 Image: A conference attendee who shared this photo on the condition of anonymity. |
While the reunification of Germany remains
an indispensable prism through which we can understand and begin to prepare for
unified Korean Peninsula, it is a lone tool in what should be a much larger kit
aimed at a successful and prosperous unification scenario, according to experts
and scholars at a recent event looking back at 25 years since the reunification
of Germany.
Joined by experts in the field, a group of
university students from both Germany and South Korea joined in the discourse
at the event, hosted by the Free University Berlin, Seoul National
University, the Korea Foundation, and the embassy of the Republic of Korea in
Berlin.
Opening speeches were given by South
Korea’s foreign minister, Yun Byung Se, and Peter Lange, chancellor of the
Free University Berlin, both of whom stressed the importance of a unification
of the Korean Peninsula but also referred to the myriad obstacles therein by
drawing on examples from Germany.
Additionally, Prof. Sangtu Ko of Yonsei
University gave the keynote speech during which he pointed out that the year 2015
is the 70 anniversary of Korean independence from the Japanese occupation, but “only
one half of the Korean people are able to enjoy this independence,” adding that
for the North Korean people, “70 years of division also means 70 years of
sorrow.”
According to Professor Ko, a survey
conducted among South Koreans aged 19-29 revealed that 43% of respondents were
interested in and hoped for unification. This number, however, can be construed
in both positive and negative lights—that is, akin to a glass half-full or
half-empty context, according to the expert.
Prof. Dr. Everhard Holtmann, director of
the center for social research in Halle, Germany, followed with a presentation
exploring how residents of both Germanies consistently lost interest in
unification as the division carried on. Decades of separation heavily influenced
people’s perspectives; this, in turn, served to make the very nature of living
in a divided nation feel perfectly natural, almost as though it had always been
so.
Holtmann added that residents from East
Germany were decidedly more relieved after the two states unified and that many
of the differences between East and West Germany are evident even at present,
particularly considering that the unemployment rate in former East Germany is
still [after 25 years] double that of its previous counterpart.
A panel debate comprising eight students
from Seoul National University and eight students from Free University Berlin
followed. These young scholars discussed issues and potential plans for a
unified Korean Peninsula. Most interesting was the fact that no two students
brought the same ideas to the table, fostering a poignant and insightful
discussion for a complicated issue with no clear answers.
One student from Seoul National University,
for example, expressed concerns on the environment awaiting North Koreans in
South Korea, specifically regarding the discrimination they face currently– to
the degree that many fear admitting their status as refugees from the North.
On plans and the actual prospects of
unification, the panel was divided, with some saying even the best laid plans
would be difficult, if not impossible, to manage if unification is triggered
suddenly, as seen in Germany. Others
focused on the plans themselves, concerned that they must reflect the minds of
both Koreas and especially urged South Koreans to warm to the notion of North
and South Koreans working and living together side by side. This latter point
in particular drove the panel’s division, with part of the group positing that
perhaps unification is not necessarily the best answer.
The audience chimed in thereafter, with one
student from south Korea saying, “Instead of thinking on how to approach
unification, we need more reasons for unification itself and determine if those
reasons are strong enough to still push ahead with unification.”
Another student referred to the stated
number of students who are interested in the Korean reunification, noting that 43%
should be seen as a decidedly positive statistic considering South Korea’s
younger generation maintains little to no connection to the North.
Eventually, the panel members reached
the joint conclusion that unification cannot be planned, but that Germany’s reunification
provides a useful manual to guide preparations while still bearing in mind the
economic and political differences between the two cases, as well as North
Korea’s human rights conditions.
