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Young Koreans from north and south are holding the banner of reunification during the Summer Olympics in Sydney 2000.

Founding DFRK is peaceful reunification of Korea

PresidentKim Il Sung put forward the proposal for founding the Democratic Federal Republic of Koryo at the Sixth Congress of the Workers’ Party of Korea on October 10 1980.

This country name contains “Koryo”, well known to the world as the first unified state in Korean history, and reflects the common political idea of the north and south aspiring to democracy. The gist of the proposal is to reunify the country by founding a federal republic with a national unified government on condition that the north and the south recognize and tolerate each other’s ideas and social systems and they exercise regional autonomy with equal rights and duties.

The proposal for reunifying Korea by the federation formula, which is based on one nation, one state, two systems and two governments, is unprecedented in history.

Generally, a federal system is for two or more states, or regional governments or autonomous provinces of one country, to join together into a sovereign state with common interests. Such federal states are mostly based on a single social system. In some other federations, the countries or provinces forming them have histories and cultures peculiar to them and so there may be difference among them in language and way of life.

Kim Il Sung andKim Jong Il at the Sixth Party Congress in October 1980

The proposed DFRK is a federation between different social systems based on interests common to the nation, not an alliance between the same social systems based on class interests. This federal formula enables the homogeneous Korean nation with a time-honoured history to establish a unified state and form under it two governments in the north and the south with different ideologies and social systems, thereby empowering them to exercise local autonomy. It is also an association of one nation, or all the members of the nation, though it is based on the principle of leaving different ideologies and social systems intact. Therefore, it is also different from other federal states in that it represents and champions the demands and interests common to the nation, not those of a particular class or social stratum. Consequently, the proposal is a rational and fair reunification plan in the light of the interests and commonness of the north and the south and a patriotic reunification plan that gives priority to the common interest and commonness of the Korean nation and the desire of the nationals for the country’s reunification.

In the June 15 2000 Joint Declaration published at the historic inter-Korean summit in Pyongyang both sides recognized that there is a similarity between low-level federation of the north and commonwealth system of the south, which shows that the DFRK proposal is a fair and aboveboard reunification initiative acceptable to all.

Different ideologies and systems have existed in the north and the south for 70 years. Given that neither of them would give up their long-standing ideologies and systems, persistence in a unification formula of one side absorbing the other will only generate disagreement and finally lead to the calamity of armed clash.

But if the country is reunified by the federation formula Korea will be an independent and neutral reunified country, which will go a long way towards peace and security in Northeast Asia and beyond.

The proposal for founding the federal republic is the best way to reunify the country which makes it possible to put the Korean nation on the world map as a great nation that has achieved overall unity and a thriving independent state.