• Analyses & Alternatives
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.31-64
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• 2024

The recent trend of declining consciousness regarding the necessity of unification among South Korean citizens is evident. Does a cohort effect exist in this downward trend in the perception of the necessity of unification? The purpose of this study is to analyze whether birth cohorts statistically significantly influence the consciousness of the necessity of unification. To this end, the hierarchical age-period-cohort (HAPC) model was employed as the analytical model, and data from the Unification Consciousness Survey conducted by Seoul National University's Institute for Peace and Unification Studies from 2007 to 2021 was used. The analysis results showed evidence that the progress of economic inequality at the birth cohort level affected the decline in the perception of the necessity of unification. The 1980s birth cohort, which faced socioeconomic difficulties during their social advancement due to income and wealth polarization, is observed to have a distinctly negative perception of unification requiring massive financial resources, compared to the 1960s and 1970s birth cohorts.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.108-128
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• 2000

The Korean government has implemented the policy for merging 141 health insurers into Korean Unified Health Insurer (KUHI) in July of 2000. The unification of multiple insurers will definitely effect the stability of financial management, equity of premium burdens and efficiency of administrative management. However, it is difficult to predict what forms the far-reaching effects of the unification would take. Thus, pursuing the unification may be express as a huge policy experiment. In order to lead the unification, which lies on a crossroad between success and failure, to the road of success, we need to infer the problems and obstacles predicted in the step-wise processes of merging organizations, finances and the systems of computing premium, and come up with the effective means to maintain the stability of financial management, to improve the equity of premium burdens and to increase the efficiency of administrative management. Thus, I first described the changes of the Korean medical insurance system, and analyzed the performances of self-employed medical insurance 1 year after the integration of societies in October of 1998. At the base of examining the stability of financial management, equity of premium burdens and efficiency of administrative management, I predicted the problems and obstacles that could occur after the unification of the multiple medical insurers, and proposed a few ways of leading the unification of the multiple medical insurers in Korea to success. The most worried factor is that insurance finance would become unstable since the expansion of premium revenues is not easy because raising the premium for all Koreans is to be difficult. In addition, the unification of insurance finance could weaken the insurer's efforts for declaring real incomes of the self-employed and increasing the collection rate of premiums from them. This weakening would be the decisive factor of lowering the equity of premium contributions between the self-employed and employees. And bureaucratization and rigidity that are unavoidable in a gigantic unified organization could lower the efficiency of administrative management. Furthermore, by having 3 labor unions in the unified organization, it is possible to experience frequent difficulties and discords among the unions and between the unions and organization. Thus, when smooth pursuing of the unification of multiple insurers gets difficult, the social expenses derived from the failure would eventually end up on all Koreans. The unification is to be performed after coming up with the ways to eradicate these worries, so that the unification of multiple insurers would step onto the road of success.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Library and Information Science
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• v.28
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• pp.135-165
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• 1995

When the unification process was established, West German librarians formed a commission for all library and information sectors. After legal unification, the committee formed 6 Arbeitsgruppe(AG) to develop library and information policies for the country. This was designed specially to elevate the level of the East German library system to the West German standard. The first AG concerns the public libraries. The second AG focuses on the education system for library and information specialists. The third AG examines the academic libraries. The fourth AG reviews the regional and national library services and the central organization. The fifth AG explores library and information techniques. The sixth and final AG inspects the legal problem of libraries. Each AG consists of specialists from both East and West German library systems who are experts in their particular subject area. The committee has general meetings to determine the best direction for the nation's library system. Common knowledge indicates this unification was based on economical amalgamation(fusion) from East Germany to West Germany. The unification resulted in the library and information recommendations tending to favor the more advanced West German policies. In this process there are a number of subtle ideological and psychological problems. If before the separation they had developed their library system as one entity, they could overcome the current differences. with much less confusion. In this political phenomenon we can learn that cultural unification needs more time than political unification.

• Journal of the HCI Society of Korea
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.23-33
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• 2019

Expectations for reunification have been higher than ever since the relationship between the two Koreas has become more flexible. However, since most of the integrated education in high school is based on teachers and textbooks, the educational effectiveness is minimal as it fails to attract learners' interest. Therefore, in this study, high school students participated in the North Korean market, the market for the rainy season, and our market. Through this development, the government proposed a new content for unification education that would raise interest in unification and effectively learn how the two Koreas can be divided. The main analyses and studies of this paper are as follows: :(1) First, the current state of unification education and understanding of North Korea and the current status of unification education was analyzed through the survey of educational materials for unification of North Korea, unification and school. (2) Based on the analyzed data, a learner-centered, participatory service concept was derived. (3) Based on the concept of service, a prototype of a unified education content based on the theme of a marketplaces. (4) Tested a prototype of the content of unification education for high school students. (5) Based on the prototyping test results and user analysis, a unified education content was improved and proposed. The study could replace and supplement traditional methods of unification education by improving the effectiveness of unification education through the provision of effective unification education services to high school students.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.48 no.6
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• pp.17-28
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• 2006

We propose an Agricultural Infrastructure Expansion Plan (AIEP) for North Korea following unification from the standpoint of a united Korea's social stability. We predict the food demand after unification, according to four different development scenarios based on the AIEP. These scenarios include meeting a self-sufficient level in the staple food crop, satisfying long-term food supply and demand for the North Korean people, achieving a level of North Korean food consumption comparable to that of South Korea, and maintaining productivity to stabilize of North Korea's rural society. We present the results of a 'benefit-cost' analysis in meeting the production targets of predicted food demands after unification from a civil engineering perspective. We found that the estimated total costs would range from 15.2 to 43.0 billion dollars depending on the particular AIEP scenario. In our analysis, all of the four scenarios presented above demonstrated a high degree of economic validity. We conclude that the AIEP is a necessary and economically valid project for a united Korea's future because it would forestall the collapse of North Korea's rural communities, thereby preventing tremendous economic losses upon unification.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.259-284
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• 2021

The present study was conducted to develop and validate a psychological scale that measures individuals' attitude toward unification of Korea (ATU-K). Building on major theoretical perspectives on the structure of attitude and the attitude-behavior link, we specified two sub-components each representing the cognitive and the affective dimension of people's attitude toward unification. In a survey that involved a stratified sample of Korean adults (N = 1,500), we found strong evidence showing the construct validity of the ATU-K scale. We also found evidence for the convergent and discriminant validity of the scale. In a second survey involving another stratified sample of 1,500 Korean adults, we found the utility of the ATU-K scale in predicting people's intention to engage in unification-oriented behaviors (personal/collective). We also found that the ATU-K scale fares better in predicting the intention vis-a-vis the other measures of unification-related beliefs reported in previous research. We discuss implications of our findings and directions for future research.

• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.819-835
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• 2012

The purpose of this study was to develop and test the validity of an assessment scale for determining the competency of early childhood teachers practicing unification education. For this purpose, an evaluation scale was constructed and then tested for reliability and validity. Participants for this study included 266 early childhood teachers in the unification education field. In order to the measure reliability and validity of this scale, Exploratory Factor Analysis and Confirmatory Factor Analysis were conducted with SPSS 18.0 and AMOS. The result of this study identified four principal factors: 1) Instruction skills, 2) Evaluation, 3) Attitude, and 4) Knowledge. The results of this study supported the scale's reliability and legitimacy as a valid instrument for the evaluation of early childhood teacher's competence in unification education.

• Convergence Security Journal
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• v.15 no.7
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• pp.125-134
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• 2015

This study aims to investigate what to be prepared and implemented for the military integration when South and North Korea are making progress toward unification. Although we can not exactly predict when the unification will be completed at this time, preparations for the military integration should be ready ahead of time. Since the failure of the military integration can threat the unification, elaborated and practical solutions are required. Therefore, the study tries to answer the following questions : 1) What types of the military integration are desirable and what are the prerequisites for the unification of Korean Peninsular? ; 2) What potential military tasks could be caused by military integration? ; 3) What are the core and major tasks among them and how could they be solved in practical aspects?

• Journal of Christian Education in Korea
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• v.63
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• pp.407-433
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• 2020

South Korea is currently facing multiculturalism, appropriately demanding broadened view and access to the study of Unification, especially in terms of who should be the subject. In congruence, recent Unification Education studies are proposing values stressed in Multiculturalism to function as the core ground, upon which other traits and contents are to follow. Similarly, Christian Education field is also reflecting the recent trend, welcoming 'everyone' to participate in preparing reunification of Korean Peninsula. However, most studies consist of suggesting and introducing directions for new approaches, not so much of dealing with systems or guidelines for practical practices. Information provided in fragments can rather cause confusion in understanding the concept, and lack of specific guidelines can soon lead to poor performances. In this study, Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is introduced as a methodology to be examined, whether it could effectively embody and systemize the newly emerged Multicultural Christian Unification Education. Therefore, the purpose of this study is 1) to generalize the concept of Christian unification education introduced in the multicultural era and 2) examine whether UDL is suitable for uniformizing and spreading the Multicultural approach of Christian Unification Education. Specifically, this study highly focused on examining whether UDL is a suitable methodology to achieve the goal of Multicultural Christian unification education, while uniformizing the diversities within multicultural Christian Unification Education. Through a thorough research, it was proved that the purpose and characteristics of multicultural Christian unification education are similar to those of UDL in that both focus on accepting heterogeneity as something "different" rather than something "wrong." Also, it was found that the application of the theory and guidelines of UDL can effectively unify while respecting the diverse methodologies used in Multicultural Christian Education.

• Journal of Legislation Research
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• no.55
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• pp.57-94
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• 2018

Crisis of trust in Korean society, especially south-south conflicts among Korean political circle, civil society and peoples on the issue of the Korean peninsula policy driven by south Korean government, have weakened the sustainable and consistent energy of the policy for peace and unification of Korea peninsula. At the moment of drastic change of south-north relation in Korean peninsula, National agreement as a foundation of sustainable peace and unification policy has very important meaning. Because of this, national contract of unification as a kind of social concertation, has been demanded. National contract for peace and unification is an unprecedented process for making unofficial legal norm because it authorize quasi-legislative binding force on the agreement which is concluded by the Korean political circle, civil society and peoples for the peace and unification of Korean peninsula. National contract for peace and unification includes 'agreed aim and principles' for peace, prosperity and unification as well as process and result. And National contract for peace and unification, also is characterized long duration of aim achievement and openness of participating subjects. In terms of law, it will be legitimate source for comprehensive modification of international and internal law. In addition, The nature of National contract for peace and unification, as a people's law, should be considered as soft law which has the power to realize its contents through the enactment of legislation and policy. In order to guarantee the establishment and effectiveness of National contract for peace and unification, the setting of organization is need to determine the range of representatives, who participate in the process of contract making, procedure of contract and to carry out the contract after the conclusion of National contract for peace and unification. For the reason, the Council of National Contract for Peace and Unification as a independent administrative government committee and 'Act on National Contract for Peace and Unification' is needed.