SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Demonstrators take part in a rally for nuclear disarmament in Berlin on November 18, 2017. (Photo: ICAN Germany/flickr/cc)
Despite Trump's Bluster, Diplomacy Moves Forward as North and South Korea Announce Joint Talks
"Public groundswell in favor of diplomacy is needed once again," says Peace Action
Jan 05, 2018
North Korea and South Korea will hold formal talks next week--the first official sit-down in over two years--despite continued bluster by President Donald Trump directed at Pyongyang and his undermining of diplomatic efforts since taking office last year.
Seoul officials said Friday that the North had accepted its proposal to hold the talks.
They will take place Tuesday in the border village of Panmunjom, and are expected to cover the upcoming Winter Olympics, which take place next month in the South, and other Korean matters, South Korean Unification Ministry spokesman Baik Tae-hyun told reporters.
The announcement comes on the heels of South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Trump saying they would postpone joint military exercises until after the Winter Olympics. That development drew praise from Korean expert and peace activist Christine Ahn, who tweeted: "Thank goodness cool heads prevail, for now. It's our job now to freeze them in exchange for halting NK tests."
The announcement also comes two days after the North restored the "hotline" to the South.
In his New Year's Day speech, North Korea leader Kim Jong Un signaled an opening for the dialogue, saying, "it's about time that the North and the South sit down and seriously discuss how to improve inter-Korean relations by ourselves and dramatically open up."
In a statement released Thursday, Jon Rainwater, executive director of Peace Action, welcomed the apparent thaw in relations and said it was urgent for U.S. lawmakers and constituents alike to voice their support for such diplomacy.
"An increase in communications with North Korea should be conscientiously nurtured like the first winter shoots of a fragile plant. Sadly, this diplomatic opening has already been dismissed as a North Korean 'trap,'" he said, referring to some characterizations of the move. "If initial North-to-South talks lead to a multilateral and sustained diplomatic endeavour, diplomacy may come under even stronger attacks from hawks and hardliners in the U.S. and North Korea."
"Proponents of a peaceful solution, whether in the administration, in Congress, or in towns and cities across the nation, will have to make their voices heard. Securing a successful nuclear agreement with Iran couldn't have happened without the active support of the American people. That public groundswell in favor of diplomacy is needed once again," Rainwater argued.
Trump, for his part, claimed credit for the announcement of the talks, suggesting it was his repeated threats towards North Korea that made the breakthrough possible.
But such "boorish rhetoric" from Trump, warned Ankit Panda, senior editor at The Diplomat, could prove "[p]otentially fatal to a springtime detente."
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
North Korea and South Korea will hold formal talks next week--the first official sit-down in over two years--despite continued bluster by President Donald Trump directed at Pyongyang and his undermining of diplomatic efforts since taking office last year.
Seoul officials said Friday that the North had accepted its proposal to hold the talks.
They will take place Tuesday in the border village of Panmunjom, and are expected to cover the upcoming Winter Olympics, which take place next month in the South, and other Korean matters, South Korean Unification Ministry spokesman Baik Tae-hyun told reporters.
The announcement comes on the heels of South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Trump saying they would postpone joint military exercises until after the Winter Olympics. That development drew praise from Korean expert and peace activist Christine Ahn, who tweeted: "Thank goodness cool heads prevail, for now. It's our job now to freeze them in exchange for halting NK tests."
The announcement also comes two days after the North restored the "hotline" to the South.
In his New Year's Day speech, North Korea leader Kim Jong Un signaled an opening for the dialogue, saying, "it's about time that the North and the South sit down and seriously discuss how to improve inter-Korean relations by ourselves and dramatically open up."
In a statement released Thursday, Jon Rainwater, executive director of Peace Action, welcomed the apparent thaw in relations and said it was urgent for U.S. lawmakers and constituents alike to voice their support for such diplomacy.
"An increase in communications with North Korea should be conscientiously nurtured like the first winter shoots of a fragile plant. Sadly, this diplomatic opening has already been dismissed as a North Korean 'trap,'" he said, referring to some characterizations of the move. "If initial North-to-South talks lead to a multilateral and sustained diplomatic endeavour, diplomacy may come under even stronger attacks from hawks and hardliners in the U.S. and North Korea."
"Proponents of a peaceful solution, whether in the administration, in Congress, or in towns and cities across the nation, will have to make their voices heard. Securing a successful nuclear agreement with Iran couldn't have happened without the active support of the American people. That public groundswell in favor of diplomacy is needed once again," Rainwater argued.
Trump, for his part, claimed credit for the announcement of the talks, suggesting it was his repeated threats towards North Korea that made the breakthrough possible.
But such "boorish rhetoric" from Trump, warned Ankit Panda, senior editor at The Diplomat, could prove "[p]otentially fatal to a springtime detente."
From Your Site Articles
North Korea and South Korea will hold formal talks next week--the first official sit-down in over two years--despite continued bluster by President Donald Trump directed at Pyongyang and his undermining of diplomatic efforts since taking office last year.
Seoul officials said Friday that the North had accepted its proposal to hold the talks.
They will take place Tuesday in the border village of Panmunjom, and are expected to cover the upcoming Winter Olympics, which take place next month in the South, and other Korean matters, South Korean Unification Ministry spokesman Baik Tae-hyun told reporters.
The announcement comes on the heels of South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Trump saying they would postpone joint military exercises until after the Winter Olympics. That development drew praise from Korean expert and peace activist Christine Ahn, who tweeted: "Thank goodness cool heads prevail, for now. It's our job now to freeze them in exchange for halting NK tests."
The announcement also comes two days after the North restored the "hotline" to the South.
In his New Year's Day speech, North Korea leader Kim Jong Un signaled an opening for the dialogue, saying, "it's about time that the North and the South sit down and seriously discuss how to improve inter-Korean relations by ourselves and dramatically open up."
In a statement released Thursday, Jon Rainwater, executive director of Peace Action, welcomed the apparent thaw in relations and said it was urgent for U.S. lawmakers and constituents alike to voice their support for such diplomacy.
"An increase in communications with North Korea should be conscientiously nurtured like the first winter shoots of a fragile plant. Sadly, this diplomatic opening has already been dismissed as a North Korean 'trap,'" he said, referring to some characterizations of the move. "If initial North-to-South talks lead to a multilateral and sustained diplomatic endeavour, diplomacy may come under even stronger attacks from hawks and hardliners in the U.S. and North Korea."
"Proponents of a peaceful solution, whether in the administration, in Congress, or in towns and cities across the nation, will have to make their voices heard. Securing a successful nuclear agreement with Iran couldn't have happened without the active support of the American people. That public groundswell in favor of diplomacy is needed once again," Rainwater argued.
Trump, for his part, claimed credit for the announcement of the talks, suggesting it was his repeated threats towards North Korea that made the breakthrough possible.
But such "boorish rhetoric" from Trump, warned Ankit Panda, senior editor at The Diplomat, could prove "[p]otentially fatal to a springtime detente."
From Your Site Articles
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.