American politicians are playing with fire that could be catastrophic to the Korean Peninsula. The US House of Representatives is now considering the ‘Peace on the Korean Peninsula Act’ (H.R. 3446). 

 

​​​Unfortunately, this bill is full of pleasing words about family reunions and peace. But the truth hidden in these words may have tragic consequences for Koreans. In fact, the bill’s purpose and objectives align with the strategy of the North Korean dictatorship and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and will undermine the security and interests of the United States and its allies. 

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First: The ‘Peace on the Korean Peninsula Act’ deceptively claims to build on the 2018 ‘Panmunjom Declaration for Peace, Prosperity, and Unification of the Korean Peninsula'. It will not lead to real peace. The North Korean regime wants advantage and domination – not peace. It failed to implement a single clause from the Panmunjom Declaration and blew up the Kaesong Industrial Complex liaison office in June 2020, while murdering a South Korean official at sea in September and showing unrelenting hostility towards South Korea and the United States. 

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Second: The ‘Peace on the Korean Peninsula Act’ provides a strategic advantage for the North Korean dictatorship and the CCP, which aim to dismantle the United Nations Command and force withdrawal of US forces from South Korea. The bill’s main focus is to sign a peace treaty ending the Korean War. However, a peace treaty without concrete guarantees of peaceful North Korean behavior achieves nothing. Instead it undercuts the fundamental rationale for the US military presence. “If there is a peace treaty why are Americans Still in Korea” This bill is one step in the long-term strategy of the North Korean and Chinese dictatorship to turn a prosperous South Korea into a one-party, quasi-totalitarian state and remove American troops from South Korea. War on the Korean Peninsula is not deterred by any treaty or document, but by the UN Command and the US Forcesin the Republic of Korea.

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Third: The lifting of travel restrictions on US citizens going to North Korea proposed by the ‘Peace on the Korean Peninsula Act’ is reckless and endangers American citizens’ safety while giving the North Korean dictatorship increased hostage-taking opportunities and legitimacy. Did the sponsors and supporters of this bill completely forget about Otto Warmbier, a young American tortured to death by the North Korean dictatorship? We also must not forget the sacrifices made by others who were seized and imprisoned and abused by the North Korean regime. If Otto Warmbier’s tragedy should happen again, the American politicians who proposed this bill must answer for it. 

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Fourth: The supposed humanitarian considerations and the meetings of separated families emphasized in the ‘Peace on the Korean Peninsula Act’ will, in fact, separate these families for many more years by propping up the North Korean dictatorship. This bill is anti-humanitarian. Decades of humanitarian aid to the North Korean regime, which does not even allow basic human rights, have contributed nothing to the freedom and human rights of North Koreans, who face starvation, concentration camps, forced labor, and execution. On the contrary, it has provided material support for the dictatorship that rules by oppression and tyranny. We know from decades of experience that the North Korean dictatorship cynically manipulates the reunions of the separated families and uses them for political leverage and financial gain. American politicians need to know that humanitarian aid supports the North Korean regime and, in fact, keeps families permanently separated. 

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Fifth: The ‘Peace on the Korean Peninsula Act’ threatens the lives and security of millions of Koreans. 

To prematurely declare the end of the war with a dictatorship that breaks its promises and throttles its own citizens’ freedom and human rights while threatening its neighbors with nuclear weapons will be a mistake. It will turn the Korean Peninsula into a battlefield, killing millions of Koreans – north and south. We cannot risk the bloodshed sure to follow from the reckless withdrawal of US troops from the Korean Peninsula. We saw this happen in Vietnam in 1975 and in Afghanistan in 2021. Koreans who value freedom and democracy should oppose the ‘Peace on the Korean Peninsula Act.’ It is misguided and is a step towards driving the Korean Peninsula into war once again. 

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We strongly recommend congressional sponsors and supporters to withdraw the bill and to recognize and resist the strategies and tactics of the communist regimes in China and North Korea and their associates. We urge all freedom-loving Americans to sign this petition against this alluring but potentially catastrophic bill. 

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