Sunshine Policy

The Sunshine Policy () is the theoretical basis for South Korea's foreign policy towards North Korea. Its official title is The Reconciliation and Cooperation Policy Towards the North (), and it is also known as The Operational Policy Towards the North () and The Embracing Policy (). The policy emerged largely in the context of the growing economic gap between the two Koreas: the South was strengthening itself and experiencing economic prosperity that had begun under President Park Chung-hee in the 1970s while the North was experiencing severe economic decline and faced bankruptcy. While the government spent an excessive portion of its budget on its military and nuclear program, the people experienced widespread starvation. Sunshine Policy was aimed at mitigating this gap in economic power and restoring lost communication between the two States. Furthermore, the background to South Korea's decision to engage North Korea through cooperation rather than maintaining a conservative stance in the past hints to a change in the domestic politics as well. According to Son Key-young, Sunshine Policy emerged ultimately as an evidence of evolving South Korean national identity since the Cold War which "ushered in an era of unprecedented confusion in South Korea over whether to define North Korea as friend or foe" (p. 4) The policy resulted in greater political contact between the two States and some historic moments in Inter-Korean relations; the three Korean summit meetings in Pyongyang (June 2000, October 2007, and September 2018) and two meetings in Panmunjom (April 2018 and May 2018), as well as several high-profile business ventures, and brief meetings of family members separated by the Korean War. In 2000, Kim Dae-jung was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his implementation of the Sunshine Policy. Following the election of Moon Jae-in in 2017, South Korea began reconciling with North Korea once more, thus beginning a revival of the Sunshine Policy.

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