Kim Dae Jung, the former South Korean President, whose “Sunshine Policy” of engagement with North Korea briefly promised an end to the confrontation between the divided states, died last week at the age of 85. Late Kim will be equated with other peace stalwarts such as former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and South African leader Nelson Mandela. Despite his monumental contribution to bringing peace with its northern neighbor, not many will know that Late Kim had faced execution three times at the hands of South Korea’s former military dictators. His resistance to successive military governments made him a hero for many Koreans. Like some of the world leaders mentioned above, Late Kim was as much a man for peace as he was a champion for democracy. And off course his summit meeting with the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-Il, won him the Nobel Peace Prize. That he was truly respected as a leader even by bitter rival North Korea can be gauged from the fact that his death has led to a cooling of tensions that have been rising in the peninsula for the last few months with North Korea even sending a delegation to attend his state funeral. As one media commentator states “in life and in death, Kim Dae Jung, the former South Korean president, has helped to inch the two Koreas towards warmer ties”.
So the challenge before the present leadership in both Seoul and Pyongyang is whether the two countries divided by a bitter civil war can now follow the legacy set by Late Kim. The high-ranking delegation sent by Pyongyang to mourn a former South Korea leader is widely considered a conciliatory gesture. This opportunity for peace in the Korean peninsula should not be missed. While outside mediation is always an option which should not be ruled out, for the two Koreas it is of outmost importance to engage in direct dialogue because at the end of the day it is about breaking the walls of separation between them which will ensure permanent peace and a united Korea. Both should learn from the experience of Germany—divided into East and West by the cold war but now living in prosperity and peace as one country and one nation. The Korean problem is also a child of the cold war and there is no reason why the two divided society and people should not become one.
Late Kim’s Sunshine Policy needs to be reoriented and the basic philosophy behind it must be pursued by the leadership in both countries. The death of this peace making former President has indeed created an atmosphere of reconciliation in the Korean society. However if the two sides do not act fast, this atmosphere of goodwill can end very quickly too. It is up to the leadership across the divide to ensure that it lasts. And this they can do by following the peace doctrine laid out by Late Kim i.e. to underline peaceful cooperation, seeking short-term reconciliation as a prelude to eventual Korean reunification. It remains a fact that since its articulation in 1998 by the former South Korean President Late Kim Dae Jung, the policy resulted in greater political contact between the two nations which eventually led to the historic Korean summit meetings in Pyongyang (June 2000) which broke ground with several high-profile business ventures, and brief meetings of separated family members. The recent goodwill generated between the two Koreas on the occasion of the death of Late Kim should not be allowed to dwindle. Reconciliation is the best tribute to Kim Dae Jung.
