Vision for DMZ

Peace projects depend on denuclearization talks

President Moon Jaein shared his vision for peace on the Korean Peninsula with the international community in a 17-minute address at the 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Tuesday.

He put forth many ideas. What's most intriguing was transforming the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), a 250-kilometer-long, 4-kilometer-wide area between the two Koreas, into an international peace zone in collaboration with the U.N.

Moon said he wants to turn an area connecting the truce village of Panmunjeom and Gaeseong, a North Korean border town which houses a now-stalled inter-Korean industrial complex, into a "Peace and Cooperation District."

Wonderful ideas. It is good for a national leader to have a vision, share it with people and try to make it come true. Keeping faith and hope is truly important in the process, but there are many reasons why we cannot totally agree with Moon's ideas at this point. We cannot help but feel he is out of touch with reality.

That is because it all depends on North Korea.

Moon said the DMZ can house U.N. offices already stationed in the two Koreas and other international organizations related to peace, ecology and culture, and thus become a center for research on peace, peacekeeping, arms control and building trust. "It can become an international peace zone in name as well as substance," he said. once peace is consolidated on the peninsula, Moon said he will work together with North Korea to make the DMZ a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Moon believes this is a form of providing an "institutional and realistic" security guarantee to North Korea. A security guarantee is one of the preconditions Pyongyang has long demanded from Washington in return for its denuclearization.

Given the inter-Korean peace process and the denuclearization talks between the North and the U.S. cannot be separated, it is virtually impossible for Moon to go ahead with any projects with Pyongyang without Washington's support.

Last year, Moon and North Korean leader Kim Jongun agreed to turn the DMZ into a peace zone by ceasing all hostile acts. The two Koreas, thus, stopped broadcasting propaganda, began removing landmines and demolished guard posts in some border areas. However, the peace project remains stalled since the denuclearization talks between the North and the U.S. went astray.

Fortunately, the two sides look eager to resume their working-level negotiations in the near future.

In his U.N. speech, Moon also suggested that U.N. member states take part in removing an estimated 380,000 mines laid in the DMZ, saying through international cooperation the area will be turned into a peace zone.

The envisioned working-level talks may lead to another summit between Kim Jongun and U.S. President Donald Trump. South Korea's National Intelligence Service also mentioned the possibility that Kim may visit Busan in November. We should not be overly optimistic about what will happen between the two Koreas. But we should not be pessimistic, either.