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Controversy was sparked when it was revealed on September 21 that the Ministry of Unification demanded that the term “sunshine policy” of engagement with the North be described as a “policy of reconciliation and cooperation,” in public school history textbooks, one of a number of revisions suggested by the ministry.

The Unification Ministry requested that 58 terms in the nation’s history textbooks be revised, however, the thorniest issue centers on the ministry’s request to change the term “sunshine policy.” A Unification Ministry official said, “‘Sunshine policy’ was a nickname used by the administration of former President Kim Dae-jung to provide an easy explanation for its policy of reconciliation and cooperation with North Korea. Therefore, it’s appropriate that ‘policy of reconciliation and cooperation,’ an official term, be used in the textbooks instead.”

However, suspicions have been raised about why the administration has been trying to remove the term “sunshine policy” from textbooks at this late date, given the term’s widespread usage and its significance as a symbol of inter-Korean relations over the past decade. An expert on inter-Korean relations, who asked not to be identified, said, “I don’t see any problem with having textbooks mention either the term ‘sunshine policy’ or ‘policy of reconciliation and cooperation.’ Nevertheless, the reason why the Unification Ministry is moving to change the term ‘sunshine policy,’ which has been widely used over the past 10 years, could be that the administration of President Lee Myung-bak is refusing to follow the North Korea policy of the administrations of former presidents Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun.”

The move appears to be in line with the Unification Ministry’s tendency towards a more conservative ideology since the Lee administration took office, which it demonstrated with the release of its “Guidebook for Unification Education” in May, which emphasizes the security risks from North Korea and clarifies its limits on the June 15 Joint Declaration and the October 4 Declaration.

The main opposition Democratic Party, which dealt with the sunshine policy over the past decade as the ruling party, strongly protested the ministry’s move. Kim Yoo-jeong, the spokeswoman of the Democratic Party, said, “The Ministry of Unification is following the Ministry of Defense in making an anachronistic mistake by turning back the clock of history at a time when there is no sign that the strain in inter-Korean relations has been eased after the shooting death at Mount Geumgang (Kumgang). The Unification Ministry’s demand is a dangerous idea that goes back to the Cold War era.”

As the controversy intensified, the Unification Ministry changed its stance, saying that both “sunshine policy” and “policy of reconciliation and cooperation” could be used in the textbooks. On September 21, Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Ho-nyoun said that rather than demanding the use of the official term, this was a request to use both the official term and the nickname together, with a phrase like: the policy of reconciliation and cooperation by the administration of Kim Dae-jung, which is also known as the sunshine policy. The ministry spokesman said there was no relationship between requesting to change the term and whether the current administration would fulfill the spirit of the sunshine policy or not.

Separately, the Korean Chamber of Commerce and Industry, a business lobby group, demanded early this year that the government add a paragraph to the textbooks that would say that the inter-Korean summit was led by North Korea in terms of the methods by which the summit was conducted and its parameters after a sentence stating that an inter-Korean summit was held in June 2000.

The KCCI also requested that the government add another sentence saying that North Korea is threatening the stability of the Korean Peninsula by developing nuclear weapons behind the scenes, after a sentence that would read: “The prospects for reunification were brightened... after the June 15 South-North Joint Declaration was announced. Critics say the KCCI’s demands show the group’s mindset still lingers somewhere in the Cold War era.

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