Yoon, Tae-Ryong

Abstract
The power struggle among the United States, China, Russia, and Japan surrounding the Korean peninsula has led some political leaders, scholars, pundits and government officials to get involved in debates on neutralization of the Korean peninsula since the late 19th century. This includes all the more complicated debates on the issue of the neutralized reunification of the two antagonistic Koreas raised intermittently since the forced division of the Korean peninsula in 1945. All the previous initiatives to neutralize the Korean peninsula, including the official US decision to reunify Korea via neutralization around the time of Armistice of the Korean War in 1953, have failed due to: (i) the lack of external consensus among the neighbors; and/or (ii) the lack of internal consensus between the two Koreas (or even among South Koreans) by themselves. This article highlights the necessity of the initial neutralization of South Korea alone (NSKA) absent in the previous discussions, and argues not only that NSKA would facilitate the process towards the peaceful reunification of the two Koreas via Austria-like permanent neutrality, but also that it is necessary to achieve NSKA first and maintain it for a considerable time before hurriedly pursuing a simultaneously neutralized reunification of the two Koreas. The permanent and upgradable NSKA (in a long-term process of the neutralized reunification of the Korean peninsula) at the initial stage would greatly reduce tensions in Northeast Asia, and would heighten the probability of reunification. This article intends to form an “epistemic community” for NSKA, which can be a startup towards a long-term process for Korean reunification and peaceful coexistence among the four major powers.
Read the article online here.