North Korea Says 'Hostile Two-State Theory' Is Correct Now but Was Wrong Before

Ministry of Unification Releases 6th Inter-Korean Talks Records
"Not State to State" in the Past, Now "Two Hostile States"

North Korea has defined inter-Korean relations as an "adversarial two-state theory," asserting the existence of two mutually hostile states on the Korean Peninsula. However, past records of inter-Korean talks show instances where this was not acknowledged.

On the 13th, the Ministry of Unification disclosed documents from the 6th Inter-Korean Talks. These documents, totaling 2,266 pages, cover political, economic, and sports-related inter-Korean talks from September 1984 to July 1990. During this period, the two Koreas held five economic talks, two preliminary contacts for parliamentary talks, three IOC-mediated Lausanne inter-Korean sports talks, and eight preliminary meetings for high-level inter-Korean talks.

Volume 2 of the historical records of meeting minutes reveals cases where North Korea opposed and criticized the South Korean side’s proposals regarding the use of country names or the naming of talks during the signing of agreements, arguing that such designations could be mistaken for state-to-state relations. A representative example is the issue of the "country name" raised during the signing of the agreement at the 5th Inter-Korean Economic Talks on November 20, 1985.

On November 21 of the same year, the Rodong Sinmun reported, "The South side expressed opinions regarding our demand not to specify the country name or use the term 'mandate' in the agreement, stating that these issues should also be discussed." It added, "The agreement adopted at the inter-Korean economic talks is not an agreement between countries but a document adopted to realize economic cooperation and exchanges among the same people within one country, so there is no need to include the country name."

The Rodong Sinmun continued, "As per our demand and past practice, it is sufficient to refer to the North Korean delegation and South Korean delegation in the inter-Korean economic talks," emphasizing, "Dialogue between the North and South should always be oriented toward unification and aimed at achieving the cause of unification."

A similar case occurred at the 4th preliminary meeting of the high-level inter-Korean talks held on November 15, 1989, at Tongilgak in the northern area of Panmunjom. Regarding the name of the main talks, the South proposed "Prime Minister Talks" or "High-Level Officials Talks," while the North insisted on "High-Level Political-Military Talks," resulting in a deadlock without any outcome. At that time, North Korea’s delegation was led by Baek Nam-jun, a member of the Political Affairs Committee, and the South’s chief representative was Song Han-ho, Vice Minister of the Ministry of National Unification.

According to the historical records, Baek Nam-jun stated, "When deciding the name of the talks, the strong desire of the divided nation to unify and the demands of current developments must be considered." He added, "The South’s proposed names, such as High-Level Officials Talks or Prime Minister Talks, do not adequately reflect our people’s unification ideology and give the impression of a name commonly used between countries. Our name, High-Level Political-Military Talks, has been carefully considered from this perspective."

These cases show a significant difference from the adversarial two-state theory recently promoted by North Korea. Kim Jong-un, Chairman of the State Affairs Commission of North Korea, defined inter-Korean relations as those between two hostile states rather than as relations between kin in the 5th Workers' Party Plenary Meeting on December 30, 2023.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.