ABSTRACT
In 1989 extraordinary progress on unification was made in both North and South Korea. In the South, political pressure on the government to modify its confrontational attitude toward North Korea and make more concerted efforts to negotiate continued to build. North and South Korea had nevertheless taken important steps toward the improvement of their relationship in 1988. In that year Kim II Sung signaled a major change in his attitude toward North-South relations by announcing his acceptance of the principle of coexistence. North Korea needed to adjust its foreign policy so that it would be able to break out of its self-imposed isolation. The implementation of the principle of coexistence would in theory require a change in North Korea’s traditional revolutionary doctrine. The ideological shift manifested in Kim II Sung’s statements about the coexistence of North and South Korea was arguably the most significant change that had occurred on the Korean peninsula with regard to the unification question.
