Description
When Kim Dae-jung pursued his Sunshine Policy toward North Korea, it seemed as if nothing could make him leave the chosen path of engagement. The South Korean president stayed the course despite numerous North Korean border crossings as well as skirmishes and battles occurring during his presidency. Instead of adjusting South Korea’s foreign policy, he even resorted to secret payments to the North Koreans to arrange the historic inter-Korean summit. Drawing on the epistemological approach to the study of conflicts, we argue that Kim Dae-jung operated under a cooperative conflict schema resulting from his perception of North and South Korean goals as being in alignment. Our argument is supported by operational code and leadership trait analyses which indicate that President Kim indeed not only thought of inter-Korean relations primarily in terms of cooperation but also possessed a relatively inflexible and closed personality that enabled him to cognitively hold his ground in the face of contradictory situational cues emitted from North Korea. These findings are important for foreign policy analysis and the study of conflict resolution as they suggest a personality type that is more likely to unfreeze long-lasting conflicts and implement (newly) cooperative foreign policies toward a traditional enemy.
