THE KUKMIN DAILY

“Acceptance of South-North heterogeneity is more important than restoration of South-North homogeneity. We need a peace that works to create unity in the midst of diversity.” This was the advice of “North Korea expert” Park Han-shik (79), professor emeritus at University of Georgia, USA.

On May 30, the Network for Peace and Unification, Inc. (board chairperson: Park Jong-hwa) held a forum on the theme “What needs to be done in this period of transformation toward peace on the Korean peninsula?” (photo) at the National Assembly Building in Yeouido, Seoul, and listened to the opinions of Prof. Park and other experts.

Park characterized previous North-South Korean relations as “fear and deception,” in line with the security paradigm. “The powerful nations’ military industrialization propelled militarism in both the South and the North,” he said. “North Korea’s nuclear capacity, used as a tool to narrow the gap in military power, is one of the real, existing threats in international society.” Commenting on the April 27 Inter-Korean Summit at Panmunjom, he said, “Watching the two leaders embrace, I realized that our people are people of “jeong” (情, affection, community)…South and North need to find and create homogeneity as a people, based on their jeong, conscience and other shared attributes.” Park, who has visited North Korea more than 50 times, is one of a handful of North Korea experts in the US, where his activities have included arranging the North Korea visits of both President Jimmy Carter in 1994, and President Bill Clinton in 2009.

Prof. Park emphasized the demand for a paradigm transformation toward peace. “The arms race and major conflicts today stem from a personal and national fixation on security,” he explained. “Peace is harmony, not the absence of conflict, and harmony is the creating of unity in the midst of diversity.”

For this he proposed a “dialectical unification theory.” “We must apply to North-South relations a dialectical method in which thesis and antithesis recognize and complement each other and achieve synthesis,” he said. “There is no progress in negating one’s partner; we should accept what is to be accepted, and discover our similarities.” He added, “If South Korea chose individualism, globalization and capitalism, North Korea chose groupism, nationalism and socialism…We cannot just choose one of these.”

Reporter DongWoo Kim (love@kmib.co.kr), with Marion Kim (marionkkim@icloud.com)
Photo by senior reporter Kang Min Seok


Full Story in Korean:
“남북 동질성 회복보다 이질성 수용이 더 중요”: 평통연대 ‘한반도 평화 전환의 변혁기, 무엇을 할 것인가’ 포럼