 Image: Daily NK |
In seeking a more realistic option for
unification between the two Koreas, the idea of attaining unification through
absorption led by the South has gained some traction recently. Most proponents of this plan cite Kim
Jong Un’s lack of desire to reunify the country and instead preserve the
current system as grounds for its inevitable enactment. If reunification by absorption were to take place, a sizable number agree that creating a federation under one system with two autonomous regional governments
would be the best way to approach the issue.
At a seminar hosted by Zeitgeist in Seoul,
Senior Researcher for the Network for North Korean Democracy and Human Rights
Kim Young Hwan gave a presentation on “Identifying management plans for a
unified state”. Here, he asserted “Reunification is impossible with Kim Jong Un
upholding the current system, and it will only be possible if North
Korea’s Suryong (supreme leader) dictatorship collapses.”
Based on these conditions, he added,
“the only realistic means of reunification would be through absorption led by
South Korea.”
“Although it’s ideal to achieve unification
from an equal footing with an entirely new government system in place,
following the collapse of the existing leadership in the North, there is
perhaps little to no chance of this happening,” he continued.
“Stabilizing a
new regime in the North would be difficult, and peaceful reunification even
more challenging,” Kim said, adding this is why unification through absorption
is the “only realistic option.”
He went on to explain that post-unification,
creating a federation would be more realistic than operating under a single
government. Under the condition that the two Koreas are one sovereign state, a
one state, one system, one government would not be able to accommodate the
unique nature of public administration in the North as well as an initial
federation state would be able to.
Under one federal state, the two regions
would have separate governing bodies ruling over their respective areas, while
a federal government would be created with new ministries and public agencies
to oversee the regional governments. The federal bodies that the government
would create would be those working on a comprehensive and balanced
reconstruction, language unity, monitoring of human movement, and others.
Kim also pointed out that it would
impossible for North Korea to revert to socialism under the federal system.
Since federalism was initially proposed by the North, some may believe that
socialism or communism can coexist under the federal state. However, he
observed that the current government is less of a socialist system, and rather
a “budding form of capitalism” suppressed by a personal dictatorship and an
outdated bureaucratic system.
“Though the state may be able to affect the
speed of capitalization, it will be impossible for it to revert back to
socialist practices and creating a (proper) socialist country itself is already
out of the North’s reach,” Kim asserted.
Panelist Park Sang Bong, director of the
German Reunification Research Institute, while agreeing that reunification
through absorption is the only realistic reunification method, pointed out that
Kim’s explanation of absorption itself was not very clear.
“Reunification through absorption is
different from a functional approach that goes through the steps of
‘South-North dialogue, improving inter-Korean relations, economic exchanges,
economic reunification, political reunification’. It is when the state with
political and economic superiority expands its reach into the other state,”
Park said.
“This in detail means the reach of the
South’s constitution must extend into the North.” In this sense, Park claimed,
the idea of reunification through absorption contradicts the proposal of
creating a federation between the two countries.
