Digital Divide Between North and South Korea: Obstacles and Incentives for IT Sector Cooperation
Abstract
The issue of how to overcome the national division between contending North and South Korean governments has been a preeminent concern of Koreans North and South for over fifty years.163 The struggle for national legitimacy under the mantle of Korean reunification has been an overarching source of conflict and division for decades, and only now seems to be dying as the economic gap between the Norths outdated and broken socialist system and the Souths globalizing and economically integrated system continues to grow. In some respects, it seems logical that the ongoing concern with national division might naturally extend to the digital divide. Although the term was certainly not coined with Koreas national division in mind, it is an apt vehicle for describing and assessing the continuing state of division on the Korean peninsula. Digital divisions are of course just one more measure of how different the two systems of North and South Korea have become, and of the extent of the challenges that are likely to accompany any rehabilitation of North Korea or reintegration of the North with the South. Given the strategic importance of IT as a source of national power and as a prerequisite for extending the organizational and institutional capacity of the state and its people, an examination of the challenges that must be dealt with in overcoming divisions between the respective IT sectors in North and South Korea might be particularly salient in understanding the broader challenges inherent in inter-Korean reconciliation after decades as each others main enemy. This may be particularly so at this moment, as an examination of the digital divide between North and South neatly combines two areas in which the Kim Dae Jung administration has sought to achieve its greatest accomplishments: the Sunshine Policy and making South Korea a leader in the IT sector by promoting the penetration of IT applications to all levels of South Korean society.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Aug 01, 2005
- Accession Number
- AD1032412
Entities
People
- Scott Snyder
Organizations
- Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies