- 著者
-
中逵 啓示
- 出版者
- JAPAN ASSOCIATION OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
- 雑誌
- 国際政治 (ISSN:04542215)
- 巻号頁・発行日
- no.105, pp.1-13,L5, 1994
The Korean war has been almost exhaustively studied as an important part of the escalation process of the cold war. The historical significance of the Korean war is not however limited only to this point. The Korean armitice negotiation was one of the first cases of East-West talks, which have led the world to detente and ultimately to the end of the cold war. Thus the Korean war should be noted as an important beginning of the descalation process of the cold war as well.<br>Based on this historical understanding, the paper describes how the Korean armistice negotiations started. The author believes that three conditions are indispensable for the start of the peace talks in general. First, a stable war situation is necessary, because, only through military deadlock, could both sides realize the difficulty of a military solution. Second, an agreement on the negotiation agenda should be achieved. Third, there should be an influential mediator.<br>From July 1950 through July 1951, the governments of India and Britain continued their mediation efforts. But their peace proposals, both the simultaneous solution plan of China and Korean problems and the demilitarized zone plan, could not work out any UN-communist agreement, mainly because the military situations were too fluid and too tempting for military unification to have any meaningful negotiation. The limited influence of the mediators did not help the situation either. In addition the efforts on the part of the United Nations in early 1951 also hardly bore any fruit.<br>Only after the military situation became stable and the commencement of powerful Soviet involvement on mediation efforts, could China and the United States agree to begin the peace talks. Last, but not least, the fear of World War III indiscriminately brought both the mediators and the war parties together to manage the crisis.