ADRN

The KF Korea Workshop is hosted by the Korea Foundation and organized by the East Asia Institute to promote and share understanding of Korean social, political, and economic issues among international residents in Korea.

For the third lecture, 2018 KF Korea Workshop invited Jong Yeun Bae, a professor at Yonsei University, to present on the topic of ‘Korean Diplomacy in the Era of Peace on the Korean Peninsula.’ Professor Bae is currently the Research Director of the Haesung Institute for Ethics in International Affairs and works as a Policy Advisor to the Ministry of Unification. His research focuses on Korean foreign policy and Korean unification. During the lecture, he discussed Korean foreign policy with a particular focus on security issues and introduced different ways to assess the current administration’s policies. He also shared his thoughts on an ideal path to Korean unification.

Korea’s foreign policy mainly focuses on overcoming security threats from North Korea and its neighboring countries. However, Korea faces a dilemma in which it must also cooperate with these countries to achieve Korean unification. Currently there is no easy compromise between the various arguments on the direction of Korean foreign policy. Nevertheless, Professor Bae emphasizes that Korean foreign policy is always defensive in nature, trying to maintain the status quo, and oriented toward Korea’s survival. He argued that in assessing future Korean foreign policy, it would be helpful to view it in terms of Korea’s strategy for survival and unification.

On the issue of Korean unification, Professor Bae pointed out that SouthKorean society is clearly divided on how to view the North Korean problem. For example, Korean conservatives and liberals are divided along this line. Moreover, Professor Bae pointed out that many Koreans now support the notion of peaceful coexistence between the two separate Koreas instead ofsudden, radical unification which has the potential toplace a heavy burdenon South Korea.