Confidence Building and Unification on the Korean Peninsula

Asia Program - Northeast Asia

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The Korean Peninsula remains one of the main concerns of the international community and poses a potential threat to regional security with problems relating to North Korea's nuclear issue. Moreover, the situation in the relations between North and South has worsened considerably during the recent years, basically, due to the lack of trust and confidence, as well as the contrasting ideas on the ways of reaching a solution on the nuclear issue. The relations between North and South Korea have always been characterized by official declarations about a mutual wish to achieve reunification of the two parts of Korea. However, the almost half a century of the division of the Korean Peninsula cannot be overcome only by burning national sentiment. Unification of the divided nation remains the dream of all Koreans. It may have been expected that some readjustment would be necessary.

Main research focuses for the project are an examination of the regional security and its prospect to identify with regard to the attempted measures of confidence building concerning issues of the Korean Peninsula. In addition, the project analyzes the prospects for a reunification on the Korean Peninsula by focusing on the differences in attitudes and perceptions between North and South Korea

Primary Researchers

David Mulrooney

Primary Funders

The Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs
The Folke Bernadotte Adacemy

Partners

Korea Institute for Defense Analyses
Institute for Disarmament and Peace, Pyongyang

Ewha Institute of Unification Studies, South Korea

Events

May 24, 2011

ASIA FORUM on Foundations for Peace on the Korean Peninsula and the Northern Limit Line issue and Federalism: Fundamental Way for Korea's Reunification with Mr. So Kwang Yong, Researcher, and Mr. Choe Chang Man, Senior Researcher, at the IDP, DPRK.

September 10, 2010

WORKSHOP on Non-Proliferation Measures and North Korea's WMD organized by ISDP and KIDA.

June 02, 2010
ASIA FORUM on The Korean Peninsula: Peace Regime Buildings and the Challenges Ahead with Yang Xiyu, Senior Fellow at China Institute of International Studies (CIIS).

May 26, 2010
ASIA FORUM on The Structure of Impasse: The Complexity of Japanese "North Korean issues" with Norihito Kubota, Assistant Professor, National Defense Academy of Japan.

October 6, 2008
ASIA FORUM on "Recent Change and Contention in Inter- Korean Relations" with Prof. Park Myoung-kyu, Director of the Institute for Peace and Unification Studies (IPUS), Seoul National University, ROK.

May 23, 2008
ASIA FORUM on "The Benefits and Costs of Pyongyang's Two Survival Strategies: Military-first and Reform and Opening" with Dr. Choong Nam Kim East-West Center, Honolulu, Hawaii.

April 16, 2008
ASIA FORUM on "The Foreign Policy of the New Administration in South Korea: Its implications for Denuclearization and North-South Relations" with Mr. Daeshik Jo, Minister Counselor and Consul General at the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in Stockholm.