‘NK’s role crucial for Moon’s mine removal initiative’
The success of President Moon Jae-in’s drive to collaborate with the United Nations on removing hundreds of thousands of landmines from the inter-Korean demilitarized zone (DMZ) will depend on North Korea’s willingness to cooperate, experts said, Sunday.
At the U.N. General Assembly, the South Korean leader stressed the significance of his proposal to transform the DMZ dividing the Koreas into an international peace zone. The President called for joint efforts with North Korea to remove landmines, invite U.N. bodies and seeking registration for the region as a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Before leaving New York, the President wrote on the official Cheong Wa Dae Facebook account that his proposal will ensure security for both Koreas and allow for U.N. involvement, adding the proposal received warm welcomes including one from U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
While the Koreas dismantled several guard posts and conducted some extensive mine-clearing operations to remove some of the estimated 2 million landmines buried in the DMZ, the President wants to see the project progress more quickly with the help of the North because a complete removal of landmines would take about 15 years for the South Korean military to do alone.
Seoul experts said the proposal sounds feasible but it can only happen when the North returns to the negotiating table in a stable manner and expresses its determination to cooperate with the initiative.
“The suggested scenario sounds ideal, but the thing is whether North Korea is willing to accept the proposal from President Moon,” said Kim Yeol-soo, director of the security strategy division at the Korea Institute for Military Affairs. “My view is the North will remain very passive over the proposal, as it views the landmines inside the DMZ as a strong deterrent from possible ground attacks from the combined forces of the South and the United States.”
The North Korean regime has for decades injected such a logic when offering ideological education to its citizens, according to the expert.
That is why the North reacts very sensitively when the South and the U.S. carry out their joint military exercises, even if they are defensive in nature and chances remain slim for the allies to conduct any preemptive strikes against the North, according to him.
He said things are no different even at the moment when Pyonngyang is resuming its gestures for denuclearization talks with Washington.
“But if the South Korean government can succeed in persuading the North to join the peace initiative, the international community will be strongly supportive of Moon’s joint mine removal drive,” the expert said.
The DMZ, some four kilometers wide, serves as a reminder that the two Koreas have technically been at war since the 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice. With the recent thaw between the Koreas, the DMZ is going through a major rebranding, from a symbol of war to a nature destination.
“The United States and North Korea should speed up their nuclear talks, as the resumption of the peace talks between the two will also help the two Koreas restart their dialogue on a series of such goals,” the expert said.
Inter-Korean relations saw significant progress last year when President Moon held three summits with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. The third one even took place in the North Korean capital for three days when the two leaders reached a consensus on taking concrete steps to ease military tension particularly in the border area.
But inter-Korean relations have shown little sign of improvement in the wake of the breakdown of the Hanoi summit between Trump and Kim Jong-un last February.
Even if the two Koreas have failed to have “actual dialogues” for half a year since the much-anticipated meeting between Trump and Kim Jong-un, the North has recently expressed its hopes to restart the nuclear negotiation with the U.S. possibly in the next few weeks.
Shin Beom-chul, a senior analyst from the Asan Institute for Policy Studies, also concurred that Moon’s ongoing peace initiative can take shape only after the North expresses its willingness to join the drive.
“It will take a lot of time for such a vision to turn into a reality, as this is just a sole proposal from the South without consent from the North,” Shin said.
“The vision requires resolutions from the international community. The drive can start to be reviewed only when the two Koreas reach a consensus and make a joint proposal to the global community, but the scenario does not look feasible in the short term.”
The analysis comes as the North has yet to begin procedural works in resuming its dialogue with the South. Instead, Pyongyang is only stepping up criticism of Seoul for “walking on eggshells around Washington” over a series of issues, such as the allies’ joint military drills.
“North Korea views landmines at border area as a strong deterrent from possible ground attacks. ”