| After World Warâ…¡, five divided nations including Korea emerged in the world. Because of its importance of geographic position, the Korean peninsula directly affected Northeast Asian peace and stability. In order to finish reunification, North and South Korea each put forward its own unification policies. During the cold war period, the policies' influence was very weak. However, with the mitigation of international situation after the cold war, unification trend of the Korean peninsula appeared. The South Korean unification policies and schemes played great roles on easing up the South and North Korea's tensions, accelerating unification of the peninsula.The research on South Korean unification policies especially its trend is very important to promote the Korean Peninsula unification and the stability and peace of entire Northeast Asia district. It is also an enrichment and development of divided nation's unification models.This article tries to seek the trend of the South Korean unification policies by discussing the developments, evolutions and comparisons of the unification policies and the Influencing factors and the unification experiences of other divided nations. The article mainly uses comprehensive analysis method and empirical research approach. Firstly, it analyses the important strategic position of the Korean peninsula and finds out the origin of the unification issue. Secondly, it researches the unification policies of the South Korean government after the Korean peninsula divided. The unification policies included "unification by force" and "peaceful unification". From the Roh Tae Woo government. Unification policies can be divided to three stages. After the development of the Kim Woung Sam, Kim Dae Jung, Roh Moo-hyun governments, the unification policies have become more specific, flexible and pragmatic. The policies promote the dialogues, exchanges and economic cooperation between South and North Korea. Thirdly, it discusses the factors affecting the unification policies. It analyses the promoting and restricted factors to unification policies from the international and peninsula environments. Fourthly, it makes a comparison about the unification experiences of the other divided nations. And a conclusion is made. The most feasible policy is the "economic integration first". That is the policy of "first the economic integration, latter the political integration". The article thinks the policy is suitable to Korean peninsula unification. It is also the trend of the South Korean unification policy. |
