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Kim Dae-jung and the Persistence of Anti-Communist Hegemony in South Korea

Abstract Existing writings that explore the relationship between inter-Korean relations and the political economy of South Korea stress the role of the ruling ideology of anti-communism in the domestic struggle for power or hegemony. They also consider Kim Dae-jung a member of the hegemonic group because he represented the interests of the bourgeoisie and, thus, they contend that the level of inter-Korean reconciliation during his presidency was a product of the hegemonic group’s accommodation of the people’s nationalist demands. Their arguments are, however, contradictory because, among other things, Kim was one of those most severely damaged by the hegemonic group’s ruling ideology. Drawing on Gramsci’s concepts, such as historical bloc and hegemonic project, I attempt to resolve the contradiction by arguing that Kim was not a member of the hegemonic group, but a leader of the counter-hegemonic liberal nationalists. Accordingly, this article demonstrates Kim’s stance on the chaebol-centred economic structure and his abortive attempt to change it. By the same token, it argues that the inter-Korean reconciliation was a hegemonic project to realise the liberal nationalists’ vision of peaceful unification through a liberal approach and to undermine the anti-communism with which the hegemonic group had exercised ideological leadership for decades.