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(EDITORIAL from Korea Times on Sept. 23)

All News 07:38 September 23, 2021

Repeated peace offer
Moon again proposes end-of-war declaration

President Moon Jae-in once again proposed a formal end to the 1950-53 Korean War in his speech to the 76th session of the U.N. General Assembly, Tuesday. The proposal reflected his desperate bid to make a breakthrough in deadlocked denuclearization talks between the U.S. and North Korea and promote his peace initiative on the Korean Peninsula.

Moon suggested that three parties -- the two Koreas and the U.S. -- or four parties -- the two Koreas, the U.S. and China -- come together and declare that the war on the peninsula was over. "When the parties involved in the Korean War stand together and proclaim an end to the war, I believe we can make irreversible progress in denuclearization and usher in an era of complete peace," he said in his last speech to the U.N. before his term ends next May.

He was confident that an end-of-war declaration will be a pivotal point of departure in creating a new order of "reconciliation and cooperation" on the peninsula. Such a proposal is nothing new. He made a similar offer in his U.N. General Assembly address in 2018 and 2020. Yet, this year's proposal was made in a stronger tone and a more specific way. This indicates Moon's determination and urgency in prodding the North to denuclearize and move toward peace and co-prosperity.

In previous speeches, Moon stressed the need for an end-of-war declaration which he said will open the way for a lasting peace regime on the peninsula. His proposal has now taken concrete shape with a call for three parties, or four parties, to formally declare an end to the Korean War. The two Koreas are still technically at war because the conflict ended not with a peace treaty but an armistice.

Seoul actively floated such a proposal in 2018 when the two Koreas entered into a detente mood following the Panmunjeom Declaration adopted by Moon and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un during their first summit. The offer gained momentum after U.S. President Donald Trump and Kim held their historic summit in Singapore in June 2018 and agreed to the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. But it lost steam after their February 2019 Hanoi summit collapsed with no deal.

Against this backdrop, Moon's proposal appears to be out of touch with reality. It is difficult for the President to elicit a positive response from North Korea or the U.S. The Kim regime has refused to return to dialogue while raising tension by test-firing ballistic and cruise missiles. The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden has vowed to solve the North Korean nuclear issue through dialogue and diplomacy. But it has yet to narrow its differences with the North over the matter.

Under these circumstances, Moon is seeking to use the 30th anniversary of the U.N. simultaneously approving the two Koreas as members to promote his peace initiative. However, his policy of active engagement with the North is likely to go nowhere. Thus it is imperative for Moon to work more closely with Biden to lure the North back to the negotiating table.
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