Time to reset our unification path

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Time to reset our unification path

 
Kim Byung-yeon
The author is a chair professor of economics at Seoul National University.
 
 
During the Park Guen-hye administration, I visited the United States as a member of the public diplomacy committee of the conservative government. When another member of the committee told U.S. experts that South Korea sought a gradual unification with North Korea, they couldn’t believe it, citing its contradiction with presidential statements. The committee member earnestly explained the country’s official position on unification — starting from the phase of reconciliation and cooperation followed by the phase of establishing the Korean Commonwealth and eventually achieving unification. Still, the U.S. experts wondered if South Korea really had such a unification plan.
 
The same oblivion is seen among South Koreans themselves. Many are not even aware of the existence of a unification plan based on national community. In fact, conservative presidents often made remarks suggestive of a “swift reunification after the collapse of the North Korean regime.” Liberal presidents stressed economic cooperation as the first step toward unification, but they kept mum over what to do next. If the general public does not know the unification plan, the government can hardly convince foreign experts.
 
If South Koreans themselves are confused about the direction of unification, it can spike serious problems such as a military clash or permanent division of the Korean Peninsula. The national community unification plan was agreed to by both the governing and opposition parties during the Roh Tae-woo and Kim Young-sam administrations. Not even North Korea rejected the plan. But after three decades, the national community-based unification plan is now at a crossroads. It is time for the government to upgrade the plan to win the hearts of the people.
 
We must succeed the core ideas of the national community unification initiative through a peaceful and incremental approach to achieve unification. Some championed the peaceful coexistence of the two Koreas as our ultimate goal. That’s not a solution, but a trap. Peaceful coexistence with a nuclear-armed North is just a pipe dream because the North’s innate vulnerabilities help reinforce a temptation to use nuclear weapons, directly or indirectly. The nuclear threat compels the South Korean people to pay invisible taxes every year. The accumulated costs from division could amount to over half of the South’s national income. Others contend that if we develop nuclear weapons to strike a balance, we can coexist with North Korea even without unification. But our economy must pay a high price for that.
 
The national community-based unification has unrealistic features, too. Just think of the Korean Commonwealth. As long as North Korea adheres to socialist systems, its economy cannot develop. If the two are united, it will deal a heavy blow to the South Korean economy. Only under the two-country, one-system condition, not vice versa, can the two Koreas prosper. Therefore, the phase of the Korean Commonwealth should be replaced by an economic community based on the market system. Also, North Korea should be denuclearized before the reconciliation and cooperation phase. Otherwise, the denuclearization phase and the cooperation phase can be integrated into one by linking the lifting of sanctions and implementation of economic cooperation to the level of denuclearization. Economic cooperation should not be the goal by itself. Instead, it should serve as priming water to establish the common economic community.
 
Unification is about the process of expanding the market economy and democracy throughout the North to help promote human rights and prosperity of North Koreans. Our new unification methodology must bolster their and bureaucrats’ capabilities so that the North can move in that direction. In the process, South Korea must not stop engaging even in the face of disruptions. Building a bridge for North Korea to return through is also needed to brace for possible geopolitical headwinds. We must consider such a complex process of unification.
 
Even if we have a map leading to reunification, we cannot reach the destination without building national energy. The government must drive a troika consisting of the same ethnicity, values and benefits. The appeal from the ethnicity still lingers but is not as powerful as before. Our society needs to breed more empathy toward North Koreans, but the benefits from unification — another pillar of the unification drive — should not be dominated by the narrow-focused “jackpot” theory. Unification has to be driven by the bigger vision of a strong country with good intentions. If the country can have a dream to affect the rest of the world by accomplishing the long-awaited unification following its marvelous economic development and democratization, it will certainly help conclude the country’s long journey to prove its raison d’être in this world.
 
Translation by the Korea JoongAng Daily staff.
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