Korean Peace Treaty Made Permanent on Ethereum Blockchain 🚨 This article is 7 years old...
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Korean Peace Treaty Made Permanent on Ethereum Blockchain
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Updated: Nov. 7, 2019 at 2:44 am UTC
Photo by insung yoon on Unsplash
Since 1953, North and South Korea have been divided along the 38th parallel – creating what is now known as the famed Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). On April 27, Korean leaders Moon Jae-in and Kim Jong-un signed the Panmunjom Declaration in an effort to end the temporary armistice and call for a new era of peace between the two nations.
The Panmunjom Declaration, which states “there will be no more war on the Korean peninsula,” was made public following the 2018 Inter-Korean Summit – marking a momentous shift in Korean history.
South Korean Developer Uses Blockchain to Perpetuate Treaty
According to Coindesk Korea, South Korean developer Ryu Gi-hyeok published the Panmunjom Declaration in both Korean and English through two transactions made on the Ethereum blockchain.
By publishing each version of the treaty in the input fields of two separate transactions (English and Korean) using hexadecimal data, Ryu made permanent and immutable the record of the Panmunjom Declaration.
In an interview with Coindesk Korea, Ryu stated:
“I wanted to keep the world record of North and South Korea in the world of Crypto… The Panmunjom Declaration, written in Ethereum 551,7596 block, will not go away unless Ethereum is gone.”
Ryu Gi-hyeok, a 27-year-old game developer, and self-taught blockchain developer is not a political activist but rather a common supporter of the long-awaited Korean unification process. Adding to his statement, Ryu said:
“Although I did not pay much attention to politics, I was overwhelmed by watching the summit. I just thought it was too long for the South and the North to give each other one step and listen to each other. After finding out what I could do as a developer, I found the Panmunjom Declaration from the Blue House homepage and recorded it on the Ethereum blockchain.”
The blockchain is an immutable digital ledger with the capability of circumventing political censorship and making permanent and public monumental, historical records such as the Panmunjom Declaration.
After 65 years in a frozen conflict, North and South Korea may finally be reaching peace, and the beginning of this new era will forever be recorded on the Ethereum blockchain.
