The purpose of this research is to provide policy implications to prevent a tragedy like the Korean War and to maintain stable peace on the Korean peninsula. For this purpose, this case has analyzed the Korean War in 1950 and the First North Korean Nu...
The purpose of this research is to provide policy implications to prevent a tragedy like the Korean War and to maintain stable peace on the Korean peninsula. For this purpose, this case has analyzed the Korean War in 1950 and the First North Korean Nuclear Crisis in 1993-1994 from the perspectives of the preventive diplomacy.
Preventive diplomacy has gained attention after the Cold War as a new approach to resolve conflicts around the world. According to the United Nations report, Agenda for Peace(1992), preventive diplomacy seeks to prevent disputes themselves from arising between parties, and manage disputes in order not to be escalated into a full-fledged conflict. Since such approach can prevent human and material costs of enormous scale that are caused by possible armed conflicts, it is actively being implemented in potential conflict zones by the U.S., other major powers, and international organizations.
In the light of rising interest in this rather new concept, this research seeks to analyze the success and failure of preventive diplomacy on the Korean Peninsula using two cases mentioned above. It carries out a comparative analysis between these two crisis, using three variables often used in preventive diplomacy: early warning, strategies of response, and actors. Even though the topic of this study is the national security of two Koreas, it also focuses on the U.S. policy toward the Korean Peninsula.
This study argues that one of the causes of the Korean War is attributed to the lack of policymakers’receptivity to the early warning, under the situation of no imminent war warning and failure of the proper response due to psychological misjudgment. Thus, the case of the Korean War is analyzed to be an opportunity missed in preventive diplomacy on the Korean Peninsula.
On the other hand, the handling of the First North Korean Nuclear Crisis in 1993-1994 was a success case because it prevented the crisis from escalating into a violent conflict by signing the Agreed Framework, even if the agreement was an incomplete measure only to halt the North Korean nuclear program for a time being. In other words, the crisis was carried over by freezing the North Korean nuclear program in accordance with an effective early warning system of the U.S. and its consistent strategy of response. At this point, we may recall the discussion that, though a full-scale conflict resolution is not achieved, it could be claimed as an opportunity seized since a possible escalation to mass violence and deadly conflict is prevented. So, in the case of the Korean Peninsular, it could be said as an opportunity seized.
Additionally, from analyzing two cases, several key issues in preventive diplomacy were identified as follows.
First, no such global entity exists that is capable of monitoring politically generated catastrophes.
Second, as for the lack of political will, a crisis that has not yet erupted is generating neither the pressure nor the eventual rewards.
Third, as for the sovereignty dilemma, preventive diplomacy would not happen without international cooperation or intervention to avoid the outbreak of an intra-state crisis.
Fourth, meanwhile traditional diplomacy is a quiet and silent diplomacy, preventive diplomacy can never be silent and it targets the roots of conflict. So it may include a potential root of conflict.
Fifth, as for the problem in the bureaucracy block, unblocking bureaucratic obstinacy and rivalry is one of the major challenge with which preventive diplomacy and its early warning instruments have to cope.
In the institutional point of view, the lessons from the opportunity missed and seized on the Korean peninsula reveals the necessity of an effective and imminent early warning system that could mobilize political will for the early response. Also, considering the fact that the First North Korean Nuclear Crisis was seized through international cooperation, establishing a multilateral regime could be considered in the Northeast Asia region in order to maintain a durable peace on the Korean Peninsula. The basic instrument for such end could be a regional early warning system. Thus, this study suggests to establish an integrated early warning system in the Northeast Asia under the close cooperation among South Korea, the U.S. and Japan for information collection and sharing.