A new presidential committee to prepare for unification will be inaugurated this April. President Park Geun-hye will directly preside over the committee.

On March 14, Cheong Wa Dae announced its plans for the composition of the committee and for what role it will play. According to the announcement, the committee will work on forming and developing nationwide sympathy for the peaceful unification of the two Koreas. It will also present the direction for unification and prepare concrete steps, with cooperation from both the public and private sectors.


In addition, the committee will be responsible for studying and researching the basic direction and preparatory steps needed for unification. It will work on reducing the generation gap, where the older and younger generations have different opinions on unification, and try to build social consensus.

The committee will support cooperation between organizations and research institutes tasked with Korea’s unification. The committee will probably have less than 50 members, including two deputy chiefs appointed by the chairperson.

Committee members will be picked from both the public and private sectors. Members will have to be experts, armed with knowledge and experience of their field. From the public sector, potential members include heads of each central government organization, including the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Unification and the Ministry of National Defense, as well as officers in charge of foreign, security and unification affairs at Cheong Wa Dae.


The committee is expected to hold two different types of meetings: a regular meeting held on a quarterly basis; and, a special meeting called at the request of the chairperson or deputy chiefs. As part of the plan, a subcommittee will be established, too, consisting of professional advisors and experts from private organizations. Professional advisors should also be appropriately experienced and specialized for their assigned roles.

The committee will create an advisory group in order to hear various voices about preparation for unification. The government plans to issue a presidential decree in March prior to the announcement, before which there will be cabinet meetings, deliberations and legislative voting sessions.

By Wi Tack-whan, Lee Seung-ah
Korea.net Staff Writers
whan23@korea.kr