Sunshine Policy - Criticism

Criticism

North Korean defector and journalist Kang Chol-Hwan, who spent nine years in a North Korean prison camp, claims that Kim Dae Jung was mistaken in offering assistance to the North without any conditions of improving human rights in return. Kang disagrees with claims that the Sunshine Policy has led to a settlement of peace between North and South and questions the concept of no-strings-attached humanitarian aid, saying "it is important to understand that North Koreans are starving not because of a lack of aid from South Korea or the U.S., but because they are deprived of freedom. Giving aid only throws a line to the government, and prolongs starvation, surely a perverse outcome."

Some critics of the Sunshine Policy contend that rather than increasing the chances of reunification or undermining the regime in North Korea, it has been used instead for political gain in domestic politics in the South. They point to what they say are the continuing provocations and criminal activities committed by the North, such as the 2002 sea battle that left several South Korean sailors dead, the counterfeiting of American money, and what they call the North's general unwillingness to reciprocate Seoul's gestures of goodwill, as evidence that the North is interested only in receiving money and aid to prop up the communist regime. Critics also believe that, in exchange for providing humanitarian aid, the South should demand that the North return detained South Korean citizens and the remains of POWs from the Korean War. Some see the Kaesong Industrial Park as merely a way for large South Korean companies to employ cheaper labor.

Many South Korean conservative-leaning observers see the weakening of the US-South Korea alliance as being due in large part to the Sunshine Policy; they say it has led the South to favor the North's interests over those of its ally the United States and that it leads South Korean politicians to unreasonably mute or censor criticism of the North and even to ignore the sacrifices of its own soldiers so as to avoid upsetting the North. They say that this is harmful to the South's national interest in being allied with the United States, and actually damages the chances for a smooth and peaceful reunification. Internationally and at home, the South Korean government has been criticized for repeatedly abstaining from United Nations votes condemning the North's human rights record. The government defends the abstentions by citing the special character of inter-Korean relations.

Conspiracies have been alleged about South Korea's motivations for this policy. One North Korean defector who worked on weapons systems claimed that South Korean intelligence wanted to suppress his story, because it would shed a bad light on the policy. According to the Wall Street Journal, several US senators believe his story. Michael Horowitz of the Hudson Institute had this to say:

When East Germany collapsed and they opened up the Stasi files in East Germany, they found as many as 30,000 West Germans who were implicated; they were receiving payments. some cases were spies. They were in journalism, they were in the churches, they were in the business community, they were in the universities, they were in the political community. And I believe in South Korea today, large numbers of people wake up every morning and they may talk about Sunshine Policy, but the first thing in their mind is, "Whatever happens, keep those files in North Korea locked. Because if Kim Jong Il loses power, I will go to jail or I will be disgraced." And I think Kim Jong Il has got many influential South Koreans - and we will know the truth of this before long - subject to blackmail. —