A 13-YEAR-OLD American boy protested on Beijing’s Tiananmen Square yesterday calling for the demilitarised zone between North and South Korea to be turned into a peace park, putting a human face on regional tensions over the North’s nuclear weapons programme.
Jonathan Lee unfurled a sign saying “peace treaty” and “nuclear free DMZ children’s peace forest” as he stood outside the Gate of Heavenly Peace in Beijing, before being led away by police.
The boy’s efforts to bring peace to the heavily militarised Korean peninsula, divided since the 1950-1953 Korean War in which both the US and China fought, came as Washington and its allies accused North Korea of being a danger to the region after it showed off its latest advances in uranium enrichment.
There were further tensions when South Korean defence minister Kim Tae-Young even hinted that the US might redeploy tactical nuclear weapons in response, although Seoul subsequently backed away from these remarks.
Washington’s envoy in efforts to find a deal, Stephen Bosworth, said the display was the latest in a series of provocative moves by North Korea.
“This is obviously a disappointing announcement. It is a very difficult problem we have been struggling to deal with for 20 years.
“That being said, this is not a crisis, we are not surprised,” said Mr Bosworth on the first leg on a tour of east Asia this week.
Asked about what would become of six-party talks involving both Koreas, Washington, Beijing, Tokyo and Moscow, stalled since December 2008, Mr Bosworth said: “My crystal ball is foggy but I would never declare any process dead.” He said there were hopes the talks could be revived.
Tensions on the peninsula have certainly been cranked up since the latest revelations about the North’s nuclear ambitions. A US nuclear expert said he had seen more than a thousand centrifuges, adding to the case that Pyongyang has a uranium enrichment programme that will give it a second way to obtain fissile material for atomic bombs.
Satellite images show building under way at the country’s main atomic complex, Yongbyon, possible evidence the impoverished North is building a light-water reactor.
North Korea’s reported nuclear advances, including work on a light-water reactor, come nearly two months after its reclusive leader Kim Jong-il started the transition of power to his youngest son, Kim Jong-un, as he tries to shore up his support with the powerful military.
North Korea, which conducted nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009, is believed to have enough fissile material from its separate, plutonium-based nuclear programme to make between six and 12 atomic bombs. It is struggling to cope with the damage to its economy from UN sanctions.
In August, Mr Lee visited North Korea and was taken on a tour of the heavily fortified buffer zone dividing the two Koreas, one of the last vestiges of the Cold War, with US-supported South Korea on one side and China-backed North Korea on the other. He did not meet Kim Jong-il but did pass on a letter calling for all sides to work for the reunification of the peninsula.