‘천안함’ 사건 이후의 한반도 정세

• 영문명: Implications of the ‘Cheonan’ Incident for Inter-Korean Relations
• 발행기관: 신아시아연구소(구 신아세아질서연구회)
• 저자명: 이동복(李東馥, LEE Dong-Bok)
• 간행물 정보: 『신아세아』新亞細亞 第17卷 第2號, 26~46쪽, 전체 21쪽
• 주제분류: 사회과학 > 정치외교학
• 파일형태: PDF
• 발행일자: 2010.06.30

영문 초록

Although the Republic of Korea (ROK) took the case of the ‘Cheonan’ to the United Nations Security Council(UNSC), it looks doubtful if the world body would give the ROK what she wants to get to hold North Korea accountable for the sinking of the South Korean navy frigate on March 26. It was China, joined by Russia, that has denied the ROK a UNSC ‘resolution’ on the sinking of the ‘Choenan’ demanding that North Korea accept the responsibility, forcing the world body to end up with either a non-binding ‘president’s statement’ or a ‘president’s press statement’ instead of a binding ‘resolution’. As the UNSC track proves unsuccessful in holding North Korea accountable, it is now becoming primarily the task of the ROK to find, outside the UNSC framework, ways on her own to punish North Korea for the ‘Cheonan’ incident and prevent its recurrences. Having saved the “unimpairable inherent right of self-defense” authorized under Article 51 of the UN Charter for use against the future recurrences, instead of exercising it against the sinking of the ‘Cheonan’, it has become the ROK’s choice to resort to sanctions of her own, in tandem with the U.S. and Japan, practically to squeeze a surrender from North Korea. It is unpredictable if the ROK’s current campaign will pay off in the end with a North Korean surrender. However, as North Korea led by the ailing demigod ruler Kim Jong Il continues to withstand the international pressure, it looks true too that North Korea’s own survival is becoming increasingly more risky as China, North Korea’s only remaining ally, is finding the price, not merely economic but diplomatic and political as well, to support North Korea’s wayward regime running exorbitantly out of control. It may well be argued that the sinking of the ‘Cheonan’is finally opening the stage for a rectified inter-Korean relations in which the ROK now occupies the driver’s seat in a drastic reversal of the grossly distorted relations of the past decade that have by and large continued to remain wrongfully under the sway of North Korea.