Miracle on the Peninsula

Why peace for Korea makes me happy

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Gibson Mitchell, Reporter

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has crossed the line, literally.

The infamous dictator met his counterpart, South Korean president Moon Jae-in at the DMZ border along a checkpoint, stepping over the boundary that has long separated the two nations in order to give Moon a firm handshake and a polite embrace.

Even without ripping down the fence, these two brother nations are now closer than ever before.

Here’s why that kind of diplomatic effort makes me happy.

A camera crew from Reuters TV captured the historic moment on Friday, April 27 when friend agreed to meet foe in order to first, come to terms on ending their long fought war, and second, stabilize the future with plans of peace mixed with cooperation.

The third part comes in when you realize that no one in their right minds saw this coming.

Like, no one at all could’ve predicted this tremendous push towards harmony even if it hit them square in the jaw.

Part four of this whole thing is introduced as the global community as a collective gets to take a big sigh of relief as the promise of balance in this region comes to a head.

But perhaps what’s most surprising and slightly odd about this whole thing is that polite activity between these two hasn’t occurred since the 1950’s.

Meaning that even the image of any top North Korean official or leader stepping foot over the infamous demarcation line to step on the other side was, until now, unthinkable.

At the dinner table, so to speak, Kim and Moon agreed to de-weaponize most of the peninsula in organized phases, cease all sorts of propaganda runs from North Korea’s side, and plans concerning the transformation of the demilitarized zone into a peace zone were brought up.

With the iconic Peace House (also known as, the Freedom House) playing host to the two vastly different leaders, the short summit they kicked off changed the way we all see North Korea in general.

So besides the political arena and the economic theater, what does the potential for cooperation and peace on a united Korean Peninsula mean for the rest of us?

Well, for one thing, it means that a lot of adults get to sleep easier at night than they have in decades.

It also means that Asian powers like Japan and China get to ease off of the nuclear option as well and start to look forward to years of peace and stability in the region.

But what does that ‘peace’ look like?

For North Korea, peace means trade with their neighbors becomes an option again and the many sanctions pressed against them are lifted, all at once or one at a time is up to Trump.

China and Japan get to rest assured, and true to good old U.S. fashion, we will not lower our weapons.

So for now, until leaders can full cooperate and find a stable solution everyone can tolerate, peace for Korea is still a possibility, but whether the people want it and will try to stick to it is still up for debate.

Leaking appeasement and power, Pyongyang, North Korea’s capital now has to wrestle with one last question: do we really want to do this?