It may seem preposterous, but the Korean War–also known as a United Nations “police action”–never ended in a peace agreement. Technically, it is a war that has not yet ended.
An armistice was signed arranging a cease fire, that did not officially take effect until January 31, 1955, even though there was little in the way of hostilities the previous eighteen months. That did not mean the war was over. No, it meant that there would be no more shooting until a peace settlement was reached. If it wasn’t, the war would resume.
So what has happened in the meantime? Nothing! Fifty-eight years later there is still no peace treaty.
Surely you would think that by this time, we would have been able to settle the matter, but we haven’t. We make demands like, have free elections, do not develop nuclear weapons, do not fire missiles, etc. They keep saying, “We need these, because you are practicing with the South Koreans to invade us.” We reply, “No, we are not practicing to invade you. We are practicing to defend South Korea from an invasion by you.”
“Anyway, we invaded Afghanistan, and we invaded Iraq, and awhile back we invaded Granada. Oh yes, then there was Panama, but that was awhile back. Really, we’re all invaded out.”
For some silly reason, they don’t believe us. Just because a congressman suggest we invade Syria and the American-Israeli Political Action Committee and the Israeli government insists we should invade Iran doesn’t mean that we are still in the invading mood. Kim Jong-un is just being a bit paranoid. He’s trying to get our attention. He wants a big bribe.
Wouldn’t it be a better idea to offer North Korea a peace treaty and mutual non-aggression pact rather than play “war games” and show them how tough we are?
We could recognize them as a nuclear power like we did India and Pakistan and ask them to ratify the Nuclear Non-proliferation treaty.
We could sweeten the deal and agree to diplomatic relations and an end to the trade embargo, if they agree to the NNT and will resolve disputes over a few uninhabited islands peacefully by negotiations, or accept a ruling of the World Court.
We could offer to remove our military bases from South Korea in exchange for a mutual reduction in armed forces.
Why not take the highly personal step of diplomacy and invite Kim Jong-un to the White House for consultation? We need to set an example for the world, with real face-to-face diplomacy.
Think about it. If we could end the Korean War in a genuine peace treaty, then perhaps our good example would influence the Israelis and Palestinians to reach a peace agreement. After all, how can we expect them to do it, if we
can’t do it ourselves? Their war has been going on as long as ours.
It is way past time to end both of them.