Sunshine: Bright Over Decades

This paper analyses three cases over the history of North and South Korea’s formal relations to argue that despite Seoul’s official changes to its diplomatic policy towards Pyongyang, the core principles of the sunshine policy as articulated by Kim Dae-jung have been present throughout Seoul’s actions and rhetoric since the formal initialization of North-South relations in 1971.


Introduction
Inhabiting opposite sides of one of the most militarized borders on earth, both Seoul and Pyongyang hold vested interest in maintaining peaceful diplomatic relations with one another. The Korean North and South have transitioned from refusing to recognize each other as legitimate countries-thereby placing responsibility for improved relations entirely on the other party-to more frequent attempts at diplomatic negotiation and economic sanctions as means of deescalating tensions on the peninsula and working towards the mutually-desired goal of reunification.
Onlookers outside of the peninsula may have the impression that the essence of the sunshine policy-essentially Seoul's efforts to engage with Pyongyang in the name of diplomacy-did not begin until the inauguration of Kim Dae-jung, in February 1998, and

The Sunshine Policy
First officially articulated by Kim Dae-jung, the sunshine policy was Seoul's official foreign policy towards Pyongyang from 1998 to 2007. The policy was aimed at greater engagement with Pyongyang through broader economic commitment and the establishment of regular South-North dialogues and summits aimed at the normalization of relations between Seoul and Pyongyang. For Kim, the sunshine policy was a framework that Seoul could operate under while moving towards the mutually Honarvar: Sunshine 151 desired goal of a peaceful resolution to the issues on the peninsula, and eventual reunification. The sunshine policy is and has always been contingent on reciprocation from Pyongyang. Though officially articulated by Kim, the sunshine policy came about as a result of earlier lessons learned from the turbulent history of North-South relations. Among these were the convictions that "deterrence alone is not enough," that "efforts to engage North Korea should include significant economic and humanitarian components," and that "a summit is essential" (Levin and Han 2002, 10-11). The core values of the sunshine policy continue to be the separation of economics from politics through the exchange of aid, a belief in the necessity of communication between Seoul and Pyongyang, the requirement of mutual engagement, and a continued desire for peace on the peninsula. It is these core values that characterize the sunshine policy as I see it, rather than the title coined by Kim Dae-jung.

The Inter-Korean Red Cross Talks
The Inter-Korean Red Cross talks marked an official start to the diplomatic relationship between Seoul and Pyongyang, one that would come to be characterized Though not yet given the name "sunshine policy," the Inter-Korean Red Cross talks saw the initial stages of what would later be given this name in Seoul's gradual approach to the issues of the peninsula despite an aggressive "political-militaryrevolutionary" policy from Pyongyang (Kwak, 251). These negotiations saw Chun urge "that the 'unnatural relations' between the two Koreas be brought to an end and replaced with 'normal contacts that promote the national well being' … based on fully 'normalised relations,'" and pushed to "promote a broad range of North-South exchanges and cooperation, including in trade, transportation, communications, and It is clear that despite the consistent expression of its core, the sunshine policy was most clearly and publicly promoted after its articulation and propagation by Kim Dae-jung. As I have argued above, this is not because the principles of the policy were only present during Kim's administration, nor is it because Kim had only thought of the policy after he became president. As a political figure, Kim was sentenced to death and almost assassinated by more than one of South Korea's military dictators.
Though he was a known figure before his own administration, the sunshine policy itself was only articulated and propagated to the level of international recognition once Kim came into office. It is fair to conclude then that Kim's personal convictions and ambitions for his administration and the South Korean nation were the cause of the proliferation of the sunshine policy. From 1971, South Korean dictators initiated and then continued to operate loosely following the core values of what would later become known as the sunshine policy, out of a recognition that peaceful engagement with North Korea was the only viable alternative to high tensions and conflict on the peninsula. However, it was Kim's own insistence on making the "reconciliation and cooperation with North Korea a top priority of his administration" (Levin and Han, 23) that propelled the sunshine policy to its stature during his time as president, ushering in what many across the globe saw as a new era in North-South relations.
In her administration, Park Geun-hye has emphasized her policy of "trustpolitik" as a way to engage with North Korea as well as a domestic policy. This policy is viewed internally and internationally as being tougher on Pyongyang than Kim's sunshine policy, but I would argue that in fact Park's trustpolitik contains the core of the sunshine policy within it. Park's trustpolitik emphasizes a "greater focus on ordinary people and civil society" and an insistence that "South Korea will not let the actions of North Korea's leaders impact Seoul's humanitarian policies towards ordinary citizens" (Keck 2013). This emphasis on engagement of the people instead of the political leaders of the North can be easily reworded into the sunshine policy's core principle of separating politics and economics. Furthermore, Park's emphasis on trust between nations can be equated to the sunshine policy's requirement of reciprocation from Pyongyang. It is true that Park's trustpolitik also stresses punishment for provocation, but so does the sunshine policy in its statement that hardline action will be taken in a situation that requires it. Park's trustpolitik is a reiteration of the core principles of the sunshine policy under a new and more authoritative name than Kim's (an allusion to Aesop's Fables), and thus trustpolitik is  (Kim,Friedhoff,Chungku,Euicheol,(25)(26)(27)(28)(29). In other words, there is a dichotomy between the perceived and actual core principles of the sunshine policy. Though in 2015 the South Korean public was not in favor of Kim's sunshine policy, they proved in fact to be quite amenable to the independent aspects that make up its practical essence.

Sunshine Continued
In conclusion, the core of the sunshine policy has been present in some form since the establishment of diplomatic relations between Seoul and Pyongyang. Though this core has remained a consistent part of negotiations, the manifestation of this framework has changed over time due to factors such as changes in South Korean administrations and public opinion of the South Koreans themselves. Through the consistent expression of the core of the sunshine policy, the same desires and diplomatic resolutions have been expressed in different ways over the past five decades. However, as was true in the Inter-Korean Summit, the repetitive nature of the rhetoric used in North-South diplomatic negotiations does not mean that significant progress has not been made. The relationship between Seoul and Pyongyang has improved greatly since 1971. Furthermore, such reiteration is necessary in the context of North-South relations simply because this relationship is not stagnant. On the contrary, despite the turbulent shifts and frequent escalation of tensions between these two bordering nations that have yet to sign a peace treaty, North and South Korea have always successfully returned to a point of peace and a reiteration of mutual desires thanks in large part to the South's adherence to the core of the sunshine policy. I predict that North-South relations and negotiations will continue as they have in the past, with reiteration of mutual desires and willingness to compromise to small but increasingly larger degrees. As history has shown, Seoul is unlikely to depart drastically from the core of the sunshine policy any time soon.