Sunshine policy

South Korea
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The Sunshine Policy constitutes the current South Korean doctrine towards North Korea emphasizing peaceful cooperation, seeking short-term reconciliation as a prelude to eventual Korean reunification. Since South Korean President Kim Dae Jung articulated the policy in 1998, political contact between the two nations has increased, several high-profile business ventures launched, and brief meetings of separated family members have been facilitated. Critics believe that the policy ignores the fundamentally repressive and belligerent nature of North Korea, resulting in propping up the regime of Kim Jong-il. In 2000, Kim Dae Jung received the Nobel Peace Prize for his Sunshine Policy initiative.

Overview

The term sunshine policy originates in one of Aesop's fables. In the fable, the sun and the wind compete to remove a man's coat. The wind blew strongly, but the man clutched his coat and kept it on. The sun shone warmly, and the man voluntarily took off his coat to enjoy the fine weather. The policy aims mainly to soften North Korea's attitudes towards the South by encouraging interaction and economic assistance.

The policy has three basic principles.

• No armed provocation by the North will be tolerated.
• The South will not attempt to absorb the North in any way.
• The South actively seeks cooperation.

Those principles convey the message that the South respects the North's sovereignty and will refrain from undermining its government. The South maintains the goal of peaceful co-existence rather than regime change or re-unification, though a unified Korea still exists as an implicit long-term goal of South Korea.

Kim's administration outlined two addition major policy objectives. The first, the separation of politics and economics. Practically, that means that the South has loosened restrictions on its private sector to invest in North Korea, limiting its own involvement essentially to humanitarian aid. Kim initially intended that policy both to improve the North's economy and to induce change in the North's repressive government, though the latter goal has since been (at least officially) de-emphasized.

Sunshine policy
Hangul 햇볕 정책 Hanja 햇볕政策 Revised Romanization Haetbyeot jeongchaek McCune-Reischauer Haetpyŏt chŏngch'aek

Kim's second objective, the requirement of reciprocity from the North, initially intended that the two nations would treat each other as equals, each making concessions and compromises. Perhaps most criticism of the policy has stemmed from the significant back peddling by the South on that principle in the face of unexpected rigidity from the North. The South Korean government encountered difficulty just two months into the Sunshine policy, when South Korea requested the creation of a reunion center for divided families in exchange for fertilizer assistance. North Korea denounced that as "horse trading" and cut off talks.

A year later the South announced a revision of the second objective, seeking "flexible reciprocity" based on Confucian values. As the "elder brother" of the relationship, the South would provide aid without expecting an immediate reciprocation and without requesting a specific form of reciprocity. The South also announced providing humanitarian assistance the the North without any expectations of concessions in return. The logical justification for the policy change lay in the belief that, even in light of its continuing famine and economic deprivation, Kim Jong-il's regime will survive even if the South were to apply strong pressure. The South's contents that military tensions can be lessened through bilateral and multilateral frameworks. That emphasizes the normalization of political and economic relations between both the United States and North Korea as well as Japan.

The Sunshine Policy in the Kim administration

President Kim Dae-jung with President George Bush

Kim Dae-jung's administration first formulated and implemented the Sunshine Policy. North-South cooperative business developments resumed, including a railroad and the Kumgangsan Tourist Region, where several thousand South Korean citizens still travel every year. Though negotiations proved difficult, the North and South conducted three reunions between divided families(though the North canceled a fourth at the last minute).

In 2000, Kim Dae-jung and Kim Jong-il held at a summit meeting, the first between heads of state of the two nations. After the summit, talks between the two nations stalled, possibly due to a schism within North Korea between hard-liners and reformists. Criticism of the policy intensified and Unification Minister Lim Dong-won lost a no-confidence vote on September 3, 2001.[1] After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the United States proclaimed North Korea a third leg of the Axis of Evil along with Iraq and Iran, the North responding by cut off talks with the South[2]. In 2002, a naval skirmish over disputed fishing territory killed four South Korean sailors, further chilling relations.[3][4] Credible allegations later came to light that Kim's administration had arranged the 2000 summit meeting with payments worth several hundred million dollars to North Korea.

The Sunshine Policy in the Roh administration

The Great Leader and Son in Every Classroom

Current president Roh Moo-hyun has continued the policy of his predecessor, resulting in relations on the divided peninsula warming somewhat since 2002. In 2003, the issue of the North's possession of nuclear weapons resurfaced, with North Korea characteristically accusing the United States accusing of breaching the agreed framework. Roh stayed committed to the policy and his government has continued to supply the North with humanitarian aid. The two governments have continued cooperation on the projects begun under Kim Dae-jung, also starting the Kaesong Industrial Park, with South Korea spending the equivalent of just over $324 million on aid to the North in 2005 [5]. A pro-North Korean trend in public attitudes has surfaced, though significant differences between generations, political groups, and regions exist.[6][7][8] The ruling Uri Party, which strongly supports North Korea, has suffered recent electoral defeats.

Criticism

Many critics of the policy believe that, rather than increasing the chances of reunification or improving the human rights situation in North Korea, the ruling party has used the issue for political gain in domestic politics in the South. As proof, critics point to the continuing provocations and criminal activities committed by the North, such as the 2002 sea battle that left several South Korean sailors dead [9] and the counterfeiting of American money [10]. Critics point to the North's general unwillingness to reciprocate Seoul's gestures of goodwill, as evidence that the North has been using the South's money and aid to prop up the regime of Kim Jong-il. Critics content that, in exchange for providing humanitarian aid, the South should demand that the North return kidnapped South Korean citizens[11] and the remains of POWs from the Korean War. Some see the Kaesong Industrial Park as merely a way for large South Korean companies to employ extremely cheap labor.

In 2006, North Korea backed away from its pledge to re-open direct rail links between the North and South. Pyongyang made remained silent about the sudden turn-about and when the link might reopen. Critics of the Sunshine Policy pointed to that as further proof of North Korea's failure to repay the South's goodwill with similar gestures. Many observers see a weakening of the US-ROK alliance as a result of the Sunshine Policy, contending that the South has favored the North's interests over those of its ally the United States. [12][13] Further, critics contend that South Korean politicians have been unreasonably mute and have censored criticism of the North. [14][15]. South Korean politicians have ignored the sacrifices of its own soldiers[16] so as to avoid upsetting the North, critics continue, and that all those ill effects have been harmful to the South's national interest as well as the alliance with the United States,[17] actually damaging the chances for a smooth and peaceful reunification. Internationally and at home, the South Korean government has been criticized for repeatedly abstaining from United Nations votes condemning the North's human rights record.[18][19][20] The government defends the abstentions by citing the special character of inter-Korean relations (i.e., following the objectives of the Sunshine Policy).

Sunshine Policy In Peril

Nuclear test, 9 October 2006

On October 9, 2006, following the nuclear and missile tests, South Korea suspended aid shipments to the North and put their military on high alert status. Even supporters of the Sunshine Policy express concern regarding how South Korea can maintain a cooperative policy towards the North when such provocative acts continue. [21] The government of South Korea has insisted that at least some aspects of the Sunshine Policy, including the Mount Gumgang Tourist Region and the Kaesong Industrial Region, will continue.

See also

• Korean reunification
• Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization
• Hyundai Asan
• List of Korea-related topics
• Nordpolitik

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

Books

• Kim, Dae Jung. 1999. Sunshine policy sunshine policy of the Republic of Korea : President Kim Dae-jung's satellite appearence on the CNN World Report Conference at the CNN Headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, May 5, 1999. Seoul, Korea: Korean Overseas Culture & Information Service. OCLC: 45857438
• Korea (South). 2002. Sunshine policy for peace & cooperation. Seoul?: The Ministry]. OCLC: 50685864
• Mistry, Hemlata. 2005. Sunshine on the Korean Peninsula an analysis of the Sunshine Policy's effectiveness in handling significant issues impacting relations between North and South Korea. Thesis (Hon.)—North Central College, 2005. OCLC: 70222682
• Niksch, Larry A. 2005. Implementing the Six-Party joint statement and the Korean Peninsula. Seoul: Korea Institute for National Unification. ISBN 9788984793255
• Oberdorfer, Don. The Two Koreas : A Contemporary History. Addison-Wesley, 1997, 472 pages, ISBN 0-201-40927-5
• Society for Northeast Asian Peace Studies (Seoul, Korea). 1999. The Kim Dae-Jung government the sunshine policy. Seoul, Korea: Millennium Books. ISBN 9788995070529
• Son, Key-young. 2006. South Korean engagement policies and North Korea identities, norms and the sunshine policy. Politics in Asia series. London: Routledge. ISBN 9780415374385
• Son. 2004. South Korean identities in strategies of engagement with North Korea a case study of president Kim Dae-jung's sunshine policy. S.l: s.n.]. OCLC: 66439815

Articles and Papers

• The Bush Administration and the Korean Peninsula: Interview with Dr. Suh Sang-mook, Stanford Journal of East Asian Affairs, Spring 2001, Volume 1.
• "INTERNATIONAL - The Koreas: The 'Sunshine Policy' Loses Its Glow". 2001. Newsweek. 138 (11): 36. OCLC: 95094760
• The Cost of Sunshine, Time, 3 February, 2003. Retrieved October 12, 2007.
• Excerpt from Rand Corporation monograph. Retrieved October 12, 2007.
• Despite U.S. Attempts, N. Korea Anything but Isolated, Washington Post, 12 May, 2005. Retrieved October 12, 2007.
• Sunshine Policy in a Nutshell, a publication of the Federation of American Scientists. Retrieved October 12, 2007.
• Terrorism Eclipses The Sunshine Policy: Inter-Korean Relations and the United States: Asia Society, March 2002. Retrieved October 12, 2007.
• The Future of the Sunshine Policy, Friedrich Naumann Foundation, 15 June, 2001. Retrieved October 12, 2007.

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