Why Moon Jae-in wants co-existence with North Korea

May 13, 2019

South Korea’s president has outlined his policy guide towards forging and strengthening co-existence within the Korean Peninsula

South Korea has contributed $1b (sh3.7 trillion) in the Power Africa project under USAID, of which Uganda is a significant beneficiary. 

The USAID web-portal explains that Power Africa brings together technical and legal experts, the private sector, and governments from around the world to work in partnership to increase the number of people with access to power.

Experts say that South Korea, which is a strong ally of America, is championing global development.

This is in contrast to North Korea which has declined to relent in its nuclear weapons agenda, that continues to pose a threat to global security.

The UN started ramping up its sanctions campaign against North Korea in 2016, a US-led effort that requires members, among other actions, to stop issuing visas to North Korea's researchers and military advisers, across the globe. The aim is to pressure North Korea to drop its nuclear-weapons programs.

In his peace agenda and pursuit of a unified Korea, South Korea's president has outlined his policy guide towards forging and strengthening co-existence within the Korean Peninsula.

Moon Jae-in stresses that national security and economic development can never be guaranteed without a peaceful co-existence, a significant step towards a peaceful unification, between South and North Korea.

Last year, Moon and his counterpart from North Korea, Kim Jong UN made a historical meet, following a series of mediations spearheaded by China and the United States.

The two are said to have agreed to a common goal of denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula, which the World awaits to see. The meeting came at a time when North Korea had made nuclear advancements and testing, an act which posed a threat to their counterparts in the South.

On Thursday, North Korea fired two suspected short-range missiles which South Korea's military said, is its second weapons launch in five days and a possible warning that nuclear disarmament talks with Washington could be in danger, according to The Guardian - a British publication

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said the weapons flew 420km (260 miles) and 270km (167 miles), respectively. It said it was working with the US to determine more details, such as the type of weapon that was fired.

Kusong is also home to missile test facilities that were critical to the development of North Korea's solid-fuel Pukguksong-2, which was successfully flight-tested for the first time in February 2017, in the North's first missile test after Donald Trump took office.

The launches came as the US special representative for North Korea, Stephen Biegun, was visiting South Korea, and hours after the North described the firing of rocket artillery and an apparent short-range ballistic missile on Saturday as a regular and defensive military exercise. North Korea also ridiculed South Korea for criticising those launches.

During the reporting tour in Northeast Asia- by African journalists, authorities at the Ministry of Unification in Seoul said Moon Jae-in's Police on the Korea peninsula remains open and continues to evolve.

Quoting the basic policy directions that were laid out by President Moon Jae-In through his presidential election pledge, the Berlin initiative, the 100 point National Policy Agenda, and address on the 72ndanniversary of liberation.

"It is a comprehensive plan aimed at building a better future on the Korean peninsula, which lays out the steps for the New Economic map, improvement of inter-Korean relations, lasting peace, and ultimately unification," said the source. South Korea has a ministry of Unification located on 209 Sejong-daero- Jong-gu, Seoul. 

About Mutual respect, a Seoul top official explicitly stated that their will to build a ‘Korean Peninsula of co-prosperity,' where South and North respect and cooperate with each other, by defining our stance as the "3-Nos"- no desire for North's collapse, no pursuit of unification by absorption, and no pursuit of unification through artificial means.

"The Korean Peninsula of true peace and prosperity can be realized only when South and North Korea embrace each other's differences and cooperate towards a common interest," said the source.

Moon says he is committed towards a peaceful Korean Peninsula, with a vision of what he called a ‘co-prosperity" where everyone can thrive by promoting mutually beneficial cooperation between the two Koreans.

Under the co-prosperity, the policy aims to extend the range of economic cooperation to the entire Northeast Asia regions, to enable mutual and open prosperity with other neighbours.

Moon says peace and prosperity will be facilitated and achieved through the virtuous circle of peacebuilding and economic development.

He points out three goals of the policy including; resolution of the North Korean nuclear issues and establishment of permanent peace, development of sustainable inter-Korean relations and realization of a new economic community on the Korean Peninsula.

"We will peacefully resolve the North Korean nuclear issue, using a step-by-step, two-track approach of sanctions/pressure and dialogue (nuclear freeze to complete denuclearization)," he notes.

He stresses that the re-establishment of dialogue and cooperation can ably facilitate multilateral talks for the resolution of the nuclear issue.

Moon says they will push ahead with a ‘National Unification Contract' based on a national consensus to ensure consistency in their North Korea policy and enact inter-Korea agreements into law and conclude a ‘New Inter-Korean Basic Agreement'  for sustainable inter-Korean relations.

They also intend to restore national homogeneity and build an inter-Korean community by expanding various inter-Korean exchanges. He says they want a peninsula free from the threat of nuclear weapons and war. 

"We are only pursuing peace. A peninsula where the South and the North recognize and respect each other and live well together," he notes.

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