South Korean identities in strategies of engagement with North Korea : a case study of President Kim Dae-jung's Sunshine Policy.

This dissertation is a theoretically grounded empirical study aimed at shedding light on
the multiple dimensions of South Korean President Kim Dae-jung's Sunshine Policy of
engaging North Korea. It questions the ontological viability of conventional strategies
and theories of engagement and produces a framework of comprehensive engagement
based on realist, liberal and, most importantly, constructivist approaches. The study
focuses on identifying the new tools of engagement employed by South Korea's policy
elites, who created a social environment for South Koreans' shift of identities vis-a-vis
North Korea in the course of implementing this engagement policy. To support the
thesis of a momentous shift in identities as a result of the Sunshine Policy, this study
uses a wide range of interviews with policy elites and sets of opinion polls published by
news organizations and government agencies, while at the same time analyzing the
policy from a theoretical and historical perspective.
In order to provide concrete evidence of the identity shift, this dissertation
analyzes three major policy issues during the Kim administration: North Korea's
improvement of diplomatic relations with Western powers; the Hyundai Business
Group's Mt. Kumgang tourism project and its link to the inter-Korean summit in June
2000; and North Korea's revelation of a nuclear weapons programme in October 2002.
The key research findings of this study are as follows: first, the Sunshine Policy,
implemented by South Korea's policy elites, who projected North Korea as a 'partner'
or a 'brother', enabled a majority of South Koreans to develop positive identification
with the South's enemy, as defined by the National Security Law; second, the policy
played a significant role in preventing crises and maintaining the political status quo on
the Korean Peninsula; and third, the policy laid the groundwork for a new era of inter Korean
economic cooperation and integration.