1st Tongil Hanguk Forum

The opening speeches were given by Son Jae-Shik (President of the Tongil Hanguk Forum and former Minister for Reunification) who brought together the IPA and HSF in the first place) as well as Shin, Young-Kyun (Honorary President of the Tongil Hanguk Forum). Rolf Mafael, German Ambassador to South Korea emphasized in his welcoming speech Germany´s solidarity with South Korea,referring to German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier´s sharp denunciation of the nuclear test and in his demand for a clear international reaction.

The main forum consisted of two statements and a conclusive discussion. The first statement was held by Hartmut Koschyk, MoP and head of the German-Korean parliamentary group in the German Parliament,with the topic „After the fourth Nuclear Test – What is up next in North Korea? Reflections Based on the German Experiences“. Hartmut Koschyk explained that after the bilateral talks in August 2015 North and South Korea´s relations had been in a good atmosphere which made the family´s reunion of separated families possible. But with North Korea´s recent nuclear test in January the situation is completely stuck. He stated that solidarity with South Korea was put to the forefront now and that there had to be a cohesive answer on behalf of the international community (through new sanctions).

Despite that, he stated, the Republic of Korea should as well try to create a creative diplomatic environment by cooperating with neighbor countries to achieve sustainable détente on the Korean Peninsula. Thereby, North Korea´s previous vicious circle of nuclear provocations shall be broken, he asserted. He emphasized further that China must not always take the easy approach to refer to its incompetence and irresponsibility towards North Korea. He also declared that the US should abandon its position of strategic patience which had already collapsed.

Hartmut Koschyk was honored with the Korea Foundation Award and is now planning to depose the donation as a basic funding for the „One Korea“ Foundation. The latter is supposed to serve a future Korean unification through the potential of the German civil society.

The second statement was given by Na Kyung-Won, MoP and Director of the Committee for Foreign Policy and Unification in the Korean National Assembly, who dealt with the topic „After the fourth Nuclear Test – What is up Next in North Korea? Considerations from the South Korean point of view“. She explained that North Korea´s recent nuclear test was obviously a big challenge or provocation for South Korea and the world community. Na, Kyung-Won stated further that we (the world community) need a cohesive reaction. Though, she indicated that the principles of previous policy on North Korea remains: Trustpolitik, which means a policy guided by the principle of building mutual trust. In this context South Korea needs now, as much as before, a double strategy: the carrot and the stick, she suggested. She added that at the moment they also needed a closer cooperation in foreign policies, especially with China and the US. She pointed out that after North Korea´s recent nuclear test the opinion that South Korea needs to develop and to possesstheir own nuclear weapons was getting more and more widespread and was articulated more loudly. She made clear that this was already a tightrope walk but from a ´realpolitic´ point of view such a demand from behalf of South Korea was possibly a proper means to persuade China to take over a more active role on the Korean peninsula, to push North Korea towards freedom and to finally create the medium- and long-term requirements for a unified Korea. At the same time, she concluded, dialogue and exchange should be attempted to keep up, though.

In his dinner speech Dr. Berhard Seliger, Representative of Hanns Seidel Foundation Korea, talked again about possible approaches to overcome Korea´s division peacefully. Further, he explained that the Tongil Hanguk Forum (Korean Unification Forum) was founded by the Institute for Peace Affairs in 2015 to discuss current issues concerning reunification policy. The Institute for Peace Affairs plays a great role as HSF´s main partner among questions on reunificationconcerning the civil society. This forum is a gathering of elder statesmen, among those many former officials dealing with unification (Ministers, Vice-Minister, Secretaries of State and other members of the Ministry of Unification, as well as members of the Korean Institute for National Unification (KINU), the diplomatic corps of South Korea, etc.).