“Everyone should calm down and take their seats. Global security will be well served if the hot heads on all sides of this U.S.-North Korea Conflict cool their jets,” says Joe Volk, Executive Secretary of the Friends Committee on National Legislation, a nonpartisan Quaker lobby in the public interest. “Threat reduction and confidence building need the attention of all the parties. Both U.S. and North Korea’s chest pounding and aggressive rhetoric lead to escalation of the conflict and that can eventually lead to war. War is not the answer to the conflict between North Korea and the U.S. and its allies and would be a disaster for both North and South Korea,” Volk continued.
“FCNL’s policy calls for nuclear disarmament and for complete and general arms control. We call on North Korea to stop the testing of missiles and to end its nuclear weapons program, as we call on our own government to do the same. Nevertheless, we think the U.S. public should know that no international laws or treaties prohibit North Korea from testing missiles. The U.S. and other countries who decry North Korea’s missile testing are engaged in missile tests themselves. Such hypocrisy may serve partisan politics at home, but it ill serves the cause of S. Korean and global security,” Volk observed.
Yesterday’s missile tests by North Korea provide evidence of the weakness of North Korea’s missile technology. The tests also demonstrate the failure of the Bush administration’s reliance on “coercive diplomacy” in its negotiations with North Korea. U.S. ultimatums delivered under the heading of “diplomacy” did not work – they did not persuade North Korea to end its testing program.
What might work? Resumption of the multi-party talks led by countries in the region and a real diplomatic program to change the U.S. relationship with North Korea . Both sides have delivered such inconsistent messages that negotiations have been largely empty exercises. A new U.S. relationship with North Korea could, over time, transform that country without the devastation of war. The U.S. should propose a new relationship with North Korea by offering a peace treaty and steps to normalization of relations.
It may be that a changed relationship would be more threatening to North Korea than the flexing of military muscle, because a new relationship would open North Korea to the perhaps unwelcome specter of trade, travel, exchange of ideas. It may be that the North Korean government would not accept an offer of real peace. But, this avenue ought to be pursued while there is still time to prevent war on the Korean peninsula. Peace is possible, if the U.S. government, its allies, and the UN pursue it through peaceful means now, and, if North Korea’s leadership responds.
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The Friends Committee on National Legislation, the oldest registered religious lobby in Washington, is a non-partisan Quaker lobby in the public interest. FCNL works with a nationwide network of tens of thousands of people from many different races, religions, and cultures to advocate for social and economic justice, peace, and good government. For more information: http://www.fcnl.org
