The normative status of civic groups and their role in reunification

Recently, civic groups have been facing significant challenges in terms of their roles and functions. Issues related to the depletion of event-driven issues, the reduction of the role of civic groups due to the democratization and rationalization of the state and society, chronic financial shortages and dependence on government subsidies, and lack of expertise have raised questions about the sustainability of civic groups activities. In particular, civic groups related to unification are increasingly being marginalized from the national agenda. Not only have their roles and functions been reduced due to the strained relations between the North and South, but the humanitarian economic support for the North that they had been focusing on has also lost its momentum. The main causes are the sanctions against North Korea and the COVID-19 pandemic. A bigger problem is the concern that if North Korea's economic difficulties are resolved in the future, or if the South and North enter into a process of unification and issues related to integration that have not been properly addressed come to the forefront, unification-related civic groups may lose their direction and disappear. From this perspective, a fundamental reexamination of the existing activities and content of unification-related civic groups is necessary. In other words, we have reached a stage where we must seek future-oriented roles and functions related to unification. This paper focuses on the policy-forming function of civic groups, which has been overlooked until now. While civic groups have traditionally functioned as critics, monitors, opinion formers, and human rights activists, their role as autonomous policy-formers in shaping national order is becoming increasingly important as an alternative activity. It is judged that this function will play a significant role in shaping the national order of a unified Korea in the future. To this end, this paper first examines the concept of civic groups, as well as the normative basis and status of civic groups. In this process, it confirms that civic groups have the policy-setting functions and status to autonomously form national order, and argues that diverse civic groups, which may seem unrelated, can have an organic influence on the formation of a unified national order. Additionally, we will analyze the issues surrounding the activities of civic groups from the perspectives of their functions, content, structure, and regulatory-focused legal systems. By examining what is necessary for the transformation of the role and functions of civic groups in unification, we aim to explore the desirable role of civic groups in the unification process.