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Early last month, Roh agreed with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il to organize international talks to build a permanent peace mechanism to replace the current armistice that technically ended the 1950-53 Korean War. With the summit agreement in hand, Roh is now reaching out to the world to drum up international support for his peace-building campaign. He hopes to make significant progress before leaving office early next year.
After calling for a gathering of leaders of the two Koreas, the United States and China as soon as possible to discuss the nuclear and peace issues, Roh rushed to Singapore this week to meet his counterparts from Asian neighbors. Roh has vowed to use the annual summit of the 10-country Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the three Northeast Asian countries of South Korea, Japan and China to win their support for an early establishment of a peace regime on the Korean peninsula.
On the sidelines of the ASEAN plus three summit, Roh met Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda on Tuesday and secured their promises to widen efforts toward peace and stability on the Korean peninsula, according to the presidential office. The three leaders also agreed to enhance cooperation for the settlement of North Korean nuclear problem and the establishment of a new multilateral security dialogue regime in Northeast Asia, the office said.
The three leaders "shared the view that the settlement of the North Korean nuclear problem and peace-building efforts on the Korean peninsula are making progress and the establishment of a multilateral security dialogue regime is very critical to regional peace and stability," said Roh's office in a press release.
At the trilateral meeting, Wen said China would fully support the two Koreas' efforts to arrange an international summit meeting to discuss a peace regime on the peninsula, according to the office.
"China will support negotiations on a Korean peninsula peace regime," Wen was quoted as saying. "As a signatory to the cease-fire of the Korean War, China will actively participate in negotiations on a Korean peninsula peace regime," Wen said.
The 1953 Korean armistice agreement was trilaterally signed by China, North Korea and the United States, representing 16-nation U.N. forces. South Korea refused to sign the armistice agreement because of its unsatisfactory terms and fear of a prolonged national division.
North Korea had long maintained that a peace treaty should be signed between it and the United States, excluding South Korea because it was not a signatory of the truce pact. But at last month's inter-Korean summit, the North and the South agreed to arrange three- or four-way talks among "directly involved" nations aimed at declaring an official end to the Korean War and concluding a peace treaty.
South Korean officials said China would be excluded if a three-nation formula was formed. "It is meaningful that the North recognized the South as the concerned party in the peace talks," a presidential spokesman said. But South Korea wants to include China to avoid possible diplomatic rows.
Ahead of this week's regional summit, Roh proposed that leaders of the four nations hold a summit as early as possible. Speaking to an international security forum last week, Roh said a four-way summit would be necessary.
"Through a joint declaration of heads of state (of the four countries), it is necessary to give a strong message to working-level officials in charge of the details on resolving the North's denuclearization," he said. Roh said that time was running out for himself and U.S. President George W. Bush, whose second term ends in January 2009. "We can never say the Bush administration has enough time."
According to Seoul's media reports, South Korea is pushing for a four-nation summit in January in the North Korean border city of Kaesong, which houses an inter-Korean joint industrial complex. If the four-way summit is impossible in January, Seoul is seeking a declaration from the four nations to support ending the Korean War and conclusion of a peace treaty, according to Seoul's largest newspaper Chosun Ilbo.
A four-party summit or other major step toward a formal peace could bolster Roh's political legacy and lock his successor into honoring his peace regime campaign. Since taking office in 2003, Roh has suffered from low popularity.
