Relations with the South

After the death of Kim Il-Sung and through the early years of the Kim Jong Il regime, the situation between North and South remained fairly static, although the countries participated in multiparty negotiations on nuclear issues and South Korea supplied aid to the North. Hopes were high at the turn of the 21st century that the issues dividing the two Koreas might soon be resolved. As part of his policy of reconciliation with the North, which he termed the “sunshine policy,” South Korean Pres. Kim Dae-Jung visited North Korea in June 2000—the first time any Korean head of state had traveled to the other side—and the two leaders worked out a five-point joint declaration that specified steps to be taken toward the ultimate goal of national unification. A select number of North and South Koreans were permitted to attend cross-border family reunions. Later that year, at the Summer Olympic Games in Sydney, North and South Korean athletes marched together (though they competed as separate teams) under a single flag showing a silhouette of the Korean peninsula. (The countries also made a joint appearance—with separate teams—at the 2004 Summer Olympic Games in Athens but failed to reach an agreement to do likewise at Beijing in 2008.) Kim Jong Il’s government reestablished diplomatic relations with several Western countries and pledged to continue its moratorium on missile testing.

Efforts to restore a North-South dialogue continued. In May 2007 trains from both the North and the South crossed the demilitarized zone to the other side, the first such travel since the Korean War. Later, in October, the two Koreas held a second summit, in which Roh Moo Hyun, the South Korean president, traveled to P’yŏngyang to meet with Kim Jong Il.

The December 2007 election of Lee Myung-Bak as South Korean president began another period of coolness in inter-Korean relations as Lee took a more hard-line position toward P’yŏngyang. Tensions increased when the North Korean government announced in January 2009 that it was nullifying all military and political agreements with South Korea. In May of that year it announced the cancellation of all business contracts with South Korea that pertained to the joint-venture Kaesŏng Industrial Complex, although, in practice, little changed there. In March 2010 a South Korean warship, the Ch’ŏnan (Cheonan), exploded and sank in the waters of the Yellow Sea near Paengnyŏng (Baengnyeong) Island, close to the maritime border with North Korea. An international team of investigators concluded in May that the explosion had been caused by a torpedo fired from a North Korean submarine. South Korea soon ended all trade relations with its northern neighbour and declared its intention to resume propaganda broadcasts along the border. The North Korean government, denying responsibility for the attack, severed all ties with South Korea.

Relations between the two countries continued to be mixed. A cross-border reunion for hundreds of North and South Korean family members took place in late October 2010. However, one month later, as South Korea was conducting a military exercise off the country’s northwestern coast, North Korean artillery shells bombarded the South Korean border island of Yŏnp’yŏng (Yeonpyeong), which also has been the scene of offshore naval skirmishes in 1999 and 2002. The shells hit a military base and civilian homes, and there were several casualties. South Korean forces returned fire and raised the level of military preparedness on the island. The incident was considered one of the most serious episodes of belligerence between North and South in years.

Kim Jong-Un’s consolidation of power

Kim Jong-Un effected a friendlier public demeanour than his father had, drawing comparisons to his grandfather, the “eternal president” Kim Il-Sung, but hopes that the youngest Kim would forge a new direction for the country were soon dashed. He quickly moved to solidify his position, executing those who challenged his rule and demoting officials who had accrued influence under his father. In April 2012 Kim was named chairman of the party’s Central Military Commission, a title formerly held by his father, as well as first chairman of the National Defense Commission, the country’s highest administrative authority.

Photographs of Kim’s uncle Jang Song-Thaek standing directly behind Kim Jong-Un in Kim Jong Il’s funeral cortege led many in China and the West to conclude that Jang would exert significant influence within the new regime. Jang had played a central role in the regime transition after the death of Kim Il-Sung and oversaw the brutal response to an abortive coup by the VI Army Corps in 1995. At one time, Jang had been seen as a possible successor to Kim Jong Il, and international observers believed that he would promote reform within the North Korean government. Those assumptions proved to be flawed. Jang was branded a traitor, and he and his entire inner circle were purged and executed in late 2013. Some of the executions were reportedly carried out with antiaircraft machine guns, and Jang’s name and image were erased from official party communications.

The succession brought great uncertainty to the region and the world. North Korea once again instituted dramatic escalations of its rhetoric against the United States and South Korea, including verbal threats of missile attacks against both countries. In April 2013 North Korea shut down the joint industrial zone in Kaesŏng, though it was reopened some four months later. It was shut down again in February 2016 by the South Korean side, seemingly for good, and workers from both countries were recalled home.