Indian people are upbeat on Korean reunification

praful bidwai wrote:
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> > Special to the Hankyoreh21 Asia Network
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> > Indian people are upbeat on Korean reunification
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> > By Praful Bidwai
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> > NEW DELHI:
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> > For the Indian government, the agenda of reunification of Korea is welcome news. New Delhi described the June summit of North and South Korean leaders as "historic". It has since warmly supported the process of bilateral dialogue.
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> > For the Indian people, reconciliation in Korea is even better news. It contains the seeds of what could potentially become the key to breaking one of the world's worst deadlocks--right in South Asia.
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> > Between the two similar positions lies an interesting difference. The government's stance is conditioned by a state-centric approach and what remains of India's once well-known policy of non-alignment. This opposed the Cold War division of the world into blocs. New Delhi stood for stability and peace in Asia and chaired a United Nations Commission which recommended general elections in South Korea in 1948. It also headed the Neutral Nations Repatriation Commission which looked into humanitarian issues arising from the 1950-53 war.
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> > India has had full diplomatic relations with both North and South. But it is with the South that it established closer ties, upgrading them to the full ambassadorial level in the 1970s, especially promoting them during the 1990s. Its approach to reunification emphasises strict bilateralism. Officially, India says it "favours reduction of tension through dialogue" and "reunification of the two Koreas through peaceful means and through dialogue." This is confirmed by the Foreign Ministry's Joint Secretary (East Asia) Nalin Surie.
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> > The emphasis on bilateralism is in line with New Delhi's view of the world through the prism of Indo-Pakistan relations, especially the Kashmir dispute. India once invited, but now rejects, international or third-party mediation in Kashmir. Pakistan lobbies hard precisely for this.
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> > India, however, cites a 1972 bilateral (Shimla) agreement signed with Pakistan after the Bangladesh war, which commits the two to a peaceful resolution of disputes through bilateral dialogue. This gives India's Korea position a somewhat cautious, conditional, edge.
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> > The Indian people, or at least those who are aware of Korean developments, have fewer reservations. What matters to them is less the process, more the substance or result: reduction of tensions, growing people-to-people exchange, reconciliation and peace. Going by readers' responses to (admittedly sketchy) Internet polls by newspapers, civil society sentiment strongly favours reunification.
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> > "People like me feel positively towards the issue," says E. Deenadayalan, of the Pakistan-India Forum for Peace and Democracy here. "Korea could provide a great model to emulate for many strife-torn, divided societies. We haven't yet formally discussed reunification in the Forum, but we intend to, and I am sure we will enthusiastically welcome it."
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> > What impresses activists promoting an India-Pakistan people-to-people dialogue is the dramatic speed with which the two Koreas moved to turn off the loudspeakers blaring vile propaganda against each other for 50 years.
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> > What encourages them even further is that Korean conciliation could happen despite deep systemic and ideological hostility. Such hostility does not characterise India-Pakistan relations. So a historic reconciliation in this part of the world might be even speedier--once it begins. South Asia is the only region of the world which has been in a state of continuous hot-cold war for half a century, which shows no sign of abatement.
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> > Other lessons from Korea are particularly relevant here. These are nuclear lessons. In 1992, North and South Korea under U.S. mediation signed a "Joint Declaration on the Denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula." Two years later, the U.S. and the DPRK also reached an "Agreed Framework" which commits the DPRK to take steps to implement the "Joint Declaration".
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> > "This meshes well with the growing demand in Japan for an anti-Northeastern nuclear weapons-free zone," says Achin Vanaik, a well-known Indian nuclear activist. "Such a zone will genuinely enhance security, it can be reliably verified too. For peace activists here who want a South Asian NWFZ to prevent the manufacture of deployment of nuclear weapons in this volatile region, a Northeastern example would be a great morale-booster."
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> > >From the civil society point of view, the significance of Korean unification goes far beyond tension reduction, affirmation of bilateralism or closer economic relations. These last have, of course, been growing--especially in elite consumption areas like cars, refrigerators and TVs in which Hyundai, Daewoo, LG and Samsung are well-known. Prime Minister Rao's visit to S. Korea (1993) and President Kim Young Sam's to India (1996) did a lot to promote business-business collaboration.
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> > But what people want is civil society-level exchange. And that can't be based on narrow sectarian agendas like those pursued by Vinay Katiyar, an extremely right-wing Hindu-chauvinist who led a delegation to ROK in May, in reciprocation of the February-March visit of a group from Kimhae to Ayodhya in celebration of a legendary relationship between India and Korea. Such exchanges must be more broad-based and involve progressive organisations. But that also means that many more Indians must be made aware of the importance of Korean reunification