North Korea’s armed provocations are increasingly intensifying in the leading up to the inauguration of the new government of the Republic of Korea (ROK) under the president Yoon Suk-yeol. US-North Korea relations and inter-Korean relations have been at a stalemate since 2019, and the environment surrounding the Korean Peninsula is spiraling down into conflicts.
The new ROK government, sworn in amidst this highly turbulent environment, presents a vision of Green D?tente between the two Koreas as a major task to normalize inter-Korean relations. Although the ‘Green D?tente’ plan of the past was once presented as an initiative to improve inter-Korean relations, the Yoon Suk-yeol government is expected to advance an old version one step further.
The Two Koreas are easily likely to find common interests in the environmental area given the following: efforts to respond to climate change at a global scale, such as carbon neutrality, are increasingly becoming irresistible trends; and North Korea has shown a keen interest in the worldwide response to climate change and active willingness to participate in countering climate change.
This session aims to examine the implications of the Green D?tente initiative of the Yoon government. In particular, the session seeks to identify pressing tasks and find an implementation strategy to establish ‘a Green-Peace Zone in border areas’ on the Korean Peninsula, which is considered to be the essence of the Green D?tente initiative.