정치적 남남갈등과 평화적 사회통합을 위한 통일교육 과제

초록

To prepare for the unification of the Korean Peninsula and to advance a stable peace regime, it is essential to pursue a sustainable North Korea policy and to facilitate a national discourse on unification based on broad public consensus. Achieving sustainable peace on the peninsula requires not only consultation and agreement within South Korean society regarding North Korea and unification policy, but also the strengthening of unification education. However, unification education in South Korea has repeatedly shifted in accordance with changing governmental priorities and prevailing approaches to North Korea across different administrations. Political conflicts within South Korea over North Korea and unification policy have deepened partisan polarization. Unification education is closely linked to various social integration challenges—including generational and ideological divides, regional disparities, and the social adaptation of North Korean defectors—and numerous policy limitations and points of contention have been raised in this context. This study begins with the premise that, amid the ongoing security crisis on the Korean Peninsula, social integration is crucial for strengthening the direction of unification education and expanding public interest and consensus on inter-Korean issues. Among the various social integration challenges, political polarization is considered one of the most serious sources of conflict, and this study aims to address this issue directly. It further seeks to identify key points of contention related to political polarization in unification education and explore potential solutions, ultimately proposing strategies for unification education that contribute to peaceful social integration.

키워드