The history of South Korea begins with the Japanese surrender on 2 September 1945. At that time,South Korea and North Korea were divided,despite being the same people and on the same peninsula. In 1950,the Korean War broke out. North Korea overran South Korea until US-led UN forces intervened. At the end of the war in 1953,the border between South and North remained largely similar. Tensions between the two sides continued. South Korea alternated between dictatorship and liberal democracy. It underwent substantial economic development.
Korean reunification is the hypothetical unification of North Korea and South Korea into a singular Korean sovereign state. The process towards reunification of the peninsula while still maintaining two opposing regimes was started by the June 15th North–South Joint Declaration in June 2000,was reaffirmed by the October 4th Declaration in October 2007 and the Panmunjom Declaration in April 2018,and the joint statement of United States President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the Singapore Summit in June 2018. In the Panmunjom Declaration,the two countries agreed to work to officially end the Korean conflict in the future.
Kim Dae-jung was a South Korean politician and activist who served as the 8th president of South Korea from 1998 to 2003.
The Sunshine Policy is one of the approaches for South Korea's foreign policy towards North Korea,lasting from 1998-2008 and again from 2017-2020.
Lim Dong-won is a retired South Korean politician who was a top aide during the administration of Kim Dae-jung and a key architect of the Sunshine Policy,holding the post of Unification Minister until losing a no-confidence vote on September 3,2001;he stepped down after being impeached on December 23,2001. His involvement in secret payments to North Korea to facilitate the 2000 summit meeting resulted in an 18-month suspended jail sentence in 2003. In 2004 he was named the head of the Sejong Institute. In his retirement he has been critical of United States policy on North Korea. He has also been indicted in connection with an extensive wiretapping scandal uncovered in 2005.
Jeong Se-hyun is a South Korean politician who served as an Unification Minister under two consecutive presidents from 2002 to 2004.
Formerly a single nation that was annexed by Japan in 1910,the Korean Peninsula has been divided into North Korea and South Korea since the end of World War II on 2 September 1945. The two governments were founded in the two regions in 1948,leading to the consolidation of division. The two countries engaged in the Korean War from 1950 to 1953 which ended in an armistice agreement but without a peace treaty. North Korea is a one-party state run by the Kim family. South Korea was formerly governed by a succession of military dictatorships,save for a brief one-year democratic period from 1960 to 1961,until thorough democratization in 1987,after which direct elections were held. Both nations claim the entire Korean Peninsula and outlying islands. Both nations joined the United Nations in 1991 and are recognized by most member states. Since the 1970s,both nations have held informal diplomatic dialogues in order to ease military tensions.
Kan Kimura is a Japanese scholar of political studies and area studies. He is now a professor at Graduate School of International Cooperation Studies,Kobe University,Japan.
Inter-Korean summits are meetings between the leaders of North and South Korea. To date,there have been five such meetings so far,three of them being in Pyongyang,with another two in Panmunjom. The importance of these summits lies in the lack of formal communication between North and South Korea,which makes discussing political and economic issues difficult. The summits' agendas have included topics such as the ending of the 1950-53 war,the massive deployment of troops at the DMZ,the development of nuclear weapons by North Korea,and human rights issues.
Events from the year 2009 in South Korea.
Donald Kirk is a veteran correspondent and author on conflict and crisis from Southeast Asia to the Middle East to Northeast Asia. Kirk has covered wars from Vietnam to Iraq,focusing on political,diplomatic,economic and social as well as military issues. He is also known for his reporting on North Korea,including the nuclear crisis,human rights and payoffs from South to North Korea preceding the June 2000 inter-Korean summit.[1]
Sejong Institute is a non-profit,independent organization for public interest and a think tank in South Korea,dedicated to developing strategies and policies in areas of foreign and security affairs and Korean unification,regional issues,and international political economy. The Sejong Institute was established as a foundation for policy studies and research with the support of national leaders in politics and business,in the aftermath of the Rangoon Incident in October 1983. The institute's current president,Haksoon Paik (백학순),Ph.D. in Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania,is a Korean expert in North Korean politics,inter-Korean relations,North Korea-U.S. relations,and North Korean nuclear and missile issues. The Sejong Institute works in collaboration with international specialists and institutions holding various academic conferences and forums around the world. It provides policy ideas and strategies for peace and prosperity for Korea and the world,and plays a role to strengthen Korea's public diplomacy.
Yi Cheol-seung was a South Korean politician who served in the National Assembly for seven terms.
Park Jae-kyu is the president of Kyungnam University in Masan,South Korea,and the former Unification Minister and National Security Council Chairman of South Korea.
Yang Sung-chul is a South Korean political scientist,politician,and diplomat.
Lee Hee-ho,sometimes spelled as Lee Hui-ho,,was a South Korean women's rights activist,peace advocate and former First Lady of South Korea during the presidency of her husband Kim Dae-jung from 1998 to 2003.
Pak Jae-gyong is a North Korean politician and soldier. A general in the Korean People's Army (KPA),Pak is a Vice Minister in the Ministry of People's Armed Forces as well as a full member of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK). Pak is also a delegate of the 12th Supreme People's Assembly (SPA). He is one of the two survivors of 31-member commando unit,known as Unit 124,that was sent to assassinate South Korean president Park Chung Hee in the Blue House raid in 1968.
Kim Han-jung is a South Korean politician serving as a member of the Democratic Party of Korea in the 20th and 21st National Assembly
Moon Chung-in is a Special Advisor to President Moon Jae-in of South Korea for Foreign Affairs and National Security. He is also a Distinguished University Professor of Yonsei University,Krause Distinguished Fellow,School of Policy and Global Strategy,University of California,San Diego,and co-Convener of the Asia-Pacific Leadership Network for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament (APLN). He is currently serving as the editor-in-chief of Global Asia. On 21 May 2017,Moon Chung-in was nominated by President Moon Jae-in as a special advisor on unification,diplomacy and national security affairs.
2000 inter-Korean summit was a meeting between South Korean president Kim Dae-jung and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's supreme leader Kim Jong-il,which took place in Pyongyang from June 13 to June 15,2000. It was the first inter-Korean summit since the Korean War 1950-1953.
