South Korea has revised a unification education law to include “peaceful unification” in its legal definition, reflecting the Lee Jae Myung administration’s emphasis on peaceful coexistence with North Korea, officials said Wednesday.
According to government officials, the amendment to the Unification Education Support Act took effect Tuesday after merging separate bills proposed by ruling Democratic Party of Korea Reps. Kim Young-bae and Hong Kee-won, and main opposition People Power Party Rep. Kim Gi-hyeon. The lawmakers are all members of the National Assembly's Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee.
The key change comes in Article 2 of the law, which defines “unification education.” The revised provision now states that such education aims to foster the values and attitudes necessary to achieve the “peaceful unification” of South and North Korea.
Previously, the law defined unification education as fostering values needed to achieve unification “based on the belief in free democracy, consciousness of the national community, and sound awareness of national security,” according to the government’s official English translation. The amendment adds the word “peaceful” to that definition.
The revision is widely seen as reflecting the Lee administration’s policy direction on the Korean Peninsula, including its stated position of prioritizing peaceful coexistence between the two Koreas and not pursuing unification through absorption.
Officials assess that, given North Korea’s continued rejection of dialogue and its apparent abandonment of the concepts of “nation” and “unification,” the immediate priority is to establish a framework for stable coexistence. The government has signaled a longer-term vision of shifting inter-Korean relations from Pyongyang’s “two hostile states” concept toward what it describes as “two peaceful states.”
The amendment also introduces a fixed five-year cycle for the government’s master plan on unification education. While the previous law required the establishment of such plans, it did not specify a timeline, drawing criticism that plans were often drawn up on an ad hoc basis.
Under the revised law, the first master plan formulated after the amendment will cover the period from the year following its entry into force through the next four years. The upcoming plan by the current administration is expected to run from 2027 to 2030, with subsequent plans set every five years.
A Unification Ministry official, requesting anonymity, said the revision reflects the administration’s broader policy direction, describing it as incorporating “a new paradigm of peace, unification and democratic civic education,” and expressed expectations for more consistent and long-term policy implementation.
The amendment comes despite North Korea’s increasingly hostile stance toward the South.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un recently described South Korea as the “most hostile state” in a speech to the newly convened Supreme People’s Assembly, according to the North's state media, the Korean Central News Agency.
The North has also shown signs of revising its constitution. While state media has not confirmed whether the changes would formally codify South Korea as a hostile state, Kim has previously ordered legal revisions to redefine it as the “No. 1 hostile country.”
Since taking office last year, the Lee administration has sought to reduce tensions and reopen dialogue with Pyongyang through confidence-building measures, including halting loudspeaker broadcasts along the border and signaling openness to talks, though the North has yet to reciprocate.
mkjung@heraldcorp.com
