상호문화주의를 기반으로 한 통일담론방향 모색 ― 맹자의 천하통일론을 활용하여 ―

Abstract

The reunification had a strong moral justification for the unity and prosperity of the nation. However, the perspective that national reunification should be taken for granted underwent a change in the 1990s. The theory that the reunification of the same ethnicity is not an absolute command, as the blood-related community of the nation is merely an imagined community, the societal transformation of Korean society entering into a pluralistic society, the confidence that South Korea is a self-sufficient sovereign state through industrialization and democratization, the nuclear threat posed by North Korea as a result of losing in the regime competition, and the cost of reunification in Germany have emerged as the necessity of peace and coexistence rather than immediate unification. Furthermore, when negotiating unification in the context of an equal relationship between the North and South, enforcing one system is neither ethical nor accepted by the negotiating parties, thus, the dichotomy of ‘peace as a universal concept’ and ‘reunification as a specific concept’ through recognition of both systems and expansion of cooperation and peace has become widely embraced. In this main discussion, we confirm the discourse of ‘maximized peace’ as a peace theory that overcomes the widely spread ‘minimized peace’ discourse in Korea, and discuss practical ways to promote reunification. To do this, we first explain the rationale for reunification presented by maximized peace theory through interculturalism, and then explain the practical methods of maximized peace theory through the doctrine of universal rule advocated by Mencius.