US key to peace on Korean Peninsula
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The key to permanent peace on the peninsula actually lies with the US, even though other countries have a role to play. It is the US that made the DPRK feel insecure by offering nuclear protection to the ROK, stationing troops there and holding frequent military drills close to the DPRK's borders. Among the six parties involved in the talks, only China and Russia have diplomatic relations with the ROK and the DPRK both. Neither the US nor Japan has diplomatic ties with the DPRK, deepening its sense of insecurity.
The DPRK wants to improve relations with the US and hold direct talks with it. It pulled out of Six-Party Talks because it wanted to hold direct talks with the US instead of being sandwiched between other countries. Perhaps that is the only way the DPRK could have attracted the US' attention and made the US agree to hold direct talks.
But recently, the DPRK has been saying that it wants the Six-Party Talks to resume, and may have used news of its nuclear enrichment facilities to attract US attention. Hence, it is up to the US to improve relations with the DPRK and restore peace on the peninsula.
In a special report, Siegfried Hecker, the US nuclear scientist who visited the DPRK recently, said the US holds the key to solving the Korean Peninsula nuclear problem, because Pyongyang will slow down its nuclear weapons program only after it is confident of improved relations with Washington. Hecker said the only hope of coping with the nuclear issue lies in contacts, not military attacks or economic sanctions.
Former US president Jimmy Carter and former US ambassador to the ROK Donald Gregg, too, have said that Washington should resume talks with Pyongyang. If the Barack Obama administration does not come forward even after this, it will be avoiding its responsibilities.
Before blaming China for all the crises, other countries should also consider Chinese people's sentiments toward the DPRK. According to a survey conducted after last week's exchange of fire, many Chinese people sympathized with the DPRK and did not believe that it posed a threat to the US or its allies.
It will need the joint efforts of all the countries involved in the Six-Party Talks to ease the tension on the Korean Peninsula but the responsibility of the US is greater.
During a recent telephone conversation with Dai Bingguo, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Beijing and Washington share interests on the peninsula, and cooperation is essential. It's time the US turned its words into action.
The author is a research scholar with the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations.
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