[Opinion] Non-aggression Treaty

North Korea is insisting that Washington sign a non-aggression treaty with it. It said in a statement on Oct. 25 that ˝it will allay U.S. concerns about its nuclear weapons program if Washington signs a non-aggression treaty with it,˝ as the U.S. continues to demand the nuclear program must be scrapped. It remains to be seen whether the North is sincerely moving toward a peaceful resolution or just stonewalling.

▷A non-aggression treaty is an agreement between two countries not to use force against each other. While a military alliance or an aid pact has in mind a war with a third country, a non-aggression treaty is aimed to build trust in terms of politics and military to exclude possibilities of a war against each other. Throughout the history, such a treaty has been mostly abused as a means of political and military convenience for countries concerned, and there have been few effective punitive measures against a violator. A concerned party, therefore, finds it relatively easy to scrap a treaty unilaterally. Non-aggression treaties in the past, including Paris Treaty in 1928, German-Polish Pact in 1934, German-Soviet Union Treaty in 1939 and Japan-Soviet Union Treaty in 1941, were all abandoned easily and soon followed by wars.

▷South and North Korea also signed an `agreement on inter-Korean reconciliation, non-aggression and exchanges in 1992,` which aims to bring an end to use of force, reach a peaceful resolution of inter-Korean issues and respect each other`s territorial integrity. Even after the agreement, however, the North continued breaking into South`s waters past the North Limit Line, which constitutes a violation of the earlier agreement. The cases in point are Yeonpyong-do naval clash in 1999 and the exchanges of fire in June this year.

▷North Korea is now demanding the U.S. sign a non-aggression pact and says it will lead to a clash between the two unless the U.S. do so, while saying nothing about its violation of the 1994 Geneva agreement under which it promised not to develop nuclear weapons. And we cannot but wonder what it is the North`s intention behind the demand. Before pressing hard on the U.S., North Korea must respect and comply with the pacts it already agreed on such as the South-North non-aggression treaty and the Geneva agreement. That way, it will find a breakthrough in its reconciliation efforts.

Park Yong-ok, Guest Editorial Writer

Deputy Minister of Defense, yongokp@hanmail.net