Determinants policy orientation of the Republic of Korea toward D.P.R.K.

Abstract

U.S. - South Korea relations have been one of the success stories of international cooperation during the Cold War on the basis of the robust bilateral alliance. In the post Cold War, the security environment of the Korean Peninsula and the importance of the United States for South Korea‘s security are no different from that during the Cold War. However, unlike the past, South Korea has not complied with U.S. leadership since the Kim Dae-jung administration, but has adopted policy opposed to that of the U.S. This study started with the question of what variables explain South Korean policy toward North Korea in the Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun administrations and why South Korea has not followed the U.S. leadership since the Kim Dae-jung presidency, unlike the past. In order to answer the research questions, this study set up three hypotheses based on the features of liberalism and constructivism. The hypotheses assumed that the development of civil society, generational change, and the change of unification education affect South Korean policy toward North Korea and the policy agreement between the U.S. and South Korea. From this study, I found three determinants; first, South Korean civil society has constituted an important aspect of an initiative of the South Korean engagement policy through playing important roles, especially in areas in which the government could not actively take initiative and affecting South Korean‗s positive thinking on reconciliation and unification. Second, South Korean young generations who don‘t experience the Korean War and have progressive political stance played an important role in the emergence of nationalism and anti-Americanism in the society, and led South Korean public opinion for asking better inter-Korean relations and equal partnership toward the U.S. Third, the change of South Korean unification education contents influenced the formation of the South Korean political attitude and made a great contribution to the change in national identity of South Koreans from a state-centric paradigm to a nation-centric paradigm. Therefore, civil society, generational change, and unification education are obvious determinants to explain South Korean policy orientation toward North Korea and the policy agreement between the U.S. and South Korea.