Lee’s reunification plan excludes Korean Commonwealth

Posted on : 2010-08-17 14:59 KST Modified on : 2010-08-17 14:59 KST
Experts say this plan excludes an interim period
 Aug. 16.  
Aug. 16.  

By Sohn Won-jae

 

 One stage of reunification remains out of view. Has it disappeared? Has it been briefly hidden? This is the curious result of the three-stage unification plan - peace community, economic community and national community - revealed by President Lee Myung-bak during his Liberation Day address.

 The Cheong Wa Dae (the presidential office in South Korea or Blue House) said the three-stage plan is a successor and development upon the “national community unification plan,” the government’s only official unification plan since the Kim Young-sam administration. Kim’s plan calls for peace and reconciliation, followed by an inter-Korean confederation and finally reunification.

 President Lee’s plan divides the peace and reconciliation stage into peace community and economic community stages. It also ties the Korean Commonwealth (two nations, two systems) and unified nation (one nation, one system) together into one stage: national community.

 The Cheong Wa Dae explained that the national community is a stage when basic human rights are improved, national homogeneity is recovered, and an inter-Korean relationship of coexistence and mutual prosperity is completed through laws and systems for reunification.

 The problem lies in the existing unification plan that unites the Korean Commonwealth and “unified nation” stages into one “national community” stage. If this occurs, then the position of the Korean Commonwealth, created as an interim stage prior to national reunification, becomes unclear.

 Some have asked whether this means the stage of the Korean Commonwealth has virtually lost its meaning as a second stage. The old reunification plan makes this an interim stage to reduce unnecessary tensions between the systems and boost the possibility of negotiations in the unification process. Although it is an interim stage, it was made a mid-point goal that needed to be fulfilled.

 In the unified national community stage, however, it has become unclear whether the Koreas should go through the interim Korean Commonwealth and reunify, or if both countries can reunify even without going through that interim stage.

 There are some who also point out this uncertainty in Lee’s unification plan because it reflects the unification viewpoint of conservatives. Generally speaking, conservatives call for reunification through absorbing North Korea into a liberal-democratic system. At play is the logic that in a situation in which North Korea is forecast to collapse, Korea has to reunify right away by absorbing North Korea into South Korea’s system, with no need to go through an interim two nation-two system stage that keeps the North Korean system of government in tact.

 In response, a Cheong Wa Dae official said, “While a situation is fully possible in which dividing reunification into a North Korea-South Korea stage and a unified nation stage would be meaningless, the president’s reunification plan was not changed based on this presumption.”

 The view also exists, however, that the government is trying to virtually get rid of the Korean Commonwealth stage by erasing the division between the second and third stages instead of officially changing the existing plan, which would cause controversy.

 Professor Kim Yong-hyeon of the North Korean studies department of Dongguk University said, “The current administration holds the fundamental belief that unification will be led by South Korea, and that the process would be short.”

 Kim also said, “When you consider the government’s view of reunification, it is highly possible that while the Korean Commonwealth stage has been kept alive in word only, it has actually lost its meaning as a stage of reunification.”

  

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]

 

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