[2020 KF Korea Workshop: 조동호]

YouTube 링크 : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoAMPYfm2Wg

El EAI, junto con la Korea Foundation (KF), llevará a cabo el [2020 KF Korea Workshop] dirigido a extranjeros residentes en Corea con el objetivo de mejorar su comprensión de Corea y ampliar la formación de consenso. El [2020 KF Korea Workshop] consta de los siguientes tres clústeres: Clúster E (Asuntos Exteriores y Domésticos), Clúster A (Artes y Cultura) y Clúster I (Industria y TI).

Como segundo punto del Clúster E del [2020 KF Korea Workshop], se impartió una conferencia del profesor Cho Dong-ho sobre la "Política de Corea del Norte hacia Corea del Norte". Después de la conferencia, la sesión de preguntas y respuestas fue un tiempo provechoso con diversas preguntas y debates activos sobre la historia de la división de Corea, la diplomacia, etc.

Guion del video

hello good afternoon my name is dongho joe a professor of north korean studies at iwa women's university i am very happy to have a chance to introduce you the square policy of the republic of korea we have one hour and i think my lecture will be about 40 minutes and then we're going to have um qna session okay okay let me start my um lecture i like to start with experiences of german unification because north korea falls we live in a divided country so north korea policy of south korea is de facto

unification policy so that's why i want to tell you some outcomes some benefits of german unification economic development the former eastern germany the eastern part of germany its economy has been growing very fast after unification so for instance gross domestic product of the eastern part of germany has increased by more than three times within 20 years now is people's living standard in the eastern part is almost similar to that of western germans of course there is some gaps in terms of let's say wage and incomes

and so on however even in south korea we have income gaps between let's say solar and other areas so it is the same everywhere in the world so we need to consider productivity gap so the fact that there exists a wage gap between the two parts of germany does not necessarily mean that unification is a failure also no more division cost because of unification so-called division costs are no longer exist for instance before unification former east germany had about 170 000 soldiers and about 500 000 soldiers in the form

of west west germany however now it is only 180 000 very sharp decrease in number of surges also healthcare has improved thanks to unification the quality and health of medical care has improved sharply for instance life expectancy in the former east germany right let's say at the time of unification in 1990 the life expectancy of the former east germany for male it is about 70 years for female is about 77 years however now for mayor it is it has increased to almost um 79 years and for female it is 83.

furthermore there are many um intangible benefits let's say freedom let's say political freedom freedom of you know choice of jobs you know freedom of press and so on and so forth also human rights even if we cannot convert those values into money however if we can those values should be enormous should be you know infinite so those values are you know very very big also democracy um national power of unified germany and also german unification has contributed to the peace and prosperity of entire europe

we koreans have more issues for instance we have separated family issues we have millions of separated families however only about 20 000 people were able to meet during 1985 to this year in my case my father was from the north in fact he had married while he was in the north so he had his wife and three sons in the north however because well after the korean war he could not get back to his home so he became let's say kind of single in the south my mother her husband was killed during the korean war and she had one

little daughter so some years later you know somebody introduced them to each other and they married and i was born so i have my half sip half brothers in the north and i have half sister in the south i have never seen my half brothers and my father his only dream was to see his family at least once in his life however unfortunately it never happened he died so i'm you know his his sons in the north i'm sure that they didn't know his father died there are so many people like me in the south and in the north so we should solve this

problem as soon as possible without unification we cannot solve this problem fundamentally also we have fear of war technically speaking we are still at war we are living armistice state okay technically speaking we are in the middle of war in fact some years ago there was a bombing by north korea to yong pyeong island west coast side of south korea also korean navy ship sen was sank by torpedo attack by north korea and many young soldiers was killed so we want unification the president of the republic of korea

he in his or in her inauguration um speech he made also like this i do so many um i swear before the people that i will faithfully execute the duties of the president by observing the constitution and blah blah blah and then he says um pursuing the peaceful unification of the homeland that means that it is a duty of the president of the republic of korea to pursue the unit unification of the korean peninsula in fact unification has been a long-standing dream to all korean people we did not want a division at all

we are not responsible for division it was just a result of international politics after the second world war you know the world had divided into two soviet black you know i mean west western black and eastern black islam was led by you know former soviet union and western black was led by um united nations so because of you know conflict and struggle between the two powers korean peninsula was divided into two the north and south so it is not our choice we want unification however for us unification is not a goal

but means to enhance the quality of lives all korean people living on this peninsula and to secure peace and prosperity of northeast asia and the world therefore unification process is more important than the unification itself now let me briefly introduce you the history of inter-korean relations june 1950 outbreak of the korean war and hundreds of thousand people were killed and you know millions of you know houses factories farms and so on were destroyed huge damage to all korean people and after three years there was a

signing of armistice agreement since then we we are still living in amnesty's agreement state july 1972 there was july 4th south nodes joint statement in the picture the the gentleman on the left is that time um south korean kcia chief okay he went to secretly to pyongyang of north korea and met that time north korean leader kim il-sung a grandfather of current north korean leader kim jong-un and also north korean delegation came to the south and and met that time south korean president park zhang he

and you know after several um negotiations we were able to produce joint statement so that was the first statement between the two careers and in this statement both nurse and south korea announced that we agreed to three guiding principles concerning korean unification independence peace and national unity and in 1985 first reunion of separated family members 1988 november um south koreans were able to travel mount kung gang area in the north the tour project was operated by hyundai company of south korea

year 2000 there was a first summit between the two koreas since the end of korean war the the the person on the left was um kim jong-il a father of current leader kim jong-un and the person on the right was dead time south korean president kim de jun it was for the first time summit and four years later kason industrial complex began operation it that that that industrial complex is located in kaesong in north korea and and many about more than 100 subsequent forms entered there and and built on their

um factories and and and they start producing and october 2007 there was summit between um north korean kim jong-il and that time south korean president nomu muhan march 2010 north korean torpedo sank china navy ship of south korea and 46 young soldiers were killed and also february 2016 the kensington industrial complex was totally closed because of those crews test firing icbm february 2018 northeast south korea marks together at the opening ceremony um of the pyeongchang winter olympic games we joined pyeongchang winter olympic

games as one team so that's why if you see the flag um in the picture it is not north korean it is not south korean but it is korean peninsula flag when we joined international games as one team we used to use that um peninsula korean peninsula flag and april 2018 there was um summit again and it is first summit meeting for current leader kim jong-un and and south korean president moon jae-in and two two months later of that myth korean summit there was for the first time dprk u.s summit at singapore

last year february there was a second dprk u.s summit was held at hanoi however it was a total collapse and um june this year north korea destroyed the inter-korean jointly asian office in quezon so since then you know all um inter-korean exchanges and cooperation stopped now industrial policy of south korea after the korean war north korea had been considered as only an enemy because we killed each other so you know it is understandable that north korea was viewed as an enemy only enemy so any contact with north

korea had been illegal totally illegal until 1988 for instance the slogans concerning north korea changed at first in the 1950s and 60s we used to say merigon which means destroy communists and then in the 1970s we say overcome communists and then these days oppose communists in the late 1980s the south korean government thought to shift inter-korean relations of distrust and conflict to one of trust and cooperation in line with great changes following the collapse of the communist bloc and an end

of the cold war system so 1988 july 7th that time south korean president no te wu announced so-called special declaration for national self-esteem unification and prosperity the core message of this of special declaration was that this career is not an enemy anymore but it is a partner toward unification so our perception of north korea has totally changed since then as follower measures an institutional foundation for effective in the korean exchange and cooperation was laid within the the legal framework

of south korea and both north and south korea were able to produce into korean beijing agreement in 1991 the the the the core message of the agreement were five first let's remove the state of the political and military confrontation and achieve national reconciliation second we need to avoid armed aggression and hostilities and reduce tension and ensure peace on the korean peninsula and exert joint efforts to achieve peaceful unification not by war and both careers expressed the desire to realize multi-faith

tested exchanges and cooperation to advance common national interests and prosperity finally both north and south korea recognize that our relations you know inter-korean relations are not a relationship between the states but a special interim relationship stemming from the process towards unification so since then we consider trade with north korea is intra trade within one korea that means that we do not impose tariff on imported items from the north it is you know to promote into korean um trade

however you know of course there are ups and downs as north korea has continued to conduct missile and nuclear provocations since its withdrawal from the mpt in 1993 into korean relations have repeated advance and retreat on average i i would say that um north korea policy of south korea um has been dependent on the character political character of the president of south korea that means that politically conservative south korean governments prefer containment policy while progressive government prefer engagement policy the

examples of conservative governments are president kim yong-sam lim youngbach and bakung and progressive presidents are kim dejung no mu hyun and current president moon jae-in however unification as i had said earlier unification is an ultimate goal of all korean people and all korean government and every president of south korea has to made um in his or her inaugural inauguration earth the duty of unification we only differ in the ways how to improve integration relations how to encourage the changes of north

korea how to induce north korea to come out to the world and to be a responsible member of international society and to achieve unification so it's a matter of preference of carrots or sticks finally unification policy of the republic of korea it is called national community unification formula was three phased approach to unification in the first phase we would like to um have reconciliation and cooperation between the two careers and then based on the first phase we want to enter the second phase of the

korean commonwealth and the final phase we will have a unified career one nation one state this is final slide and for your reference let me briefly tell you about the unification policy of the republic um dpik democracy people's republic of korea which is north korea north korea has their own um unification formula which is called democratic confederal republic of korea it is basically um nurturing south korea should establish a national unified government with equal participation from both sides on

mutual tolerance of differences in ideologies and systems so in sum the difference is this south korea according to south korea's unification formula we imagine the unified career of one nation one state one system one government on the contrary north korea imagine one nation one state however two systems socialist system in the north and capitalist system in the south and two local governments in the north in the south of course we have one central government however basically we have two governments

so this is the difference between the two careers in terms of unification formulas okay thank you let me stop here um we have about half an hour longer than expected so i'm gonna take your questions and comments okay hmm well there there is a question from um um temu back the question is could both koreas have a federal government and their own different laws like in the u.s well in fact that idea is north korean unification formula that is basically there is a federal one federal government however there are some local governments

like in the u.s so that is the the education formula by north korea however south korean government um we want one only one um government one state one government one system so that's the difference between north and south korea where the what are the south korea's plans in regards to fusion of power elites how does it plan to deal with the government of dprk when unification happens in the korean peninsula well there is some hard question but very important where we have um we do not have any concrete plants

in the cabinet of the government however our basic idea is that we have to um engage all those korean people as many as possible after our unification however very high-ranking north korean officials very high-ranking north korean military people for their case for their cases it is not easy for them to maintain their position however lower low ranking officers we have to re-educate them we oriented them and then we and then we utilize them in the process of our unification how much has the language evolved

in both north and south korea where basically we can communicate each other we still we use the same language even if we have some you know let's say kind of dialect however it is you know we can easily communicate each other one one one one one difference these days is that south koreans are using foreign languages especially english very often but in the north they don't use american english words so there is a difference between the two couriers these days however in terms of language we don't have any

problems to communicate each other where this is questioned um by maxine kim he asked professor you have mentioned several times that koreans want unification do we speak about all koreans who are specific generation who still have relatives and families in the north does the younger generation of those younger generations of koreans still have the same feelings since the more time passes the less connection people have with north korea was through readiness and ideologically well um absolutely right um

um um for instance we have annually you know many institutions um execute um um i'm sensed on the the ask um people's conception of unification then the result is that about two-thirds of subsequent people want unification however it it it is different among the generations on average old older generations they prefer unification whatever cost it is however younger generation younger generations like you know 20s 30s they are less interested in unification that is true so so um so at least i could say that more than half of

um korean people want unification of course it is different um between between the generations it is the same in the north when when i visited north korea some years ago i have met um i'm north korean young people and i and i asked them and do you prefer unification and they said no okay and north korean young generations told me that you know their fathers and grandfathers they always say unification however i am i don't because i am less interested in in unification and frankly speaking north korea is

less developed than south korea so i want unification um later you know some decades later um and you know during while and north korea had we um developed more and once those rules and south korea become almost similar only then we are able to talk about unification that is younger younger younger generation of north korea and another question is that future approach engagement or containment has shown better performance and why well as i told you conservative governments had used containment policy

and progressive once adopted engagement policy where in my opinion in my opinion both in containment and engagement policy have failed because the basic purpose of containment or engagement is to solve north korean nuclear and missile problems however these two policies failed to produce any meaningful outcome so in that sense i cannot say that you know which one is better okay what is your idea about um may 18 guangzhou people in korea believe presently that it was a pronounced career support supported uprising

and the event still politically devised koreans what do you think about it well this is this is very difficult question and and frankly speaking it is very political where i personally believe that there is no connection with dprk okay it was um south korean president park chung-hee he was a general and he made a coup in 1961 and he had been oppression of the president for 18 years he is kind of dictator even if he has he had developed a subsequent economy so definitely it is his um it is a pros in his error however politically

he was a dictator and she he died he in fact he was assassinated in 1979 and also all south korean people believed that now we will have a so-called spring which means we will have full freedom we will have full democracy however it wasn't there was another um army general so there was a protest in guangzhou so it is our own politics okay so i don't think you know north korea or any north koreans or those korean spies are were behind the guangzhou incident another question is that it was mentioned earlier that

international politics was a major player in what led to the division of the korea why they favor reunification of the two careers well frankly speaking that is a problem or obstacles we have to we koreans have to overcome frequently speaking i don't think china is going to support reunification of the two careers what about japan here any japanese friend here any japanese or chinese would you please raise your hand if you are chinese no no chinese what about russian okay what what do you think about russian

government do you think it will be supportive to the reunification of korea no why not well maybe there is some you know technical problem where i think oh okay you can speak yeah uh because south korea is the closest ally to the united states and russia would not prefer the united states ally by its borders like maybe it's my opinion i'm sorry would you would you tell again because i couldn't hear your voice um can you hear me now okay okay now okay fine um south korea is the closest ally to the united states and south

korea has united states bases military bases and russia would not prefer it to be by its borders so north korea is kind of a buffer state maybe that's one of the versions yeah i i fully agree with you so that is the reason why um china and russia is not is not likely they are not likely um support the reunification of the two queers so anyhow in the german case there was you know german um um how can i say german um um um diplomatic diplomatic relations with um among germans and and you know the other

four major ones um uk france russia and and what um anyway german unification was german unification was possible you know one of several reasons was germans have very good relations with other major actors to get support from um from neighboring countries so that is what we have to do in our case another another comment is that unification is the means of enhanced quality of life in korea what does it mean enhance south korea's life in this content the foreign well um both north and south korea will live in

a divided country which means that for instance economically speaking south korea cannot fully exercise our economic potential we cannot fully enjoy economics of scale because we are divided because we have smaller market than the markets we are going to have after unification so we have very many natural resources in the north but south korea we cannot utilize those natural resources where many other many others so-called division cost where now in south korea young people young young men must go

most um serve as um a soldier for for about two years if we have education we will have less um amount of soldiers then we can utilize these young people for much more productive ones so there are many benefits from unification next commence is that do you think a structure like hong kong's one country to systems could work upon unification of nursing south korea well there is one option definitely i think well some people uh prefer one people one one nation one system at once however it may be unrealistic

because north korea has developed their own system for 70 years and south koreans we have our own for you know 70 years we are very much different now so suppose tomorrow we have a chance to be reunified then it is very very difficult to have one system overnight so your your suggestion may be a very realist very realistic option okay we have two systems for some years or for some decades and then we have um the the 100 percent unification well next next um next um next question is that democracies

often change leaders and shift their priorities based on who is in charge at that time authoritarian states are able to keep a consistent message as long as their leader survives in this regard does democracy have or hurt the ability of south koreans south korea and america in their attempts to negotiate with north korea well this is another um important but um difficult question um where basically i am an economist i'm not an international politician i am not a political scientist so that kind of question is um

headache for to me but um if i say my personal um view that of course dictatorship will be better for maintain consistency so it will be better for um you know it it would you know um dictatorship will be better in negotiating with north korea because in north korea they have dictator you know a counter leader kim jong-un is going to be in his position uh maybe for 40 or 50 years from now on however in the subsequent case every five year we have different prisons also in the us they have new one every

four years so north korea is in a better position in negotiating so if we have if we could have dictatorship then that is better for negotiating with north korea however you know negotiating negotiation with north korea is not the only um task i mean there are many many you know areas of you know in the nation so even if dictatorship is better in negotiating with north korea we you know i am i prefer you know democracy one of the comments is that those are okay have a strategy for dealing with the nuclear arsenal in dprk

in case of unification is there a chance for a unified queer to maintain an ethereal program i don't think so i don't think so because um we um whole nations in the world we are heading for nuclear-free world okay so even if we have unification and north korea has nuclear capabilities however after unification we have to i believe unified clear has to give up any nuclear capabilities some believe that japan china and u.s better off without unification of the two koreas is this true well i am i don't know frankly i mean

it is it is it's very it's very likely that china japan and u.s um i mean well what i want to say is this um i think that china japan us would not support korean reunification as we already discussed however once korean unification happens they will be better off where i'm not sure um well i i am not ready to answer this question okay i'm sorry let me skip this one well next question is that um what do you think about the u.s so-called sincere position regarding the unification locally it will lead to the withdrawal

of u.s military troops from south korea and loss of one of the main bases in asia it seems that u.s is not strongly interested in the unification process at all where frankly i agree with you well that's why as we had already discussed four major ones surrounding surrounding the korean peninsula u.s japan china russia they it's very likely that they don't like korean unification for u.s that is true their us major concern is to prevent chinese expansion once korea is unified then as you already mentioned

north korea i mean america u.s maybe withdraw their troops in in south korea so that is not good for um us um foreign um foreign um foreign um strategy so um well in the sense i i agree with you where i think there is one last question um with the economic differences between north and south korea with the unification with the unification with south korea we're willing to carry financial burden to elevate the status of north korea where there is a very important question where many korean people especially

younger generations of south korea are scared scared of unification because of so-called unification cost okay once we have unification on on this korean peninsula then we have to enhance um people's living standards of those clear very modern parts to the one of the south koreans then we need huge amount of money of course so we have financial burden so are we willing or are we able there are two questions if i say the second question first then i think south korean government or south korean economy

is going to be um fully um we can afford on on korean unification we are strong enough economically however are we willing it depends on the generations older generations they prefer our unification no matter how much does it cost however younger generations they don't like to pay money so it depends on the generations however on average unification benefits as as i shown in my um in the beginning of my lecture as a german enjoyed the benefits of unification like that korea is going to enjoy the

benefits of it on unification of course so no matter how much unification costs i believe the benefits are much greater than the costs where i think that is all um well if you have any further questions um well thank you for your attending and i hope my lecture is is half your understanding about korea and korean unification and i hope your study in korea is going to be where and goodwill's and bye thank you