동북아 평화를 위한 한ㆍ중 전략적협력동반자관계 심화방안 연구

Abstract

The year 2013 has become a critical point in history at which the progression of the Northeast Asian dynamics could be adequately assessed. With the reelection of President Barack Obama in the U.S., the Democrats have come to endure. In China, Xi Jinping government has fully replaced Hu Jintao’s. In Russia, Vladmir Putin is fostering his dream of constructing a powerful Russian empire. In Japan, the election of Shinzo Abe and a landslide victory of his party in the elections to the upper house have driven the nation to the far right. In South Korea, the new Park Geun-hye government has proclaimed and emphasized the fundamental national principle grounded upon trust. In North Korea, in remembrance of the 100th anniversary of KimIl-sung’s birth, the year 2012 was proclaimed to be the “year of the achievement of a strong and prosperous nation”; with such desired goal yet to be fulfilled,the success or failure prospects of the hereditary system that has led to Kim Jung-eun’s new leadership is receiving much attention globally. Under such dynamics that would foment the rise of new order in Northeast Asia, solidification of mutual trust between South Korea and China as strategic cooperative partners would contribute to the peace and stability of the region. Taking this perspective, the article discusses issues of mutual interests to both South Korea and China and analyzes ways in which strategic trust between the two nations can be established through those common grounds. The article engages in the analysis of the prospects of South Korea’s unification diplomacy,conveying hopes that the nation overcomes the divided nature of the peninsula to achieve peace in the Northeast Asian region.