THE PEACE PROCESS ON THE KOREAN PENINSULA AND ITS PROSPECTS

This paper aims at reviewing the conditions for constructing a peace regime on the Korean Peninsula and at describing the role of South Korea. The transformation from an armistice regime to a peace regime requires the fundamental changes in three aspects: a new agreement, peace agreement, replacing the Armistice Agreement and legally terminating the Korean War, confidence building measures (CBMs), arms control and arms reduction process disconnecting the vicious circle of arms race, and normalization of the hostile relations. «Establishing a permanent and solid peace regime», that was agreed to by the leaders of the two Koreas, is asking a lot of questions to reach that goal of «Panmunjeom Declaration». Which countries are directly involved in building a peace regime? What steps those countries have to follow? What kinds of agreement should be signed? How the participating countries resolve a wide range of issues and guarantee peace regime? In this regard, a lengthy consultation process of making a peace regime on the Korean Peninsula will be cumbersome and very complicated. South Korea's position and role within the process toward a peace regime are important. As an active mediator and strategic balancer, South Korea should coordinate conflicting views of the United States, striving for«complete, verifiable, irreversible denuclearization» of North Korea, while North Korea wants «complete, verifiable, irreversible security guarantee» from the United States. While making sustainable relations among the two regimes of the peninsula and the United States, South Korea is required to take two separate approaches in responding to the issues of international politics and inter-Korean relations.