Tensions Flare Over Proposed US-North Korea Peace Bill

South Korean army's multiple launch rocket systems fire rockets during South Korea–U.S. joint military drills at Seungjin Fire Training Field in Pocheon, South Korea, on May 25, 2023. (Ahn Young-joon/AP Photo)

Tension is growing over a bill introduced to Congress that would compel the government to unilaterally establish a peace deal with communist North Korea, even as the regime continues to threaten South Korea and the United States with nuclear annihilation.

The Peace on the Korean Peninsula Act, introduced by Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) in March, would order the federal government to immediately seek to replace the current armistice, in place since 1953, with a formal peace treaty.

Hailed by peace activists as a much-needed end to a half-century-long conflict, the bill is drawing increasing criticism from Korean Americans and advocacy organizations, which fear it may needlessly weaken South Korea and the United States’ deterrence efforts.

To that end, the news organization One Korea Network (OKN) and the U.S.-Korea Alliance Foundation (USKAF) influence group teamed up this week to coordinate a series of events aimed at discouraging the passage of the bill.

At a July 26 press conference in Washington, the bill’s detractors convened to counter what they called the “fake peace” of a “pro-North Korean” initiative.

OKN Director Henry Song said in a press statement for the event that the bill, a redo of another piece of legislation that failed to move to a vote last year, would allow North Korea to evade accountability for its actions.

“Unsurprisingly, the backers of the fake peace initiative have introduced a reincarnated version of HR3446, now called HR1369, which is doomed to fail again, but not without the supporters of this initiative trying to hoodwink the public and Congress with the sweet, alluring pursuit of fake peace, while giving a free pass to the dictatorship of North Korea,” the statement said.

Mr. Song added that OKN and USKAF previously collected “tens of thousands of signatures” in both the United States and South Korea to prevent the last version of the bill from passing, and could do so again.

War Without End?

The push for a peace deal comes as the United States and South Korea enter their 70th year of alliance, which began in 1953 with the pause in hostilities of the Korean War.

That conflict, fought between the U.S.-backed democratic south and the Soviet-backed communist north, resulted in an armistice between two sides of a divided Korea—but no peace deal.

In the 70 years since, there has never been a formal conclusion to the war, though the United States and South Korea have drawn closer amid continued threats of nuclear annihilation from the north.

That relationship reached its zenith in April, when President Joe Biden received South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol in Washington. There, the two signed the Washington Declaration, which strengthened the United States’ commitment to defending South Korea under its nuclear umbrella in exchange for South Korea not pursuing the development of nuclear weapons of its own.

Since then, the United States has sent two nuclear submarines to South Korea, and even invited Mr. Yoon to tour one, resulting in the South Korean leader becoming the first and only foreign leader ever to set foot on a U.S. nuclear submarine.

The show of force drew strong protests from communist North Korea and its ally China, exacerbating tensions amid the already fraught relationships between the democratic and communist powers.

North Korea fired two ballistic missiles into the sea Monday, hours after the second American submarine arrived in South Korea. Likewise, North Korean state propaganda said last week that communist leadership had vowed to “annihilate the enemy” of “U.S. imperialism.”

For this and other reasons, Mr. Song said, OKN sought to “expose the truth” of the proposed peace bill and was “planning a variety of events and projects throughout this year and into next year” to both commemorate the U.S.-South Korea alliance, as well as educate the public about North Korea’s human rights abuses.

Peace Activists Say US Provoking North Korea

Despite the OKN and USKAF’s fears, the Peace on the Korean Peninsula Act is not without its own cadre of supporters.

Peace activists are gathering in Washington throughout the week for a national mobilization in which they hope to call on Congress to pass the bill and compel the Biden administration to officially end the Korean War.

Proponents of the peace deal point to more than half a century of failed U.S. overseas military operations. And, much like the bill’s detractors, also count among their number a sizeable Korean American population.

Christine Ahn, a coordinator for Korea Peace Now!, an organization that promotes the bill, said the push for peace was legitimate and overdue.

“This is a legitimate peace movement,” Ms. Ahn said during a July 26 interview with the left-wing media outlet Democracy Now!

“And it’s not just a peace movement of peace activists across the country that are multigenerational Korean Americans. These are [also] a lot of faith-based leaders [from] the United Methodist Church or the Presbyterian Church. These are Korean American leaders who have been involved in engaging with North Korea.”

Ms. Ahn said that while relations with communist North Korea have always been fraught, the two nations have not always been this close to war.

To that end, she said she believed the Trump administration had come the closest the United States has been to securing peace with North Korea but ultimately failed to fulfill its own ambitions on the matter.

“As we saw in the last summits between Trump and [North Korean leader] Kim [Jong Un], and Kim and [former South Korean leader] Moon [Jae-in], there was a moment where we felt that peace was actually going to break out,” Ms. Ahn said.

“But, unfortunately, the Trump administration, you know, under John Bolton’s leadership, basically did not follow through on some of the commitments that they made.”

Ms. Ahn’s claim is not without merit. A report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank found that there is indeed evidence that meaningful negotiations with North Korea are correlated to a decrease in the hermit nation’s belligerent activity.

Comparing the number of diplomatic engagements between the United States and North Korea with the number of North Korean provocations from 1990 to 2016, the study found that “... there is a correlation between periods when the U.S. is at the negotiating table with North Korea, in a bilateral or multilateral setting, and a decrease in [North Korean] provocations.”

“The absence of missile tests or other kinetic provocations does not necessarily suggest a halt in North Korean weapons development or a reduction of the overall nuclear threat. But, diplomacy does seem to have some restraining effect on the number of provocations carried out.”

US, South Korea Vow Ironclad Commitment ‘Forged in Blood’

Despite the concern of peace activists like Ms. Ahn, the United States and South Korea are arguably drawing closer than ever before in the wake of nuclear threats from the north.

Speaking about the alliance in April, Choon-goo Kim, the charge d’affaires for the South Korean Embassy in the United States, said the alliance was foundational to both nations’ prosperity.

“The friendship between Korea and the United States goes back 140-plus years,” Mr. Kim said at an April 14 discussion at the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based think tank.

“We have been allies half of the time of our friendship. Forged in blood, our alliance has been the foundation of our current prosperity.”

Even amid threats by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to make South Korea and the United States “suffer in endless fear,” Mr. Kim said, the two nations would only strengthen their military alliance.

“In the face of the evolving threat posed by North Korea, our alliance stands firm, always demonstrating strength and resolve,” Mr. Kim said.

“In response to North Korea’s threats, we will enhance and strengthen our extended [nuclear] deterrence, as well as reaffirm our shared goal of the denuclearization of North Korea.”