South Korean developments in the field of unification of peninsula states: theories and practice of their implementation

Abstract

This article is devoted to the analyzes of five basic Korean unification theories, which were implementedby the Government of the Republic of Korea. In fact, it was the views of acting at a certain period of the Korean history administrations, taking into account domestic and foreign circumstances. An important factor was also the action of the North Korean regime within the framework of the Korean unification question as well as in other spheres.The Korean peninsula division after the WW II was one of the turning points for the North-East Asia (NEA) region as well as for the global IR system. Strategic construct of NEA, history of the Koreans have undergone significant changes, which formally defined, above all, the beginning and the subsequent deployment of the Korean War, which de jure is still going on (peace treaty absence). Both states on North and South ranked reunification of the Korean Peninsula as a primary national goal. This article points out that the process was actually impossible to achieve at least because of two separate but interrelated complex issues existence (the first issue is related with very different political, social and economic systems for nearly 70 years; the second set of problems related to the strategic environment in the region). The analysis shows that de jure since the end of the Korean War, there were at least five theories or «trends» in the South Korean unification research. All theories were motivated by a combination of ideological characteristics of real phenomena and events in these states and on international arena and the author takes into consideration all of them in conjunction with particular political administrations.