The Kim Young Sam Governmet's Policy Approach toward North Korea and Unification

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

In 1994, President Kim Young Sam stated that Seoul was ready to aid North Korea in its development of nuclear energy for peaceful uses, including the construction of light-water reactors, provided Pyongyang guaranteed the transparency of its nuclear activities. The North must clearly understand that the nuclear question needs to be resolved before economic exchanges and cooperation between the South and the North. But the North seems not to concern the South in the process of round talk with the United States. Therefore, the Government policy questions are focused on the most desirable policy for inducing Pyongyang to give up completely its nuclear program and for persuading Pyongyang to implement the South-North Basic Agreement signed in 1991 and engage positively in further negotiations for peaceful unification.
President Kim Young Sam emphasized not an emotional or sentimental approach to unification, but a rational consensus of the public on achieving national unification and began its engagement policy toward the North with a positive attitude.
For the Peaceful unification, the new government is convinced that the nuclear problem should be solved in a peaceful manner, and is trying to deal with it through North-South channels of dialogue, while cooperating closely with the international community. The government is firmly determined to prevent the possibility of nuclear war on the Korean peninsula, and is trying to shift the North to the direction of coexistence and co-prosperity with the South. The media and some members of the policy circle in the South began questioning the wisdom of the new government's way of handling the issues. The Kim Government has failed to forge policy consensus at least with three reasons : first, the lack of self-conscious efforts to legitimize this new unification policies, second, rather innovative or radical policy, third, somewhat overconfidence and failure to legitimize or sell its new unification policies to the public.
On August 15, 1994, President Kim Young Sam redefined the existing three-phased unification policy, as well as its policy toward North Korea in light of the changing situation after the death of Kim Il-sung and the U.S. and North Korea's announcement of establishing diplomatic relations in exchange for Pyongyang's abandoning its nuclear development program. He defined the basic principles, unification process and the basic goals : self-reliance, peace and democracy. He made it clear that the South sincerely hopes that North Korea will pursue reform and openness under conditions of stability.