The following article is a column by Aidan Foster-Carter, an honorary senior research fellow in Sociology and Modern Korea at Leeds University in England.

Here’s a simple question: How have left-leaning and right-leaning South Korean presidents dealt with North Korea differently?

Is it really as simple as liberals favoring engagement and tending to give Pyongyang the benefit of the doubt, while conservatives stay wary of the DPRK and stick to deterrence?

That summary wouldn’t be wrong, but it’s also not the whole truth. One virtue shared by South Korea’s three progressive presidents is that they’ve held a clear attitude to