Germany in no rush for Korean reconciliation
POLITICIANS are urging Germany to use the lessons of its own reunification to help bring North and South Korea together, but Berlin is in no rush to take up the challenge.
A second summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un planned for later this month has raised hopes for lasting peace on a peninsula divided since war there ended in a truce more than 65 years ago.
“Germany has a special role to play. Germany and the city of Berlin are for most Koreans symbols of reunification,” South Korea’s ambassador to Germany, Jong Bum Goo, said.
“Our government wants to integrate North Korea into the international community but in my view the German government is still rather passive on this,” Jong said.
Despite this, some former leaders of Communist East Germany, Berlin’s Free University, some parliamentarians, and civil society groups are engaging with North Korea to share the lessons of German reunification.
A senior South Korean diplomat in Seoul said the government had not made any specific request of Berlin and was “grateful for Germany’s ongoing support for inter-Korean reconciliation”.
However, many experts agree that Germany, one of the few countries with diplomatic relations with North and South Korea, is being stubborn.
Germany’s foreign policy is embedded in that of EU and tends to follow the US line. On North Korea, this means joining sanctions aimed at getting it to end its nuclear programme.
The criticism of Germany comes 18 months after South Korean President Moon Jai-in came to Berlin to appeal for support. In October last year, Moon visited Europe again, seeking support for possibly easing sanctions against North Korea once it makes progress on denuclearisation. But his summit with the EU, in which Germany holds sway, failed to reach agreement.
Germany’s foreign ministry said it was ready in principle to look at possible support for reconciliation but stressed this must be driven by the two Koreas.
“The top priority on North Korea is the complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearisation,” said a ministry official, adding that while Germany does have a special role, EU co-ordination was important.
The Berlin Wall Foundation, the Goethe Institute and South Korean game developer Nolgong unveiled an interactive game in January to encourage players to learn about Germany’s split and reunification and about Korea’s war and division.