Koreas plan the rocky road to peace

ON Feb 12, 2013, North Korea carried out its third nuclear test in the run­up to the inauguration of a new administration, led by me, in the South. Around that time, the Presidential Transition Committee adopted the “Trust­Building Process on the Korean Peninsula” as a key policy of the new administration, aimed at creating a fresh dynamic in inter­Korean relations.

Though the North’s nuclear test created pressure to revise the trust­building process, I made it clear I would stay the course. Indeed, the trust­building process was intended specifically to break the vicious cycle of provocation and reward.

The process was formulated to overcome limitations of both appeasement and hardline policies: While the former depended entirely on the North’s tenuous good faith, the latter implied only relentless pressure.