South Korea, the Six Party Talks, and Relations with the Major Powers
223Kim Dae Jung: The Sunshine Policy
and US-South Korea Relations
While relations between the North and South had remained tense for
decades, with only a few exceptions, Kim Dae Jung made the thawing of
relations a priority, from a traditionally liberal idealist perspective. In his
own writing in 1994 for the journal Foreign Affairs, Kim wrote:
Today, we must start with a rebirth of democracy that promotes freedom,
prosperity, and justice both within each country and among nations,
including the less-developed countries: a global democracy.^7For Kim, a liberal standpoint in which the South treated the North as a
potential ally was more beneficial for the South. By working to cooperate
with the North, Kim hoped to avert tension which could escalate into war.
He believed that a realist approach, in which the South treated the North as
a threat, would only increase the possibility of an outbreak of violence on
the peninsula. Since Kim’s long-term goal was the peaceful reunification
of the two Koreas, a policy of carrots was more sustainable than one of
sticks. While reunification seemed a long way off, Kim understood that
any real peace treaty or talks had to begin with improved ties between the
two states.^8
Some progress had been made previously in a series of bilateral talks
from 1988 to 1992, culminating in two agreements: the “Agreement on
Reconciliation, Nonaggression, and Exchanges and Cooperation between
the South and the North,” and the “Joint declaration of the
Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.” These agreements solidified
the two Koreas’ resolve to move towards sustainable peace, and also
included a stipulation that the North would not work on a nuclear
program.^9 Unfortunately, while the spirit of the agreements was promising,
in practice very little respect was given to their content.
Kim Dae Jung made it a priority to actively work towards realizing the
goals outlined in the 1992 agreements. As a result of his convictions, he
crafted the Sunshine Policy. The Policy acted as a kind of Korean détente,
easing tensions and bringing the two states closer to reconciliation.
According to Samuel S. Kim, “The twin pillars of the policy were the
(^7) Kim, “Is Culture Destiny? The Myth of Asia’s Anti-Democratic Values”, 4.
(^8) Cho, “Collective Identity Formation on the Korean Peninsula: United States’
Different North Korea Policies, Kim Dae-Jung’s Sunshine Policy, and United
States-South Korea-North Korea Relations.”
(^9) Kim, The Two Koreas and the Great Powers, 320.