SCHOLARS URGE U.S., NORTH KOREA TO NEGOTIATE PEACE
END KOREAN WAR AND NORMALIZE RELATIONS, DEMAND SCHOLARS
Alliance of Scholars Concerned about Korea (ASCK)
For Immediate Release
June 24, 2003
For more information contact:
Co-Chair, Charles Armstrong <
cra10@columbia.edu> or (212) 854-1721
Co-Chair, Gi-Wook Shin <
gwshin@stanford.edu> or 650-724-6402/ 8271
Media Relations, Ji-Yeon Yuh <
j-yuh@northwestern.edu>
New York?In a statement signed by its members, an alliance of scholars
urged the United States and North Korea to immediately engage in direct
negotiations to sign a peace treaty and normalize relations.
In a statement to be released on June 25, 2003, the 53rd anniversary of
the start of the Korean War, the Alliance of Scholars Concerned about
Korea (ASCK) warns that another war looms over the Korean peninsula due
to tensions between the United States and North Korea. Current U.S.
policies, such as threats of regime change, only bring about reciprocal
threats from North Korea and destabilize Northeast Asia and thereby
undermine U.S. security and economic interests. Thus ASCK calls on both
governments to prevent tragedy by renouncing the use of military force,
signing a peace treaty, and initiating formal diplomatic relations.
The Korean War resulted in nearly 35,000 U.S. soldiers killed. More
than three million Koreans were killed during the three-year war.
Fighting ended with an armistice in 1953, but the war is technically
not over. Thus the United States military officially designates Korea
as a combat zone and stations some 37,000 troops in South Korea.
Neither North Korea nor the United States has renounced military
attacks.
Any use of military force by either side would lead to war. But another
Korean war would be disastrous, according to ASCK. Only the active
pursuit of peace, the alliance believes, can prevent war and ensure
both political and economic stability for the United States as well as
the world. As the world?s pre-eminent power, the United States has a
responsibility to take the lead for genuine peace.
ASCK was founded on March 29, 2003 at a meeting in New York and
includes scholars from the United States, Canada, the Netherlands,
South Korea, and New Zealand. According to the ASCK mission statement,
the members ?believe that current problems on the Korean peninsula and
between the U.S. and the two Koreas, the Democratic People?s Republic
of Korea and the Republic of Korea, can only be solved through
dialogue, cooperation and the active pursuit of peace. We feel the
responsibility to speak out against policies that increase tensions in
Northeast Asia and may lead to another catastrophic war in Korea. We
wish to add our voices to a constructive discussion on how to achieve a
peaceful, unified Korea existing in harmony with its neighbors,
including the United States.?
Members of the alliance include top scholars in the field of Korea
Studies, such as Bruce Cumings, Carter Eckert, James Palais, and David
Steinberg.
For the full text of ASCK statements, links to reports by alliance
members, a history of the alliance, and other information, please visit
the ASCK website at
.
The June 25 ASCK statement, with an alphabetical list of signatories,
is included below.
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Prevent Another War in Korea
ASCK Statement on the 53rd Anniversary of the Korean War
June 25, 2003
As scholars who study and are concerned about Korea and U.S.-Korea
relations, we commemorate the 53rd anniversary of the beginning of the
Korean War with great distress.
On June 25, 1950, a war began on the Korean peninsula, an unspeakable
tragedy in which over three million Koreans were killed in the
fighting. The United States also paid a heavy cost, with nearly 35,000
American soldiers killed fighting in Korea.
The war never ended. The United States and North Korea (DPRK) remain
enemies half a century after signing an armistice that stopped the
fighting. The two governments have yet to sign a peace treaty to
formally end the war.
Today another war looms over the Korean peninsula, a war that would far
surpass the Korean War in death and human suffering. So it is with
deep concern that we speak out collectively today.
1. Another war on the Korean peninsula is unthinkable. It would be an
unimaginable catastrophe, endangering the lives of tens of millions of
innocent people. Military action must not be considered, much less
taken, under any circumstances. All sides must publicly renounce any
military option.
2. U.S. policies toward the DPRK, such as threats of embargo,
preemptive strikes, and regime change, are pushing the Korean peninsula
perilously close to war. By triggering reciprocal threats and hostile
actions from the DPRK, these policies actually undermine U.S. security
and economic interests while destabilizing the Northeast Asian region.
3. We call upon the U.S. and DPRK governments to immediately and
unconditionally begin direct negotiations to normalize their relations,
sign a peace treaty ending the Korean War, and resolve issues of
contention peacefully. Such negotiations represent the best means to
resolve U.S. concerns about North Korea's nuclear programs and North
Korea's concerns about its security.
4. We support and encourage efforts by the peoples of the U.S. and
Korea, North and South, to achieve a peaceful, democratic, and unified
Korea and create a mutually beneficial and equitable relationship
between the U.S. and Korea.
We, the Alliance of Scholars Concerned about Korea (ASCK), call on all
concerned people to join us in preventing another war in Korea.
The Alliance of Scholars Concerned about Korea
Members (in alphabetical order; affiliations for purposes of
identification only):
Nancy Abelmann, Associate Professor, University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign
Charles Armstrong, Associate Professor, Columbia University
Don Baker, Director, Centre for Korean Research, University of British
Columbia
Christopher Candland, Assistant Professor, Wellesley College
Koen De Ceuster, Assistant Professor, Leiden University
Edward T. Chang, Associate Professor, University of California,
Riverside
Hyaeweol Choi, Associate Professor, Arizona State University
Kyeong-Hee Choi, Assistant Professor, University of Chicago
Howard H. Chung, Chair, Pressure Vessels and Piping Division, American
Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)
Michael Chwe, Associate Professor, UCLA
Don Clark, Professor, Trinity University
Alain Delissen, Maître de Conférences, Centre de Recherche sur la
Corée, Paris
Alexis Dudden, Assistant Professor, Connecticut College
John Duncan, Associate Professor, UCLA
Henry Em, Assistant Professor, University of Michigan
John Feffer, Foreign Policy in Focus
Ruediger Frank, Visiting Fellow and Lecturer, Columbia University
James Grayson, Dean of Social Sciences, Sheffield University
Mel Gurtov, Professor, Hatfield School of Government, Portland State
University
JaHyun Kim Haboush, Professor, Columbia University
Martin Hart-Landsberg, Professor, Lewis and Clark College
Milan Hejtmanek, Assistant Professor, University of Pennsylvania
Elizabeth L. Hillman, Assistant Professor, Rutgers Law School, Camden
Theodore Hughes, Assistant Professor, University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign
Roger L. Janelli, Professor, Indiana University
Kelly Jeong, Assistant Professor, City University of New York
Laurel Kendall, Curator, American Museum of Natural History
Daniel H. Kim, Graduate Student, Indiana University, Bloomington
Samuel S. Kim, Adjunct Professor, Columbia University
Jong Bum Kwon, Graduate Student, New York University
Jin-kyung Lee, Assistant Professor, University of California, San Diego
Namhee Lee, Assistant Professor, UCLA
Timothy S. Lee, Assistant Professor, Brite Divinity School, Texas
Christian University
Walter Lew, Poet, Los Angeles
John Lie, Professor, University of Michigan
Gary N. McLean, Professor, University of Minnesota
Katharine H. Moon, Associate Professor, Wellesley College
Craig N. Murphy, Director of the Social Science Center, Wellesley
College
Min Paek, Executive Director, Korean American Women Artists and Writers
Association
James Palais, Professor, University of Washington
V. Spike Peterson, Associate Professor, University of Arizona
Janet Poole, Graduate Student, Columbia University
Andre Schmid, Associate Professor, University of Toronto
James D. Seymour, Senior Research Scholar, Columbia University
Gi-Wook Shin, Associate Professor, Stanford University
Michael Shin, Assistant Professor, Cornell University
Edward J. Shultz, Director, Center for Korean Studies, University of
Hawai'i
Changzoo Song, Lecturer, University of Auckland
Jae-Jung Suh, Assistant Professor, Cornell University
Seung Hye Suh, Assistant Professor, Scripps College
Kenneth M. Wells, Director, Centre for Korean Studies, Australian
National University
Meredith Woo-Cumings, Professor, University of Michigan
Hyangsoon Yi, Assistant Professor, University of Georgia
T. Jun Yoo, Assistant Professor, University of Hawaii
Ji-Yeon Yuh, Assistant Professor, Northwestern University
Leighanne Yuh, Adjunct Professor, Cooper Union
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