Madam Park May Play Regional Peacemaker Role

Today, South Korea is in an enviable position as it has made its name into the young hearts and minds in every nook and corner of the global community. Now it is time for South Korea to harness its influence in a constructive way―especially in the divisive Asia, as a peacemaker itself.

Madam President Park Geun-hye is fortunate as she takes up the country’s leadership at the most auspicious time since the open war ended. Her pledge to continue to assist North Korea with humanitarian assistance to overcome economic difficulties and to improve the standard of living is a wise one.

Peace in the peninsula has long been on the agenda of ASEAN long before South Korea became the grouping’s full dialogue partner in 1991. It took ASEAN almost a decade to convince North Korea to take part in a region-wide security dialogue, the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF). I still remember leading Paek Nam-sun, North Korea's foreign minister at the time, by the hand to meet with the then U.S. Secretary of State, Madeline K. Albright, who had just arrived from Seoul, and dressed in complete yellow. She quipped that it was "in respect to the Sunshine Policy of President Kim Dae-jung." Paek, on his part, was acting very nervously in the flashlights of hundreds of newsmen's cameras. I recall calming him: "Sir, you'd better get used to this kind of attention!”

I remember the occasion well. I chaired the ASEAN Regional Forum in July 2000 in...