Korean Unification Essays - North KoreaSouth Korea Relations

Korean Unification Ideas of the Korean Unification: Can They Learn From Germanys Experience? Introduction The idea of this paper is to compare and contrast German Unification process with the outlook for possible scenarios in Korea. By looking at the similarities and differences between the situation in Germany and Korea. To do this I look at the state of the economies, recommendations toward policy, the need for international support as well as possibilities on how to organize the transition. If the Republic of Korea and the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea are to merge as one united country, several factors will need to be taken into question. I hope to bring light on what it might take in order for this to happen. With the end of the Cold War and the disappearance of the East-West confrontation, new challenges demand political management in order that the emergence of new aggravations and tensions be avoided. Divided countries such as Germany and Korea were the epitome of the cold war era with its acute ideological divisions. German unification in 1989 was one of the central events of the process sealing the end of the cold war. Since then, Germany has undergone a process characterized by positive, but especially also an array of negative experiences. A series of mistakes was committed during and after the German unification process that caused avoidable pain and has lasting consequences which may not be overcome for decades. The German experience may hold some lessons for other countries. The Korean peninsula, for one, is still mired in a conflict which reflects the harsh ideological divide, uneven economic development and the build-up of menacing military forces, including nuclear capabilities. Can Korean standoff and confrontation continue? Will the break-up of the Soviet Union, the disappearance of its Communist Party, the ensuing policies towards the market economy, the economic reforms in China and new diplomatic alignments in the region trigger Korean unification? What are the lessons from the German experience? I will attempt to shed light on the these and numerous other issues associated with the Korean unification process. Germany and Korea Similarities and Differences for Unification While the unification of Germany was treated as a national issue, it actually has and will continue to have considerable international implications. Germany grew overnight from a country of some sixty million people to a nation of eighty million. Germany today is one and half times the size of Britain, France or Italy.(Dept. Of State and Foreign Affairs) Although today Germany has enormous economic problems which will remain for at least the next 10 years, all of Germanys neighbors believe that in the end Germany will come out on top economically. German unification has demonstrated that the re-establishment of the unity of a country even after a long period of division and difficulties is possible and that unification can be achieved in a democratic, peaceful way. But despite similarities between the two cases, there may also be many differences regarding internal and external aspects. Germany and Korea were both divided in the wake of World War II against the background of rivalry between capitalist West and the communist East. In both countries, the hope for reunification was slim during the Cold War period. Unlike Germany, North and South Korea had fought a ferocious war. The two Germanys, unlike the two Koreas, concluded a system of treaties to regularize relations at the official level and to secure a modicum of civil contacts and communications among the people. On the Korean peninsula, North Korea remains to this very day a hermetically closed society. No information flows uncontrolled into the country, access to foreign radio and television broadcasts is non-existent and no contact is permitted with the outside world, not even the exchange of letters. Travel both inside the country and abroad is subject to approval and regulation. Apart from the countrys leaders and nomenklatura, all other North Koreans are unaware of developments in the world in general and the social and economic conditions in South Korea in particular. This constellation is likely to make any unification process in Korea fraught with the risks of political and social instability. There are also significant differences in the economic constellation between Germany and Korea. The population ratio between East and West Germany was 1:4, while for North and South Korea this ratio stands at 1:2. In 1997, North Korea is believed to have experienced an economic decline of 3.7% and in 1998 of 5.2%. South Korea has continued to achieve rapid economic growth