Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Connecticut, 1990. / Abstract (2 leaves) bound with copy. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 254-267).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Georgia, 1993. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 228-233).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Pennsylvania State University, 1993. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [418]-453).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, Riverside, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 227-244).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Kentucky, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 243-262).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--West Virginia University, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 209-229).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, 2004. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 350-360).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Aberdeen University, 2009. / Title from web page (viewed on Oct. 5, 2009). Includes bibliographical references.

This study examined the prospects of Korean reunification. The study explores how the factors of integration affect North and South Korea after the country was divided into the two sides despite its millennium of unity. A sample of both North and South Korean newspapers covering a 47-year period of Korean reunificational efforts were analyzed as a major source of data to discover if there is any evidence of Korean national will to integrate among Koreans in the two countries. Content analysis is a major method of this research. The most obvious findings of this study are that the newspapers in North Korea did not show any significant change in their tones or attitudes throughout 47-year period studied. The North Korean regime which controls what is published in the papers is still fiercely ideological and hostile toward South Korea. The South Korean papers, on the other hand, showed marked changes in their tones and attitudes toward reunification during this period. Korean reunification remains a matter of time because the political development of South Korea, combined with remarkable economic progress, can surely heal the broken unity and national will among Koreans. The enormous financial burden to rebuild the North Korean economy which will fall upon South Koreans is a major challenge. The road to Korean reunification and the future of reunified Korea depend upon the willingness, wisdom, patience, freedom and courage of the South Koreans to assume the tremendous burden to rebuild North Korea and to strengthen diplomatic relations with the United States as well as neighboring countries to develop more positive inter-Korean relations based upon their cultural, social and economic contacts, cooperations and transactions between the two sides. If Koreans have such willingness, wisdom, patience and courage to accomplish their freedom and hope of unity, the divided Korean peninsula will be reunified and will become one nation again.

China's policy toward the Korean peninsula has shifted from a one-Korea policy to a de facto two-Korea policy. Beijing's constant policy is recognition of Pyongyang as the sole legitimate regime on the peninsula. What Beijing has changed is to acknowledge the existence of the Seoul regime and to inaugurate Sino-South Korean unofficial ties. The main thrust of this research is to examine China's relations with South Korea and North Korea during the period between 1984 and 1989 and to identify the national interests which made Beijing leaders shift their Korea policy. The hypothesis of this study is: China's economic priority is the determining factor and changes in the international environment in East Asia are a contributing factor which made China incrementally shift policy toward the Korean peninsula. The decision to adopt the policy of "revitalizing the economy internally and implementing the open door policy externally" in the Third Plenum of the Eleventh Chinese Communist Party Central Committee in 1978 resulted in revolutionary changes in Chinese foreign policy. These changes resulted from new foreign policy orientations, namely, pragmatism, the growing magnitude of economic elements, open door policy, and entente diplomacy. These new orientations were able to be applied to the Korean case when changes in the Northeast Asian international milieu provided chances in the early 1980s. These changes were the growing positive Sino-Soviet relations, the emergence of South Korea as an economic power, the improvement of Soviet-North Korean relations, and the failure of North Korean diplomacy. Through empirical studies of Chinese foreign behavior and official media, the hypothesis is proven valid. In the early 1980s, China evidently changed its Korean policy priority from strategic interests to political interests with a desire for a peaceful international environment. The growing unofficial Beijing-Seoul contacts show that China desires to pursue its economic interests in South Korea but under the premise of not jeopardizing its relations with North Korea. This line will not change until North Korea is willing to accept cross-recognition.