Watch Report No.21 Feb. 17, 2020
§We Support the January 7th Statement by Korean Civil
Society Groups, and Call on Japanese Civil Society to Take Action
North
Korean Chairman Kim Jong Un’s deadline for the US government’s decision
regarding denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula has passed as of the end of
2019. During the General Assembly of the Korean Labor Party Central Committee
at the end of last year, Chairman Kim stated that, “there will never be
denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula if the US continues to persist in its
hostile policy towards the DPRK” [1].
However, the US shows no sign of retracting its hostile policy, causing concern
over the bilateral negotiations for peace and denuclearization of the Korean
Peninsula.
We cannot
give up on peace and denuclearization promised by US and Korean leaders at the
Singapore Summit in June 1918. We, as citizens, need to act if we want to
achieve peace, regional stability, and denuclearization of the Korean
Peninsula. We cannot let US-Korean negotiations continue to degrade, relying
solely on the personal relationship between President Trump and Chairman Kim
Jong Un. It is up to civil society organizations and individuals in the
countries involved to demand that their governments take the necessary actions
for peace and denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
The
following is a joint declaration made by several South Korean civil society
organizations that was sent out to the governments of South Korea, North Korea,
and the United States, as well as the rest of the international community [2]. The statement calls for a
resumption of the US-North Korea dialogue and the relaxation of sanctions on
North Korea in order to achieve the Singapore Summit Agreement.
＊＊＊＊
We cannot
possibly go back to times of competition and hostility.
At the beginning
of 2020, the 70th new year since the outbreak of the Korean War, the situation
of the Korean peninsula stays gloomy. The DPRK-U.S negotiations have been stuck
at a deadlock for the past year without a seemingly possible breakthrough. In
the meanwhile, DPRK that has recently announced “a new path” have resolved a
“frontal breakthrough” in the latest Workers’ Party Central Committee plenum
and emphasized economic self-help strategies and development of new strategic
weapons.
Two years have
barely passed since 2018, when hope that this age of hostility and contention
would end, was plated. As we all know, the road to peace establishment in the
Korean peninsula should be a trust-building process through perpetual
conversations and patience. We are now facing the uneasy obstacles along the
road, but we cannot possibly abandon patience for a return for antagonism.
Today, the civil society organizations have gathered here in a united wish to
never go back to the time before the Panmunjom Inter-Korean Summit in any
circumstances, when dangers of war were imminent. We assert that conversations
between DPRK-U.S. and South-North should reconvene as soon as possible, and
difficultly reached agreements between them should be fulfilled, and we hereby
suggest to governments of ROK, DPRK, and the U.S.
DPRK
and the U.S. should both work to form adequate preconditions to resume
dialogue.
DPRK and the U.S.
have not been able to progress meaningful discussions, neither after last
year’s Hanoi Summit nor after the meeting at Panmunjom in June 2019. During
Singapore, the two parties have declared that a mutual trust-building will
expedite denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, but such resolutions have
not been abided by. Above all, we pinpoint the fact that the U.S. has not taken
any measures to show their trust compared to DPRK’s set of actions including a
freeze of nuclear and missile experiment conducts. This is also a reason why
there have been no points of contact – none among packaged, phased, or
concurrent settlements – between the two. We are strongly against a practical
muddling-through of the U.S. by insisting “denuclearization first”, and North’s
missile tests conduct that creates militaristic tensions. Both the U.S. and
DPRK should do their best to establish conditions that will continue the
dialogue, and clarify the principles of denuclearization and peace regime
establishment. We ask for the U.S.’s political, militaristic, economic
trust-building mechanisms that will allow for greater agreements, and also for
DPRK to halt from taking further militaristic actions.
The UN and the U.S. should lift the
sanctions against the DPRK that are related to humanitarian aid at least
The United
Nations and the U.S. have constantly maintained or built up the levels of
economic sanctions against DPRK since it was first enacted. The U.S. is
standing firm on the position that without prior denuclearization of DPRK,
Washington cannot lift the sanctions. It has been testified that the economic
sanctions have been aggravating the situation for especially the
underprivileged. Now that the sanctions are outpacing their original purpose to
act as a medium of problem-solving, the trust-building process between DPRK and
the U.S. is even more injured. Moreover, these sanctions are keeping
inter-peninsula cooperation. We hope that the unsuccessful history of insisting
‘denuclearization first, sanction alleviation next’ kind of solution without
any fruit will not repeat itself. At the minimum, the sanctions that accelerate
the humanitarian crisis should be lifted. We’d like to appeal to the UN
Security Council for proactive discussions about the resolution of China and
Russia partially lifting economic sanctions, which could lead to the
negotiation table.
Communication
and militaristic actions cannot coexist.
We remember the
fact that the postponement of ROK-U.S. joint military exercise worked as a
driving force for the peace process on the Korean peninsula. Raising
militaristic threats and confrontations are no good for the negotiation. We
hereby urge Seoul and Washington to pause another joint exercise planned in
March. This decision will ignite the dying ember of negotiation between the
DPRK and the U.S.
We
urge for a resolute action for the ROK government to carry out the agreements.
When DPRK-U.S. negotiations
have been stopped, South-North relations also chilled down. Including the
exchanges and cooperation projects, the parts the two sides have agreed on has
not been able to take a single step due to maintained economic sanctions of the
UN and the U.S. This is a very lamentable situation. Operation of Gaeseong
Industrial Complex, Mount Geumgang tours, humanitarian cooperation for solving
separated families’ problems, road and railway connection projects should not
be postponed any longer. This includes the formation of the Joint South-North
Military Committee and other parts of the agreements that pertain to military
issues. The ROK government should proactively ask for broad sanctions lift and
exercise some autonomy in solving the problem. Though it will not be easy, the
government should lead to provide room for problem solving and engine to change
the current situation.
We
will take up the civic society’s responsibility to cease the war and to make
peace.
This is the 70th
year since the Korean War. It is time to put an end to contentions and hatred
as results of the divide and cease-fire that have been regenerating itself. The
Korean civil society is the agent directly involved that will form the peace on
this peninsula. We hold the responsibility to stimulate dialogue for permanent
peace regime and denuclearization to continue. We will gather desperate voices
for peace and deliver them not only to the DPRK and the U.S. but to the whole
international community. We will ask the international community to be with us
on our peace-forwarding actions. We will strive to mark 2020 a year to be one
that will halt the war and open the way to a new age of peace.
7 January 2020
Civil Society
Organization Network in Korea - Civil Peace Forum
Korean Conference
of Religions for Peace
Korean Council
for Reconciliation and Cooperation
Korea NGO Council
for Cooperation with North Korea
The Southern
Committee on June 15 Joint Declaration
＊＊＊＊
We, as
Japanese, agree with this statement. At the same time, we believe Japanese
Civil Society needs to acknowledge that this is the time for action.
The current
situation on the Korean Peninsula presents a problem not just to its neighbors,
but to Japanese society as well. Japan, which colonized the Korean peninsula during
the era of Imperial Japan, holds historical responsibility for the division and
later hostilities of North and South Korea. Even now, Japan still bears some
responsibility for the continued war regime in Korea, as the US military forces
maintain their war readiness by means of military bases located in Japan. If we
wish for peace and stability in our region, we ourselves must take action.
We believe
that in our current situation, it would be effective for Japanese civil society
to take the following actions:
- We ask that civil organizations and NGOs in Japan, Korea, and the US collaborate to request the UN Security Council to review its sanction resolutions against DPRK in order to advance US-DPRK negotiations, by utilizing the “continuous review” provisions included in the resolutions (e.g. Section 28 of Security Council Resolution 2397 (2017). Additionally, we request that the Security Council work to adopt a draft resolution calling for partial easing of sanctions, which was proposed by Russia and China at the end of last year.
- We must reach out to the various sectors which make up Japanese civil society, including: municipalities, religious groups, lawyers, physicians and medical scientists, journalists and writers, and others, in order to emphasize the historic importance of this issue for Japan and to encourage all to take action.
(Hajime MAEKAWA)
[1] “Report
on 5th Plenary Meeting of 7th C.C., WPK,” KCNA, January 1, 2020
[2]
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