The Challenges of Reunification: Why South Korea Cannot Follow Germany’s Strategy

The separation of North and South Korea and their possible unification remains at the center of the South Korean political agenda and also influences international relations on a global scale. However, the debate focuses primarily on international relations issues, while the question of how, in practice, the South and the North could actually merge is rarely examined. Economic and, even more so, social questions are usually ignored. This article uses the German case to highlight critically several social and economic aspects of the German reunification and draws inferences in relation to the case of Korea. It shows that the German strategy, focusing on a quick political reunification while implementing policies to achieve social and economic unity later, is not feasible for North and South Korea. It argues that South Korea needs to develop strategies to maintain North Korea’s stability and to pursue social and economic harmonization first, before political reunification becomes a possibility.