Korean Civic Groups Call for Continued Efforts in Building Peace on the Peninsula

Korean Civic Groups Call for Continued Efforts in Building Peace on the Peninsula



On April 3rd, Korean NGOs from different sectors invited foreign correspondents to hear the NGOs' analysis on recent events related to the Inter-Korean peace talks and suggest a path forward. The press conference took place in the midst of deadlock between the United States and the DPRK over the denuclearization negotiation in the light of the recent Hanoi summit. Expressing the latest concerns within their field, the activists concurred on urging both countries to resume dialogue.

Lee Nam-joo, a professor at Songkonghoe University and a member of an expert panel in the People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy (PSPD) NGO, commented that although the second summit between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un was neither a fiasco nor a breakthrough, it did delineate the existing gap between the two’s concept of denuclearization, namely in sequencing the North’s specific measure and consequential quid pro quo expectation from the US. Although Lee agreed with utilizing a ‘snapback’ mechanism in dealing with sanctions, he also highlighted lessons from the past whereby insistence on unilateral concessions cannot yield any productive outcomes.

Hong Sang-young, the Director General of KSM, addressed the predicaments humanitarian NGOs are facing under UN sanctions. Regardless of the sanction's original intentions assistance activities are fraught with obstacles. Hong explained several of these obstacles ranging from the dearth of a banking channel due to concerns related to a secondary boycott to daunting procedures for requesting sanction exemption which are often delayed by the Korean government’s statutory permission process. He added that the most worrying consequence is the chance of failing to provide timely assistance, notably when a natural disaster occurs. Hong proposed creating a pre-approved ‘white list’ for certain goods on a humanitarian basis and increasing the government’s role in expediting sanction exemption requests while reducing the bureaucratic process of exemption requests.

Kim Jeong-soo from Women Making Peace placed emphasis on women’s role in the peacemaking process. Asserting that a combination of militarism, authoritarianism, and sexism has formulated a “violence of division” which in turn has made gender violence a part of everyday culture in Korea, Kim stressed women’s increased role in developing peace and moving towards unification of the two Koreas.

Lastly, the Secretary-General of PSPD Park Jung-eun reiterated the difficulties humanitarian NGOs are currently experiencing and called for the removal of the sanctions that are suffocating the most vulnerable civilians in North Korea. Arguing that North Korea’s nuclear program is a product of prolonged confrontation and an escalating arms race, Park expressed her hope in the peninsula’s denuclearization becoming a key stepping stone for creating a Northeast Asia devoid of nuclear threats. “Korean civil society”, Park concluded, “in any case is not willing to return to the past when military tension and nuclear threats persisted.”

written by Young Min Kim

KSM Intern