Inter-Korean Natural Gas Pipelines Envisioned

Another positive development in the Korean Peninsula that will surely help in defusing tensions in the region, similar to the planned inter-Korean rail and road links, that may lead to the whole peninsula's direct linkage to the Eurasian landmass. READ MORE

More than 500 academics issue statement for peace in Northeast Asia

[From The Hankyureh

More than 500 academics from South Korea, Japan, the US, and Europe released a joint statement calling for the resolution of conflict in Northeast Asia 70 years after South Korea was liberated from Japanese colonial rule and 50 years after South Korea and Japan signed a treaty normalizing their diplomatic relations. The statement, released five years after a similar statement, is called “2015 Joint Statement by Korean, Japanese and International Scholars for East Asia’s Freedom from the Past.”
READ MORE

"Historic China-Taiwan summit held"

While inter-Korea relations has soured recently, China and Taiwan are moving towards warmer relations:

"The head of Taiwan's ruling party has met Chinese President Hu Jintao in the highest-level encounter since the two sides split in 1949. Kuomintang (Nationalist Party) Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung is in China for a six-day landmark visit to discuss cross-strait transport links. The trip is being seen as another sign of warming ties between the two sides. Taiwan's new president, Ma Ying-jeou, has called for a new "chapter of peace" to be opened." More

Beyond the Six Party Talks: The Need to Stop the New Arms Race in Asia?

Concerned scholars and activists met on March 20 in Washington, DC (Johns Hopkins University-School of Advanced International Studies) for a workshop on "The Future of the Six Party Talks: New Peace Mechanism or New Arms Race?" [photo] Building upon this discussion, thirty participants met again the next day for a strategy session to chart an international campaign that would address the new arms race in the Asia/Pacific region. The participants noted:

Even as the six countries in the Six Party Talks – the United States, North Korea, South Korea, China, Japan, and Russia – discuss peace, they continue to prepare for war. In the last five years, five of the six countries have increased their military spending by 50% or more. And there is a powerful political movement in the remaining country, Japan, to abandon its "peace constitution" and rapidly increase military spending.

We urge the six countries of the Six Party Talks to freeze their military spending. It would be built on the foundation of the February 13, 2007 agreement in which the six countries agreed to denuclearization, normalization of political relations with North Korea, and a peace treaty (and regional peace regime) to replace the Korean War armistice.

The proposed Pacific Freeze [tentative name] can have not only regional but also global impact. The six countries account for nearly 65% of global military spending (with the United States responsible for nearly 50% of world military expenditures). We recommend that the money that is thus freed up be placed in a Peace Adjustment Fund. Such a Fund can help demobilize soldiers, retrain defense workers, and help the six countries make the transition to the new global Green economy.

"Asia's Hidden Arms Race"

While the world's attention is on the six-party negotiations for nuclear disarmament, John Feffer points out to the dangers of the growing regional arms race in the Asia/Pacific:

Despite all [the] peace-talk, something else, quite momentous and hardly noticed, is underway in the region. The real money in Northeast Asia is going elsewhere. While in the news sunshine prevails, in the shadows an already massive regional arms race is threatening to shift into overdrive. Since the dawn of the twenty-first century, five of the six countries involved in the Six Party Talks have increased their military spending by 50% or more. Every country in the region is now eagerly investing staggering amounts of money in new weapons systems and new offensive capabilities.

The arms race in Northeast Asia undercuts all talk of peace in the region. It also sustains a growing global military-industrial complex. Northeast Asia is where four of the world's largest militaries -- those of the United States, China, Russia, and Japan -- confront each other. Together, the countries participating in the Six Party Talks account for approximately 65% of world military expenditures, with the United States responsible for roughly half the global total.
See the full text.

Korea-Japan Peace Tunnel?

Japanese lawmakers have proposed an underwater railway tunnel linking Japan to Korea. If this is meant to symbolize peaceful ties between Korea and Japan by overcoming historical animosities and the expansion of multilateral economic cooperation in Northeast Asia, Japan would need to make amends with North Korea by moving forward in its deadlocked normalization process. Without North Korea-Japan normalization, the prospects for uninterrupted raliway linking from Tokyo to London, using the revitalized inter-Korean railway, would be dim.

Lee Pushes for Joint Energy Development in Siberia

News: "President-elect Lee Myung-bak [of South Korea] expressed strong interest Friday in joint energy development in Russia's resource-rich Siberia with the help of North Korean labor." [Photo: Lee with Gleb lvashentsov, Russian Ambassador to South Korea on Friday.]


Commentary: Lee Myung-bak, in his first policy proposal since being elected as the next president of South Korea, has reiterated his desire to see energy development in Siberia, utilizing Russia's natural resources, South Korea's technology and North Korea's labor. Though the motive lies primarily with the South Korean economic gains (his campaign promise) from this venture, the initiative would be in line with regional and inter-Korea cooperation started by his predecessors -- notwithstanding his criticisms of past inter-Korea policies -- such as the Tumen Initative and the Kaesong Industrical Complex project, of which he will find difficult to justify undoing. Moreover, Lee had served as the chairman of the six-nation North East Asia Economic Committee in 1991 and played a role in fostering ROK-USSR normalization. Lee will need to translate economic prospects of regional cooperation into the continuation of detente and rapproachement in the region.

"Russian Railways Plans $100 Million Terminal in N. Korea"

News: "Russian Railways plans to build a $100 million container terminal in North Korea as the world's largest rail company tries to create a land transport corridor linking Asia to Europe."

Commentary: In another new development that showcases the promises of multilateral economic cooperation in Northeast Asia, Russian Railways, in a joint venture with North Korea, wants to turn the North Korean port city of Rajin (located in the northeastern tip of North Korea bordering China and Russia, see map above) into a railway hub for shipments, mainly South Korean products, across Russia to Europe, linking the Korean peninsula (thanks to recently-opened inter-Korea railways) to the Trans-Siberian Railway. This will help revitalize the Rajin-Sonbong Economic Special Zone in North Korea, as well as highlight economic cooperation in Northeast Asia among Russia, North Korea and South Korea.

Olympic Torch Will Pass Through North Korea

In another symbolism of reconciliation and peace in East Asia, the Beijing Olympic Torch will pass from Japan to South Korea, then to North Korea (for the first time), and to Vietnam, en route to Beijing (but bypassing Taiwan, as China and Taiwan failed to agree on the details). The passage from South Korea to North Korea via the DMZ will be highly significant and will reinforce the spirit of reconciliation and cooperation shown by the two sides of Korea. An inter-Korean joint cheering squad is also planning to cross the Korean peninsula via the recently-opened inter-Korea railway to China.

Moreover, Samsung, Coca-Cola, and Lenovo (a Chinese IT company), three of the main companies sponsoring the Beijing Olympics, will be allowed to advertise their products by cars when the Olympic Torch Relay passes through Pyongyang on April 28. North Koreans will get some taste of Western-style marketing from a South Korean, an American, and a Chinese firm. Too bad the Japanese firms are not joining the bandwagon.

Barring any disintegration of the six-nation nuclear disarmament and security agreement, the 2008 Beijing Olympics, with both sides of Korea participating and cheered by a joint cheering squad and a large population of ethnic Korean in China, will provide a golden opportunity to showcase Korean reconciliation as well as reconciliation and common prosperity in East Asia.

"The Paradox of East Asian Peace"

John Feffer of Foreign Policy in Focus has written an extensive article on "The Paradox of East Asian Peace" that calls for an establishment of multilateral regional peace and security structure and demilitarization through reductions in military spending of the six nations currently involved in the nuclear disarmament talks.

Feffer argues: "A regional peace and security mechanism in Asia, if it doesn't address this central fact of an arms race among the participants in the Six-Party Talks, will be toothless. More critically, since the six countries represent the lion's share of world military spending and arms exports, a significant restraint on Pacific militarism will have global implications.

The solution to the global arms race lies in the hands of countries involved in the Six Party Talks--or, rather, the citizens of those countries who press for a freeze and then substantial cuts in military spending. If the world's most profligate military spenders commit to real demilitarization--and not just a restraint on North Korea's nuclear program--then they will resolve the final security paradox of Northeast Asia. By so doing, they will bury the Cold War once and for all."

[As an indication of renewed arms race in East Asia, Japan is developing an anti-ballistic missile defense system, which recently tested an interception of a mock missile shown in the photograph. -ed]

The Nanjing Massacre and Reconciliation in East Asia

This week, China is solemnly marking the seventieth anniversary of the Nanjing Massacre (also known as "The Rape of Nanking") -- the infamous orgy of atrocities committed by invading Japanese troops on several hundred thousands of Chinese civilians that even a Nazi observer onsite could not comprehend and tried to shield the civilians. [A new American-funded documentay film "Nanking" is showing in the theatres this week.]

A new site of mass slaughter was revealed by efforts of a persistent Japanese teacher who set up a hotline for former Japanese troops who had served in Nanjing to call up. This and other conscientious efforts by some Japanese citizens in facing the dark pages of the Japanese military expansion in East Asia contrasts with the Japanese authorities and conservative elements who are still in denial of historical truths and are countering with revised history textbooks that whitewash many of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

East Asia is now poised for true peace and prosperity for all the nations and peoples, overcoming a long history of conquests, subjugations, poverty, colonialism, wars and ideological rifts. Japan, as the economic leader in the region, needs to reconcile its past with its neighbors and move forward in a future-looking perspective towards regional collaboration. The contending issues over the wartime "comfort women," biological and chemical weapon testings, and former POWs and forced labor need to be addressed as well as the current controversy over the Yasukuni shrine and revision of textbooks.

Non-governmental efforts have elevated these issues to the forefront, mainly the "comfort women" issue and the history textbook issue. International grassroots collaborations have produced results: for example in the US, US Representative Mike Honda, a Japanese descendent, working with Korean-Americans, was instrumental in passing a Congressional resolution on the "comfort women" issue, and in another example in Northeast Asia, a unique collaboration of scholars from China, Korea and Japan have produced joint textbooks on modern East Asian history in respective languages that foster mutual understanding of the past and common perspectives for the future. See a similar effort on memory and reconciliation.

Promise of Multilateral Economic Cooperation in NE Asia

Guest Kuhn Seo of San Francisco sent in this photograph of meeting he attended in Vladivostak, Russia -- The Greater Tumen Initiative (GTI), which brought governments (China, DPRK, ROK, Mongolia, Russia) and business representatives to further strengthen regional cooperation for economic growth and sustainable development in Northeast Asia. According to the GTI, supported by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), it "provides a unique multilateral forum for the member countries to identify and implement regional initiatives that encourage economic growth and improved living standards in Northeast Asia. By focusing on regional economic cooperation, the GTI contributes to peace and stability in the region."

The Greater Tumen [Tuman in Korean, from the Tuman River that borders China, Russia and North Korea. The name derives from a Mongol word.] Region includes the three Northeast provinces and Inner Mongolia of China, the Rason Economic and Trade Zone of DPRK, Eastern provinces of Mongolia, Eastern port cities of ROK and the part of the Primorsky Territory of Russia.

Seo says that time and conditions are ripe for joint economic cooperation in Northeast Asia, as China is looking for a next generation of industrial projects in its Northeastern provinces, Russia wants to develop oil and gas industries in the Siberian region and sell to countries in Northeast Asia [There is a proposal to build gas pipeline from Siberia to the Korean peninsula.], South Korea and Japan want to use the Siberian railroad to deliver their industrial products to Europe using the recently re-connected inter-Korea railroad, and North Korea can reap economic benefits from all these projects.

All of these plans needs an establishment and improvement of infrastructure at the Tuman River region. International investors will look for peace and stability in this region, therefore US-DPRK normalization and a peaceful settlement of security issues are necessary ingredients for this potential to blossom into reality. For a region that has been devastated by conquests, colonialism, wars and ideological confrontations, a true multilateral approach to economic prosperity for the peoples in the region is a refreshing idea. And as the six-nation negotiations on nuclear disarmament and security issues paved a way for multilateral approach for resolving the region's contending issues, similar multilateral approach on economic matters may be needed.

"Postcard from Pusan": Promises on Inter-Korea Railway

Commentary by John Feffer in Foreign Policy In Focus: "With their new high-speed train system, South Koreans can travel the full length of their country, from Seoul in the north to Pusan on the southern coast, in under 3 hours. In the next phase of construction, new tracks will cut this travel time in half again. The KTX train (pictured to the left) puts the U.S. rail system to shame. And puts Korea on par with Japan for quality of train service.

But the KTX train is not the headline rail news in Korea. Soon, passenger and freight trains will be traveling the entire length of the Korean peninsula: straight across the Demilitarized Zone." More