Abstract

Over the past 15 years, North Korea has pursued the military-first politics through nuclear weapons development, military-first economy and establishment of National Defense Commission to build a strong and prosperous state. However, military-first politics has failed to address the basic security, economic, and political challenges. Therefore, a two-step strategy for coevolution is required for Kim Jong-il’s successor to play a role as a new actor on the international stage in 21st century. The first step is ‘transition and reform,’ which means that North Korea needs to shift from the military-first politics to a economy-first politics consisting of three dynamics; denuclearized survival strategy, a complex networking peace system and economic reform and opening. This should also be accompanied by the coevolution efforts of neighboring countries including South Korea which is overcoming dichotomy between the previous Sunshine Policy and the current sanction-oriented policy. Thus, the new strategy will involve providing an inter-Korean, East Asian, and multilateral three-fold comprehensive peace system and forming a system of international cooperation to help North Korea promote economy-first policies. The second step is ‘transformation,’ which indicates that North Korea must go through a transformation to become a ‘complex networking country,’ not only in security and economy, but also in culture, environment, knowledge and politics to a new standard of civilization in the 21st century. As with the first step, the second step also requires coevolution efforts from the international community. In this regard, the establishment of an East Asian community and a complex networking effort among the United States, China, and South Korea needs to be followed in this process. If South and North Korea succeed in developing a complex network that meets the 21st century standard through coevolution and unification, the Korean Peninsula will show the possibility of forming a new standard of civilization.

The full text in Korean is available here