Reunification of Korea: a social development approach to resolving the Korean conflict

摘要

This paper deals with Korea, a nation divided for more than half a century, and aims to shed some light on the type of social welfare regime that will need to come to the fore in the process of gradual reunification, whenever it inevitably occurs. Reunification will create changes in mobility, urbanization, employment, housing, healthcare, and social welfare in general. Many of the basic facets of society will be redrawn and rearranged. A comparative case study analysis between Germany and Korea reveals that an unbearable social cost could challenge the future of reunified Korea if it were to follow Germany's rapid market-based absorption model. The main argument is that these negative socio-economic consequences can be minimized if the process of change is gradual such that it maximizes freedom and minimizes dehumanization. This social development approach to reunification suggests building a common social welfare policy regime that ensures social rights as an empowerment strategy.