Special Relations Between Indonesia And Korea Capital Become Peacemakers

MEDAN Indonesia has a great opportunity to become a promoter of peace between North Korea and South Korea. Indonesia's involvement in peace on the Korean Peninsula is in line with the principles of good citizens or good neighbors introduced by President Prabowo Subianto.

"One of the characteristics of a good neighbor is offering solutions and solutions to deadlocks in the international arena, in this case on the Korean Peninsula," said foreign political observer Dr. Teguh Santosa in a public lecture held at the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, University of North Sumatra (FISIP USU), in Medan, Tuesday, February 25, 2025.

Teguh's public lecture has the theme Korean Reunification: Game Theory which was based on his latest book of the same name.

In the book, Teguh approached the conflict on the Korean Peninsula by using two analytical knives. First, a two-level game analysis knife that concludes that foreign policies of each country are influenced by the dynamics of domestic politics and global politics. Second, a game theory analysis knife that describes every state actor as a player who seeks to implement certain strategies to win the game and at the same time guess the strategy used by opponents.

With these two analysis knives, Teguh dissects political dynamics in both Korea and other national actors who have direct interests on the Korean Peninsula. Other actors he calls multi-party are the United States, Japan, Russia and China. The four countries together with North Korea and South Korea have joined Six-Party Talks to discuss the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, but in the end failed.

"The failure occurred because the four of them had direct interests and were part of the problems on the Korean Peninsula, so their sincerity as promoters of peace was doubted by the warring parties," said Teguh.

Meanwhile, Indonesia, Teguh said, has been in good relations with each Korean for a long time.

Indonesia and North Korea started diplomatic relations in 1961. Then in 1965, Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il visited Indonesia to attend the decade of the Asian Africa Conference. During the visit, President Sukarno gave orchids to Kim Il Sung who was later named Bunga Kimilsung. The story of friendship with Indonesia is still alive in the midst of North Korean society.

Meanwhile, Indonesia's relations with South Korea began in 1973. So far, the two countries have a fairly good economic relationship. Korea is one of the countries with a significant investment value in Indonesia. Throughout 2019 to 2024, South Korea's total investment in Indonesia was recorded at almost 14 billion US dollars in various sectors.

Indonesia also bought training planes from South Korea and collaborated with South Korea in making fighter jets. South Korea several years ago made three Changbogo-class submarines for Indonesia.

Teguh's book Reunification: Game Theory has been marked by his closeness to the issue of the Korean Peninsula since 2003 when he first visited North Korea. Since then, Teguh has visited North Korea and South Korea a dozen times.