March 18 (UPI) -- U.S. Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., along with 33 lawmakers, is proposing a resolution that the United States adopt an end-of-Korean-War declaration. This is his third attempt.
I believe that the supporters are acting in good faith and want peace on the Korean peninsula as much as all Koreans and Americans do. However, an end-of-war declaration is not only misguided, but also is dangerous to the security of the Republic of Korea, commonly known as South Korea.
It is imperative that we understand the nature and objectives of the Kim family regime. Kim Jong Un is conducting political warfare to subvert the South Korean political system and drive a wedge in the Republic of Korea, or ROK, alliance with the United States. He uses threats and provocations as part of his blackmail diplomacy to extort political and economic concessions.
In 2024, he declared South Korea as the primary enemy and eliminated peaceful unification as a goal. However, his major strategic aim remains in place: to dominate all of Korea under the rule of the Guerrilla Dynasty and Gulag State for the regime to survive indefinitely.
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If the Kim family regime stays in power, it will remain an existential threat to the people of South Korea and a threat to the United States, as well, given its missile and nuclear capabilities. The North Korean People's Army, or NKPA, is the fourth largest in the world, with hundreds of rocket and missile systems and thousands of artillery pieces along the demilitarized zone, many of which are zeroed in on Seoul.
The NKPA is postured for offensive operations, while the ROK/U.S. Combined Forces Command was established for deterrence and defense. We must understand the correlation of forces and the offensive and defense plans. The ROK-U.S. alliance has no plans to conduct an invasion of North Korea, but the Kim family regime does plan to invade the South when favorable circumstances emerge.
Simply declaring an end to the war does not guarantee the security of South Korea. It is the Kim regime that has a hostile policy toward the South. The alliance has a policy of defense against an attack. The array of forces on both sides of the DMZ illustrates these points.
The war can only end when there is a major withdrawal of North Korean forces a significant distance away from the DMZ. Only then could there be a possibility of a negotiated peace treaty between North and South.
Supporters of the North Korean position will argue that forces in the South must be withdrawn, as well. However, geography matters. The "tyranny of proximity" exists in Korea. Seoul is located too close to the DMZ and requires forces between it and the DMZ.
Pyongyang is much farther from the DMZ, and NKPA forces could be withdrawn to defend it some 60 miles from the DMZ. This would significantly reduce the immediate threat to the South.
Without this and other conventional arms reductions and confidence building measures, an end-of-war declaration will only make South Korea more vulnerable to attack. Without such actions, it would not only be premature, but also dangerous to unilaterally declare an end to the Korean War.
Rather than pursue an end-of-war declaration, Congress should return to the 1953 Armistice Agreement, specifically Paragraph 60. It should take guidance from the military commanders, who called on political leaders to solve the "Korea question," which has been described as the unnatural division of the Korean peninsula. The only solution is the establishment of a free and unified Korea and, therefore, Koreans must find a peaceful path to unification.
Fortunately, there is guidance and vision for achieving a free and unified Korea. It is in the ROK 8.15 Unification Doctrine that is heavily influenced by Hyunjin Preston Moon's Korean Dream, inspired by the 1919 March First Declaration of Korean Independence, which in turn was influenced by the U.S. Declaration of Independence.
Furthermore, the right of self-determination of government is enshrined in the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Article 21.. All Koreans deserve this right, but the Koreans in the North have never been allowed to exercise it.
Congress should pass a resolution supporting the Korean people seeking self-determination and their own free and unified Korea. Congress, the American people, and the international community should support Koreans who seek to free themselves.
Note that in his first term, President Donald Trump "supported the ROK's leading role in fostering an environment for peaceful unification of the Korean Peninsula." Congress should act in support of this statement and urge the president to continue to help the Korean people pursue it.
The only way to see an end to the military threats, both nuclear and conventional, and the human rights abuses against the Korean people in the North, is to achieve a secure and stable, non-nuclear Korea.
This Korea must be unified under a liberal constitutional form of government that is based on freedom and individual liberty, free market principles, the rule of law and human rights, as determined by the Korean people. It would be a new nation, a United Republic of Korea.
David Maxwell is a retired U.S. Army Special Forces colonel, who has spent more than 30 years in the Asia Pacific region. He specializes in Northeast Asian security affairs and irregular, unconventional and political warfare. He is vice president of the Center for Asia Pacific Strategy and a senior fellow at the Global Peace Foundation. After he retired, he became associate director of the Security Studies Program at Georgetown University. He is on the board of directors of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea and the OSS Society and is a contributing editor to Small Wars Journal.
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