Commentary: 50 years of Korean Armistice Agreement
( 2003-07-27 08:23) (Xinhua)
Fifty years have elapsed since the Korean Armistice Agreement (KAA) was
signed on July 27, 1953. But now the peace process on the Korean Peninsula has
encountered a major obstacle: the nuclear issue.
The matter has also become one of grave concerns of the international
community. A peaceful settlement of the nuclear issue will surely contribute to
the peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula as it is in the interests of the
related parties.
Fifty years ago, the representatives of the Democratic People's Republic of
Korea (DPRK) and China and the US-led forces signed the document, declaring the
end of the three-year-long Korean War and resuming peace on the Korean
Peninsula.
The KAA has made its historic contributions to the peace and stability on the
Korean peninsula. The agreement has prevented a new war from breaking out on the
peninsula and maintained the structure of truce. It has also served to guarantee
peace construction in both South Korea and the DPRK and keep the stability of
the region.
Since the end of the Korean War, the Korean Peninsula has been enveloped in
the clouds of the cold war and under the impact of the turbulent post-cold war
world. The military confrontation and precautions against each other between the
DPRK and the US-South Korean side have been going on. Millions of landmines have
been laid along the 246-kilometer military border, and 1.26 million accusations
concerning breaching the KAA have been leveled by the DPRK and South Korea. Such
an unstable situation has retarded the peace process on the peninsula, and made
both sides pay heavy prices for it.
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