Research On The Adjustment Of South Korea’s Policy Towards China Under The Background Of Reform And Opening Up(1978-1992)

This study fully explores,interprets,and applies the declassified first-hand materials of South Korean diplomatic archives,and combines relevant research results from domestic and foreign academia to analyze South Korea’s understanding of China’s reform and opening up and adjustments to its policies towards China.It systematically sorts out the development of the history of China South Korea relations before the establishment of diplomatic relations,focusing on history and caring for the present.After the 1970s,the overall Cold War situation tended to ease.In 1972,China achieved normalization of relations with the United States and Japan,ending the long-standing standoff.South Korea quickly responded to this and began actively improving relations with socialist countries such as China and the Soviet Union.In 1978,after the Third Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee of the CPC was held,China began to carry out reform and opening up,carry out comprehensive economic restructuring at home,and implement an open policy to the outside world,which also became an important opportunity for South Korea to contact China and improve relations between the two countries.The first chapter of the main text focuses on South Korea’s understanding of China’s reform and opening up policy.From the publicly available diplomatic archives of South Korea,it can be seen that since the 1980s,South Korea has paid special attention to China’s policies and processes of reform and opening up,believing that China’s implementation of reform and opening up is a key opportunity to promote the improvement of bilateral relations.To this end,the South Korean government actively collects information about China’s economic reform and opening up through various channels such as embassies abroad,carefully observes the trends of China’s economic reform,closely analyzes China’s opening up situation,and then seeks space for cooperation.The adjustment of South Korea’s policy towards China stems from South Korea’s understanding and judgment of China’s reform and opening up.Chapter 2 provides a detailed analysis of the adjustment process and reasons for South Korea’s policy towards China during the reform and opening up period.The world situation underwent significant changes from the 1970s to the 1980s,and the attitudes and understandings of China and South Korea towards each other also changed.In terms of foreign policy formulation,China and South Korea have placed greater emphasis on pragmatism and have gradually improved their relations through cooperation in the economic and trade fields by adopting measures of"political and economic separation".The third chapter discusses the favorable and unfavorable factors for South Korea to improve its relations with China during the reform and opening up period.The promotion of China’s reform and opening up policy provides a good external opportunity for South Korea to gradually improve its relations with China.At the same time,the world situation has shown a trend of multipolarization,and South Korea’s foreign policy has begun to shift towards multilateral and all-round diplomacy.Due to the existence of the North Korean issue and Taiwan question,the improvement of relations between China and South Korea has gone through a complex stage of development.However,achieving normalization of relations will be conducive to the proper resolution of long-standing unresolved issues between the two countries,which is in line with the practical and long-term interests of both sides.In response to China’s economic reform and opening-up,South Korea has formulated a strategy to expand economic exchanges,promote economic and trade exchanges between the two countries in stages,develop from indirect trade to direct trade,strengthen personnel exchanges and interactions,and actively engage in dialogue and communication in international organizations.The joint efforts of China and South Korea have overcome unfavorable factors that hinder the development of bilateral relations,such as the North Korean issue and the Taiwan question.Through benign interactions in the non political field,the relationship between the two countries has been "natural",and the time for negotiations to establish diplomatic relations is ripe.Finally,the two countries have achieved diplomatic relations.