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Kim Jong il of the Council for National Reconcilitaion in Seoul. Photos by Brian Kluepfel.
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Reunifying Korea
Answers from North and South at Berkeley conference
By Brian Kluepfel
Special to AsianWeek
A two-day affair honoring the completion of the Channing and Popai Liem archive at the University of California focused on a primary goal of the former Korean United Nations ambassador: the unification of his country. Channing Liem, who died in 1996, never got to see North Korea and South Korea — divided by the Cold War in 1945 — reunite. This past Saturday, representatives from both nations talked about how it might be done.
The symposium, entitled “Toward Realizing Our Dream: Overcoming the Obstacles to Korea’s Peaceful Reunifcation,” was sponsored by the UC Berkeley Asian American Studies department, the Channing and Popai Liem Education Fund and several US-based Korean organizations. A candlelit vigil and prayers welcomed the collection of Liem’s papers and letters to the Bancroft Library on Friday evening, but Saturday was occupied with a nuts-and-bolts discussion on putting together the two separate political entities that now exist on the Korean peninsula.
Central to the discussion was the United States’ role in Asia. Seok Hyang Kim of the Ministry of Unification in the Republic of Korea demanded that U.S. military bombing ranges be removed, particularly from civilian areas. Kim said the annual military exercises of the 40,000 U.S. troops are destabilizing, causing the North Korean military to go into a high state of alert. “I say to President Bush, no one can stop the will of the Korean people to unify,” said Kim. “Get the United States military out and stop maneuvers on the Korean peninsula.”
He also said that there should be a re-writing of the SOFA (Status of Forces Agreement) treaty, which prohibits persecution of U.S. military personnel in Korea. Kim cited two heinous incidents from the recent past: the U.S. military’s dumping of toxic materials in the Han River, and the death of two teenage Korean schoolgirls this June, run over by a reckless U.S. Army patrol vehicle.
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Cha youn Kim.
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Kim noted that over 700,000 Koreans have signed a petition demanding that the driver of the vehicle be prosecuted and that further crimes committed by U.S. personnel be prosecuted by the South Korean government. “This is no longer a movement of the few,” he said.
Speakers also noted that despite outside interference, one of the true enemies of reunification may be within. Leon Sigal, the Director of the Northeast Asia Cooperative Security Project of the Social Science Research Center, said the U.S. “crime and punishment” approach toward North Korea was a failure. But he also glared at the audience and said, “Koreans also have to acknowledge their own internecine warfare. Some people need to read your own history,” he said. “It's not about economics, it's about enmity.”
Chayoun Kim, the President of the Committee for Korean Studies, also said that Koreans had to look within. “The biggest obstacle to unification is not the United States, or differing ideologies, but the wall we’ve built within ourselves over the years. We should close the division within our hearts,” he said.
Sport has united the people in a way politicians could not. This summer a delegation of North Korean athletes took part in the Asian Games in Seoul. Professor Lee Yueng Hui of Hanyang University in the Republic noted that many fans did not wave the flag of either nation, but instead a blue one, which represented the entire peninsula. “Through sport, we probably shortened the easing of tensions by ten years,” he said. Professor Lee also remarked on the great potential of the new parallel railroad and highway that will connect the two Koreas, running through what is now the DMZ.
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Ja Song Nam.
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A question and answer session addressed the proper model for Korean post-unification. Most speakers were against the “German model,” wherein East Germany joined West Germany by a process Ja Song Nam, of the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations, called “absorption.” Most agreed that a federal model, where there is one nation but different regional governments, is probably the best way forward. Nam pointed out that the model in China, wherein Macau and Hong Kong are capitalist, but the mainland remains socialist, is a good example of the federation principle in action. “A federation is the most reasonable way, where no one system prevails over another,” he said.
Kim Jong il, of the Council for National Reconciliation in Seoul, said that creating an economic union like the European Union, where the euro is now the accepted currency, would be helpful. She noted that many positive steps have been made in the past few years toward reunification, including the shipment of goods and medical supplies to meet humanitarian needs in the North. She also said that over 10,000 members of divided families have been able to meet, and a permanent reunion center is being built.
Overall, a positive mood ran through the conference. “Channing and Popai Liem are happy today,” said student leader Chayoun Kim. “Their spirits still live through us.”
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