SEOUL — “The theme of today's discussion, Korea's reunification, is not a mere dream, but a future that the Korean people are committed to realizing,” said Cho Tae-yul, vice foreign minister of the Republic of Korea, in his speech at the World Journalism Conference.
South Korea is still continuing its effort to reach a reunification of the Korean peninsula, a process which began at the June 15th North–South Joint Declaration in June 2000. In 2000, North Korea and South Korea agreed to work on the reunification for the future and the Korean Demilitarized Zone has existed between the two countries since that time.
Because this year marks the 70th anniversary of both the national liberation and division, the World Journalism Conference's theme for this year in Seoul focused on two different vital topics: the unification of the Korean peninsula and freedom of speech.
The conference, which took place from April 13 to 17, included around 100 journalists from 60 countries. The conference started with welcoming journalists and then discussed several points about the unification of Korea.
“Despite 70 years of the painful history of national division, distrust, conflict and tension still run high between the two Koreas. Moreover, the political and security environment surrounding the Korean Peninsula has never been so challenging since the end of the Cold War,” said Tae-yul.
“Today, not a single security or foreign policy issue in Korea can be addressed through a simple equation. As such, the foreign policy of the Republic of Korea faces multi-layered and multi-dimensional challenges,” he added.
Cho Tae-yul explained that because some countries in Northeast Asia are acting in mutual distrust, Korea's diplomacy encounters challenges. One of the challenges to the diplomacy of South Korea is that North Korea still needs to give up its nuclear ambitions and has been continuing to heighten tension on the Korean Peninsula by refusing to engage in dialogue.
Despite the fact that South Korea is still making efforts to establish dialogue to improve inter-Korean relations, North Korea refuses to accept the proposal by insisting on preconditions, such as the suspension of the annual joint Korea-US military exercises.
“Although the two countries did not succeed in having the unification yet, it is good to perceive the peaceful relation between the two countries. For example there is no war like the war between Palestine and Israel,” said one of the conference attendees.
Andrew Salmon, a freelance reporter from the UK, illustrated during the conference that the reunification seems no closer today than it was in 1945 because the heavily militarized border dividing these two states is geographical, ideological, economic and even cultural. He added that South Korea is the 20th century's greatest national success story and North Korea one of the 21st century's worst cases.
“The reunification is not a dream; it is something that will happen. It is very sad that some families are separated between the North and the South and they cannot see each other. They are waiting for the reunification to see their families. Some members have died without seeing each other. As South Korean citizens we are waiting to reach the reunification,” said another attendee who did not want her name published.
The Korean War took place between 1950 and 1953 and resulted in the deaths of around 5 million soldiers and civilians. In the 1970s, the July 4th Joint Communiqué agreement was signed between the two countries; while in 1990 another agreement between the two countries had been reached.
