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

Abstract

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 e ect 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.