About the Book
Having studied, worked, and traveled throughout Asia and the United States for more than 40 years, the author, Dr. Kwang H. Suh, presents in Kwang Suh’s Four Measures for the Unification of the Korean Peninsula a structural approach to the peaceful unification of the Korean Peninsula.
More than eight decades have passed since the division of the Korean Peninsula began in 1945. The division of the Korean Peninsula continues to separate families and people who share a common history, language, and culture. The reunions of separated families remain an urgent humanitarian concern, while the ultimate goal presented in this book is the peaceful unification of the Korean Peninsula.
The key to the peaceful and autonomous unification of Korea is the economic transformation of North Korea. The United Nations (UN) and the United States should give the highest priority to helping North Korea introduce a free-market economic system, rather than making North Korea’s abandonment of nuclear weapons the first priority.
The thesis throughout this book is not based upon ideology or politics, but upon the principle of “Bread and Freedom,” which the author regards as the fundamental essence of human survival.
The author presents Four Measures for creating the structural conditions necessary for peaceful unification:
1. The United Nations and all nations of the world should propose, carry out, and implement cultural exchanges and educational opening with North Korea.
2. Businesses around the world should build factories in North Korea.
3. Host the 2036 Summer Olympic Games in Pyongyang.
4. Establish one official “UN and North Korea” bank account as the single channel for cash assistance.
At the center of these Four Measures is the author’s conviction that “the key to the peaceful and autonomous unification of the Korean Peninsula is the economic transformation of North Korea.”
Note
This Second Edition is presented in six languages across eight linguistic formats:
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English
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한국어
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漢字 병용 韓國語
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简体中文 — 徐光河的韩半岛统一四大方案
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台灣/繁體中文 — 徐光河之韓半島統一四大方案
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日本語 — 徐光河の韓半島統一四大方案
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Русский язык — Четыре меры Су Кванг Ха для объединения Корейского полуострова
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Español — Las Cuatro Medidas de Kwang H. Suh para la Unificación de la Península de Corea
About the Author
Dr. Kwang H. Suh is a scholar of law and criminology and a civil rights activist who stood against military dictatorship. He has devoted his studies to the democratization of Korea and the unification of the Korean Peninsula.
Dr. Suh lived with his family north of the 38th Parallel until 1945. After Korea’s liberation, his family escaped to the South across the 38th Parallel. During their journey south, his father was wounded by Soviet gunfire and later died in South Korea. Dr. Suh grew up enduring years of hunger and isolation.
Despite these difficult circumstances, Dr. Suh completed his undergraduate and graduate studies in law and began his academic career as a lecturer and professor. In the late 1960s, when the concept of White Collar Crime was still largely unfamiliar in Korean society, he conducted pioneering research on the subject and published his paper, White Collar Crime in Korea. As the paper appeared in various publications and related symposiums were held, it generated public interest in White Collar Crime. Dr. Suh became widely known not only in academic circles but also in political, business, and legal circles, contributing to the study of White Collar Crime in Korea.
As a civil rights activist, he criticized corruption and the abuse of power involving political and business elites of the time and stood up against the military dictatorship. He also participated as a professor opposing the constitutional amendment that would allow a third presidential term. As a result of his activities, he faced political persecution and ultimately had to leave Korea.
Kwang H. Suh
Two experiences in Japan in 1972 became decisive turning points that changed the direction of Dr. Suh’s life and academic work.
On a Tokyo subway, Dr. Suh saw female students from Korea University in Tokyo (조선대학교), dressed in traditional Korean attire—white jeogori jackets and black skirts—and freely speaking Korean. They belonged to the pro-North Korean Chongryon community in Japan, commonly referred to in South Korea at the time as “Reds” (“Bbalgaeng E,” a derogatory Korean term for pro-North Korean Communists). Yet, although they spoke the same Korean language as he did, Dr. Suh could not say a single word to them because of South Korea’s Anti-Communist Law at the time.
In the same year, in Osaka, he saw an advertisement posted on a utility pole for the North Korean revolutionary opera The Flower Girl and secretly attended the performance.
These two experiences left Dr. Suh with a question that he would never forget:
“Why can people of North and South Korea, who share the same language, history, and culture, not freely meet and speak with one another?”
This question became the starting point for Dr. Suh to make the unification of the Korean Peninsula his lifelong mission. Decades of research and experience ultimately led to Kwang Suh’s Four Measures for the Unification of the Korean Peninsula.
Dr. Suh said, “My hope is that this book will provide a pathway for the Unification of the Korean Peninsula”.
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