BY MAURICE WILLIAMS
The government of north Korea proposed in February to enter direct discussions with political groups and organizations in south Korea to advance the aim of reunifying the peninsula. Talks to discuss formally ending the 1950-53 U.S. war against Korea are scheduled for March in Geneva, Switzerland, that will include Pyongyang, Seoul, Beijing, and Washington.

Washington remains the real obstacle to peace and reunification in Korea, officials of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) noted in a February 24 press release. "Some politicians of south Korea are now reportedly busy garnering support for their call for the adoption of a `Six- Nation Joint Declaration' for inter-Korean peaceful coexistence," the statement said. "By the `Six Nations' they mean the two halves of Korea, the United States, China, Japan, and Russia. The call may sound good. But it is a silly and dangerous `plan.' "

The DPRK statement continued, "Stability and peace have not been ensured on the Korean peninsula not because there is no `declaration' by its neighboring nations but because the United States has still kept huge armed forces in south Korea and presented military threats to the DPRK though the cold war ended long ago."

Washington has stationed 37,000 troops in south Korea, with a pledge to send 500,000 to 600,000 more soldiers there in the event of a military confrontation.

"Recent accounts suggest that in 1994 the United States and South Korea came much closer than most people realized to a war [against Pyongyang] that could have resulted in hundreds of thousands of casualties," the New York Times reported February 25.

The north Korean government has called for ending joint military exercises between Seoul and Washington as one step toward "reconciliation and unity."  
 
 
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