Commentary 23/01/10 Church’s ‘path of peace’ on Korean Peninsula appears lost

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Church’s ‘path of peace’ on Korean Peninsula appears lost

The need of the hour is concrete denuclearization steps so as to give peace a chance

A woman watches a television screen showing a news broadcast with file footage of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un after firing three short-range ballistic missiles according to South Korea's military, at a railway station in Seoul on Dec. 31, 2022. (Photo: Jung Yeon-je / AFP)

By Ben Joseph

Published: January 10, 2023 03:14 AM GMT

The specter of annihilation and grand shows of military might are going to be more visible this year on the Korean Peninsula as two Koreans have gone mad about MAD (mutually assured destruction).

As both North and South are hell-bent on bolstering their arsenals with the quality and the quantity to cope with the hostility, years of peace-building efforts on the Korean Peninsula started by the Church appear to have been lost in the midst of severe saber-rattling.

The Church, which assiduously championed peace between the two warring nations, has to invent new strategies where denuclearization occupies the prime slot so that 76 million people on the Korean Peninsula can lead a normal life away from the impending threat of Ground Zero.

Since the Korean peace talks collapsed in 2019, one of South Korea’s greatest fears was that its northern neighbor would acquire nuclear capabilities. That became reality last year forcing the South Korean leadership to knock on the doors of the US, its all-weather ally and the world’s largest arms spender, which is still technically at war with the North.

"South Korea pushed the US to become more militarily involved in the region with its nuclear weapons"

The appeal for aid has found favor with the current US administration of President Joe Biden.

Separately and together, both Washington and Seoul held large-scale military exercises last year to show their preparedness for an alleged impending North Korean nuclear attack.

The joint exercises with the US allowed South Korea to pull off two paradoxical approaches — flexing some nuclear muscle while officially remaining committed to nuclear non-proliferation — at the same time.

With its record number of missile tests last year, North Korea was expecting South Korea to put more pressure on the US to soften its stand towards Pyongyang. But the opposite happened as South Korea pushed the US to become more militarily involved in the region with its nuclear weapons. The Biden administration showed no mercy to North Korea, which is plagued by US-led sanctions.

North Korea, on the other hand, ignored the sanctions and went on to conduct weapons tests nearly every month in 2022, including firing its most advanced ICBM ever that has the capacity to reach US shores.

Though its economy is in a bad shape due to the sanctions, they produced the opposite results, as North Korea declared itself a nuclear power last year.

This year, the mad rush for possessing cutting-edge nuclear weapons will become more visible as North Korea welcomed the New Year with a bang by firing a short-range ballistic missile off its east coast. A day prior to this, the North launched three ballistic missiles.

At a meeting of the ruling Workers' Party at December-end, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un unveiled the nation’s new military goals, and termed South Korea as the North's "undoubted enemy."

"South Korea pushed the US to become more militarily involved in the region with its nuclear weapons"

North Korea has refused to exchange its nuclearization plans for economic benefits offered by South Korean President Yoon Suk-Yeol. The North accused the conservative leader, who assumed office in May last year, of recycling the same old offers that were rejected earlier.

Kim also approved last year a new law that authorized the preemptive use of nuclear arms in a broad range of situations.

Since North Korea conducted its first nuclear test in 2006, it has clocked close to 10 tests to date. It is unlikely that Kim will return to the negotiating table as he is busy enlarging the nation’s nuclear arsenal.

The US is less inclined to lift the sanctions and South Korea is doing the spadework to deploy nuclear arms on the Korean Peninsula. They are wasting no time in deploying lethal weapons to counter the North as Kim is expected to conduct more nuclear tests this year.

South Korea and the US are also in talks to conduct joint exercises involving US nuclear assets. In an interview with the Chosun Ilbo newspaper on Jan 2, the hawkish Yoon said the United States' existing "nuclear umbrella" and "extended deterrence" were not enough to reassure South Koreans.

"The nuclear weapons belong to the United States, but the planning, information sharing, exercises and training must be done jointly by South Korea and the United States," Yoon said and added that the US was "quite positive" about it.

Though the timing of the planned exercises has not been finalized yet, they would take place "in the not-too-distant future" and will cover nuclear situations.

South Korea is planning to undertake more than 20 joint military drills with the US this year in the wake of increased North Korean missile testing.

"It seems the Korean Church has no plans to give up its peace-building efforts"

The greatest tragedy of the Korean nuclear arms build-up will fall on the people and the Church, as the Vatican and the Korean Church have been vehemently trying to iron out the animosities between the two nations.

It seems the Korean Church has no plans to give up its peace-building efforts. In November-end last year, Archbishop Peter Chung of Seoul called for “genuine forgiveness, reconciliation, and self-reflection” at the Korean Peninsula Peace-Sharing Forum.

The Church has been organizing the seminar every year since 2016, bringing together experts to reflect on the “path of peace.”

At the forum, Archbishop Chung, who is also the apostolic administrator of Pyongyang, said he was “deeply regretful about the current situation on the Korean Peninsula.”

Archbishop Alfred Xuereb, the apostolic nuncio to South Korea, stressed the process of reconciliation to bring prosperity to the entire Korean Peninsula.

Since the apostolic visit by Pope Francis in 2014, the Church has been reaching out to people in North Korea with more humanitarian assistance.

The need of the hour is concrete denuclearization steps so as to give peace a chance on the Korean Peninsula.

*The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official editorial position of UCA News.