Jeju Peace Institute

LEE Soo Hyung(Research Fellow, Institute for National Security Strategy)

Both South and North Korea, along with the peninsula’s surrounding environment and other players in the region, are the most important factors in the eventual peaceful reunification of the Korean Peninsula.

To bring about the peaceful re-unification of the Korean Peninsula, the situation around the Korean Peninsula and the interests neighboring countries have in the re-unification of the Korean Peninsula are as important as the relationship between South and North Korea.

The reason for this is that the peaceful re-unification of the Korean Peninsula implies a fundamental restructuring of the order governing the Korean Peninsula and Northeast Asia, and thus that all the neighboring countries will end up becoming stakeholders in the change.

To achieve the peaceful re-unification of the Korean Peninsula, a mid- to long-term peaceful re-unification strategy has to be worked out and, more importantly, to promote the unification of the Korean Peninsula enthusiastically, an environment conducive to peaceful re-unification needs to be created.

In this context, It is essential to review a few of the major preconditions necessary for the formulation of strategies required for the peaceful re-unification of the Korean Peninsula, above all else.

The following will be discussed as essential preconditions that need to be reviewed before one can diagnose the changes in the international political landscape and the circumstances surrounding Northeast Asia, and come up with strategies for creating an environment conducive to peaceful re-unification based on the results of such a review: (1) recognition of the objective reality that Korea is a divided country and a peninsula country (2) recognition of the necessity for the strategic management of security policies and re-unification policies and (3) recognition of the need for a common security policy in Northeast Asia.