2021, Vol.5, No.3

Korea and Global Affairs 2023 KCI Impact Factor : 0.89

pISSN : 2508-8300 / eISSN : 2671-5694
https://journal.kci.go.kr/kips

This study is based on the recognition that the Rhee Syngman administration’s national assembly election system is the foundation of the korean national assembly election system. This study examined the Rhee Syngman administration’s national assembly election system as the process of creation, continuation, adjustment, and change through historical institutionalism. First, the creation process lacked awareness of political parties due to the absence of political forces that could directly affect the national assembly election act, resulting in more independent elections than political parties. Second, the continuation process had minor changes in the national assembly election act, but it did not have any effect on the election results. Third, the adjustment process established an absolute advantage of the liberal party with the founding of a political party and the introduction of party recommendation system by President Rhee Syngman rather than a change in the national assembly election act. Fourth, the change process not only the number of independent candidates decreased sharply due to the shorter registration period of candidates and the introduction of the deposit system, but the elected were mostly affiliated with political parties, and a two-party system was established to check the ruling party. The Rhee Syngman administration’s national assembly election system has a positive effect that it laid the foundation for the korean national assembly election system, it also had a negative effect of distorting the national assembly election system for stabilizing and extending the political power.

Since the United States and China established diplomatic relations in 1979, the two countries have had many ups and downs in their rollercoaster-like relationship, with repeated conflict, competition, and cooperation. However, due to the Trump administration’s consistently coercive strategy toward China, the cycle of tension and stability has been broken, leaving conflict at its peak. Notably, the United States will try to curb the rise of China, as it has defined its relationship with China in ideological terms as a competition with a state that opposes U.S. values, rather than as a mere strategic competition. This is in conflict with President Joe Biden’s proposed foreign policy of cooperation based on liberal internationalism. Against this backdrop, this study has identified changes and continuity in the Biden administration’s policy toward China.

The inauguration of the new administration of US early this year, led by Joe Biden, has important implications for changes in the situation on the Korean Peninsula. This is because amid the intensifying strategic conflict between the US and China, the direction of the US new administration's policy toward the public and North Korea can bring about various changes in the policy of East Asia and the Korean Peninsula. After the 8th party congress in North Korea held in January, the second period of Kim Jong-un's foreign policy is in effect. It is expected that the development of North Korea's strategy toward US and the progress of the North Korea's denuclearization negotiation as well as South Korea will act as a very big variable in the direction of the situation on the Korean Peninsula. Therefore, this article would like to analyze the changes in the situation on the Korean Peninsula in the future, focusing on the prospects of the Biden administration’s foreign policies.