North Korea: Danger and Opportunity for Park Geun-hye's Presidency

North Korea: Danger and Opportunity for Park Geun-hye's Presidency

 

By Victor W.C. Hsu

May 5, 2013

 

South Korean President Park Geun-hye's speech to the Joint Session of the United States Congress will be a great opportunity to signal that the Korean peninsula is headed toward a new era of inter-Korean cooperation, test the rough waters with policies for a breakthrough on the North Korea policy conundrum and dispel much of the jitteriness that has surrounded Korea since the beginning of the year.

 

More importantly, her message can be an invitation to North Korea to grasp her outstretched hand and prove to the international community that it's not an empty gesture but that she means business.

 

I am not President Park's advisor, nor am I her speechwriter, but as an American citizen living in South Korea, here is what I would like her to say in Washington:

 

Mr. Speaker of House, Mr. President of the Senate, and Distinguished Members of the US Congress,

Thank you for this personal honor to address a Joint Session of the US Congress at the beginning of my term as President of South Korea.

 

I want to outline my administration's policy towards North Korea, a country that has recently received extraordinary media coverage. It is unnecessary to underline the urgency of addressing the dangerous situation on the Korean peninsula. With every crisis comes an opportunity for statesmanship and leadership.

 

I urge you and President Obama to work with me to dissipate the existing stormy clouds so that the promise of a new era may dawn again on Korea, known to many as the land of morning calm.

 

I am the daughter of a mother who died of a North Korean assassin's bullet on August 15, 1974. My parents were in a theatre leading a national celebration of our liberation from Japanese rule when she was killed. My mother was yet another victim of the tragedy of the division of Korea that has spawned such enmity, deep-seated mistrust and ideological rivalry and has led to diplomatic confrontation, military skirmishes and brinksmanship.

 

The division of Korea has claimed millions of victims in the Korean War, many of whom died, and many more still cut off from separated families across the DMZ in an uneasy truce.

 

The 1953 Armistice was negotiated by the United Nations and therefore the world body has a special obligation with respect to the future evolution of the Korean peninsula. However, the destiny of Korea is preeminently in the hands of the Korean people.

 

Neither South nor North can unilaterally decide the fate of our nation. Both are protagonists, and could become partners in shaping a Korea in which cooperation, non-aggression, and exchanges of all forms are the norm rather than the exception.

 

We must discharge this sacred duty ourselves as Koreans. No outsider can or should perform this role or stand in our way...Read on.

 

Source: 38north.org

 

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