The Rise of Ethnic Nationalism in South Korea: Moon's North Korea Policy and Inter-Korean Relations

Abstract

What is the origin of South Korea's North Korea policy under the Moon Jae-in presidency? Are there any underlying assumptions and perspectives behind this policy? What kind of ideas and values have played out in South Korea's policy toward North Korea? By both exploring the idea of nationalism in current world politics and showing its influence on South Korea's policy discourse and orientation, in this article we argue that nationalism is still a powerful political ideology that affects state foreign policy and plays out as a strong variable in trying to make sense of South Korea's North Korea policy. To test this argument, we analyze recent inter-Korean interactions and illustrate how ethnic nationalism shaped the Moon administration's North Korea policy. As long as ethnic nationalism dominates policy debates and affects the policy orientation, the prospect of inter-Korean relations will not be promising.