이명박 정부의 통일세 제안 배경과 향후 추진과제

Abstract

With respect to a ‘unification tax’ proposed in a congratulatory speech by President Lee Myung-bak on the 65th anniversary of National Liberation, this thesisis to provide basic discourses that are needed form or eproductive debates in our society and to help build aright policy direction. This thesis gives four reasons that President Lee proposed unification tax. One of the reasons is to raise people’s awareness on unification. The second reason is related to the increased instability of North Korea. The third one is to prepare the future of the Korean Peninsula along with implementing May 24 measures. The last one is to induce the international society to participate in the sanctions against North Korea and to bring peace on the Korean Peninsula. Therefore, by absorbing the ongoing debates on unification tax into more broad frame work of ‘unification financing’ in the course of discussions over unification tax, the discussions on the unification tax will build a public consensus. The highest priority should be put on building a public consensus in order to secure unification financing. To do this, we need to focus on more systematic calculation of unification cost and measures to minimize the cost. We need to make more efforts to demonstrate “unification benefits,” which are far larger than unification costs, in the politics, security, economic, and social sectors. Second, the measures for international cooperation should be deliberated because unifying the two Koreas is not just an issue of the South and the North. We should take a less on from the experience of the West Germany that took various measures to induce cooperation from the neighboring France and the United Kingdom as well as the United States and the U.S.S.R in the process of the German unification. Third, we need to prepare for gradual and stage by stage unification process. The unification financing should be prepared in both ways – before and after unification of two Koreas. In short, a road map for unification financing should be made. From now on, the most important thing in the discussions on unification cost will be presenting feasible visions for unification. Only when people share the vision and are willing to bear unification cost, the era of unification on the Korean Peninsula will begin.