The Korean Peninsula Challenge

Overview: The author suggests that it is urgent to reassess assumptions regarding the decades long tensions on the Korean peninunsla and to revise the strategy for developing a lasting peace. An opportunity could open up if negotiators would go about it in an imaginative, federated approach regarding a number of contentious issues of mutual interest, rather than clinging to the sole issue of denuclearisation.¹¹The author has with this essay won the 2017 Oslo Forum Peacewriter Prize. Awarded by the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (HD), the inaugural Oslo Forum Peacewriter Prize is an essay competition seeking bold and innovative responses to today’s peacemaking challenges. HD is a Geneva-based private diplomacy organisation with the mission to help prevent, mitigate, and resolve armed conflict through dialogue and mediation. Co-hosted by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and HD, the Oslo Forum, which gives the Prize its name, is a discreet and informal annual retreat which convenes conflict mediators, peacemakers, high-level decision-makers and key peace process actors.