ABSTRACT
This chapter begins by underlining the depth of unification-consciousness in the South being stimulated by the changes in Eastern Europe and its sublimation in recent decades. It shows that Korean sensitivity to global geopolitical changes, especially in Germany and other parts of Eastern Europe, is not a new phenomenon. In assessing the implications of the changes in Eastern Europe for the Korean Peninsula, one must balance the objective realities that make a repetition of the German experience appear unlikely with a recognition of the imponderables on both sides of the thirty-eighth parallel. After focusing on the South, the chapter provides an examination of changing priorities in the North and a concluding assessment in which the economic aspects of the changes in Eastern Europe as they affect Korea are taken into account. The most significant and readily measurable impact from the East European drama on Korea is likely to result from the changing Soviet posture toward Seoul and Pyongyang.
