WJC2020 discusses peace, conflicts in Korean Peninsula

By Chhay Sophal

Kampong Chhnang province, Cambodia: The World Journalists Conference 2020 on Wednesday actively debated on peace and possible war in the Korean Peninsula due to chronic conflicts between North Korea and the United States.

The online conference conducted by the Journalists Association of Korea (JAK) brought about 100 senior journalists, media experts and professors from the five continents for this year that marks the 70^th anniversary of the end of the Korean War that claimed millions of death and wounds.

Many speakers focused on the sharp conflicts between the North and the US that is threatening peace in the Korean Peninsula and urged both sides and other parties to be reliable partners for peace dialogue.

“Peace in the Korean Peninsula will serve as a significant opportunity for greater peace and co-prosperity in Northeast Asia and around the world,” said Eul-chul LIM, Professor at Institute for Far Eastern Studies of Kyungnam University in Korea.

The Korean government has underlined the following three principles to facilitate the resumption of talks with North Korea and provide a peaceful resolution in the Korean Peninsula: a firm stance against war, a mutual guarantee of security, and a call to co-prosperity,” Prof. Lim added.

The discussion also paid attention on the tension of the superpower nations — China and the US – that is possible to affect peace in the Korean Peninsula because the US brings the South to its side while China is bringing the North to its ally.

A section of the participants (Picture by Bilal Bassal)

Son Take WANG, a research associate at Yeosijae in Seoul, said Koreans want peace regime because the division of the single nation and the military hostility in the Korean peninsula for decades is too much painful and costly.

“…The hostility relation between the two Koreas has extended the sense of insecurity around the North East Asia. And it became a military or economic burden to the neighbor countries including the US, China, Japan, Russia … It should be resolved, and the peace building efforts should go together,” WANG said.

Pooneh Nedal, Editor-in-chief of Shokaran Magazine in Iran and Vice President of the Seoul-based Asia Journalists Association who travelled to DMZ several times with other foreign journalists said that whenever she thought of Korean union, she remembered “the famous photo that shows a little bird flying over the border between South and North. I can feel how Korean people dare to be a bird to fly to each side of their brother land easily”.

In order to avoid troubles, South Korea has its own tendency to stay in peace with North Korea, Pooneh said adding that “Korea is a strong country that could survive the war and came back to power like a phoenix. There are lots of stories, film and theatre plays that show the pain of the Korean people during the war and at the same time their admirable resistance to keep Korea alive”.

The conference also focused on media role to promote peace in the Peninsula.

Conference under a bamboo tree: Sophal following WCJ2020 from Kampong Chhnang province, Cambodia

This is the first time since 2013 that the conference conducted Online – ZOOM — due to COVID-19 pandemic.

The three-day conference focused on three major themes – Various Countries’ Examples of and Countermeasures to Fake News and The Future of the Journalists; Global Responses to COVID-19 and Disease Control Methods; and the 70^th anniversary of the Korean War and Peace Policy in the Korean Peninsula.

Dong Hoon Kim, President of Journalists Association of Korea said that despite having different genders, skin colors, and ideologies, journalists still share some commonalities … and all work hard to make the truth known with a warm heart and cold rationality, ultimately for peace and freedom. займы от мфо без отказа