Koreans will fight each other no more

By Kim Dae-jung

SEOUL: As the world knows, I have just returned home from a historic visit to North Korea.

The welcome by (North Korean leader) Chairman Kim Jong-il and his hospitality were beyond my expectations. A million citizens turned out to greet me, which I am told, was the largest turnout in the history of the city. To me, this was an expression of love as members of one ethnic family.

In the course of the talks, there were times when I was desperate but I tried my best.

Chairman Kim extended substantial cooperation, and we were able to reach agreement on a range of issues, from visits by divided families to a "loose form of confederation" on the Korean Peninsula in the future -- a concept that requires maintaining two governments for the two sides as they are now, and creating a conference of ministers and an assembly with which the two can jointly solve problems.

We also talked about nuclear and missile issues and United States forces stationed in the South. Dialogue on these subjects was very useful, and there are things that have a bright prospect for resolution.

In short, a new age has dawned for our nation. We have reached a turning point so that we can put an end to the history of territorial division of 55 years.

Pyongyang people are the same as us, the same nation sharing the same blood.

Regardless of what they have been saying and doing outwardly, they have a deep love and longing for their compatriots in the South. We lived as a unified nation for 1,300 years before we were divided against our will.

It is impossible for us to continue to live separated physically and spiritually. I was able to reconfirm this during my visit.

That is why I have returned with the conviction that, sooner or later, we will become reconciled with each other, cooperate and finally become unified.

I told Chairman Kim that, in the waning years of the Choson Kingdom, when the people should have united and hastened modernization, the country was splintered and turned away from modernization.

In the end, we reaped the sorrow of losing the country, resulting in 35 years of Japanese colonial rule, the division of the country on Aug. 15, 1945, the Korean War and the confrontation across barbed wire.

Now the world is entering an age of the greatest revolutionary change in the history of man -- the age of knowledge and information. It is also entering a time of borderless and boundless economic competition.

How, I asked Chairman Kim, can we survive if we waste our energy against each other?

Even if we cannot unify the country right away, we can open the skies, roads and harbors.

We can come and go freely, cooperate with each other, develop the economy together and have exchanges in culture and sports.

Would the Korean education tradition and cultural creativity not be assets in the age of knowledge in the 21st century, I asked? Ours is no longer an age of imperialism when four big powers rule us.

On the contrary, the powers are our markets and we can take advantage of them.

At this time, if we do not become alert and the North and South do not cooperate but fight instead, what would be our fate? Therefore, whatever else happens, we must not stick to the ideas of communizing the South or absorbing the North.

Instead, I said, let us co-exist and proceed towards unification. This is a time of opportunity for us to forge a first-rate nation in the 21st century together.

Of course, none of this means that everything went smoothly in our talks. This is only the beginning. It will take time. We need patience. We also need to look at things from the point of view of the other side.

There should be not the slightest wavering in the Republic of Korea's resolve to maintain national security and sovereignty.

But we must ultimately go on the path towards unification by solving one thing at a time, taking the easiest things first while cooperating with each other and giving consideration to the other side.

Korea is one country with one ethnic family. But it is also true that South and North Koreans have lived under different political and social systems for decades. These gaps cannot be narrowed down within a short time.

But the North will no longer attempt unification by force and, at the same time, we will not do any harm to the North.

In short, the most important outcome of the summit is that there is no longer going to be any war.

The writer is the President of South Korea. This piece was carried by the Los Angeles Times and The Straits Times, from which it was taken through the Asia News Network.