김정은 정권의 대남정책 및 통일담론

This study analyzes articles published by Rodong Sinmun from January 1, 2012 to June 30, 2016 through text mining, to investigate characteristics of the Kim Jong-un regime’s South Korea policy and unification discourse. The Kim Jong-un regime has adhered to a National Liberation and People’s Democratic Revolution(NLPDR) as its South Korea strategy in order to justify its hereditary rule. However, in reality, the Kim Jong-un regime does not have the capacity to promote a South Korea strategy due to economic crisis and sanctions. In these circumstances, North Korea’s South Korea policies strive for three realistic aims: creating stable grounds for Kim Jong-un’s power, inducing Korean government’s tolerance over North Korea’s nuclear possession, and overtaking the South Korean leadership and transforming its North Korea policy. However, with the Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye administrations’ refusal to grant North Korea’s requests, North Korea’s South Korea policy has taken a confrontational stance during 16 quarters(48 months) out of 18 quarters(54 months). One characteristic of unification discourse is that North Korea has shown an aggressive stance as discussions on unification have expanded. Such aggressive stance has been notable with North Korea’s emphasis on the threat of unification war with no mention on the means of unification from mid 2012s to 2013. After this period, North Korea has once again expanded discussions on unification, emphasizing a federal system, which is North Korea’s preferred way of achieving unification, while simultaneously threatening to wage a war on the Korean Peninsula.