Geun-hye Park, the President of the Republic of Korea gave an 8-page-long address at the 69th United Nations General Assembly reports Herald Economic. It is reported that President Park focused heavily on the issue of Korean reunification, North Korean human rights problems and even briefly touched on Korea’s political relations with Japan. The president was being both firm and careful regarding all these issues.
President Park asserted that bringing the 2 Koreas together is now a task that must be completed together by the entire international community. “Just as the unification of Germany became the stepping stone for the new Europe, the unity of the Korean Peninsula will become the stepping stone for creating a new East Asia.” she said.
She added, “It is astounding that since North and South Korea became members of the United Nations together in 1991, and yet Korea takes up two separate seats during the General Assembly, despite the fact these two nations share the same culture and language.” She urged all the nations’ representatives who were present to take part in uniting the world’s only divided nation.
President Park moved on to talk about ways to improve the situation in Korea and brought back the idea of constructing a DMZ Ecological Peace Belt along the Korean border. She stated that “the DMZ that was built to prevent a second Korean War has also prevented people from traveling between the two Koreas”. The president was proposing that they literally build a passage that will connect the two halves of the peninsula.
The DMZ, an 8-kilometer-wide border which goes right across the Korean peninsula is the most heavily guarded border in the world with around 1 million North, South Korean and American soldiers. It is an area that has the most land mines planted in the world. Since only a hand full of people have crossed the DMZ and survived, the area is one of the few places in the world with perfectly preserved natural habitats and animals. President Park proposed that this environment within the border should be used as an area where North and South Korean citizens could come together and interact. She specifically encouraged the representatives from the Koreas, China, and the U.S. since these were the major nations that participated in the Korean War.
The “DMZ Project” as it was called was originally proposed by Nelson Mandela, former president of the Republic of South Africa visited South Korea in 2001 to President Dae-jung Kim. Later in 2013, President Park brought up the idea again in an address to the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.
President Park also touched upon the issue of North Korea’s possession of nuclear weapons and its human rights violations of its citizens.
