Beste Alpay

Reconsidering the Korean National Community Unification Formula: a Constructivist Approach to North Korean Identities and Interests Beste Alpay

The Formula for Unification via a National Community which has been the official unification formula of South Korea has served as a framework for the reunification policies of previous South Korean governments. This book focuses on the community-building approach of the South Korean formula and explains why a formula which prioritized economic community has not served as an adequate formula for reunification. It builds its argument on the necessity of forming a peace community before establishing economic relations and aims to answer why a peace community should be prioritized by looking for the traces of "military first politics" in North Korean identities and interests which are analyzed through a constructivist perspective. As long as Pyongyang's motivations are embedded in identities constituted by Juche and Songun ideologies which lay the grounds for the military interests motivating excessive militarization and nuclearization of Pyongyang, it is difficult to imagine a North Korea which prioritizes economic cooperation over its self-help concerns.