Korea
The Sun Is Setting on the Sunshine Policy Upon his inauguration in February 1998, President Kim Dae Jung initiated a groundbreaking process of engagement with North Korea called the "sunshine policy,” aimed at dispelling mutual distrust and hostility, while promoting peaceful co-existence between the two Koreas. ... Kumgang and increased meetings of divided families, yet the positive aspects of the sunshine policy have recently been clouded by unforeseen actions taken by the Kim Jung Il regime in North Korea. ... However, due to the ever increasing uncertainty of cooperation in the North, it is becoming clear that the sunshine policy is neither sufficient nor productive in ameliorating relations between the two Koreas and that perhaps South Korea should decide to implement a more realist approach in policy-making which stresses security above all things. On July 27, 1953, the United States, North Korea and China signed an armistice in Panmunjeom, thus ending the Korean War. ... By no means was this a peace treaty and even if it were, it is noted that South Korea refused to sign. ... It is based on three central principles: non-tolerance of any military provocation by North Korea, the official abandonment of the idea of unification by absorbing the North and negation of any other measures to undermine or threaten North Korea, and the promotion of inter-Korean exchanges and cooperation (Hwang). ... The Hyundai Group undertook by far the most ambitious private investment in North Korea, signing a $942 million deal with Pyongyang in 1998 for the rights to develop North Korea’s Mount Kumgang resort area, which would allow South Korean citizens to visit the mountain by cruise ship (BBC). ... This liberal endeavor assumes that individual rights exist in North Korea, that there is some limit to government intervention and that also social progress in the North is possible. ... Although the Hyundai Group had high hopes that their work, their efforts, and their money alone would sustain the relationship, they were assuming that North Korea actually desired cooperation when in fact it may have been taking advantage of easy money. The current situation reaffirms this belief of exploitation by North Korea.