@article{ART003380473},
author={Mun, Inchul and HYUNSUK OUM},
title={Enhancing the Resilience of North Korea, Unification, and Peace Policy: The Institutional Buffer Function of Local Governments},
journal={The Journal of Northeast Asia Research},
issn={2005-4432},
year={2026},
volume={41},
number={2},
pages={87-124},
doi={10.18013/jnar.2026.41.2.004}
TY - JOUR
AU - Mun, Inchul
AU - HYUNSUK OUM
TI - Enhancing the Resilience of North Korea, Unification, and Peace Policy: The Institutional Buffer Function of Local Governments
JO - The Journal of Northeast Asia Research
PY - 2026
VL - 41
IS - 2
PB - The Institute for Northeast Asia Research
SP - 87
EP - 124
SN - 2005-4432
AB - This article reframes South Korean local-government engagement with North Korea after Pyongyang’s hostile two-state line as a problem of policy resilience under a central monopoly. It argues that concentrating North Korea policy in the central government produces a single-channel vulnerability: when central inter-Korean relations turn hostile, lower-level channels tend to collapse with them. The article does not assume that local governments can bypass North Korea’s refusal or sustain inter-Korean channels on their own. North Korea’s acceptance is an exogenous constraint beyond the South’s control; what the article explains is how a rupture at the central level is amplified into a total shutdown within the South’s own policy structure. Local governments are therefore conceptualized not as substitutes for central diplomacy but as institutional buffer layers. Externally, they preserve redundant channels, policy memory, and issue expertise; internally, they cultivate civic peace capacity through peace education, democratic citizenship education, and local social dialogue. Drawing on the literatures of multilevel governance, resilience, peace infrastructure, paradiplomacy, and engagement without recognition, the article develops an issue-channel framework. Korean cases show that even low-politics agendas are suspended under a single-layered structure, while comparative references indicate the conditions under which functional and subnational channels partially survive central deadlock. The article concludes that institutionalizing local governments as buffer layers mitigates the South’s structural vulnerability to total policy shutdown and preserves readiness for policy resumption.
KW - Local Governments’ North Korea;Unification;and Peace Policy;Resilience;Multilevel Governance;Institutional Buffer Function of Local Governments;Hostile Two-State Line.
DO - 10.18013/jnar.2026.41.2.004
ER -
Mun, Inchul and HYUNSUK OUM. (2026). Enhancing the Resilience of North Korea, Unification, and Peace Policy: The Institutional Buffer Function of Local Governments. The Journal of Northeast Asia Research, 41(2), 87-124.
Mun, Inchul and HYUNSUK OUM. 2026, "Enhancing the Resilience of North Korea, Unification, and Peace Policy: The Institutional Buffer Function of Local Governments", The Journal of Northeast Asia Research, vol.41, no.2 pp.87-124. Available from: doi:10.18013/jnar.2026.41.2.004
Mun, Inchul, HYUNSUK OUM "Enhancing the Resilience of North Korea, Unification, and Peace Policy: The Institutional Buffer Function of Local Governments" The Journal of Northeast Asia Research 41.2 pp.87-124 (2026) : 87.
Mun, Inchul, HYUNSUK OUM. Enhancing the Resilience of North Korea, Unification, and Peace Policy: The Institutional Buffer Function of Local Governments. 2026; 41(2), 87-124. Available from: doi:10.18013/jnar.2026.41.2.004
Mun, Inchul and HYUNSUK OUM. "Enhancing the Resilience of North Korea, Unification, and Peace Policy: The Institutional Buffer Function of Local Governments" The Journal of Northeast Asia Research 41, no.2 (2026) : 87-124.doi: 10.18013/jnar.2026.41.2.004
Mun, Inchul; HYUNSUK OUM. Enhancing the Resilience of North Korea, Unification, and Peace Policy: The Institutional Buffer Function of Local Governments. The Journal of Northeast Asia Research, 41(2), 87-124. doi: 10.18013/jnar.2026.41.2.004
Mun, Inchul; HYUNSUK OUM. Enhancing the Resilience of North Korea, Unification, and Peace Policy: The Institutional Buffer Function of Local Governments. The Journal of Northeast Asia Research. 2026; 41(2) 87-124. doi: 10.18013/jnar.2026.41.2.004
Mun, Inchul, HYUNSUK OUM. Enhancing the Resilience of North Korea, Unification, and Peace Policy: The Institutional Buffer Function of Local Governments. 2026; 41(2), 87-124. Available from: doi:10.18013/jnar.2026.41.2.004
Mun, Inchul and HYUNSUK OUM. "Enhancing the Resilience of North Korea, Unification, and Peace Policy: The Institutional Buffer Function of Local Governments" The Journal of Northeast Asia Research 41, no.2 (2026) : 87-124.doi: 10.18013/jnar.2026.41.2.004
