메타버스 공간에서의 남북 교류 가능성에 대한 고찰

Abstract

Today, the concept of ‘Metaverse’ is emerging as a ‘virtual coexistence world’. The metaverse is receiving social attention as an alternative space to the real world and is being widely applied in everyday life. However, unlike in the economic and social fields, policies that utilize the potential of the digital virtual world realized by Metaverse in diplomatic terms are still limited. As an alternative to overcome the limitations of traditional diplomatic methods, we need to review the metaverse so that it can be used more actively. In other words, it is necessary to discuss the potential and scope of use of metaverse-based diplomacy as an approach that overcomes the limitations of limited reality and discovers new areas of possibility, not simply as an auxiliary means of traditional diplomacy. In particular, it is good to actively seek the possibility of application in issues with high geopolitical uncertainty and wide-ranging international sanctions, such as the issue of inter-Korean cooperation. The metaverse world provides a clue to overcome some of these realistic limitations. This is because, in the metaverse space, where non-face-to-face and two-way communication is possible, the burden of complex pre-requisites for direct exchange can be reduced, and topics for culture, knowledge, and friendship can be made widely through various actors not only in the government but also in the private sector. Exploring the inter-Korean non-face-to-face exchange space can be said to be a practical task for realizing metaverse diplomacy from our point of view.