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'Korean reunification' is the future reunification of North Korea and South Korea under a single government.

Contents

Division

Current status

Reunification strategies

The "Sunshine Policy"

A hard-line policy

North Korea's policy

Foreign countries' views

China

United States

Japan

Russia

Hurdles in the process

South Korea

North Korea

See also

References

External links

Division

Main articles: Division of Korea

Japan invaded and effectively occupied Korea from 1910 until 1945. After Japan's defeat in World War II, the United Nations developed plans for trusteeship administration of Korea. Established by a last-minute pact made by the United States Government, the 38th parallel divides the peninsula into two zones of administration: the Soviet Union to the north and the United States to the south. Cold War politics resulted in the 1948 establishment of two separate governments. In June 1950, North Korea invaded South Korea, beginning the Korean War. After three devastating years of fighting that involved the People's Republic of China, the Soviet Union, and the United Nations led by the U.S., the war ended in a ceasefire agreement at approximately the same boundary, with South Korea making slight territorial gains. The two countries never signed a peace treaty.
Despite now being politically separate entities, both governments proclaim as a goal the eventual restoration of Korea as a single state. A unified Korea is a very important component of Korean national identity. A unified Korean team marched in the opening ceremonies of the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, and the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, but the North and South Korean national teams competed separately. There are plans for a truly unified team at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China. In the 1991 table tennis world championships in Chiba, Japan, the two countries formed a unified team.

Current status

Eventual political integration of the Koreas under a democratic regime from the South is generally viewed as inevitable by all parties involved, except perhaps North Korea. Reunification becomes an apparent truth when considering that the Korean people have a shared identity going back 5,000 years. However, the nature of reunfication, ie. through North Korean collapse or gradual integration of the North and South, is still a topic of intense political debate and even conflict among interested parties, who include both Koreas, China, Japan, Russia, and the United States.
Some political analysts and many Koreans would say the process of reunification has already begun^[1], albeit at a very gradual pace, through the current process of reconciliation and economic cooperation between the two Koreas. On the other hand, current reality would seem to show otherwise, as the DMZ that separates the two Koreas remains heavily guarded and North Korea has yet to give up its nuclear weapons. Yet optimists point towards recent thawings in inter-Korean relations and unprecedented dialogue and cooperation between the Koreas as signs that, unlike in the past where Korea was the proverbial shrimp caught between the whales of China, Japan, Russia, and the US, the Koreans are now taking reunification into their own hands.

Reunification strategies

The "Sunshine Policy"

Supporters of the "Sunshine Policy" argue that sanctions and threats from the governments of the United States and South Korea have harmed, rather than improved, prospects for reunification. They argue that if the North Korean government does not feel threatened by South Korea or the United States, it will have nothing to lose and everything to gain from dialogue and engagement with the outside world, and will have no reason to build weapons of mass destruction. Many argue that the only alternative to dialogue is an unacceptable military outcome. The Sunshine Policy was introduced by the Millennium Democratic Party under President Kim Dae-jung, and is continued by the Roh Mu-hyun government. South Korea's Hyundai Asan played a major role in pioneering commercial links with the North.

A hard-line policy

Opponents of the "Sunshine Policy" argue that dialogue and trade with North Korea has done nothing to improve prospects for peaceful reunification, and have helped bolster the North Korean government, which is generally seen as corrupt, undemocratic, and totalitarian. They feel that the North has no real interest in reunification, and is only trying to ensure its own survival.
It is also argued that South Korea has seen little benefit from engagement with North Korea, despite the transfer of large funds to the North Korean government by President Kim Dae-jung. Many also believe South Korea should remain prepared in the event of a North Korean attack. The Grand National Party is in favour of a hard-line position on North Korea. Hard-line policy supporters also argue that the help given to North Korea only continues the regime of Kim Jong-Il and that leaving it alone will eventually bring the collapse of North Korea, thus allowing the country to be reunified under the Republic of Korea.

North Korea's policy

North Korea's policy is to seek reunification without what it sees as outside interference, through a federal structure retaining each side's leadership and systems. Both North and South Korea signed the June 15th North-South Joint Declaration in which both sides made promises to seek out a peaceful reunification. [1]

Foreign countries' views

China

The Chinese government has shown a desire to maintain the status quo on the Korean peninsula but favors eventual Korean reunification; any potential sudden moves that would destabilize the Korean peninsula and threaten a mass exodus of North Koreans into Chinese territory are a major cause of concern for the Chinese government.

United States

The US government has expressed some desire for eventual reunification of the Koreas.

Japan

The Japanese government has expressed its support for eventual reunification of the two Koreas under a democratic government.

Russia

The Russian government wishes for a unified Korea, but does not want the possibility of a US-allied Korean nation, which would provide a security issue for Russia.

Hurdles in the process

South Korea

★ The cultures of the two halves have diverged following partition, even though traditional Korean culture and history are shared. In addition, many families have been split by the division of Korea.

★ Economic differences between South Korea and North Korea also are a cause of concern. Korean reunification would differ from the German reunification precedent:
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★ In absolute terms, South Korea's economy is not as strong as West Germany's was.
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★ In relative terms, North Korea's economy is far worse than that of East Germany's. The income per capita ratio (PPP) was about 3:1 in Germany (about US$25,000 for West, about US$8,500 for East) [2]. The ratio is about 13:1 in Korea (over US$24,200 for South, US$1,800 for North, CIA Factbook 2006), although GDP estimates vary widely (''see List of countries by GDP (PPP) per capita''). This income gap is rapidly increasing as the North Korean economy stagnates and the South Korean economy is characterized by moderate to high economic growth.
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★ While at the moment of the German reunification the East German population (around 17,000,000) was about a third of the West German (more than 60,000,000), the North Korean population (around 22,700,000) is currently around a half of the South Korean (around. 48,600,000).
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★ The North Korean population is far more culturally distinct and isolated than the East German population was in the late 1980s. Unlike in East Germany, North Koreans generally cannot receive foreign broadcasting, read foreign publications or travel overseas. The Berlin Wall lasted for 28 years, whereas Korea has been divided for over half a century. Their totalitarian society has not allowed its citizens to develop initiative or a broader awareness of the world, let alone the skill sets needed to live and work in a market economy, as has been witnessed by the experiences of North Korean defectors now living in the south[3].
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★ It must be noted that the German economy still suffers (more than 15 years later) from rapid reunification. In addition, some analysts warn that rapid reunification might bring the South Korean economy to the point of collapse. It would also bring a flood of refugees into South Korea, causing a social and economic crisis.

★ The consequence of the economic differences is that many South Koreans, while desiring reunification in theory, want to delay the process of reunification until the Northern economy can be developed separately, having seen the results of the sudden reunification of West Germany and East Germany, and knowing the differences between the two Koreas.

★ Currently, 'political issues', such as diametrically opposite forms of government cause most concern. Nevertheless, the attitude of the South Korean government towards North Korea has changed dramatically in the last few decades; during the Park Chung-hee administration, hatred towards the North Korean government was fostered in the civilian population. For example, a poster displaying two Korean characters (반공 /Ban-gong; 反共) meaning "Against Communism" or "Anti Communism" was posted on every schoolhouse wall. In contrast, a recent comic book published by a South Korean author detailing a less-than-flattering portrait of the North Korean leader Kim Jong-il was banned because the South Korean government feared that its publication could hurt reunification efforts. It should be noted that the North's own news service often refers to the South Korean government as a "puppet" government.
The 2005 film Cheon gun (천군; 天軍) or "Heaven's Soldiers", directed by Min Joon Gi, portrayed North and South Korean soldiers who travel in time to 1572 and join the 17th Century hero Yi Sun-sin in fighting the Jurchen tribes. This theme
clearly uses the figure of Yi, venerated as a National Hero in both parts of contemporary Korea, to plead for Reunification.

North Korea

North Korea faces many challenges: recent famines show that North Korea is incapable of feeding itself and has placed the government, as well as the Juche ideology, in a difficult position. It is not known how much support the government commands among North Korea's common people; it has been suggested that few North Koreans are loyal to Kim Jong-Il himself; he is allowed to remain in power partly due to the respect (or fear) many in North Korea have for his father, Kim Il-sung. North Korea's government is reliant on the foreign aid which feeds most of North Korea's people; at the same time, potential social and political instability caused by the influx of outside influence remains a constant worry for North Korea's government.

See also

★ Division of Korea

★ List of Korea-related topics

References

1. Korea's slow-motion reunification

External links

★ Ministry of Unification (South Korea)

★ Trans-Global Highway and the Korean-Japan Friendship Tunnel

★ "Good morning America, Korea is reunifying" A point of view by Christin Ahn, who was in South Korea in November 2005

★ "Korean Peace Brigade in Brussels"

★ The North-South Rail Link

★ Article from DPRK Studies