Daniel Sherwood’s Weblog

About Korea: Future Policy Directions

http://www.korea.net/korea/kor_loca.asp?code=P04

Reunification of North and South Korea has become an unresolved issue that has seen little progress. After the Korean War relations between the two countries have slowly grown but all attempts to reunify the two halves have resulted in gridlock. At differing times both countries have made offers but never at the same time have the two halves been interested in joining. For many years after the Korean War N. Korea was the dominant power between the two countries. Leading up to the fall of communism in the ‘80s and ‘90s N. Korea began to suffer severe economic hardships; alternatively S. Korea during the ‘90s began to emerge as one of the economic tigers from Asia. The newly developing image of the two countries is one of N. Korea continuing to spiral towards economic instability and S. Korea gaining more and more financial and social productivity. The newly granted abilities of the South have resulted in a near dependence for food and resources in order for the North to maintain stability. Currently South Korea has little incentive to adopt a policy towards reunification with the North. The South has stated that the still current threat of a military strike by the North is one of the largest limiting factors disabeling the two countries from reunification. As six-party talks continue to show positive results there is however a new potential for North Korea to militarily disarm. Future policy plans for North Korea a hard to establish however, South Korea has given good indications as to where it intends on heading. According to its official website, North Korea intends to continue to work towards rebuilding relations with the North. Through economic relations and peace building efforts, North Korea intends to “achieve a global Korea that contributes to world peace, democracy and co-prosperity; a Korea that breathes in unison with the world”.