남북관계와 한미관계에 대한 한국인의 인식변화와 국민적 공감대 형성 문제

Abstract

While a new regional and world order has been explored since the opening of the post-Cold War era, a lot of south korean people began to perceive an increasing tendency of unprecedented antagonism between inter-korean and ROK-USA relations. There are obviously several reasons for the perception, but it remains disputable whether the antagonism could be a correct perception. With this question I try to examine the changing public attitudes to the inter-korean and ROK-USA relations. First of all, a theoretical review concerning the interconnectedness between the foreign policy and public attitudes is attempted, and on the basis of a theoretical framework diverse surveys of public opinion about several relevant issues are analysed to examine the changing public attitudes. A trend results from the examination: The perception of unprecedented antagonism could be only partially valid. Moreover the driving force of transforming public attitudes to both relations operates not merely in the narrow sphere of military security, but in diverse spheres. Therefore it is necessary in a practical sense to make the changing public attitudes to contribute to harmonize both relations. As a conclusion some vital tasks are suggested to establish the appropriate basis of values and institutions especially for a national consensus on the matter.