제7차 당대회를 통해 본 북한의 통일정책

Abstract

North Korea held the 7th Party Convention in May 2016 in 36 years after the 6th Party Convention in 1980. The Labor Party Convention is a meeting to discuss and determine the major domestic and international political lines and policies of North Korea. This paper focused on and analyzed North Korea’s unification policies discussed in the 7th Party Convention. Based on the analysis, it produced the outlook on the inter-Korea relations after the 7th Party Convention and implications on the South Korean policies toward North Korea. The interested parts regarding the unification policies of North Korea can be categorized into three topics of suggestion of the new unification plans, changes in the strategies toward South Korea and suggestion of inter-Korean talks under the regime of Kim Jong-un. North Korea emphasized the existing ‘top three charter of national unification’ and the ‘federal system’ rather than suggesting the new unification plans. The North Korea’s strategy toward South Korea stuck to the one aimed to communize the Korean peninsula through ‘national liberation democratic revolution.’ North Korea suggested ‘military talks’ for inter-Korean talks. However, it can be interpreted as mutual contradiction to mention talks and negotiations while continuing to develop nuclear and threaten the military provocation against South Korea. North Korea’s unification policies discussed in the 7th Part Convention only repeated the existing policies and positions and are hard to find the new changes. This reflects Kim Jong-un’s negative view against South Korea and the negative unification view, which leads to expect the future inter-Korean relations to be in a negative scenario.