Building Sustainable Peace Through Socio-Economic Cooperation: The Role of the Inter-Korean Cooperation Fund in Peacebuilding on the Korean Peninsula

Abstract

This research engages with ‘peacebuilding’ as ‘sustainable relationship building’ in the context of fluctuating inter-Korean relations between 1991-2022. Employing Lederach’s notion that sustainable peacebuilding is challenged by interdependence, justice, and process-structure gaps, it addresses key inhibitors to Inter-Korean cooperation using the lens of Strategic Peacebuilding Theory. Analysis of Inter-Korean Cooperation Fund (IKCF) operations clearly shows that Republic of Korea (ROK) ‘progressive’ governments were able to reduce all three of Lederach’s gaps with correspondingly higher IKCF implementation rates and the development of platforms for Civic Sector participation, while under ‘conservative’ administrations the reverse has been true. It was notable, however, that a justice gap emerged during the ‘progressive’ Moon Jae-in government (2018-2022), which held top-level summits but failed to engage grassroots activists and the Civic Sector in the IKCF initiative, a fact reflected in its low IKCF implementation rate. Effectively through a higher frequency and quality of contact with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), the ROK Civic Sector demonstrated greater capacities to shape horizontal relations with the DPRK than the ROK Government Sector. However, any positive experiences of attitudinal change and reduced hostility on the part of DPRK citizens remained unappreciated by the wider ROK population who were unaware of these developments, effectively eroding popular support for ROK/DPRK cooperative programmes during periods of crisis. Comprehensive interviewing of top, middle, and grassroots level actors involved in the IKCF sponsored programmes, alongside analysis of IKCF data, revealed that the IKCF measures have been pre-dominantly government led. Hence, research findings indicate that the ROK Government needs to consider an evolution of its IKCF policy, addressing Lederach’s three gaps to prevent future damage to sustainable peacebuilding, while providing adequate IKCF resources to maintain a platform for Civic Sector participation if sustainable peace is to be maintained across the Korean Peninsula.