Running head: REALISTIC WAY TO RE-UNITE THE TWO KOREAS 1

Realistic Way to Reunite the Two Koreas

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REALISTIC WAY TO RE-UNITE THE TWO KOREAS 2

Realistic Way to Reunite the Two Koreas

There is Cleary no realistic way of reuniting the two Koreans. Even before the Korean

War began, border incidents between the North and south began in 1948, and significant battles

involving thousands of troops took place in the summer of 1949. South Korea initiated most of

these incidents. Thus, the Korean War began at least a year before the official date, and the

responsibility for the bloodshed lies with both sides. The Korean War was like a match to

kindling. The United States took advantage of the Soviet Union’s temporary boycott of the

United Nations to win support for a resolution condemning North Korea’s actions.

Inter-Korean Relations

According to research by Kwak & Joo (2016, p. 109), one major impediment in the south

to reconciliation with the North was the National Security Law. NSL served as an effective tool

for tarring any dissent with a communist brush and labeling any civic attempts at building

bridges with North Korea as traitorous. Kim Dee Jung transformed the NSL and released many

political prisoners. Officially, North Korea has expressed numerous reservations about South

Korea’s engagement policy perceiving. The sunshine policy is patronizing. Kim Dee Jung stated

its engagement policy was similar to the approach the U.S took to the Soviet Union during the

Reagan-Bush era. Sunshine policy was a covert policy of destabilization.

North Korea may well fear that South Korea still aspires to unification through

absorption. Despite the achievement of north-south reconciliation and the 2000 meeting, inter-

Korean relations have given way to a certain degree of pessimism. Historians have called the

conflict in Korea “limited” for it never escalated into a world war between superpowers, and no

atomic weapons were used. Nevertheless, this claim is misleading. (Choi Jang Ok, 2018, p. 94)

Although the United States never used nuclear weapons, it seriously considered doing so to
REALISTIC WAY TO RE-UNITE THE TWO KOREAS 3

equalize its disadvantage on the ground. The flow of South Korean money to the North remains a

trickle. The current nuclear crisis is putting a damper on investor confidence in both North and

south.

Lee (2017, p. 89) found that many factors divide the two Korea today: A sizeable

economic disparity, a democracy gap, a vastly different culture. However, inter-Korean relations

remain at historically high levels of openness and cooperation. Han may well bring the two

Korea together and repair the breaches between Korea and its neighbors. The new policy reached

out through trade to the increasingly isolated North while widening political ties with South

Korea’s former cold war adversaries. Seoul established diplomatic relations with China and other

socialists.

Conclusion

Korean unification would have been most equitable at the time of greatest tension and

ideological warfare between the two countries since the economies were on par and the political

sensibilities of the leadership were roughly equivalent. In the foreign policy realm, the principles

of Juche suggested a balance between membership in the larger communist world and more

general adherence to nonalignment. North Korea sought to lead the Non-Aligned Movement.

North Korea’s ability to secure preferential treatment from both the Soviet Union and China

without becoming subservient to either attracted admiration in the Third World.

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References

Choi Jang Ok. (2018). Implications of recent unification case on unification plan of Korean

Peninsula. Review of Korean Military Studies, 7(1), 113-

136. https://doi.org/10.34166/rokms.2018.7.1.113

Kwak, T., & Joo, S. (2016). One Korea: Visions of Korean unification. Taylor & Francis.

Lee, J. S. (2017). South Koreans’ willingness to pay for Korea unification. The Korean Data

Analysis Society, 19(5), 2355-2363. https://doi.org/10.37727/jkdas.2017.19.5.2355