Sunshine Policy a Failure or success?

When Kim Dae-jung became South Korea’s president in 1998, one of the top goals he had was the unification of the two halves of Korea.  Thus, the Sunshine Policy was enacted in 1998.  Within two years on June 13 through the 15, Kim Dae-jung was able to personally meet up with Kim Jong-Il (leader of North Korea) in P’yongyang.  “On national television, Koreans watched the South Korean delegation land at the North Korean capital.  “Meeting them on a red carpet laid on the tarmac was Kim Jong-Il…who greeted Kim Dae-jung with a warm two-handed handshake and words of welcome,” (3).  The happiness the two leaders shared together brought a moment of joy and hope.  Along with the shared happiness, the two also shared vows.  They both vowed to reunify the two halves of Korea one day on their own terms.  They vowed to never be unified by the force of foreigners.  They promised to each other to work on the issues of humanitarian including the separation of families when North and South Korea divided.  They agreed to construct confidence in one and other by the partnership of their economics.  Lastly, they pledged to keep in contact and meet up again to carry out their vows (3).  At this moment, the sunshine policy was off to a great start and created a promising image that one day the two Korean halves will forge as one.

This feeling of hope lasted for months.  The two kept their promises and met four times In the months after the summit of June.  with one vow successful, many more followed.  “In addition, there were discussions involving Red Cross representatives from both countries, talks between defense minsters, and a working-level military discussion.  Emotional reunification of one hundred separated families on both sides and the promise of more buoyed national feelings,” (3).  The relationship between the two have immensely moved towards their goal of unification.  “The marching together of athletes from the two Koreas under one peninsular flag at the Sydney Olympics in September 2000,” (4) brought more hope that the Sunshine Policy will work.  However, that didn’t last long.  In February 2001 everything flopped.  There were no further family reunions, scheduled minister meet ups were not participated by P’yongyang, North Korea’s promise to rebuild the North-South railway plundered, and Kim Jong-Il’s agreement to visit the South never came through.  To make it worse in October 2002, North Korea stated that they will initiate a program for nuclear weapons and they lived up to their statement.  When Kim Dae-jung’s presidency term ended in 2003, the Sunshine Policy and the hope it brought was in bad shape.  However, Kim’s successor, Roh Moo-hyun kept holding onto the dream of unification.  “Under the Roh administration, a second land mark summit meeting was held in Pyongyang in October 2007,” (5).  However, there was no change of heart that came after this meeting.  Roh endured the Sunshine Policy in his presidency years and it was the last ray of light it would ever get.  In 2007, Lee Myung-bak won the president election and along with other South Koreans wanted something in return from the North for all the years of broken vows.  All that can be said from here about the Sunshine policy is this “Sunshine faded into a sunset in which North Korea called Lee a “traitor” and a “lackey” of the United States,” (1).  That was the end of what could have been.

So to answer the question was the Sunshine Policy a failure or success, it can be both.  It just depends on how someone looks at the situation and what it brought.  If someone were to look at it from the main aspect of the policy, which was unification then it was a utter failure.  The policy’s lifespan of 9 years never once was North and South united.  Even in today’s world, the remnants of the policy will not persuade them to unify.  Both North and South will not revert back to the Sunshine Policy.  It is completely dead.  Now, if someone were to look at it as just building a better relationship then the policy was a success.  The Sunshine Policy was able to ease the tension of their past decades the two countries had with each other.  It brought out the idea that there was a chance that unification was possible.  Even today, the two halves still believe the chance of one Korea is possible.  Though, the Sunshine Policy is dead maybe a new, better, and proactive policy can be birthed from it.  In the end, the Sunshine Policy was indeed a failure, but also a success.  It failed it’s main goal of unification, “However, no one could deny the policy improved relations between the two Koreas and no other policy achieved so much in history,” (5).

1.  Kirk, Donald.  “The sunset of South Korea’s ‘sunshine policy'”.  Los Angeles Times, August 20, 2009.

2.  Schoppa, Keith.  East Asia: Identities and Change in the Modern World-1700 to Present.  New Jersey: Pearson Education, 2008.

3.  Schoppa, East Asia, 487

4.  Schoppa, East Asia, 488

5.  Swe, San.  “What Happened to North Korea: The Sunshine Policy”.  IVN, August 20, 2013.

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