Given the prevailing global trend of peace and harmony and the Korean people's desire, the resolution of Peninsula issue cannot be delayed any further. Once a peace agreement is in place, the hostile relations between the US and the DPRK will end and the denuclearization process start in earnest.

Pyongyang may wrongly believe that as long as it has nuclear weapons its security and political stability is ensured, but Washington too is committing the mistake of looking at the Peninsula issue through Cold War-tainted glasses. It will be very difficult to break the current deadlock if the DPRK insists on prioritizing its security above all else and the US refuses to abandon its Cold War mentality.

Perhaps the best way to solve the issue would be to help the DPRK integrate into the international community. Being at the receiving end of economic sanctions and political ridicule for long, the DPRK has become a "non-rational" country in the eyes of most other countries. The corollary is: Pyongyang thinks most of the other countries are either imperialist bullies or their lackeys.

The international community has a big role to play. It has to encourage Pyongyang to change its perception of security and Washington to abandon its Cold War mentality, and make them agree to a peace deal. The US, too, knows that once the DPRK gets to enjoy the rights and dignity that a sovereign country deserves, it will abandon its nuclear weapons' program.

The US has to cooperate with China and the other countries (the ROK, Japan and Russia) involved in the Six-Party Talks to restore peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula. If the US is sincere in its commitment to peace, it should get off its high horse and abandon its hostile policy toward the DPRK and make genuine efforts to improve mutual relations.

Once this is done, the good intentions of the US and the DPRK and the platform of the Six-Party Talks can be used to make a real breakthrough in the denuclearization process. Subsequently, an action plan can be worked out to punish violators of agreements and rules.

Northeast Asian countries should no longer be overcautious and indecisive, for the longer they are reluctant to start the Six-Party Talks the more complicated the situation will become. This is not to suggest that resolving the Peninsula nuclear issue will be smooth sailing.

The road ahead is indeed fraught with uncertainties and is full of sudden twists and turns. The problem is that these uncertainties cannot be overcome and the twists and turns cannot be successfully negotiated if the main parties do not start walking on the road to denuclearization.

The author is an assistant research scholar with the Center for Northeast Asian Studies, a research institution in Jilin Province.

(China Daily 03/18/2011 page9)