True Nature of Nuclear Issue on the Korean Peninsula and the Way of Its Solution

True Nature of Nuclear Issue on the Korean Peninsula and the Way of Its Solution
The six-party talks for the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula have now been stalled, and some are attempting to stir up public opinion against the Democratic People's Republic of Korea They argue that the nuclear issue, the major agenda item of the six-party talks, has been created by the nuclear possession of the DPRK, and, therefore, will be resolved of itself if the DPRK abandons its nuclear weapons.
Is it a correct view, then?
What deserves the first mention is that the nuclear issue in the Korean peninsula involves not only the DPRK but also south Korea, that is, the whole Korean peninsula, and the neighbouring countries.
Let us see the origin of the nuclear issue in the Korean peninsula.
Nuclear Threats from the United States for Over 60 Years
Recently the AP got an access to a declassified US military plan, which revealed that the US has pursued a nuclear attack against the DPRK ever since the 50s of the last century.
Already in the middle of August 1950, immediately after the Korean war (1950-1953) broke out, the US attempted nuclear attacks against the DPRK, its waning party. In November that year the then President Truman said at a press conference that whether to use atomic bombs was always under active examination. MacArthur, commander of the US Forces in the Far East, confessed that there had been a plan of dropping 30-50 atomic bombs on the borders of Korea and China.
The US Joint Chiefs of Staff issued an order in April 1951 that a "retaliatory attack" by means of
atomic bombs should be launched in order to make up for the defeat of the US forces in the Korean
front. Accordingly, B-29 strategic bombers of the US Air Force made a trial flight based on
simulated dropping of atomic bombs over Pyongyang. ;
The US Department of Defense, while examining a new offensive against the DPRK in early 1953, suggested the administration that atomic bombs should be used for a "victory within the shortest time."
The US has persisted with its nuclear threats against the DPRK even after the war. In mid-August 1953, just after the signing of the Korean Armistice Agreement, the US Strategic Air Command had mapped out "OP-PLAN 8-53" of dropping atomic bombs en masse over Korea and China. At that time the US army, navy and air force tried to play the leading role in launching nuclear strikes against the DPRK.
When the US espionage plane, EC-121, was shot down from the sky over the East Sea of Korea in April 1969, tactical nuclear aircraft of the USAF were reportedly on emergency standby to make sorties to attack airports in north Korea within 15 minutes.
The US nuclear threats against the DPRK are not simple, past incidents in history.
Entering the new century, the Bush Administration made public the Nuclear Posture Review that included the DPRK in the target list of nuclear pre-emptive strikes. In April 2010, the US Defense Secretary Gates publicly declared in the Nuclear Posture Review that all choices were on the table, taking into consideration the fact that the possibility of nuclear pre-emptive strike against the DPRK would be no exclusion.
Nuclear blackmails and threats of the US against the DPRK have continued for decades, their risks and gravity becoming ever greater.
It is the very root cause of the nuclear issue in the Korean peninsula.
Strenuous Efforts of the DPRK for Denuclearization
The DPRK has regarded it as an issue vital to ensuring peace and security in the country and the surrounding region to make the Korean peninsula nuclear-free, and made strenuous efforts for its accomplishment.
In the end of the 1950s it proposed creating a peace zone free from atomic weapons in Asia, followed by a proposal in the early 1980s of establishing a nuke-free zone in Northeast Asia and freeing the Korean peninsula from nukes. It also proposed the holding of the three-party talks for ridding the peninsula of the risk of a nuclear war, and afterwards published a governmental statement, solemnly declaring that it would allow neither test, production, storage and introduction of nuclear weapons, nor military bases of all kinds, including foreign nuclear bases, while disallowing foreign nukes to pass over the territorial land, sky and waters of the DPRK.
Out of its expectation that it would help rid itself of nuclear threats of the US, the DPRK signed the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT). As the US had promised to suspend the Team Spirit joint military exercise, a nuclear test war, it allowed several rounds of ad hoc inspections from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in conformity to the relevant articles of the NPT, and gave assistance.
The US, however, shunned itself from the DPRK's efforts Worse still, it had the brazen cheek to abuse the nuclear issue in the Korean peninsula as a lever to stifle the latter. Boisterously criticizing a non-existent "doubt of nuclear development" by the DPRK, it manipulated the IAEA into adopting a resolution on special inspection of sensitive military sites in the country. It even forced the DPRK to allow the special inspection by threatening it with the resumption of the Team Spirit joint military exercise.
It became clear to the DPRK that both the international organization and treaty, far from
protecting it from the US high-handedness, were abused as an instrument of its justification.
Therefore, the DPRK resolutely withdrew from the NPT and the IAEA, and took the road of
preparing a self-defensive nuclear deterrent to cope with the ever-increasing nuclear threats of the
US.
The DPRK's joining of the ranks of nuclear states has put an end to the nuclear imbalance in the Korean peninsula, thus making US nuclear threats powerless.
Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula Depends Entirely on the US
Failure in settlement of the nuclear issue in the Korean peninsula is mainly ascribable to the US that persistently pursues a hostile policy and nuclear threat against the DPRK. Had the US not threatened the DPRK with its nukes, but built confidence with it to make the bilateral relationship normal, they would have already reached the settlement.
Ypshiki Mine from the Japan-based Canon International Institute, who, as a diplomat, had specialized in disarmament and Korean affairs, said in the following vein: It is true that the US option of nuclear attack is in effect offering north Korea an excuse for its development, acquisition and possession of nuclear weapons. North Korea believes that its very existence is under threat. Therefore, it often states that it will never abandon nukes unless its national security is assured.
It is evident to everyone that the nuclear threat of the US against the DPRK is the first thing to be eradicated. It is the very key to the settlement of the nuclear issue in the Korean peninsula.
The DPRK has declared on several occasions that it is prepared for the resumption of the six-party talks.
Nevertheless, the US and some other countries are not. The US should recognize that the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, separated from the removal of its nuclear threat, is meaningless and also impossible to be realized. And it must approach the resumption of the six-party talks with sincerity.
The US attitude to the six-party talks will decide the destiny of the talks and the future of the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.