The recent agreement between North and South Korea to march under a single unified Korea flag at next month’s Winter Olympics in the South augurs well for the future of the Korean Peninsula, which has faced threats of war and violence for nearly seven decades.

It could lead to peace and the reunification of the two Koreas; reunion of families separated for years; and free flow of people, trade, commerce and culture. The obstacle to such development is the imperialist interests of the US.

South Korea and the US signed a mutual defence treaty in 1953, dictated by the US, which allows the US to have military bases and station troops in South Korea. There are 15 bases spread over the country where 30,000 troops are stationed. Since then, South Korea has been a lackey tied to the apron strings of the US in its foreign policy. South Korean soldiers served the interests of the US in its imperialist wars in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq.

The military alliance between the two countries was to serve US hegemony in Asia and directed against the Soviet Union and China, the leaders of the communist world. With the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union, it forms part of the US policy to build an alliance of Asian nations to contain China. Japan, South Korea and India are members of this alliance and hold joint military operations with the US.

There is a growing opposition among the South Korean people to the US military presence in their country. They want an end to the conflict with the North and reunification of the divided peninsula. The election of Moon Jae In, the current president, after the exit of the former conservative president in disgrace, sends a clear message for Seoul not to be tied to Washington’s apron strings but to assert its independence.

Moon, a human rights lawyer, was elected in May 2017 on the platform of seeking dialogue with Pyongyang and not being servile to the US. He was a close ally of former president Roh Moo Hyun, who had pursued Seoul’s “sunshine policy” of engaging North Korea with dialogue, trade and aid.

Like Roh, he advocates dialogue and a peaceful method to resolving the conflict and achieving reconciliation and reunification. The US administration is unhappy with Moon’s approach; President Trump has said “talking is not the answer” in dealing with North Korea. Trump threatened North Korea with “fire and fury” and is prepared to unleash a nuclear attack on it. Moon has said that any war in the peninsula will be a disaster for Koreans, not Americans.

The momentum generated by the Winter Olympics peace talks should be maintained and directed towards other issues. South Korea needs to distance itself from US objectives in the peninsula, that is, containment of China. The US bases and soldiers on Korean soil, and the provocative joint US-South Korean military exercises on land, sea and air are obstacles to the resolution of the conflict, and to closer relations with Seoul’s immediate powerful neighbour, China.

In 2016, South Korea and the US held the “largest ever” eight-week series of military exercises in South Korea to intimidate Pyongyang into abandoning its nuclear programme. Some 300,000 South Korean troops, 17,000 US troops and forces from New Zealand and Australia participated in the exercises.

The exercises were counterproductive. North Korea condemned them as “undisguised war drills aimed to infringe the sovereignty of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea”, threatened a “preemptive nuclear strike”, and accelerated its nuclear programme.

Many South Koreans protested the military drill and called it “an act of war”. They called on both sides to “stop hostile drills and start a peaceful atmosphere”. But the US general in charge of the exercises said, “We believe in peace through strength”.

In over 60 years, US “strength” has not produced peace in the peninsula. Only negotiations between the North and the South, freed from being beholden to the US, can produce a solution to the conflict and bring peace to the peninsula. China should play the role of a neutral mediator.

Seoul should work out a strategic plan for the termination of the defence treaty with the US, dismantling the US bases and ensuring the withdrawal of US troops from South Korea. The defence treaty has no relevance to the current global situation and is an obstacle to peace in the region. During his election campaign, Moon said he would review Seoul’s agreement on the deployment of the US missile-defence system known as Thaad, which China considers a threat to its security.

Now is the time to put an end to that agreement and the joint military exercises. Such a move on the part of Seoul would be perceived by Pyongyang as Seoul’s assertion of independence and encourage it to suspend its nuclear/missile programme and enter into serious negotiations for ending the conflict. China would also welcome it.

Denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula should be the last item in any peace talks. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un understands that it is Pyongyang’s nuclear capability that is deterring the US from launching an attack on North Korea. He knows the fate of nations that agreed to denuclearise under US pressure. Iraq and Libya became targets of US aggression and devastation after they dismantled their nuclear projects.

Denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula is achievable only if there is an international agreement to eliminate nuclear weapons possessed by all states. Until then, a reunified Korea with nuclear capability will not pose a threat to any nation, unlike apartheid Israel with the third largest nuclear weapons arsenal and a history of wars of aggression against its neighbours.

M Abdul Qadir is the director of Citizens International, an action-based human rights NGO in Penang.

The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.