New Perspectives on Building a Peace Regime on the Korean Peninsula: “Restorative Peace Discourse” and “Restorative Peace Treaty” = New Perspectives on Building a Peace Regime on the Korean Peninsula: “Restorative Peace Discourse” and “Restorative Peace Treaty”

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The security discourse of our society works as an important factor to strengthen the division system of the Korean Peninsula. Therefore, forming a peace discourse and concluding a peace treaty would be the first step to dismantling the division system and further building a peace regime to achieve peaceful reunification. However, ironically, the more talks on peace and unification we have, the longer the discourse of security and the division system holds out due to the division system of the Korean Peninsula. For this reason, the debate over the peace treaty on the Korean Peninsula has reproduced the discourse of “unification for peace” rather than “peace for unification” as another alternative means of security. The peace treaty should not be aimed at another means of security utilizing unification but a practical attitude or process to establish a unification-oriented peace regime. In this regard, we should pursue discussions of a peace treaty as a process to establish a peace regime to resolve not only the phenomenological conflict created by the division between the two Koreas but also the structural and cultural conflicts and violence widespread in our lives, and further to restore the national community. This paper, therefore, is aimed at seeking new perspectives of “restorative peace discourse” and “restorative peace treaty” based on the concept of “restorative justice” to resolve or overcome the paradox that the peace and reunification debate reproduces conflicts.