Toward Greater Transparency in Non-Nuclear Policy: A Case of South Korea

책 소개

제목: Toward Greater Transparency in Non-Nuclear Policy: A Case of South Korea 연구자명: 전성훈 선임연구위원 (Cheon Seongwhun, Senior Research Fellow, KINU) 요약 In August 2004, it was revealed that the Republic of Korea (ROK) failed to report its nuclear activities on several occasions from the early 1980s to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)-dubbed as "the 2004 incident" in this report. As the North Korea nuclear crisis intensified and the 7th Review Conference of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) was scheduled ahead in May 2005, the incident drew great attention from the international non-proliferation community. Although the quantities of nuclear material involved and the scales of nuclear activities were not significant, the nature of the activities and the failures of the ROK nuclear community to report timely to the Agency were regarded as a serious matter triggering concerns about possible negative repercussions on the international non-proliferation norms. Facing nuclear-armed North Korea and being surrounded by nuclear or nuclear-capable big powers, a suspicion of the international society has been laid on South Korea for its inherent desire to develop nuclear weapons to counter against external nuclear threats. Although South Korea has upheld a strong commitment to nuclear non-proliferation as a backbone of its foreign and security policy since 1991, the 2004 incident demonstrated that South Korea's non-nuclear policy has not been effective enough to eliminate the international suspicion. In the aftermath of the 2004 incident, a consensus was made both within and without South Korea that Seoul must exert more efforts to enhance transparency of its non-proliferation policy. For instance, the ROK government proclaimed, in September 18, 2004 the four principles of the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, one of which was to firmly maintain nuclear transparency and to strengthen international cooperation. In the international domain, the IAEA Director General requested South Korea to make every effort to provide further information about its nuclear activities and the IAEA Board encouraged the South to continue its active cooperation with the Agency, pursuant to its safeguards agreement and additional protocol. Having the seriousness of the 2004 incident in mind, this study will conduct academic analyses of enhancing transparency in a key national policy area whose importance has been highlighted in the post Cold War era and examine practical implications for South Korea's non-nuclear policy. This study consists of five major parts. In chapter one, the 2004 incident is briefly summarized and lessons and reactions are discussed. Chapter two examines transparency in theoretical and practical perspectives: presenting various definitions of transparency, investigating functions of transparency, and explaining global phenomena of increasing policy transparency. In chapter three, the role of transparency is studied in the context of cooperative security framework. The importance of cooperative security has loomed large since the end of the Cold War. Chapter four suggests the main reasons why the ROK government needs to sustain its non-nuclear policy and further enhance its transparency. Finally, in chapter five, propositions are made to help the ROK government and nuclear energy community to formulate constructive and positive positions on nuclear transparency in line with international non-proliferation norms and standards. Major documents referred to in this study are gathered as appendixes at the end of the report.

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