THE ROH MOO HYUN GOVERNMENT’S POLICY TOWARD NORTH KOREA – A RETROSPECTIVE ANALYSIS
The Roh Moo Hyun Government’s Policy towards North Korea: A Retrospective Analysis

Summary/Abstract: The administration of South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun pursued a policy of engagement and reconciliation with North Korea to include the ultimate integration of the isolated North into more cooperative regional and global relationships. Roh’s Policy of Peace and Prosperity (P’yŏnghwa-wa bŏnyŏng chŏngch’aek), a continuation of Kim Dae Jung's Sunshine Policy, aimed at promoting peace on the Korean Peninsula and focused on mutual prosperity for South Korea, North Korea and the entire region of Northeast Asia. This policy emphasized the need for dialogue in resolving problems between the two Koreas, including the North Korean nuclear crisis. In this context, President Roh’s efforts to normalize relations through dialogue, economic cooperation and exchanges targeted the eventual achievement of ‘the Era of Northeast Asia’, and a single national community of Koreans based on the principles of independence, peace and democracy. Despite the adversity of the second North Korean nuclear crisis and internal political disputes stemming from the South Korean policy of engagement towards North Korea, the Roh Moo Hyun administration expanded cooperation culminating in a second inter-Korean summit between Roh and the North’s Kim Jong-il in October 2007. This paper includes a retrospective review of the Roh Moo Hyun’s Northern engagement policy in light of changing South–North relations and growing tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

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