Inter-Korean Relations: A South Korean Perspective

Abstract

South Korea’s President Kim Dae Jung made a historic visit to Pyongyang for a summit meeting between the leaders of the two Koreas in June 2000. The summit was greeted at the time with great public euphoria, although the summit achievement has subsequently been tarnished within South Korea and abroad by revelations that the meeting was conditional upon the secret payment of almost US$500 million via the Hyundai Group. Kim Dae Jung confidently returned to Seoul after his three days of talks with Kim Jong Il and declared that there would be “no more war on the Korean peninsula.” By achieving the unprecedented meeting between the two heads of state, Kim Dae Jung and Kim Jong Il reawakened previously unthinkable hopes and possibilities that came into direct conflict with long-held South Korean conceptions of an identity formed partially in opposition to the North. The prospect of inter-Korean rapprochement had potentially revolutionary and deeply contested implications for South Korean politics and society. South Korea’s democratic liberalization led in directions that opened new possibilities and challenged the status quo, with profound implications for vested interests both inside South Korea and for the two Koreas.

The opinions expressed in this chapter are personal views and do not necessarily represent the views of The Asia Foundation. This chapter is a revised and expanded version of an article entitled, “The End of History, the Rise of Ideology, and the Future of Democracy on the Korean Peninsula,” originally published in the Journal of East Asian Studies 3:2 (May–August 2003): 199–223. I wish to acknowledge with gratitude the permission of Lynn Rienner Publishers to republish this article in revised form. I would also like to thank Eun Jung Cahill Che and Seon Yong Ban for providing research assistance in the preparation of this chapter.