ABSTRACT
Germany takes a special interest in the security situation on the Korean
Peninsula. This is not simply because the Declaration that arguably started
the recent developments on the Peninsula – a statement which quickly
became known as the “Berlin Declaration” – was made by President Kim Dae
Jung in Berlin on 9 March 2000. Germany takes a special interest in Korean
affairs because it has itself experienced – and is still experiencing – the rewards
as well as the problems of reuniting two states with different social systems. We
are, of course, aware that the differences between North and South Korea are
in many respects – political system, economy, social structure, way of life,
access of the population to information about the outside world – much greater
than the respective differences between the Federal Republic of Germany and
the German Democratic Republic. Last but not least, the German Interest
Section in Pyongyang had for many years, along with the Swedish Embassy,
been one of only two European Union (EU) member states represented in
North Korea.
