Weekly Blog - 10 April 2023 - North Korea
Latest missile launch
North Korea fired its latest test missile on Thursday 13 April. The launch caused panic in the Japanese city of Hokkaido where air raid sirens sounded for 30 minutes before the missile splashed down into the sea. Japan, South Korea and the US have all condemned this deliberate and provocative test missile firing, which is the 27th this year.[1]
Seventy years of tension
This is the latest incident in over seventy years of tension between North Korea and its neighbours in the region. The Korean peninsula was first divided into North and South along the 38th parallel at the end of the Second World War when two of the victors took over the country from the Japanese, the USSR in the North and the US in the South. After talks to reunify the country failed, a Communist regime under Kim Il-sung was set up in North Korea and an anti-Communist regime in South Korea. The USSR and US withdrew in the late 1940s and almost immediately the North launched an invasion of the South in 1950 in an attempt to forcibly reunite the two halves of the peninsula. The Korean War that followed was particularly bloody, with over 3 million people killed. The UN intervened to support the South. Some 22 nations participated, led by the US. China intervened to support the North. In the end fighting ceased in 1953, again on the 38th parallel, which became the border and has since become the famous demilitarised zone between the two antagonists. However, a formal peace deal was never reached, and technically the two countries remain at war to this day.
In North Korea during the decades that followed, Kim Il-sung created one of the most brutal, controlling and oppressive regimes in the world, with terrible human rights conditions and widespread poverty. He ruled with an iron grip until his death in 1994 when his son Kim Jong-il took over, until he too died in 2011 to be replaced in turn by his son, the current ruler, Kim Jong-un. Since the 1990s North Korea has developed nuclear weapons, although the full extent of its capacity is unknown. It has been firing test missiles into the sea since the 1980s, but has scaled these up dramatically in the last twenty years, along with other provocative statements and actions threatening its neighbours South Korea and Japan.
Contain and reform
So how should the world respond to such threats from the regime in North Korea? The policy of the international community during the last few decades has been to contain North Korea, to keep its power limited and prevent escalation into full-scale conflict. From a Christian point of view this does appear to be the right approach. God loves everyone, and does not want to see any tensions, conflicts or wars between nations. As the Psalms tell us, “He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth. He breaks the bow and shatters the spear; he burns the shields with fire.” (Psalm 46: 9) One of the areas that a major report from Arise, the Arise Manifesto, looks at in detail is what the Bible teaches us, and all the evidence from history would indicate, works best for reducing tensions and resolving wars (Arise Manifesto, pg 88 – 91, 124 – 140). The report finds that the vast majority of suffering and death in conflict, occurs, not in the many relatively small, often internal, wars that take place around the world (as tragic as these certainly are), but in the few major international wars between powerful nations (Arise Manifesto, pg 96 – 99). Therefore it is incumbent on the governments of the world to do all they can not only to reduce and end ‘small’ conflicts, but to proactively work together to decrease tensions and prevent major international conflicts (as a war with North Korea would certainly be) from breaking out.
However, as Christians we know that the policy of the world cannot simply stop at containment. Our God also loves justice and wants to see every government in the world ruling with fairness, equality, justice for all and good human rights. As Jeremiah the prophet says, “Hear the word of the LORD to you, king of Judah, you who sits on David’s throne – you, your officials and your people who come through these gates. This is what the LORD says: Do what is just and right. Rescue from the hand of the oppressor the one who has been robbed. Do no wrong or violence to the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place.” (Jer 2: 2 – 3) Therefore, the approach of the international community must be not just to contain the threat from North Korea, but also to work for reform in the country so it becomes better ruled, with proper human rights, and ultimately democratic. Of course, such an approach will take much perseverance, time and hard work. But it is ultimately the approach that the lessons from the Bible and from history would indicate to be the most effective (Arise Manifesto, pg 119 – 124). Taken together then this twin approach of containment and reform would appear to be the right way to address the challenge of North Korea with minimum human suffering and maximum gradual improvements in justice and good governance. But what practical policies can the international community use to implement this approach?
Contain
There are a number of important things that governments can do that are highly effective at preventing major wars from occurring (Arise Manifesto, pg 124 – 129). Firstly, and perhaps most importantly, they should pursue regular and cordial diplomatic communication, relations, dialogue and meetings (including at the highest levels), especially between powerful nations. No matter how difficult situations become, it is critical that nations keep talking. It is hard to overemphasise the importance of this point. In this context it is worrying that North Korea has stopped answering long established twice daily phone calls with South Korea, designed to keep communication flowing, and prevent military escalation and mistakes. Every effort must be made to re-establish this regular contact.
The two nations should keep on reaching out and trying to find mutual areas of agreement where they can cooperate and work well together, even if this area of overlap is small. From this wider trust can be built. In addition, they should look for areas where North Korea’s demands are reasonable and fair, and where the international community can give ground in order to further build trust. In particular, the international community should avoid acting in an arrogant, high-handed or triumphalist fashion, and should avoid putting countries like North Korea in a position where they feel humiliated. Such actions are likely to inflame resentment and tensions. Countries should watch out for significant tensions that are emerging between nations (especially powerful ones) and work proactively through peaceful and diplomatic means to de-escalate them before they become full-blown conflicts, as a matter of high priority. This often means finding the ‘off ramp’, a way that allows both sides to claim a win and de-escalate tensions, without either side losing face or appearing to have backed down.
At the same time as all these diplomatic efforts, the international community should maintain large, professional, well-trained, equipped, and controlled armies. Not in order to create more conflict, but precisely the opposite, in order to deter and prevent it. Such forces deter aggression from nations like North Korea, stand ready to protect their citizens if necessary, can participate in UN peacekeeping operations, are able to intervene if needed in contexts of extreme oppression and genocide, and can also be deployed to help with humanitarian needs and emergencies both at home and around the world. Nations should also consider forming and joining mutual defence partnerships with other countries, but only where this will create greater stability, and reduce tensions, not when it is likely to escalate them. These and similar policies have been shown again and again to work well to contain the threat from rogue nations, to reduce tensions between them and other nations, and to avoid those tensions escalating into full scale conflict.
Reform
However, as we have seen, containment alone is not good enough. The international community must also work to provide pressure from outside for reform in North Korea. And again the Arise Manifesto finds that there is much that governments can do that is highly effective in this area (Arise Manifesto, pg 119 – 124). Firstly, the international community should apply sustained and intense diplomatic pressure. They should also loudly and publicly condemn clear instances of human rights abuses and violence. Targeted economic sanctions in response to specific egregious examples of injustice can be applied, as well as travel bans for leaders accused of particular injustices. Governments can seize the overseas assets of those who are responsible for violence and human rights abuses. They should welcome all political refugees and asylum seekers. They should offer to provide training and support for state workers in countries like North Korea. Such training inevitably instils some of the values of democracy, human right, public service, neutrality, accountability and good governance, if done well.
In a wider sense, the international community should support international institutions such as the United Nations (UN) and regional institutions like the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) organisation. They should also pass, uphold, publicise and strengthen international democratic, human rights and good governance norm setting standards and agreements. They should establish a league of democratic nations, which non-democratic countries can aspire to join. Nations should ensure they act ethically, fairly and generously with integrity in line with their democratic, human rights and good governance values in all their dealings with countries like North Korea. All of this helps to strengthen the sense that there is a prosperous, free, peaceful, stable, fair and professional world out there that North Korea is missing out on. This seems ever more attractive and strengthens internal desire for reform. Above all, they should support nascent moderates, activists and reformers within North Korea when they do emerge, in whatever ways they request.
Playing the long game
Of course, such methods of providing external pressure will take time for their cumulative effect to be felt. We are sadly a long way from a peaceful, free and democratic North Korea with good human rights standards. Nevertheless, all of the lessons of the Bible and recent history would indicate that it is through the patient, prayerful and persistent application of just such policies that the world can best apply pressure, and both prevent tensions with North Korea escalating into full scale conflict, and work for a democratic and free North Korea to emerge.
Find out more
Find out more about how God is at work in the world, and the role we all have to play in that work, in the Arise Manifesto. This report is Arise’s big picture, researched, Biblical, holistic and practical vision for a better world. It looks at what the Bible says, and what we can learn from the best data and the world’s leading experts on the five major areas of evangelism, discipleship, social justice, development and the environment. It then draws these lessons together into a practical road map for the changes we need to see in our world, which the Arise movement campaigns to achieve.
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[1] North Korea missile launch sparks confusion in Japan, BBC, (13 Apr 2023), https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-65259718