The Unending War: Contested Memory, National Identity, and South Korea's Policy Towards North Korea

Through a constructivist and interpretivist approach, this thesis examines the extent to which the interplay between collective memory, national identity, and state interests impacts foreign policy. In particular, it examines the influence of South Korea’s collective memory on its policies towards North Korea. The study argues that state narratives select, omit, and re-contextualize specific memories of the Korean War and of national division to construct a national identity that responds to the country’s ontological security needs, and that serves as a tool of regime legitimization. The comparative analysis of two state-sponsored memory sites, namely the National Museum of Korean Contemporary History and the War Memorial of Korea, reflects the evolution of South Korea’s memory politics, and suggests that even after the country’s democratization and adoption of mechanisms of transitional justice, collective memory remains highly contested and tied to competition between opposite political factions.