The significance of ending Korean War
The Koreas have taken a lead and are no longer devastated client states caught in their patrons’ Cold War web
No, the Korean War still is not over. While an armistice in 1953 ended active fighting, it was never followed by a peace treaty. This is why during their recent meeting, Kim Jong-un, the leader of North Korea, and President Moon Jae-in of South Korea, in addition to jointly calling for the “complete denuclearisation” of the Korean Peninsula, also pledged to formally conclude the war.
Much ambiguity remains about what exactly it would take to accomplish what Kim and Moon vowed to do, and many analysts have expressed scepticism about this diplomatic overture. Yet, this moment does seem different in at least one important respect. American government officials should remember this overlooked truth as they prepare United States President Donald Trump for his own meeting with Kim in the coming weeks — and perhaps all the more because the North Korean government is making direct gestures towards the US, as on Wednesday when it pledged to release three American prisoners.
After North Korea invaded South Korea in June 1950, it almost managed to push the United Nations Command (UNC), the multinational force defending the South, off the peninsula. By November, the UNC was touching the Chinese border. By January 1951, after the dramatic intervention of Chinese forces, the Communists overtook Seoul again. Come June 1951, the battle line had mostly stabilised near the 38th parallel. Armistice negotiations began. At that point, neither the North nor the South wanted to stop fighting — yet both were brought to the negotiating table by their respective Cold War patrons. The US spoke for the UNC; China spoke for the Communists. The two Koreas were their voiceless accessories.
Although it had been North Korea’s idea to start the war, after that its government was mostly excluded from the Communist camp’s military and diplomatic strategising. Archival evidence, including declassified cables between the leaders of the three Communist states, suggests that North Korea was ready to end the conflict by early 1952: The devastation caused by the fighting and a record-breaking flood had ravaged the countryside, triggering a terrible famine. But the Soviet Union and China ignored Pyongyang’s preferences because prolonging the war served their own interests.
Entrapped by financial dependence
China’s view changed after its governing coalition shifted in the summer of 1952. The new leadership group decided to focus on economic reconstruction and industrialisation at home, which would require curbing the tremendous costs that China was incurring in Korea. China was ready to settle in August of that year. By then, though, it was entrapped by its financial dependence on the Soviet Union. It wasn’t until three weeks after Stalin’s death on March 5, 1953, that the Communist camp finally made concessions on the last major sticking point in the armistice negotiations. In the end the armistice terms struck in July 1953 — after 575 meetings between the UNC and the Communist camp — were essentially the same as those that the UNC had proposed when talks began in July 1951. And although Singman Rhee’s last-ditch gambit did win South Korea several major concessions in exchange for its agreeing to end the fighting — a mutual defence pact with the US, long-term economic aid, American support for expanding the South Korean military — the hard truths remained.
The conflict had been fought on Korean soil. Some 5.7 million people, soldiers and civilians, were killed, wounded or went missing, and most were Korean. Yet, neither North Korea nor South Korea had much weight in their respective side’s decisions about how the fighting was conducted or how it ended. Both Koreas were, in effect, pawns in their own war.
Given this historical context, the symbolism of Kim’s and Moon’s recent meeting is significant: They met in Panmunjom, South Korea, where most of all those armistice talks took place, but alone, without their powerful allies.
The Koreas are no longer devastated client states caught in their patrons’ Cold War web. Today, South Korea is a vibrant democracy and one of the world’s largest economies. North Korea may still be isolated and impoverished, but it already has amassed a significant nuclear arsenal. Their war largely unfolded beyond their control. It is time to let any peace be their own.