Presidential Personality and Foreign Policy Decision-Making: The Sunshine Policy under Kim Dae-jung (1998–2003)

This study uses leadership trait analysis to examine the link between personality and policy regarding South Korea’s Sunshine Policy toward North Korea and demonstrates that Kim Dae-jung’s personality characteristics largely accounted for this policy’s content, process, and outcome. With an analytical focus on the decision-making system, this study finds that Kim’s formal model was characterized by a control deemed inherently more indirect, subtle, and socialized than direct, personalized, or outright. Specifically, this type of control can be attributed to Kim’s personality traits, such as a persistently high need for power and relationship focus, along with other idiosyncratic style variables, such as disinclination toward interpersonal conflict, a sense of efficacy, and a sophisticated cognitive quality. President Kim’s resulting management style had the effect of empowering members of his advisory group and invigorating the policy process. In addition, the president’s trusted chief of staff, who served as a competent and thoughtful custodian manager with substantial authority, helped manage the system effectively and enhanced its stability. The study concludes that Kim Dae-jung’s management style, incorporating socialized control over decision-making, combined with his advocate leadership style in implementation (marked by a relentless push for his rapprochement agenda and a tendency to challenge constraints indirectly), helped accelerate the overall policy process. This contributed to the improvement of inter-Korean relations during his presidency.

总统性格与外交决策：金大中的阳光政策（1998-2003）

关键词：个性特征，领袖特质分析，外交决策，阳光政策，金大中

本研究使用领袖特质分析，考察了领袖性格与韩国对朝鲜的阳光政策之间的联系，表明金大中的个性特征在很大程度上决定了该政策的内容、过程与结果。通过对决策系统的聚焦分析，本文发现金大中的正式模型是以一种本质上更间接、微妙并社会化的控制为特征，而非直接、个人化或者彻底的控制。具体而言，这种类型的控制可以归因于金大中的个性特征，诸如对权力一贯的高度需求以及对关系的关注，以及其他特有的风格变量。金大中总统由此而产生的管理风格便具有为顾问团队赋权并为政策过程带来活力的效果。此外，深得总统信任的幕僚长作为具有实权的监护管理者称职并且心思周密，帮助他有效地管理了整个系统，并且增强了系统的稳定性。本研究得出结论认为，金大中的管理风格结合了对决策的社会化的控制，加上他在政策执行中倡导者的领导风格（以不懈推动和解议程以及间接挑战限制的趋向为标志），加速了整个政策过程。这对于金大中任职总统时期南北韩关系的改善起到了很大作用。

Translated by Li Guo