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Lessons from German Unification for the Preparation of Korean Unification

  • Korea and Global Affairs
  • Abbr : KGA
  • 2020, 4(6), pp.245-276
  • DOI : 10.22718/kga.2020.4.6.009
  • Publisher : Korea Institute of Politics and Society
  • Research Area : Interdisciplinary Studies > Interdisciplinary Research
  • Received : November 12, 2020
  • Accepted : December 18, 2020
  • Published : December 30, 2020

Park Hwee Rhak 1

1국민대학교

Candidate

ABSTRACT

This paper is written to identify and apply a few practical lessons from German unification to a possible Korean unification in the future. It focuses on the peaceful and gradual processes, which were used for the unification between West Germany and East Germany. As a result, this paper found that the West and East Germanies managed to keep peace in the course of their unification, actively incorporated poeples’ will and opinions on their unification and followed the domestic and international procedures regarding their unification. They produced lot of useful lessons for South Korea in terms of its preparation for another unification success with North Korea. However, nuclear weapons of North Korea could be a serious obstacle for Korean unification. So, South Korea should strengthen its deterrence and defense posture against North Korean nuclear threat before preparing for the unification. Then, South Korea should put its first priority on making peaceful unification with North Korea. Especially, South Korean political leaders should discuss and agree on their workable visions for peaceful unification between two countries and make a friendly international environment for the unification. The visions should include peaceful unification, active incorporation of peoples’ will and opinions and abiding by the domestic and international procedures for the unification.

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