What do you think when you hear the word “Korea?” Some people might think of South Korea’s Samsung and LG, while others think of North Korea and its leader Kim Jong-Il. Some might even bring up the ongoing conflict and possible war between the two Koreas. When you visit South Korea, however, everything is quite contrary. Most South Koreans do not worry about an all-out war, and for most of them, foreigners preoccupying themselves with concerns about a possible invasion by North Korea seem quite strange. Economically, militarily and politically, South Korea surpassed North Korea a few decades ago. With this fact in mind, South Koreans believe that peace will not be shattered unless North Korea faces a significant threat to national security.

Yet, the Korean Peninsula should not stay divided anymore. What do you think when you hear the word “Korea?” Some people might think of South Korea’s Samsung and LG, while others think of North Korea and its leader Kim Jong-Il. Some might even bring up the ongoing conflict and possible war between the two Koreas. When you visit South Korea, however, everything is quite contrary. Most South Koreans do not worry about an all-out war, and for most of them, foreigners preoccupying themselves with concerns about a possible invasion by North Korea seem quite strange. Economically, militarily and politically, South Korea surpassed North Korea a few decades ago. With this fact in mind, South Koreans believe that peace will not be shattered unless North Korea faces a significant threat to national security.

Yet, the Korean Peninsula should not stay divided anymore. Even if there is no possibility of an all-out war, the two nations are still spending a significant portion of their GDPs on their military. Moreover, family members who had to separate from each other during the Korean War need to meet with each other before they pass away.

In order to quicken the unification, the two leaders of the North and the South should meet each other. However, unlike North Korea, South Korean politicians have a wide range of opinions on how to approach the summit talks between the North and the South. During the previous two administrations, President Kim and President Roh, left-wingers with liberal thoughts, argued that unconditional summit talks must take place. Right-wingers with conservative thoughts claimed that only after North Korea agrees to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula, to solve human rights problems and to send back to South Korea all those who were kidnapped during the Korean War and the Cold War, a summit talk would be possible. Of course, this discrepancy of opinions is possible and should be respected because South Korea is based on solid democracy. The only concern here is how current President Lee Myoung-bak would persuade people with conservative views.

President Lee no doubt bases his view on the platform of the conservative party, the Grand National Party in South Korea. This party garners the largest support from the conservatives in Korea. The conservatives tend to be more suspicious of North Korea, and President Lee might be justifiably worried about losing support among the conservatives when he talks about the possible third summit talks. Nevertheless, President Lee should not waste time worrying about this possibility. Politics is always about gains and losses. You cannot win everything; you need to lose something in order to gain something. If you can gain more than what you lose, you should act on that.

Doing as Richard Nixon did, President Lee should calculate the political gains and losses wisely. President Nixon was representative of anti-communists, conservatives and right-wingers in the 1960s and 70s. Yet, he made his mark on world history by visiting communist China in February 1972. With the help of Henry Kissinger, Nixon opened a new gate to fight off the Soviet Union and ultimately succeeded in separating the two giants of communist nations. This visit might have been political suicide during the Cold War. However, his visit was possible because he was a conservative and hard-liners wouldn’t go after him.

Were he a liberal like President John F. Kennedy or Lyndon B. Johnson, the United States would have undergone an ideological conflict as South Korea has experienced during the two previous administrations. South Korean society was divided between the liberals and conservatives — conservatives criticize the liberal government for subsidizing Kim Jong-Il through humanitarian programs, which end up enriching the North Korean military. Everyone knew that Nixon was not a liberal, so no one doubted his intention. This is a helpful tidbit President Lee could use when perusing world history. Since he is a conservative, he has a rock-solid ground on which to stand and can hold the summit talks between the two Koreas without appearing weak. Of course, extreme conservatives will oppose everything related to North Korea, but President Lee needs to know how to calculate political gains and losses.