Creating unified Korea by means of visionary 'Declaration of Unification'
By Emanuel Pastreich
The efforts to normalize relations between North and South Korea through high-level meetings between politicians, the construction of factories at the Kaesong industrial region, and plans for trans-Asian gas pipelines over the last 25 years have gone nowhere.
Tensions have only increased between North and South, ideological confrontations between factions in Seoul have only grown more severe, and the other members of the defunct six-party talks: The United States, Japan, Russia, and China, are no longer able to meet at all.
Tragically, politicians assumed that photo ops with North Korean leaders, increased manufacturing in North Korea, and promoting K-pop stars among Pyongyang youth would somehow become a magic engine to drive the unification of the Korean people. Offering a few chances to make money was simply not enough to create a new nation.
History demonstrates that a successful unification of a people springs from an inspiring vision for what is possible, which is deeply rooted in the ancient traditions of moral philosophy, one that is infused with moving ideas that appeal to a universal desire for freedom and truth.
That is to say that the process leading to successful unification can only start with the Korean people themselves, taking the form of a deep dialogue that recognizes cultural and institutional commonalities of all Koreans and that affirms a common commitment for the future based on the ethical and the spiritual, not merely the consumption of products and the piling up of money in multinational banks.
The United States, Japan, China, Russia and Mongolia can support this process by building a substantial peace architecture for the region that facilitates unification, but they cannot play an immediate role in unification itself.
In the case of the United States, the greatest contribution might well be the proper introduction to the Koreans of America's own experience of establishing a constitutional republic based on transparent democratic governance.
Conveying that approach in an inspiring manner to Koreans so that they can achieve true unification will be a significant contribution to Korea's future prosperity and thereby bring about a free and peaceful order in Northeast Asia.
The United States was transformed from a group of colonies controlled by the British East India Company and other corporations headquartered in London into a constitutional republic through three critical stages: the proclamation of a Declaration of Independence, the drafting of a Constitution, and a series of rigorous and passionate discussions about the value of the constitution primarily through a series of articles known today as The Federalist Papers that made the ratification of the Constitution by the thirteen states possible.
The transformation of colonies controlled by London's financial interests into the United States of America was led by a handful of committed public intellectuals, each of whom had a slightly different political orientation. Between them they hammered out a contract between the people and the state that was inspiring, but also pragmatic and flexible.
The first step, the drafting of a Korean-style declaration of independence, or more accurately, the Declaration of Unification, is the most pressing action demanded for a free and unified Korea.
That Declaration of Unification will transform the two nations of the Republic of Korea and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea into a new nation that is greater than the mere sum of two economies and is more inspiring than the crude aggregate of two populations.
The Declaration of Independence was signed on July 4, 1776, and established a United States independent of the British Empire. But it went far further than just institutional adjustments in its message.
When the Declaration of Independence proclaimed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness,” it implied that independence grew from the political rights of the citizens and therefore any government must derive its “just powers from the consent of the governed.”
The U.S. Constitution laid down the foundations for a new form of governance based on fundamental principles of freedom, the rights of the citizen, and the rule of law within a republic independent from monarchy and the church.
Korea can follow a similar process, bringing together a group of inspired public intellectuals, like Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Robert R. Livingston and Roger Sherman in 1776, to draft a powerful Declaration of Unification that limns the structure of a unified Korean nation dedicated to freedom and liberty, and defines values and principles that will undergird this new nation, one that will supplant the governments of both North and South, thereby realizing the original United Nations' plan for a united Korean Peninsula.
Such a Declaration of Unification should be drafted by a group of visionary Koreans who can rise above their particular circumstances and it should draw on the best of the Western and Eastern traditional philosophies to put forth a vision that will inspire not just Koreans, but people around the world thirsting for accountable government.
The Korean tradition of “hongik” (sharing benefits among all citizens) should be at the core of this declaration.
The term “unification” will mean more than a crude merging of the political and economic systems on the Korean Peninsula, implying rather a new unification of the citizens within a free society powered by common interests and universal values.
The Declaration of Unification must be inspired, not bureaucratic, elegantly phrased, not pedantic or banal, and crafted for the next thousand years, not just the upcoming regional elections. The drafting of such a text for the ages would bring with it a revolution in current Korean politics as well as a revival of the concept of statesmanship.
The preparation for the drafting of such a Declaration of Unification will be transformative, leading Koreans to think about what is possible, rather than focusing on what is wrong, to imagine possibilities, rather than fearing competition with, or threats from, North Korean workers.
Unification should follow the advice of management expert Peter Drucker, “Don't solve problems. Pursue opportunities.” That is to say that if Koreans obsess on the endless problems of contemporary society, those problems will only become magnified, but if Koreans rise to a higher level, bravely seizing opportunities to create a new nation, the momentum generated will lead naturally to the resolution of many social ills.
Finally, the Korean project of building a new nation, and restoring and affirming the role of the constitution and the value of a republic that holds up the rights of citizens, will spill over into Japan, China, and even the United States itself, leading to the revitalization of the bonds that tie citizens to governance.
Such a process would follow precisely the model of the Korean Declaration of Independence (March 1, 1919) that elegantly articulated the potential for national self-determination identified in U.S. President Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points (January 8, 1918) while expressing them within an Eastern cultural context. The Korean Independence Movement inspired the May 4th movement in China just two months later, and it was cited across Asia as a model for what citizens can achieve.
This time as well, a free and unified Korea expressed in a Declaration of Unification can become the template for a free and peaceful world.
Emanuel Pastreich is president of Asia Society, researcher at Council on East Asian Studies, Yale University and senior fellow at Global Peace Foundation. The views expressed in the above article are the author's own and do not reflect the editorial direction of The Korea Times.