Former US President Jimmy Carter tried to bring North and South Korea to the negotiating table in the late 1970s as Seoul was pleading for continued US protection, Yonhap reported citing declassified documents.
A partial transcript of a conversation published by Yonhap shows that former South Korean President Park Chung-hee sought guarantees from President Carter for US protection as a bulwark against the North’s military superiority. The talk is said to have taken place in 1979, some 26 years after the end of the Korean War, which resulted in an armistice but not a peace treaty between the formerly united countries.
In a bid to ease tensions in the turbulent region, Carter attempted to convene a summit with both North and South Korea in Jakarta. According to Washington’s plans, the talks were meant to be observed or even joined by China, to pave the way for “a four-way political conference.”
According to the documents, however, North Korea, then ruled by Kim Il-sung, was not particularly interested in the talks at that time.
