KCNA (edited by NK News) | The protagonist Ko Chinhi (left) and antihero Sinryol from the North Korean serial "Echo of Hallasan"
Former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung’s Sunshine Policy promoting engagement with North Korea enjoys a mixed public legacy, with critics pointing to its failure to bring about immediate rapprochement between the two Koreas.
Yet that appraisal, while understandable on an emotional level given the Korean Peninsula’s long division, overlooks the policy’s real success in easing the political mood between the Koreas and preparing the soil for their future reconciliation.
For evidence of this impact we need only examine North Korea’s mass culture, which exhibited a striking change in tone on the
Former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung’s Sunshine Policy promoting engagement with North Korea enjoys a mixed public legacy, with critics pointing to its failure to bring about immediate rapprochement between the two Koreas.
Yet that appraisal, while understandable on an emotional level given the Korean Peninsula’s long division, overlooks the policy’s real success in easing the political mood between the Koreas and preparing the soil for their future reconciliation.
Tatiana Gabroussenko obtained her PhD in East Asian Studies at the Australian National University. She is currently a professor of North Korean studies at Korea University, Seoul. Her latest book, "Soldiers on the Cultural Front: Developments in the Early History of North Korean Literature and Literary Policy," was included in the Choice magazine list of Outstanding Academic Titles of 2012.