REMARKS 
BY H.E. GONG RO-MYUNG
AT 
THE COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS, NEW YORK

September 26, 1996

Mr. President, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a great pleasure for me to be here today to speak before the Council on Foreign Relations, the most
prestigious forum for international affairs in the United States. 


I welcome the opportunity to address the members of this audience, who are all distinguished opinion 
leaders in foreign affairs. I thank Mr. Gelb, President, and members of the Council for giving me this 
opportunity to share with you some of my thoughts on the topic of "Peace and Unification on the Korean 
Peninsula."

As you are well aware, the world has undergone drastic changes in international relations in the past 
decade. We have seen the Soviet Union and the Eastern European countries disintegrate and realign along
the path toward democracy and market economies. 


We have watched the crumbling of the Berlin Wall, symbolizing the end of the Cold War. We have witnessed 
the commerce among nations multiply with the disappearance of old ideological barriers which pitted East 
against West. A new international order, fragile yet full of hope, is dawning. 


Indeed, the idiom of the Cold War has lost most of its relevance in describing current international relations. 
However, there is one place where the legacy of the Cold War remains unabated. That is the Korean 
Peninsula, where two million North and South Korean troops stare at each other across the four-kilometer-
wide Demilitarized Zone, perhaps the most dangerous potential flash point threatening the peace in 
Northeast Asia and the world. 


Peace on the Korean Peninsula is vital to the security and stability of the region. In order to secure peace on 
the Peninsula, the Republic of Korea has continued its efforts to engage North Korea in dialogue to discuss 
national reconciliation and peaceful co-existence. Despite our strenuous efforts, the North has failed to 
come to the table, especially after the death of Kim Il Sung, cutting off all previous channels of dialogue. 


North Korea promised to reopen inter-Korean dialogue at the signing of the Agreed Framework with the US. 
Still, the North continues its refusal to hold talks with the South, persisting in its obstinate demand to talk 
only with the United States.

In addition to the absence of dialogue with the South, North Korea has recently threatened to undermine the
very foundation of the Armistice Agreement, which has been instrumental in maintaining peace on the 
Korean Peninsula for the last four decades. 


The South and North agreed to "abide by the present Armistice Agreement until a solid state of peace has 
been realized", by signing the South-North Basic Accord in 1991. 


To our dismay, however, North Korea has completely ignored this accord and persists in its efforts to 
invalidate the armistice. At the same time, the North has tried hard to convert the current armistice regime 
into "a peace mechanism" by pushing for direct talks with the US on a peace treaty. 


Such maneuvering by North Korea is destined to fail in view of the unrealistic nature of the North's proposal,
which, among other things, excludes the South, the party directly concerned with peace on the Korean
Peninsula. 


North Korea has also since 1991 maintained its refusal to hold meetings of the Military Armistice 
Commission. The North expelled the Czech and Polish delegations from the Neutral Nations Supervisory
Commission, and in 1994, forced the Chinese withdrawal from the Military Armistice Commission. 


More recently, North Korea last April announced the renunciation of its duties related to the Armistice 
Agreement, including the maintenance and management of the Military Demarcation Line and Demilitarized 
Zone. 


Immediately afterwards, North Korean armed battalions infiltrated the Demilitarized Zone on three 
occasions, demonstrating their intent to invalidate the Armistice Agreement. Last week, a North Korean 
military submarine ran aground off the South Korean coast from which about 26 armed soldiers infiltrated 
ashore. This incident, infiltrating armed agents into the South using a submarine, constitutes another grave 
act of military provocation to the Republic of Korea as well as a flagrant violation of the Armistice Agreement. 


It clearly shows that North Korea still adheres to its outdated stance of provocative hostility against the 
South. These brazen acts of continued provocation by North Korea not only threaten peace and security on 
the Korean Peninsula but also undermine our efforts to establish a durable peace and stability. 


We do not know exactly what lies behind all these North Korean moves: attempting to invalidate the 
armistice, refusing peace talks with the South and demanding a separate peace with the US. 


One reason, we surmise, might be that North Korea desperately seeks a security guarantee for its very 
survival through improved relations with the US. Against this background, President Kim Young Sam and 
President Clinton proposed last April in Cheju to hold four-party talks among both Koreas, the US and 
China, for constructive discussion to establish an enduring peace on the Korean Peninsula. 


The proposal is aimed at laying the groundwork for reunification through confidence-building between the
South and North. The four-party talks envision that South and North Korea play a major role as the two 
parties directly responsible for peace on the Peninsula. Meanwhile, the US and China, who were involved in 
shaping the current armistice, should play a supporting role. 


This proposal, in our view, is the most realistic and practical means to a durable peace on the Peninsula, as 
it accommodated the North Korean demand for a peace ageement. If the North consents to the four-party 
talks, a wide range of issues can be discussed for the permanent peace settlement, including the 
conversion of the armistice into a new peace arrangement, and measures for confidence-building and 
tension reduction. 


At the same time, food shortages in North Korea, a pressing issue for the North, can be discussed most 
productively in the context of inter-Korean economic cooperation. 


Ladies and Gentlemen, 

Our proposal of four-party talks does not deviate from our conviction that peace on the Korean Peninsula 
should be resolved by both Koreas on their own. 


However, in light of prevailing mutual distrust and hostility between the South and North, a breakthrough 
toward that resolution is not easily to be made by the sole efforts of the two Koreas. 


That is why we dearly need the support and guarantee of the US and China, who were involved in the 
Korean War and the subsequent armistice. My Government is at present working closely with the 
Governments of both countries in pursuing four-party talks. 


At the same time, we are also mindful of the possible role of Japan and Russia in guaranteeing peace on 
the Peninsula. I will take this up later. 


I do not need to speak further on the importance of the role of the US, our close ally, for peace on the 
Korean Peninsula, as we all know it very well. Today, I wish to focus on the role of China. 


China borders on Korea, and as a neighboring country, has maintained close cultural ties dating back 
several thousand years. Due to its geopolitical proximity, China has also considerably influenced the 
situation on the Korean Peninsula in many ways. 


China was involved in the Korean War by dispatching a "volunteer army," and is a signatory to the Armistice
Agreement. China also participated in the meetings of the Military Armistice Commission until it withdrew its 
members at the urging of North Korea in 1994. 


China developed a special relationship with North Korea in the wake of the Korean War. However, ROK-
Chinese relations have steadily improved since 1992 with their normalization of diplomatice realtions. 


Recently, the two countries have become close with summit meetings and increased exchanges and close 
economic cooperation. Recently, China maintains that the Korean question should be settled between 
South and North Korea, and that the current armistice should be preserved until a new peace regime is 
established. 


China has also made it clear that it will help play a constructive role in establishing peace on the Peninsula. 
We value China's role for the following reasons: first, traditionally, there is a special relationship between 
China and North Korea; second, there has been a steady development of cordial and cooperative relations 
between South Korea and China; and third, China is capable of playing a constructive role regarding peace 
on the Peninsula, and is quite willing to do so. 


We expect China to make a significant contribution to inducing North Korea to accept four-party talks and 
assist in producing fruitful results from these talks. Japan and Russia are not included as parties to the 
four-party talks not because they have less direct interest in peace on the Korean Peninsula. Rather, we find 
it most effective and feasible that the Four Party Meeting proceeds with the minimum number of parties 
directly concerned or directly relevant to the Armistice Agreement. We think that Japan and Russia can 
contribute to the Korean question in other manner than the Four-Party talks, such as through the on-going 
Northeast Asia Cooperation Dialogue (NEACD) and the proposed Northeast Asia Security Dialogue 
(NEASED).

Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, 

To secure peace and eventually bring reunification to the Korean Peninsula, the most important task is 
confidence-building through dialogue between the South and North. President Kim made it clear in his 
August 15 speech that the South does not want isolation of North Korea but rather its stability. 


He also stressed that the South does not desire a reunification forced on either side, thus presenting a 
clear framework for a future South-North relationship based on cooperation instead of confrontation. 


The South and North should work together to resolve the Korean question by seeking mutual agreement, of 
their own free will, in a peaceful and practical manner. They should cooperate in the spirit of peace and 
prosperity, thus steadily building a mutually beneficial relationship. The South and North have already 
pledged to the international community through the South-North Basic Accord of 1991 that both Koreas will 
exert joint efforts to achieve peaceful reunification. This promise should be delivered on at the earliest 
possible date. 


We know that North Korea is still engrossed in the ideological delusion that Korean reunification should 
come about the way the North desires. It is a hopeless illusion that a reunified Korea will adopt the failing 
North Korean system. Before raising voices for reunification, the North should first give serious 
consideration to peaceful co-existence with the South. 


In order to facilitate dialogue and exchanges with North Korea, we provided 150,000 tons of rice to the North 
in humanitarian assistance last year. Responding to an appeal by the UN, we also contributed soybean 
blend and powdered milk for infants worth US $3 million. 


Through UNICEF, we will provide US$350,000 to North Korea to rebuild the ORS plant in an effort to help 
North Korean children suffering from malnutrition and dysentery. In addition, we are also allowing our 
businessmen to invest and start up joint ventures in North Korea on an incremental basis. The fact that in 
my office, I have a TV set manufactured in North Korea by a South Korean company, attests to the hopeful 
prospects for South-North cooperation in the future. 


I earnestly hope that North Korea will accept our proposal for four-party talks. The North should know that it 
will benefit greatly from the process of four-party talks, engaging in productive dialogue with the ROK and 
the U.S. to bring a lasting peace on the Peninsula. 


It is important for us to realize that without peaceful co-existence between the two Koreas, the situation on 
the Korean Peninsula can not be really improved, whatever progress be made in the U.S.-North Korea 
relations and the LWR project. The inter-Korean dialogue remains suspended, although the North Korea 
promised to reopen the dialogue in the Agreed Framework. 


The North's infiltration of armed agents to the South through a submarine is a clear evidence that any 
improvement of situation on the Korean Peninsula without inter-Korean dialogue is nothing but "a castle on 
the sand." Hence, we earnestly hope that the US government places more emphasis on helping Korea to 
achieve resumption of inter-Korean dialogue in implementing the Agreed Framework. 


Dr. Lothar De Maiziere, the last Prime Minister of East Germany, said that communists lack ability to reform 
by themselves. 


However, I would like to conclude my remarks, repeating my hope that the North will make a wise decision 
and open up for dialogue with the South. By doing so, together we could draw up a blueprint for peaceful 
reunification.

Thank you.