Jeju Peace Institute

In the political circles of the Republic of Korea, the relationship with North Korea has served as a litmus test for one’s ideological tendencies. Meanwhile, in international political theories, the impact of public opinions on a country’s foreign policies has become a controversial topic.

This research has applied the classification system used in American academy to Korea’s inter-Korean policies. The American academy have classified the preference of public opinions into four types through the combination of internationalism and isolationism preferences in security and economic matters when it comes to the country’s foreign policies. Applying the model, this paper has classified Koreans’ preferences into four types such as functionalism, sunshine policy, nuclear disarmament first policy, and support for North Korean collapse, according to Koreans’ positive and negative attitudes toward economic and security exchanges and cooperation with North Korea. This study analyzed the survey data compiled for eight years from 2007 to 2014 by Gallup Korea at the request of the Institute for Peace and Unification Studies at Seoul National University. The analysis results indicate that functionalism, which pursues cooperation in the fields of economy and security, stands at 44.47%, the largest proportion among the four options. Meanwhile, from time to time over the eight-year period, support for the nuclear-disarmament-first policy—which advocates cooperation in security matters but isolation in economic fronts—topped the list when North Korean military provocation surged.

The multi-year survey results also demonstrate that support for the sunshine policy reached the 85% mark during the Kim Dae-jung administration, whereas more than 76% of Koreans prefer the nuclear-disarmament- first policy during the Park Geun-hye administration. Therefore, this research concluded that the preference of public opinions impacts Korea’s inter-Korean policies less than the change of administrations in the Republic of Korea or the intensity of effects of North Korean military threats on the direction of public opinions.