탈냉전시대 한국의 대북정책과 남북관계의변화

Abstract

This article intends to analyze South Korea's policy towards North Korea and changes in inter-Korean relations in the post-cold war era, in the context of correlations between those two factors. The factors which have an impact on inter-Korean relations are multi-dimensional. But, South Korea's North Korea policy is considered to be a most direct cause in the sense that it aims to improve inter-Korean relations. In the short term, there may emerge some changes in inter-Korean relations regardless of the South's policy towards the North. In the longer term, however, South Korea's North Korea policy is a product of the mixture of many internal and external factors, and the implementation of the policy influences North Korea's policy towards South Korea which in turn leads to certain changes in inter-Korean relations. This paper proposes several policy suggestions in order to continue to develop and stabilize the positive relationship between South Korea's North Korea policy and inter-Korean relations: first, South and North Korea should start direct military talks and establish a peaceful coexistence system; second, South Korea should enhance its efforts to raise inter-Korean economic dependence; third, the South Korean government should be more attentive to national consensus building with regard to its policy towards North Korea; fourth, South Korea needs to conduct a multi-faceted diplomacy to form an international environment favorable to the implementation of its policy towards North Korea.