Price of unification: Lessons from Germany for a divided Korea

Former BMW Group Korea Chairman Kim Hyo-joon, left, speaks with German Ambassador to South Korea Georg Schmidt during a roundtable hosted by The Korea Times at the German ambassador’s residence in Seoul, Thursday. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul

Germany’s experience with reunification offers sobering but valuable lessons for the Korean Peninsula, speakers said Thursday at a roundtable in Seoul hosted by The Korea Times, emphasizing the need for careful preparation, sustained engagement and a willingness to bear long-term costs.

Georg Schmidt, Germany’s ambassador to South Korea, and Kim Hyo-joon, former chairman of BMW Group Korea, said that although the political circumstances surrounding Germany’s reunification in 1990 differ markedly from those confronting the Korean Peninsula today, the costs of continued division — including the risk of armed conflict — must be weighed against the formidable economic and social burdens that reunification would entail.