On June 13, 2000, the leaders of the two Koreas met for the first time since the end of World War II.
With the 50th anniversary of the beginning of the Korean War approaching, South Korea’s President Kim, Dae-jung and North Korea’s Leader Kim, Jong-il met in Pyongyang, North Korea, to begin a historical three day summit.
High ranking officials, on both sides of the 38th parallel, have cautioned against unrealistically high expectations. Still, as a Korean (Korea-born, Korean –American), I am hopeful of the eventual achievement of a unified Korea; the only questions are how long will it take and what should be the intermediate steps.
President and Chairman of the Board of the Korea Society stated that, the stage for the Summit was established by President Kim’s inauguration speech on February 25, 1998. The speech laid out the three principles that comprised his “Sunshine Policy” of engagement with North Korea. They Are:
(1). No toleration of any sort of military provocation, from both sides;
(2). No efforts to undermine or absorb North Korea, by South Korea; and
(3). Re-establish the agenda that was embodied in the South-North Agreement
signed in December, 1991.
In the intervening two years, much has been done to implement the Sunshine Policy principles to gain the support of other countries, not only in Asia but through the world, by active diplomacy.
Major accomplishments of President Kim’s first two years in office has been the establishment of diplomatic relations with Japan, China and Russia, and the continuation of the long standing positive relationship with the United States. These successes strengthened South Korea’s hand in dealing with North Korea.
To help the situation further, in November 1998, the State Department of the United States together with the Council of Foreign Relations, conducted an independent study of America’s policy toward North Korea.
The Study Report, issued on October 12, 1999, stated that:
(1). No U. S. Policy can succeed unless it is coordinated with ROK policies; and
(2). The United States’ policies must deal with North Korea as it is, not as
America wishes it to be (North Korea shows no sign of collapse in the near future).
These conclusions, together with the Sunshine Policy, form the blue print for success in achieving the reunification of Korea. We will need, in addition, lots of patience and determination.
In addition to this blue print for reunification, the matter of costs must be addressed. The estimates of costs range from a low of $200 billions by an American economist, to over $3 trillions by a Korean economist. In between, among other estimates, is the $610 billions by the Germans with a comment that these costs would place a tremendous and unrealistic burden on South Korea.
We look upon the German reunification as a model of our situation, but when we look closely at the details, I think we would come to the conclusion that it is not a good model.
Whereas the west-east German population ratio was 4 to 1, the south-north Korean population ratio is 2 to 1. Also, whereas the west-east German income ratio was 2 to 1, the south-north Korean income ratio is 13 to 1. These statistics, at the present time, make South Korea’s burden almost impossible to bear, and unrealistic to plunge head on for an immediate total reunification.
I have been a member of the Advisory Council on Democratic & Peaceful Unification of Korea, in the Chicago Region, since 1991. It took many years, but the Unification Council has finally emerged into a positive force for reunification, thanks to the enthusiasm and leadership of President Kim.
In my second year as a member of the Council, I was appointed the Chairman of the Public Relationship Committee. Although the Council had been in existence for over a quarter century, I could not find any material in the English language. I wondered how I could convey the Council’s official message to the second generation Korean Americans and to the Americans, without any officially sanctioned material.
I asked about the existence of any official English text regarding the unification policies of the Republic of Korea. Communicating back and forth with the ROK government in Seoul, We found out that there weren’t any.
Then I made a formal proposal that, as a part of my responsibilities as the Chairman of the Public Relations Committee, our Committee would produce the English material for dissemination to the Korean, as well as the American, public in the United States. The Ministry of Unification of the Republic of Korea told us that we must not do it. They gave us some reasons, unsatisfactory to me, as to why we cannot. In fact, one of the officers in the Chicago Chapter of the Unification Council called me, at home one night, and insisted that we must not continue to pursue this idea.
The environment for unification has changed a great deal since those earlier years. I am a firm believer that strong leadership, especially in a culture like ours, is vital to the success of any and all endeavors.
As a result of world-wide events and preparations made by President Kim, the June Summit brought about the following 5-point South-North Joint Declaration:
(1). The question of unification shall be solved by the joint efforts of the Korean people;
(2). The Two Koreas will work toward unification based on the recognition of the differences in the forms of government envisioned by the two Koreas;
(3). Reunions of families, separated by the War, will take place around August 15;
(4). Economic prosperity, for the North, will be pursued by stepping up economic cooperation. To reinforce these efforts, there shall also be widening
exchanges of cultural, social, sports, health and environmental activities; and
(5). Unlike in the past, when commitments were not honored, the Joint
Declaration included provisions for follow-up South-North ministerial level
Dialogue to implement the Agreement.
There appears to be progress. The fact that the two leaders actually met is something that we did dare to hope for not too long ago, and we did have the reunions of families, and the plans for the Seoul visit, by Leader Kim, seem well under way, and there have been meetings of high level officials from both sides, and there are plans being made for linking the two Koreas by rail (between Seoul and KaeSong and ultimately to Pyongyang), and the construction of a highway across the DMZ.
The opening ceremonies of the Olympics in Sidney gave us another reason for optimism. It did my old heart wonders seeing the athletes of the divided Koreas marching together, hand in hand, before a world stage.
The Germans, combining their medal totals (57), placed fifth in the world standings. If Koreas had combined their totals (28 plus 4), we would have placed eighth; quite an accomplishment in the presence of such perennial powers as England, Japan, etc.

These are auspicious beginnings but we must be cautious, and we must be patient. After all, it took the Germans nine (9) summit meetings over a period of twenty (20) years to accomplish the reunification, and that country did not go through a devastating civil war as we did.
It is troublesome to note, a recent internet interview showed that the ROK young people were not knowledgeable of our historic relationship with North Korea – that we are one nation. This feeling seemed most prevalent among children of the people that are financially well off.
September 6, 2000 issue of the Ewha Voice reported that, according to a survey carried out in March by the Advisory Council on Democratic & Peaceful Unification, only 51% of the 1879 university students who participated in the survey said they were interested in unification, and 53% said it would be nice to unify with the North but that it is not an obligation. Most university students, being the post-war generation, do not have a positive attitude toward inter-Korea relations.
It is fair, I think, to admit that the attitudes of the young people are not totally their fault. We adults, and the environment we created, must take a lion’s share of the blame. Our generation has been trying, overtime, to develop a better world for our children, perhaps without the conscience or the wisdom to know what is better.
We became self-impressed with our financial successes and lost sight of what is really important; set of moral values, societal order and a sense of history. As a result, we reared children who are selfish, who have adopted life styles that should not have tolerated but did nothing about.
One of the benefits of the Summit is that it has awakened an interest among the young people of South Korea, about North Korea; they are flocking to book stores in search of books about North Korea and its reclusive Leader.
In the October, 2000 issue of the Reader’s Digest, it reports that the Pyongyang regime has for years played a clever, largely successful game to extract massive aid from around the world, especially from the United State and South Korea. It warns, before we give them the keys to our treasury and other resources, we must ask the question, are North Korea’s current activities really sincere and their intentions really peaceful? If so, there are a number of things they must do, not just talk a good gam
North Korea must withdraw its huge army away from the South Korean border (and, of course, South Korea must also withdraw its forces away from the North Korean borders), cease development of weapons of mass destruction including nuclear bombs and ballistic missiles, honor its treaty obligations with the Atomic Energy Agency, and free its own people from the shut down of outside news.
It was not long ago that, when the international community talked about imposing drastic sanctions on North Korea if it did not comply with the treaty agreement, it replied that “sanctions mean war, and war means South Korea’s capitol city of Seoul would be engulfed in a sea of fire.”
In essence, North Korea has wrung money and resources (fuel, food, technical assistance, etc.) from the world community. Amazingly, North Korea is one of the largest U. S. aid recipient in Asia – even while it remains on the countries listed, by the U. S. State Department, as a sponsor of terrorism.
Henry Sokolski, the Executive Director of the Non-Proliferation Policy Center in Washington, D. C., stated recently that North Korea is more dangerous today than it was six years ago.
In the face of such negative opinions, South Koreans and the world can only hope that the peace summit, this spring, was for real, and stay vigilant. We must constantly keep in mind the alternative to reunification – the devastation of the Korean War and all its aftermaths.
We must look to the world for help, mostly from the United States, Japan, China and even Russia, in this reunification effort. But importantly, we must LOOK TO OURSELVES to achieve the most important task that we have the privilege to resolve.
Our DESIRE is the most important ingredient for reunification. Do we have it? Do we have it in abundance? Can we, will we, make the sacrifices necessary to achieve the reunification of our beloved Korea?

Joseph Yi came to America in 1940, at the age of 10, and has lived basically in the Chicago Metropolitan Area. Although Mr. Yi’s professional life was in the mainstream society, he has actively participated in the voluntary social services for the Chicago Korean community.