Statments
AAPSO supports Korean Peace Initiative
A silver lining is opening in the dark Korean horizon with DPRK leader Kim Jong Un sending a special high official to China with a letter to be delivered to the new president of China Xi Linping.
Although the world is still not aware of the contents of the letter, speculation points to the initiative of convening the six-party alliance to break the dead lock. The world at large will be happy to hear this good news and wish that this will assist to remove the dark clouds over the Korean peninsula.
The division and tension in the Korean peninsula is the last remnant left over from the cold war politics. The division has cost the Korean people heavily. There are still thousands of divided families living on either side of the border longing to see each other and be united. Many are old and quite a number had died under mental agony.
The time has come for the world community to raise their voice and pressure the powers involve to rise up to a bold decision. The rhetoric by either side will not solve any problem. We appeal to the Non-aligned movement and the civil society to call upon the U.S. authority to sign a peace treaty, normalize relation with two Koreas and guarantee the sovereignty of the D.P.R.K. and the ROK. Since both these countries are members of the United Nations, such guarantees will provide for the peaceful withdrawal of U.S. troops from South Korea which remain a strong obstacle for the unification of the country.
Conducting regularly a team spirit of military exercises with sophisticated arms around a small country only create fear and unwanted rhetoric which only accelerate tension. This siege and fear psychology should be eliminated for which the 6 party alliance need to take adequate steps including confidence building measures.
AAPSO as a long time civil society movement involved in peace building in the Korean peninsula appealed to all the Non-aligned countries and civil society organizations to take steps to move in the right direction and mobilize their voice to put an end to this terrible wound left by history.
AAPSO Secretariat
