Re-reading Kim Dae-jung: Obscured Engagement

Abstract

How best to understand South Korea's engagement policy towards North Korea? Has it been interpreted correctly and untainted by the current political cleavage between different ideological blocs? Given that Kim Dae-jung, the South Korean president from 1998 to 2003, is widely regarded as the archetype of the engagement policy, this analysis re-evaluates his approach by examining his presidential speeches where three concepts emerge from a critical discourse analysis: securitisation, globalisation, and humanisation. This analysis argues that when it comes to evaluating this engagement policy, these concepts need greater comprehensive consideration. This analysis not only shows the necessity of synchronic policy analysis, it also offers an opportunity to reflect diachronically on the ways in which Kim's engagement discourse was later adopted by politicians across the political spectrum that deal with North Korea. This is important to consider because his discourse continues to shape the inter-Korean negotiation process.