An Analysis Of Lee Myung-bak Government’s Pragmatic Policy Toward Dprk And Inter-korean Relations

The Korean peninsula is a core problem to the security of the Northeast Asia. The Korean Peninsula issue is the result of the Cold War in history, meanwhile, it’s a "battlefield" that both side of the peninsula contend with each other. A change in policy, the leader change or even a fortuitous event can be a key point that influence the peace and stability of the Korean peninsula.On Feb.25th2008, Lee Myung-bak became the17th president of Republic of Korea. The new government changed the "Reconciliation and Cooperation" policy toward North Korea which had been executed for10years by the democratic reformer, and proposed a new pragmatic foreign policy, which is centered in the national benefits. Lee Myung-bak government paid more attention on "Alliance and Power" which intends to pursue a tough policy to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula and advance policy target of Korean reunification. The pragmatic foreign policy reflects the ruling idea of Lee Myung-bak government which definitely affect the North-South relations and the security and stability of Northeast Asia.The main content of pragmatic foreign policy of Lee Myung-bak government seeks to strengthen the ROK-US Alliance and take "New Thought" towards Japan; and it also aims at adjusting the policies toward North Korea and pursuing "Limited" balanced foreign policy. However, during4years, the implementation of the pragmatic foreign policy has been through ups and downs, especially the "Denuclearization, Openness,3000" policy was strongly protested by North Korea, who cut off dialogue with South Korea and even expelled11South Korean officials from the joint industrial park in Kaesong to express dissatisfaction, North Korea exerted strong military pressure on South Korea by suddenly moving its Elite Squad815Mechanization army to south after routine training. Then the Cheonan incident and Yeonpyeong shelling shock the whole world, and deteriorate the relationship between two countries. Six-Party Talks comes to a deadlock, the northeast Asia security situation deteriorate, inter-Korean relation retrogresses, even on the verge of breaking out a fight.Obviously, the pragmatic foreign policy of Lee Myung-bak government is much realistic than the policy pursued by Roh Moo-hyun government. First, it enhances the ROK-US Alliance, recovering the US-Japan-ROK coordination mechanism to get enough power to pressure North Korea. Second, in order to further extend and implement tough policy toward North Korea and win strategic space, they expand substantive cooperation with China and Russia in various fields, such as economy, politics, diplomacy, security and defense by improving the relations with China and Russia at the level of "strategic partnership".The current inter-Korean relation is not as stable as that in Roh Moo-hyun government, however, dialogue and cooperation between the two countries which placing their common interests above anything else will still be the mainstream of the development of inter-Korean relations. Inter-Korean Relations will make improvement through all these hardships.