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  • Relationship between North and South Korea after the June 15 Joint Declaration and the Development Plan for the Korean Peninsula
  • By Suh Dong-man (徐東晩)
  • Professor
    Sangji University (尙志大學校)

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1. The Historical Implication of the ‘June 15 Joint Declaration’

The relations between North Korea and South Korea have been steadily improved since the June 15 summit between President Kim Dae-jung and Chairman Kim Jong-il in the areas of exchanges and cooperation even though there have been ups and downs in the government-to-government relationship. In 2005, the two Koreas held civil and governmental ceremonies together to celebrate the anniversary of the June 15 summit and the August 15 Liberation Day.
 
In the past, the North unified civil-government events on these anniversaries, while the South chose to separate civil ceremonies from government-sponsored activities. However, this time, exchanges and cooperation were made at the government-to-government, party-to-party, and people-to-people levels with equal attention and force. Just as the June 15 summit meeting was realized on the basis of the people`s democratic capabilities, the exchanges and cooperation have shown the democratic system in the South working to overcome the differences between the government and the civil society.
 
On the other hand, the joint events signified the mitigation of the suspicion that the South Koreans have had about the North`s “Unified Front” strategy for the unification of Korea. The visit to the National Cemetery by the North Korean delegates visiting Seoul for the August 15 Ceremony was a symbolic act that reflected the status of South-North reconciliation. Despite the heightened conflicts between North Korea and the United States, the North Korean nuclear crisis is being dealt with at the “Six-Party Talks” with the increased cooperative relationship between the two Koreas working as a deterrent to the possible reliance on a military solution.
 
The effect of the June 15 summit is being felt in North Korea as much as in the South. Since the June 15, 2000 summit, the North Korean economy has received substantive benefits from the bilateral exchanges and cooperation and also from the South Korean aid. This is no secret among North Koreans. The North Korean regime, which has been as vocal as South Korea for unification, must have faced pressure from the people to show progress in the North-South relationship.
 
The so-called “June 15 spirit” is grandly propagated as the great product of Kim Jong-il`s unification policy and as the foundation of a new North-South relationship replacing the framework under the previous Kim Il-sung regime. The phrase “among us (North and South) as a nation,” used in the North as the core slogan of the “June 15 spirit,” seems to have been produced by softening the concept of “independence” and then combining it with the idea of “grand national unity” in the three principles of “Independence, Peace and Grand National Unity” declared in the July 4, 1972 Joint Communique. This demonstrated the change in North Korea`s acceptance of South Korea as a partner, departing from the perception as an outsider, a colony of external force, and a regime to destroy to realize “anti-colonial independence.”
 
The phrase “grand national unity” used in the North also embodies the meaning of “reconciliation and cooperation” used by the South. This signifies an increased flexibility on the part of the North from the past policy line of “independence first, national unity later” to a flexible approach of simultaneous pursuit for the two goals or the reversed policy of “national unity first and independence later.” North Korea has finally realized the need to recognize the existence of South Korea and seek its assistance, despite the current North Korea-U.S. confrontation and South Korea-U.S. alliance. “Among us as a nation” certainly denotes a change in the North Korean concept on inter-Korean relations but “independence” still is the North`s main strategic line that can come up to the front at any time. Thus, it is premature to be totally optimistic about change in the North Korean attitude.
 
In South Korea, the June 15 summit triggered diverse discussions on how to define the inter-Korean relationship, and the June 15 anniversary ceremony in 2005 intensified the debate. Some people even suggest that the June 15 summit marked the end of the age of separation and the beginning of the era of unification, based on the agreement in the Joint Declaration, which recognized the similarity between the commonwealth system proposed by the South and the low level of federation favored by the North.


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