Rethinking ethnic homogeneity: A dilemma of reconciliation and unification in Korea

Conflict between two Korean states of a shared national identity defined primarily in ethnic terms deviates from the conventional etlino-nationalist argument predicting solidarity within a given ethnic group. This research inquires after reasons for the persistence of the intea-ethnic conflict in Korea.; From the theoretical perspective of constructivism, the inter-Korean relationship under conditions of national division is conceptualized as a division structure, characterized as a persisting conflict between the two Korean states. This analysis identifies a shared ethnicity and mutual hostility, and a mission of achieving unification as constituting the division structure and articulates the structural mechanism through which the inter-Korean conflict has been reinforced.; National division has created ambivalence in Koreans' conception of their national identity due to the simultaneous presence of modernity and common ethnicity throughout the peninsula. While both Koreas have never questioned their identity as one ethnic nation, the two Korean state leaderships have constructed their individual modern identities by exclusion, effectively excommunicating their counterpart from national membership on grounds of being "alien-installed, anti-national traitors."; The ambivalence has generated the politics of representation between the two Korean states: who has the right to represent the nation? Each claiming exclusive national legitimacy, south and north Korea pursue a hegemonic unification, envisioning the demolition of the other 'illegitimate' and 'treacherous' system followed by extension of one's sovereignty to the other side. Such ambitions pose a fatal threat to leadership of both states, and serve to reinforce the hostility separating them. Hence, there exists a dilemma between reconciliation and unification under the current division structure. The argument is critical of the idea that shared ethnic homogeneity will necessarily lead to reconciliation and national unification. On the contrary, it is precisely in the context of ethnic homogeneity that the hostile identity maintained by both sides gives rise to the inter-Korean conflict.; From the perspective of division structure, this analysis reevaluates the Roh Tae Woo administration's engagement policy during the period of 1988--1992. Despite its conciliatory public rhetoric, engagement in pursuit of hegemonic unification only reinforced the dynamics of the division structure that generates the persistent inter-Korean conflict.