July 27 marked the 71st anniversary of the 1953 Korean Armistice Agreement. The Korean Peninsula had been engulfed in a horrific war since June 25, 1950, instigated by North Korean forces, which left millions dead and wounded and displaced up to 8 million people. The devastating war destroyed a vast amount of infrastructure in both North and South Korea, including homes, hospitals, schools, factories, roads, railways and bridges, and reduced cities to ashes (DM1).
Therefore, our nation must never forget the terrible history of the Korean War initiated by Kim Il-sung, the leader of North Korea. Kim Jong-un, his grandson, has identified South Korea as “a state extremely hostile” to North Korea and boasted that in case of a war, he would “use all our superpower to eliminate (our enemies).”
In 2018, former South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Kim Jong-un agreed on the Panmunjom Declaration, which established a peace process on the sixty-fifth anniversary of the Armistice Agreement. Moon proposed replacing the Armistice Agreement with an end-of-war declaration, promoting coexistence between North and South Korea, and claimed that the end-of-war declaration would lead to the resolution of the North Korean nuclear issue. This was a misstep that failed to perceive the true ambitions and nature of the North Korean dictatorship, which has been preparing for armed reunification for more than half a century. Relying on the goodwill of a hostile country is a very dangerous idea.
I have known all three generations of North Korean leaders, from Kim Il-sung to Kim Jong-il and Kim Jong-un, and have been in close proximity to them in order to understand their policies of armed reunification with the South for more than thirty years. Until Kim Il-sung’s death in 1994, the slogans in the offices of the Workers’ Party and in the army read: “Let us unify the country in the era of the leader (Kim Il-sung).” During Kim Jong-il’s reign, the slogan was: “Let us unify the country in the era of the general (Kim Jong-il).” Kim Jong-un even openly declared that he would make 2013 the year of a “national patriotic struggle for reunification” and accelerate preparations for war. These are examples that show the direct ambition of the Kim regime to invade South Korea.
Former South Korean presidents Kim Dae-jung, Roh Moo-hyun, and Moon Jae-in held five peace talks with North Korean dictators Kim Jong-il and Kim Jong-un. However, all of those peace summits failed. Instead, North Korea received more than $1 billion in food and energy aid from the US (as of 2009) and ROK governments, which enabled it to advance its development of nuclear missiles and now threatens South Korea and world peace with nuclear weapons. Signing a peace agreement and coexisting with a hostile country that possesses nuclear weapons is as stupid as inviting a gangster into your home and trying to live in peace with him.
The declaration of the end of the war is literally a declaration that the war is over. It serves to confirm to the 80 million inhabitants of the Korean peninsula and to the international community the complete end of the state of war between the North and the South. It must therefore be made clear that the declaration of the end of the war is different from the current Armistice Agreement system. Any peace must dismantle the demilitarized zone (DMZ), a scar of division and war. The horrible barbed wire fences stretching for some 248 km must be removed and the millions of mines must be dismantled. At the same time, all the numerous military installations, equipment and soldiers stationed there must be completely withdrawn and the area declared a peace zone.
The North and South are historically one nation. Therefore, if the end of the war is declared, land and rail routes crossing the 38th parallel should be connected and opened immediately, allowing residents of both the North and South to travel freely between Seoul and Pyongyang as they did before 1945. In addition, peaceful towns and villages should be built together around the former DMZ, with “peace parks” and facilities for trade and tourism.
Moreover, if an end-of-war declaration is to be made, the closed North Korean regime must open up the country and announce a reform policy that guarantees freedom and human rights to its residents. Without such guarantees, residents of both the North and South cannot interact freely, no economic exchanges can occur, nor can separated families exchange emails or phone calls. The North Korean regime must also promise the international community and the people of both Koreas that it will make denuclearization irreversible. Those prerequisites must be met for a true end-of-war declaration, and they must be agreed upon by the parties involved and the United Nations and announced to the world. Without such binding guarantees, if an end-of-war declaration is formally made, Kim Jong-un’s regime could change at any time.
In reality, peace cannot be achieved for free. Genuine peace on the Korean peninsula can only be guaranteed if the oppressive regime of Kim Jong-un falls. This would allow North Korea to open up, guaranteeing economic freedom, rights and private property to its residents, freeing them from the chains of slavery. Peace cannot thrive where there is tyranny. Therefore, if the cruel oppression of the North Korean dictatorship continues and the freedom and human rights of North Korean residents are not guaranteed, South Korea cannot even think of peaceful coexistence with the North.
Peace on the Korean Peninsula is not limited to the declaration of an end to the war and peace agreements. Due to the continuous confrontation between communist forces and the free world surrounding the Korean Peninsula, the stability of the peace regime requires the unification of the systems between the North and the South. In the 1970s, Vietnam also signed a peace agreement, but eventually North Vietnam invaded South Vietnam and achieved reunification under the communist regime. Therefore, peace on the Korean Peninsula will be complete when both the North and the South are unified under a free democratic system.
The previous Moon Jae-in administration hypocritically claimed that the declaration of the end of the war was not legally binding and was merely a political statement unrelated to the Armistice Agreement, with nothing to do with the dissolution of the UN Command or the withdrawal of US troops from Korea. (AL8) (DM9)
If the declaration of end of war lacks binding international legal force, there is a possibility that the North Korean dictator can revoke it at any time, continuously exploiting it. Especially if a declaration is made, the North Korean regime will demand the withdrawal of US troops from Korea and the cessation of joint military exercises between the United States and the Republic of Korea, inciting protests within South Korea to expel US forces through candlelight protests. On October 27, 2021, at the Fourth Committee of the UN General Assembly, North Korean Ambassador to the UN Kim Song demanded the dissolution of the UN Command in Korea. This should be seen as the true intention of the North Korean regime regarding the declaration of end of war.
In 2021, several Democratic lawmakers, including Congressman Brad Sherman (D-CA), proposed the Korean Peninsula Peace Act. In response, thirty-five Republican members of the House of Representatives sent an open letter to the White House, expressing deep concern that declaring an end to the war would gravely threaten security on the Korean Peninsula. Ironically, some Korean Americans have been pushing for the legislation to be passed for years. If their families were living as slaves under the most closed and oppressive regime in the world, would they still advocate for a peace agreement with it?
Moreover, some Korea observers argue that North Korea behaves better when the United States engages with it and makes concessions. This logic overlooks why North Korean residents live like slaves and why Kim Jong-un devotes state resources to developing nuclear weapons. North Korea’s foreign policy has always been based on deception. For example, when the US-North Korea nuclear deal was signed in Geneva in 1994, Kim Jong-il was glad that he had deceived President Bill Clinton. He boasted to senior officials: “We bought time to develop nuclear weapons and received free light water reactors worth $4.6 billion and 500,000 tons of heavy fuel oil per year until the reactors are completed.” This is what I heard directly from Kim Jong-il’s speech to senior officials in 1998 at the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party.
For the past half-century, the North Korean regime has had no intention of honoring reconciliation and cooperation agreements with the South or the United States. However, some experts criticize Washington and Seoul for failing to keep their promises to Pyongyang. Kim Jong-un sees nuclear weapons as a powerful means to ensure his survival and the protection of the regime, a way to maintain a balance of power between the North and the South, and a tool to unify the South under his command through nuclear force. North Korean dictators have been trying to unify South Korea by force for more than half a century. Expecting the North Korean regime to honor the end-of-war declaration and peace agreements without changing the Kim family regime is an unrealistic fantasy.
About the Author
Ri Jong Ho Jong Ho is a former senior North Korean economic official who served under all three leaders of the Kim family regime. His most recent role was in Dalian, China, where he headed the Korea Daehung Trading Corporation, overseen by the clandestine Office 39 under the direct control of the ruling Kim family. Prior to his assignment in Dalian, Jong Ho held key positions including chairman of the Daehung Shipping Company and executive director of the Daehung General Office of the Workers’ Party of North Korea, a position equivalent to the rank of vice minister in the North Korean party-state. Kim Jong-il later appointed him chairman of the Korea Kumgang Economic Development Group (KKG) under the North Korean Defense Committee. Jong Ho was awarded the Labor Hero Award, the highest civilian honor in North Korea. Following a series of brutal purges by Kim Jong-un, he defected with his family to South Korea in late 2014. Jong Ho currently resides in the Washington, DC metropolitan area.
