A complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula is the consistent demand of the international community and the one absolute condition for peace on the peninsula… We do not want North Korea’s collapse, nor will we seek any form of unification with North Korea by absorption… We’ll pursue a peace treaty with complete denuclearization through a comprehensive approach to the North Korean nuclear issue and a peace regime.

On July 6, 2017, South Korean President Moon Jae-in announced his New Berlin Declaration during his visit to Germany to attend the G20 summit, two months after he was elected as president. The key of the initiative, which presented the direction of the Seoul government’s North Korea policy, is to seek denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and design a peace regime. Every time a new government was inaugurated in South Korea, it made an important announcement on its commitment to an improvement in relations with North Korea. It was 1988 when one such announcement was made to bring about a major change in inter-Korean ties. Today, we’ll look back on the July 7 declaration in 1988.

First, we’ll actively promote exchanges among politicians, businessmen, journalists, religious people, artists, athletes, scholars and students in the two Koreas and enable ethnic Koreans overseas to freely visit South and North Korea.

On July 7, 1988, then-South Korean President Roh Tae-woo announced the “Special Presidential Declaration for National Self-esteem, Unification and Prosperity,” which set the basic direction of the government’s North Korea policy and the so-called “northern policy.” The declaration called for something very unconventional.

To create favorable conditions to settle peace on the Korean Peninsula, we’re willing to cooperate with North Korea when it improves relations with our allies, such as the U.S. and Japan. Also, we’ll seek to improve ties with socialist states, including the Soviet Union and China.

The announcement indicated that North Korea would no longer be a hostile rival but a country that South Korea should cooperate with. It presented a six-point action plan about inter-Korean exchanges of human and material resources.

I think the year 1988 is characterized by the keyword “agreement” in the history of inter-Korean relations. The title of the July 7 declaration contains the words, “national self-esteem and prosperity.” At the time, the Cold War structure was collapsing, with the diplomatic environment surrounding the Korean Peninsula changing fast. Under the circumstances, South Korea sought to intervene in international affairs actively by using inter-Korean relations and to lay the groundwork for co-prosperity through the northern policy. Most significantly, the July 7 declaration signaled the start of inter-Korean cooperation and exchanges.

You just heard the thoughts of Professor Kim Yeon-cheol of the Department of Unification Studies at Inje University. Professor Kim defines 1988 as the “age of agreement” because the July 7 declaration recognized North Korea as a partner of peaceful unification, not an opponent, and indicated the start of inter-Korean trade and exchanges. It was indeed a bold declaration that brought about innovation in Seoul’s North Korea policy. Not only an improvement in relations with North Korea, the declaration also calls for opening doors to countries in the Communist bloc. In fact, relations between South and North Korea had made little progress since the exchange visits of separated families between the two sides in 1985. With the two Koreas still in confrontation, how could Seoul announce the July 7 declaration in 1988? Professor Kim explains.

1988 was the year when the Seoul Olympic Games took place. As a matter of fact, South Korea pushed for its northern policy for the sake of the successful hosting of the Olympics. Western countries, including the U.S., did not participate in the 1980 Moscow Olympics, while socialist states, including the Soviet Union, boycotted the 1984 Olympic Games in LA. To make the 1988 Olympics a success, it was essential to enlist the participation of socialist countries, including the Soviet Union and China. For that purpose, it was necessary for Seoul to make some progress in inter-Korean relations. The 1988 Olympics was the starting point of the northern policy, which had much to do with the July 7 declaration.

Professor Kim cites the 1988 Seoul Olympics as the background for the July 7 declaration. At the time, the world was witnessing an era of “new détente.” In 1986, then-U.S. President Ronald Reagan and then-Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev held a summit. In 1989, former U.S. President George H. W. Bush and Gorbachev declared an end to the Cold War. A year earlier, amid the major change in the international order, the Seoul Olympics was held, heralding the start of a new era of overcoming the Cold War between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. Two months before the Seoul Olympics, the July 7 declaration was announced to open a new chapter in inter-Korean relations. Professor Kim continues to explain.

Inter-Korean economic cooperation began in 1989, one year after the July 7 declaration. It started with trade, with South Korea bringing in North Korean agricultural products. That’s why statistics of bilateral economic cooperation started in 1989. In a significant development, Hyundai Group honorary chairman Chung Ju-young visited North Korea that year and agreed with the North on the Mt. Geumgang tour program. After that, Chung even ran for president. The tour program kicked off about ten years later, but it was in 1989 when South and North Korea first agreed on the joint tour project.

In the July 7 declaration, South Korea proposed that the two Koreas tear down the wall of division and carry out exchanges in all areas. Three months after the declaration was announced, inter-Korean trade began. The following year, guidelines for inter-Korean cooperation were enacted to support bilateral exchanges. In January 1989, Hyundai Group’s late founder Chung Ju-young visited North Korea at the invitation of then-North Korean Workers’ Party secretary Heo Dam and signed a contract on the joint development of the Mt. Geumgang area. Chung was the first South Korean civilian to visit North Korea since the end of the Korean War, although he traveled to the North via a third country. After that, South and North Korea promoted their economic cooperation, which later led to the establishment of a joint factory park in the North Korean border town of Gaeseong, the reconnection of cross-border railways and roads and the Mt. Geumgang tour program. On the political front, Seoul and Pyongyang held high-level talks in 1990 and adopted the Inter-Korean Basic Agreement the following year. That’s why Professor Kim calls the July 7 declaration the “textbook of the era of inter-Korean agreement.”

The July 7 declaration explains the government’s view on inter-Korean relations and its North Korea policy as well. As a result of the declaration, Seoul and Pyongyang signed the 1991 Inter-Korean Basic Agreement, which comprehensively shows the tasks that the two sides should contend with in the future. The “non-aggression” part, in particular, explains in detail how to build military trust between the South and the North. So, in light of military trust, the basic agreement may serve as the textbook in dealing with ever-changing regional diplomacy surrounding the Korean Peninsula.