North Korea and U.S. Policy

Jim Mann rightly pointed out (International Outlook, July 29) that North Korea’s celebration of the 44th anniversary of “victory” in the Korean War was Orwellian.

However, his categorization of North Korea as a nation that continues to threaten its neighbors and American forces with missiles and chemical weapons is rather misleading. If the U.S. had agreed to supersede the 1953 armistice with a peace treaty and withdrawn its forces from the Korean peninsula, North Korea would not have even endeavored to develop missiles and chemical or nuclear weapons. It was the U.S. that refused to negotiate a peace accord with North Korea and first brought nuclear weapons onto Korean soil.

On food aid, northern Korea was never self-sufficient in food. Due to its geographic limitations, it always depended on the south for food. In its efforts to attain food self-sufficiency after the division, North Korea’s natural environment was severely abused. To solve its famine, North Korea has to import food from abroad.

The realistic U.S. policy on Korea should be to seek to conclude a peace treaty with North Korea, to work out a sizable disarmament of all, including the U.S., forces in Korea to be followed by the withdrawal of U.S. forces and to concurrently arrange a two-plus-four parley (South and North Korea plus U.S., China, Japan and Russia) for creating a unified Korea.

HWAL W. LEE

Granada Hills

The writer was the Korean consul in Los Angeles from 1968 to 1971.