Korean War finally is Over!

Korean pact seeks to end war

The leaders of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and the Republic of Korea (ROK) pledged yesterday to seek a peace treaty to formally end the Korean War and expand projects to reduce tension on the world's last Cold War frontier.....



Well I think soon the US Korean forces will leave, since there will be no reason for US forces to be in Korea. If Korea unites then also US forces in Japan may also leave, because there would be no reason for them to be there.
Q1: How many US solders are in Korea and Japan?
Q2: Do you think that they will be moved to Iraq?

It isn't officially over - nothing has been signed. A peace treaty is theoretically possible, but it will just solidify the separation of the two countries. Unification? Yeah, I'm sure the North Korean regime would participate in democratic elections.....

That sounds very sour grapes Mr Fu Man Chu. Personally I think such an undertaking between the two principle members is very welcome. A formal Peace deal appears conditional on all participating parties signing it, but the two that really matter are the two halves of Korea and they should sign along with willing co-signatories even if others are reluctant to do so and continue to prevaricate, as they did at the APEC summit last month.

Such a treaty should certainly mean closure for US bases on the Peninsular, but I doubt will have much effect on the presence in Japan.

SampanViking said:

That sounds very sour grapes Mr Fu Man Chu. Personally I think such an undertaking between the two principle members is very welcome.

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Please do not put words in my mouth, Mr Sampan. I never said it wasn't welcome - I was pointing out the facts that no peace treaty had been signed (the thread title said that the war was over). Unfortunately, inter-Korean relations have been marked by lots of promises and statements but little real movement. If a formal peace treaty is concluded it will be good, but I've been disappointed in the past when it comes to such matters.

FuManChu said:

I was pointing out the facts that no peace treaty had been signed (the thread title said that the war was over). Unfortunately, inter-Korean relations have been marked by lots of promises and statements but little real movement. If a formal peace treaty is concluded it will be good, but I've been disappointed in the past when it comes to such matters.

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If a formal peace treaty is signed with terms to the satisfaction of both Koreas, then maybe the hatchet can start to be buried.

But I'm with FuManChu on this. North Korea has deliberately broken very important deals before, and has persistently engaged in all many of gravely egregious behaviour, both at home and abroad. Burrowing multiple invasion tunnels under the DMZ, infiltrating much of the South with spies and sleeper agents, engaging in terrorism, sending North Korean Army patrols to hack up Alled troops stationed in the DMZ, developing and testing nukes even after formally agreeing not too, etc., are all very serious.

But when you allow hundreds of thousands (or perhaps even a million or two, who knows, but the North Korean government certainly isn't fessing up) of your own people to starve to death while maintaining a huge military still positioned (literally) to invade your neighbour, you're not only untrustworthy, you're illegitimate to begin with.

Sadly, there isn't just one Korea that happens to be divided by an armistice line; there are two Korean nations, as much of the older generation had died off or will soon, severing the last living links with families between the two states. Needless to say, the totalitarian regime in the North will have inculcated a completely different mentality from the people in the South. I hope unification occurs, and soon, but it may a union of two different peoples, not two different states. I'm hopeful, but not optimistic.

Even if that happens, US wont leave S. Korea and they especially won't leave Japan as its not in their strategic interest. You can bet they will fight tooth and nail and give Koreans various gifts and what not so they can keep their presence and their bases in Asia. Having bases near ever rising China is way more important for them than anything else.

Totoro said:

You can bet they will fight tooth and nail and give Koreans various gifts and what not so they can keep their presence and their bases in Asia. Having bases near ever rising China is way more important for them than anything else.

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You couldn't be more wrong. The Americans want to pull out of South Korea because:

a) they've had enough of the anti-US protests and political points-scoring
b) they want to re-deploy their armed forces so they can be more flexible with those personnel

It's actually the South Korean government that doesn't want them to leave, because they don't like the idea of being left to look after themselves. They forced back the date where the South Korean military would take command of all forces there - that they agreed to it at all was due to US pressure.

You couldn't be more wrong. The Americans want to pull out of South Korea

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Fu is correct. And you can add Germany to that list.

South Korea is a very strong nation that can stand on it's own without the presence of US Forces.

America would love to be able to withdraw from Korea if the circumstances were right, as has been said above, they need those forces elsewhere in the world. A peace treaty and a demilitriaisation of Korea would be a vindication for American policy as they would able to withdraw having secured the existence of a pro-western capitalist democracy on the peninsula which would vindicate the sacrifice of thousands of American and allied soldiers in the Korean War.

As for re-unification, it may happen, but I have a feeling that many politicians in the ROK would prefer if it didn't happen. They'll have seen what happened with German reunification, West Germany was an economic powerhouse while East Germany was probably of all the former Warsaw Pact states, in the best economic shape, yet the re-unification hamstrung the German economy for years afterwards. South Korea has nothing like the economic resources that West Germany had while the DPRK is an a shocking state economically. It would take decades and massive investment to bring the North up to Southern standards, particularly if the northern regime were to implode suddenly. It would be better if re-unification were to happen gradually over a very long period of time, perhaps the ROK is calculating that if they get a peace treaty and a subsequent military run down, then the DPRK won't have to spend most of it's resources on the military and can focus and economic and infrastructure development.

would it be so evil to think china and south korea will cooperate and "support" each other bid for unification? is a double unification a bad deal for either countries? (are we allow to discuss scenarios?)

it interest me that china isn't aggressive to south korea maritime claims, but is so with japan. is china naturing some form of cooperation; seeing how north korea is weaken and ineffective, and that having a united and stronger korea as a buffer state between china and japan would be more effective than dividing korea. korea, of course is a country that is weary of japan and china, i don't see them in the US sphere of influence as US have been backing japanese claim at the expense of south korea. doesn't really promote it own interest.

also any unification progess in korea will help drive emotion for chinese to make similiar progress...