제주평화연구원

What Is Peace?

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="151"] Kim Tea-suk
Chairman of Council Operation Committee, Jeju Special Self-governing Provincial Council[/caption] The war of words between the U.S. and North Korea threatening “fire and fury” and “sea of fire” recently raised tension on the Korean peninsula to its highest pitch. What do the ordinary people leading a mundane life think about this war crisis? Would peace never come to the peninsula? How long will it take to live in a world without war or violence? What is war and what is peace? Upon this series of nagging questions, I came to think over peace again.   The origin of the word, “peace,” meant the victory of the invader or conqueror. Peace is known to have originated from a word meaning “pacify,” as in the occupied area after a war.   In contrast, “平和” (peace) in Chinese means that community members share food without anyone starving. The latter not only refers to “negative” peace simply without war, but also “positive” peace without structural violence resulting from social inequality, and thus more compatible with Johan Galtung’s concept of peace.   On Jan. 27, 2005, Former President Roh Moo-hyun designated Jeju Island as the Island of World Peace to uphold the island’s traditional culture characterized by the absence of three things (thieves, gates and beggars), to sublimate the tragedy of Apr. 3 Incident into reconciliation and coexistence and to further advance the summit diplomacy for world peace. The government also declared that it would support the island’s programs to build, promote and expand peace. One of the concrete programs was the “17 projects of the Island of World Peace.”   On the other hand, however, we face a question of what else, except for the designation of Island of World Peace, have the Jeju provincial government and the conservative central governments done for the past 10 years? The 17 projects have made no progress and can even be seen as having collapsed, judging by their efficacy. We may say that the local government’s peace-building project cannot be but limited under the influence of the central government. However, the most fundamental reason for the limited role of the local government is ascribed to the dominance of international activities on the state level, with few projects that the residents can participate in except for the program to mark the Apr. 3 Incident. Therefore, it is only natural that the residents of the island pay little attentions to the peace projects.   The Jeju Forum is no exception to this. The forum, the 12th this year, has kept expanding its scope annually. The 12th forum drew about 5,500 attendees from 81 countries worldwide to its 75 sessions divided into five categories: diplomacy and security economics and business management environment and climate change gender, education and culture and global Jeju. The sessions on the international affairs involving the Korean peninsula have received keen attention. They were about the North Korea policies of South Korea, the U.S., China and Japan the review of the Korea-China relations on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of their diplomatic ties North Korean nuclear issue and the measures to check the rivalry over nuclear weapons in Asia. In particular, the first session on the April 3 Incident in the name of “Jeju April 3 Incident, Human Rights and Peace of Woman and Minorities in East Asia” and another on Jeju haenyeo (women divers) to discuss measures to preserve and globalize the haenyeo culture attracted much attention. It is an encouraging sign that the number of sessions on the local issues of Jeju increased this year. They included the sessions in the name of “Revitalization Plan of Development and Friendly Exchange of Asia’s Local Councils,” which I attended, and “Identifying Roles of Local Governments in Expanding Peace.”   In spite of the ostensible growth of the forum, it has yet to tide over many challenges to become a representative forum of Asia-Pacific region and global one such as Davos Forum. If the concept of peace pursued by the island means “positive” peace satisfying basic human demands in just society, in addition to negative peace without war, it is high time to fully renew the 17 projects of the Island of World Peace after a thorough review of the programs. The 17 projects should expand their scope in accordance with the spirit of the times.   As the projects were oriented toward international affairs, they were destined to focus on the foreign issues involving the Korean peninsula and Northeast Asia. In addition, the projects to erect institutions, buildings and other infrastructure accounted for most part of the 17 projects. Though the infrastructure was needed to support and maintain peace building activities, it made the program more oriented to negative rather than “positive” peace.   Suggestions made by global leaders about the diplomacy and security affairs at the forum have vanished as soon as the session ended, without being adopted as a policy agenda of the Korean government, to say nothing of the global agenda. The residents and civic groups of the island should play a leading role in developing the local issues into global agendas. To that end, the province should address the disputes and conflicts over large-scale development projects such as the Naval base in Gangjeong, the construction of second airport and new port, the controversial opening of a casino at Sinhwa Historical Park and Ora tourism complex.   Conflicts have not only negative effects but also positive ones. Conflicts rooted in social exchanges and interactions may provide the opportunity of social integration. Hence, the province should have a strategy to control conflicts to minimize its negative effects and maximize its positive ones. To resolve the conflicts in public arena, the Jeju Special Self-governing Province, which is also a party involved in the conflicts, should have a new perception of its role as a mediator or arbitrator of the conflicts between the central government and residents, and among residents. The residents of the island should have more self-determination by participating in the local autonomy with a heightened self-esteem and responsibility for their own life.   I propose the establishment of a “Jeju-type apparatus for a grand social compromise” at the local council to resolve the conflicts in the local community, as well as a special system to address conflicts at the provincial government. This kind of apparatus might improve the quality of life and contribute to community development by providing the parties involved with correct information to help them make rational decisions and redress structural inequality by producing quality jobs and providing non-regular workers with regular jobs.   As the lyrics of “what is peace” by Rev. Mun Jeong-hyeon, who organized the Life-Peace Village in Gangjeong for peace in Jeju Island, say, a genuine peace would be “reinstating dismissed workers / preserving natural habitats for toads, narrow-mouthed frogs and salamanders/ helping disabled persons go wherever they want to/ expropriating no farmers from his farmlands/ stopping prostitution, sexual violence and sexual discrimination/ joyous singing without soldiers and war/ in a world without starvation and sorrows/ and a world without eviction and domination.”