[Colin Irwin and Yoon Seong-won] A story of two peace processes: Korea and Cyprus

infoglitz.com

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Excerpt:

All peace processes are different, different peoples, stories, places, timelines and how they got into the mess they are in and how to get out of it. This is true for Cyprus and Korea, but there are also some similarities, and if we can focus on that and give some peace education, each side can learn from each other.

Both Korea and Cyprus are "frozen conflicts", Korea since the armistice of 1953 and Cyprus since the Turkish invasion of 1974. Although not all conservatives are relentless, in general, the conservative politicians in Cyprus and Korea have tried the peace negotiations a lot longer.

Both Cyprus and Korea are separated to the north and south by the Green Line in Cyprus and the DMZ in Korea. The south in both Cyprus and Korea is economically well developed, while the north is less, which causes the southern populations in both Cyprus and Korea to be very skeptical about the prospects for reunification, as this process poses so many problems as possible. And no country alone can make peace. Cyprus needs the approval of its guarantor states, the United Kingdom, Greece and Turkey, while China and the US have joined the Ceasefire Agreement for Korea, which in turn must play a crucial role in ending the Korean War. ...

The conflict there [in Cyprus] remains frozen. Korea's future prospects for peace could be decided at the upcoming US-North Korea Summit on 12 June in Singapore. Hopefully, they will be more successful than the failed summit of the United Nations, Cyprus, Britain, Greece and Turkey last year in Crans-Montana. But at this critical juncture there are some very significant differences between the two summits and the preparations that have been made to come to a positive conclusion. In Cyprus, leaders have rejected a confidence-building program, while Koreans have given their Cypriot counterparts a "master-class" in CBM [cconfidence-building measures] public diplomacy [JB emphasis] and personal statesmanship that has changed South Korean public opinion to the point that Greek Cypriots only dream [.] ...