신기능주의 통합이론에서 본 남북한 교류협력정책의 새로운 방향성: ‘분권형 대북정책’

Abstract

This study seeks to discuss ‘decentralized exchange and cooperation policy toward North Korea’ to revitalize inter-Korean exchange and cooperation, by reexamining the meaning of inter-Korean exchange and cooperation on neo-functionalist integration theory. Neo-functionalist integration theory which argues for ‘a parallel strategy of politics and economy based on the separation of politics and economy’ simultaneously considers two factors on the unification of the two Koreas. The first is the heterogeneity of the two Koreas related to the political level, and the second is the continuity of the two Koreas related to the economic level. These are interconnected, but the crucial part lies in the latter. In other words, the purpose of political efforts to convert the heterogeneous north and south Korea into a state of coexistence is to vitalize inter-Korean exchange and cooperation at the economic level. In this context, the author proposes ‘decentralized exchange and cooperation policy toward North Korea’. With political efforts to transform the heterogeneous two Koreas into a state of coexistence, the revitalization of inter-Korean exchanges and cooperation requires discussing the internal way to invigorate inter-Korean exchange and cooperation. It is linked to an alternative to overcome the limitations of ‘centralized exchange and cooperation policy toward North Korea’, acknowledging the inevitability of it due to the specificity of existing inter-Korean relations.