Jeju, Island of World Peace

Jeju Island, due to its insular traits, possesses distinctive environmental resources, whose picturesque scenery exhibits a unique local charm. Other valuable assets of the island include its natural environment represented by peculiar geological formations such as Mt. Halla, its mid-mountainous regions, parasitic volcanic cones, waterfalls, and lava tubes, alongside the various living conditions that are home to more than 7,800 species. In this regard, Jeju provincial government has worked to establish the island as a World Environmental Hub (WEH) since it hosted the 2012 World Conservation Congress (WCC). During that year’s WCC, Jeju expressed the will to develop its environmental value into a global brand and reestablish itself with a global social, economic, and environmental system to be recognized as a WEH. The local government had also promoted the Master Plan for Establishing the WEH System since 2014 when it launched the Vision and Plan for the Northeast Asian Environmental Hub (NEH) 2030. This paper examines the requirements for establishing the vision for the NEH system.

The recent outbreak of COVID-19 revealed how closely connected the entire world is. However, there remains a place that is yet to be connected: South Korea, our home. As long as the Military Demarcation Line stands, South Korea remains an island in a geopolitical sense. As one of the measures of reconnecting the Korean Peninsula, this essay reviews the Northeast Asian Peace and Economy Cooperation (NAPEC) Model and suggests that Jeju has a critical role to play in Northeast Asia, given its history of overcoming extreme ideological conflict during the Jeju 4·3 Incident and becoming “the island of peace.” I begin with a comparison of Ahn Jung-geun's theory of Oriental Peace and the history of European integration followed by a review of the NAPEC Model that has been promoted by the United Nations (UN) and other related international organizations since the early 1990’s, and conclude with a discussion on the role of Jeju, the island of world peace, in implementing the Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE), a practical strategy adopted by the UN to achieve its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Jeju, called an island of fantasy, is one of the most famous tourist destinations in the world. As a UNESCO World Natural Heritage Site, its dramatic landscape illustrates the harmony between nature and people. Jeju is also called an island of peace. Even if the world is becoming increasingly connected, blurring borders with the emergence of global citizenship, the Korean Peninsula remains the only divided nation on Earth. As the division means severance from our interconnected world, Korean unification, people on the Korean Peninsula hope, is imperative to achieve world peace. This essay reinvents Jeju as “Island of Unification and Peace."

The year 2020 marks the 15th anniversary of the designation of Jeju as the ‘Island of World Peace’ by the Korean Government. Jeju has been consolidating the status based on its rich humanistic resources and natural environment. How could Jeju become an island, enjoying freedom from structural violence? The author gives credit to Jeju’s communal solidarity and spirit towards peace which helped overcome its structural violence of the past. Furthermore, he suggests strategies for developing Jeju as a symbolic space for new criteria and culture of peace.

The North Korean nuclear problem, one of the most difficult issues to resolve, has become a regional concern of East Asia beyond the Korean Peninsula for the last 20 years. The regionalization of the North Korean nuclear problem means that this issue can determine the future of the region, and also makes regional actors closely intertwined. For North Korea, which is using the nuclear program as diplomatic leverage to sustain its regime, the regionalization of the nuclear issue is their survival strategy. As the nuclear problem is not just North Korea’s issue, we need to view it as a concern of the Korean Peninsula and East Asia. This essay will address the North Korean nuclear problem as a thought challenge.

Even if Jeju has taken initiative in humanitarian assistance to North Korea, authorities in Pyongyang is reluctant to improve the relationship with South Korea. In this circumstance, despite our enthusiasm and willingness, we cannot expect continuous and stable exchanges and cooperation with the North. Moreover, given the recent inter-Korean relations, it is hard to produce a meaningful outcome with the North for the time being. Nonetheless, the strained inter-Korean relationship needs to be re-established, and also substantive preparations and efforts are necessary towards non-hostile coexistence, avoiding unrealistic discussions. This essay explored ways to achieve non-hostile coexistence.