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The Korean Peace System after the Korean War: International Factors and the Current Significance

초록/요약

A state of cease-fire has been maintained on the Korean Peninsula ever since the Korean War ended. Over the past 70 years, the debate on the peace system in the Korean Peninsula has been particularly acute on three distinguishable occasions, right after the Korean War, in the early 1970s, and from the end of the Cold War in the 1990s to the early 2000s. Interestingly, however, when discussions on the peace system on the Korean Peninsula were activated in the past, international political factors have influenced the discourse regarding the peace system. This paper explains in what context the discussion of a peace regime on the Korean Peninsula is linked to international political variables when it occasionally emerged in the past. Moon Jae-in administration’s “Denuclearization & Peace Process” has revitalized discussions on institutionalizing peace. However, the contemporary discourse on the peace system is deeply influenced by one particular international political variable, the conflict between the U.S and China. It is indeed very difficult for the Korean government to achieve the goal while influenced by the U.S. and China - countries with much richer diplomatic assets than the two Koreas. Notwithstanding the diplomatic difficulties, however, President Moon Jae-in’s “security-security trade-off” should be reviewed as a diplomatic breakthrough. Also, it should be noted that in the early stage of denuclearization, the strategic measures of countries with superiority in military security such as South Korea and the United States must be taken in advance.

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