Its latest proposal again calls for restraint and mutual non-provocation.

Thankfully the other parties — with Tokyo perhaps the sole exception — also seem to find a political solution more preferable now.

After talking with President Xi Jinping, visiting ROK President Moon Jae-in fully endorsed Beijing’s “no war, no chaos” position in a Friday speech at Peking University, even offering a bright future for the DPRK if it “makes the right choice”.

And remarkably both Pyongyang and Washington have highlighted a desire for peace while affirming no giving in to provocations, something they both reiterated at a ministerial-level meeting of the UN Security Council on Friday.

Since the shared will is there, the question now is how to deliver on it.

Beijing’s latest proposal for resolving the crisis boils down to the parties concerned using restraint, fully implementing UN resolutions and resorting to engagement.

The DPRK and the United States are the parties directly concerned and they need to talk if there is to be a peaceful final settlement of the issue. However, there remains a lack of trust that both sides need to make efforts to overcome. It would be great if US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s earlier offer of unconditional talks were to be backed up by the White House as then it might be taken seriously by Pyongyang, which in turn should respond to the US president’s call for proper conditions for talks.

On Friday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called the standoff on the Korean Peninsula “the most tense and dangerous peace and security issue in the world today”, and it is reaching a critical juncture where all players in the game need to conduct a reality check and make an informed choice, or end up losing big.

As Beijing urges, the parties concerned should exercise restraint and do all they can to seek engagement.