The Korean Conflict

Ronnie Ninan
Nov 7 · 9 min read

Looking Through the Prism of Conflict Resolution

Time Life Pictures — The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty

The three-year conflict in the Korean Peninsula pitted communists against capitalist forces on the battlegrounds bordering North and South Korea. While the Korean conflict set the stage for the escalating Cold War tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union, the Korean public suffered, killing millions in the process. In the last few decades, the region has seen heightening tensions due to missile tests and enrichment programs for nuclear weapons. With a multitude of stake-holders, the Korean crisis cannot be overlooked very easily. Fearing the mounting tensions, the regional powers speculate an untoward future due to the two Korea’s and their troubling past.

Looking back

The Korean conflict, which arose in the 1950s paved the way for the uneasiness that influences the Korean peninsula even today. The Korean War, which began on June 25, 1950, lasted until 1953. To grasp the extent to which this armed conflict has shaped the modern world, we have to look back at the history tied to the two states. A Japanese colony from 1910 to 1945, Korea was occupied by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and the United States of America after the culmination of World War II (Stack, 2018). For administering their newly found spoil of war, the superpowers divided the country along the 38th parallel, with the North bordering Russia under Soviet control, and the South under the US control. Although separated, a civil war between the North and South ensued after the South declared itself the Republic of Korea in 1948, backed by the US. Soon after, the Soviet-backed North proclaimed itself the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), under the leadership of Kim-Il-Sung, who fought for the communists in the Chinese civil war (Hong, 2008). To acquire legitimacy as Korea’s rightful ruler the North, and South, pitted themselves into a bloody war. The Korean War witnessed multiple stakeholders, trying to establish their superiority over the other. While the Soviets support the North through arms, tanks, and advice, the South was backed by the US. Aligning with the North, China emerged as a critical ally and prominent player in the conflict. Eventually, the war destroyed Korea, with millions killed on both sides, after a technical halt was installed through the Armistice Agreement of 1953 (Grzelczyk, 2018). The mutual conflict since then has placed both the countries in perpetual mistrust of the other, which has led to a conflict structure existing in the Korean Peninsula.

Post-War Steps To Reconciliation

Following the Armistice of 1953, which meant to terminate hostilities between the North and the South, the responsibility to find a resolution fell on the shoulders of the two states. However, the Agreement fell short in controlling the military build-up across their borders (Sanghee, 2007).

The July 4th Joint-Communique of 1972 was yet another formal development to encourage détente between the two warring parties (Park & Choi, 1997). The progress ensured dialogue between the North and the South, influenced by the Sino-American reconciliation, the same year. The communique brought the two Koreas to discuss and agree upon three principles of unification, first, unification shall be achieved independently, without depending on foreign powers and without foreign interference, second, unification shall be achieved through peaceful means, without resorting to the use of force against each other, third, a great national unity as one people shall be sought first, transcending differences in ideas, ideologies, and systems (Ministry of Unification of the Republic of Korea, 1972). Although the communication between the two countries improved following the communique several reasons led to the deterioration in their relationship. Personal interpretations of the principles of unification suggested that the North expected less influence from foreign powers henceforth, while the North still maintained good relations and sought strategic advice from China. Their continued mistrust led to further military build by both parties (Cha, 1999). Furthermore, the scuffle seeped into their domestic political ideology such that the South adopted the Yushin (Revitalization) Constitution in 1972, highlighting the need for a Korean-minded democracy in the peninsula, which was in direct conflict with the communist regime in the North. Meanwhile, the North adopted their constitution the same year, pushing for Juche ideology guided by the principles of the Korean Workers Party (Kil & Moon, 2001). Granting the communique may have not achieved the intended goal but the opportunity to begin a dialogue between the two countries was foreseeable.

Post-Cold War saw the inception of frozen conflicts. As a frozen conflict, the Korean conflict seems to fit the bill, wherein the contending actors have neither gone to war or achieved peace post the Korean War (Lynch, 2018). Without the communist-USSR to back the North, they started high-level talks to engage with the South that culminated in the Agreement on Reconciliation, Nonaggression, and Exchange, and Cooperation between the South, and the North (Basic Agreement) of 1992 (Seoul: Ministry of Unification, 1992). The primary motivation for North Korea’s active engagement was to overcome the rising security risk in the ‘New World Order’ led by the US, post the downfall of the Cold War structure. Tied to this was a perceived threat from South Korea, an ally to the US, and therefore the North needed a bilateral arrangement with the South to reduce their imminent risk from the South (Park & Choi, 1997). However, the newly found association went into a cessation after the Pyongyang government used the nuclear card to bargain with the US, Seoul’s Western ally.

Although the Basic Agreement was stalled post its introduction, South Korea’s Sunshine Policy, which encapsulated the attitude of South Korea to not absorb North Korea (Seoul: The Ministry of Unification, 1999), encouraged the Pyongyang government to restore dialogue between the two countries. On 15 June 2000, the two Korea’s held a joint-summit to conclude the South-North Joint Declaration of 2000, to boost steps for the reunification of Korea (Seoul: Ministry of Unification, 2001). Although the new move prompted steps to be taken for the future, it missed on ways to ensure peaceful settling and build relations, and to de-escalate the military tensions at the border. In spite of the glaring flaw, the document served the need of the hour, which was to put aside ideological differences and ascertain the economic and socio-cultural aspects in the Korean Peninsula.

Conflict-Zone and Paths to Resolution

While there are many strategies to conflict management such as competing, collaborating, compromising, avoiding, and accommodating (Maruyama, et al., 2015), the Korean conflict, which still ensues, has not found a successful method of managing the conflict. Since the end of the Cold War (NAP, 2000), North Korea has made dramatic strides in its missile and nuclear programs. The nuclear weapons program initiated by North Korea is the most alarming security threat to South Korea and the region (Goodby, 2003). Despite multiple efforts to ensure peace in the Korean Peninsula, the likes of North Korean leader, Kim-Jong-Un, and the current US President, Donald Trump, has led to rising tensions in the region. Although the Pyongyang government has shown willingness to negotiate and suspend its nuclear tests, many high-level diplomatic efforts have failed. It also raises red-flags in the region concerning the denuclearisation within the Peninsula (Hilpert & Meier, 2018). By glancing through the established methods of conflict management, it is reasonable to assume that most of them have been applied in one or the other to de-escalate the tensions between the two states.

However, the reason for the failure of these methods can only be understood when realizing the thought behind North Korea’s role in keeping up the tensions. Since their withdrawal from the Non-Proliferation Treaty (2003), North Korean leadership has used the nuclear card at various instances to provoke South Korea and in turn the US. Post their violation of the US-DPRK Agreed Framework (Arms Control Association, 2019), the relations between the US and North Korea have been bitter, and this has not improved even after the new leader Kim-Jong-Un took power. Kim-Jong-Un, being the leader of communist North Korea, has the assurance of his arsenal of nuclear capability as the ultimate guarantee for his regime’s survival. He has seen the downfall of Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, and Libya’s Muammar Qaddafi after their respective decisions to dismantle their nuclear weapons programs (Miller, 2018). It is also true that North Korea has pumped in a large chunk of its capital into the project, therefore, it is ‘practically’ impossible to break it down in an instant.

Way Forward

There have been twenty-three missile tests in 2017 alone (Global Conflict Tracker, 2019), and this number is more than enough to bring a shock down the spine of the Seoul government. On 12 June 2018, US President Donald Trump and DPRK Head of State Kim-Jong-Un had a summit meeting in Singapore. Although a positive step towards de-escalation, the fear of North Korea’s nuclear program and WMDs linger. The Korean conflict which is centering on an unresolved high-strung relationship between the North and South explicates the grave nature of the issue. With international resistance building against North Korea, the South Koreans are using this global aversion focussed at the North to increase its pressure tactics and de-escalate the Korean tension. While there are multiple stakeholders at play in this inter-state conflict such as Russia, China, the US, Japan, the lives of the civilians within the two Korea’s face danger. The key to finding a peaceful solution lies in the demilitarization of the region, and this can only be achieved one step at a time.

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Ronnie Ninan

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Student. Always a student.

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