Comparison of the similarities and differences in state relationship

Comparison of the similarities and differences in state relationship in the DPRK and the GDR – Part II

 

 

Sven Horak, September 1st, 2009

Institute of East Asian Studies, IN-EAST (www.in-east.de)

 

 

(Continued from Part I)

 

After the separation of Germany (1949) and Korea (1948) both, the SUP and the WPK aimed for a national unification. In 1956/57 the First Secretary of the Central-committee of the SUP, Walter Ulbricht, and Minister President Otto Grotewohl propagated the idea of a confederation for a united Germany for the first time, i.e. an union of the states by keeping political, economical and social differences. Kim Il Sung picked up this idea as a solution for Korea and proposed it as an unification model to Seoul in August 1960. Until the end of the 50s, both parties had demanded nationwide free elections, prepared by a joint commission but without the involvement of the United Nations. Both advocated a claim for sole representation which has been kept by the DPRK even until today. The unification concepts of the SUP and the KWP caused no substantial reaction to the governments in Seoul and Bonn and therefore failed. But the unification ambitions of the communist parts of the countries did not stop. The SUP (in 1957) and the KWP (in 1960) proposed plans for a confederation as an intermediate state of governance in order to prevent a further separation of the states, which took the form of a proceeding stabilisation of the society in the areas of politics, and economy.

 

 

Although the East German proposal for a confederation had inspired the North Korean plan, it reflected the Korean situation in the 60s. That was characterised by social unrest during the fall of the Rhee administration triggered by a student uprising. The confederation plan of the KWP reflected the domestic political stability of the North and its economic prosperity at that time, and was contradictory to the economically weak and socially fragile South. A comparable situation could not be observed in Germany. Rather the opposite situation prevailed. The East German confederation plan proposed an economic and social weak position.

 

Those positions are reflected in the confederation proposal by the SUP and the KWP. Quite outstanding is the SUP’s emphasis on initial upfront payments by West Germany in order to prove being “confederation-worthy”, whereby the KWP did not request any pre-payments but emphasised economic cooperation, which in the first place suggested aid programs aiming at being beneficial for the South. Accordingly, the feedback of the North Korean proposal was more positive compared to the East German offer. As a consequence, North Korea continued to propose confederation concepts in different variations while East Germany gave up that idea completely in 1967. Henceforth, the so-called Two-Nation policy was pursued which featured the manifestation of two sovereign German states on two territories. North Korea, on the contrary, rejected all attempts that were not directly related to the final goal of reunification.

 

 

In the 70s tensions between the communist bloc and the western world declined. Based on more relaxed relationships between the US and the Soviet Union as well as the US and China, the inner-German and inner-Korean relationship eased, too. The Basic Treaty of 1972 was concluded in Germany, the North-South-Declaration in Korea was issued in the same year. However, in 1985 Korea initially celebrated inner-Korean family visits, whereas in Germany several contacts on the governmental and private level had emerged since the 1970s.

 

Dependency of the two countries on the great communist powers differed too. While East Germany was strongly supporting Soviet style Marxism-Leninism, the DPRK was creating its own ideology (named “Juche”), that was interpreted as a further development of Marxism-Leninism in the mid 1950s. Remarkable is the person cult around the leader which can possibly be understood with regard to the cultural foundation of Confucianism in the country. A person cult could not be observed in the policy of the GDR.

 

 

Differences in unification questions as well as their different relationship to the USSR burdened the relationship during the 1970s. That bilateral relations between the GDR and the DPRK are to a great extend to be seen as a function of a relationship within the communist bloc. That became clear when Pyongyang and East Berlin discovered themselves on different positions during the ideological conflict between the USSR and China. Accordingly, the harmonious relationship between the GDR and the DPRK broke up and could be revived only slowly by the end of the 1960s.

 

 

However, the discrepancies in the unification policies between the two countries continued to disturb the bilateral relations. Erich Honecker’s visit in December 1977 in Pyongyang can also be tied to the positive relations in the 1950s. Six and a half years later, in June 1984, the GDR and North Korea signed a friendship treaty with a running time of 25 years during Kim Il Sung’s second visit in East Berlin. However the treaty lasted only a relatively short time because of the German reunification in 1990.

 

Picture: Kim Il Sung and Erich Honecker, East Berlin 1984

Source: Mittelstädt, Rainer, June 1^st, 1984; Bundesarchiv, Picture 183-1984 0601 041

 

 

However, the most important heritage of the East German and North Korean relationship is the result of the people’s exchange of both countries in the area of education and science. Relatively many citizens were educated and lived in the respective host country. In the 1950s, approximatively 600 war-affected children and orphans were raised and educated to skilled workers in the GDR. Moreover, between 1980 and 1990 approximatively 50 North Koreans received a doctor’s degree, and 610 North Koreans participated in a German language course offered by the Herder-Institute. Many of them continued University education in East Germany accordingly.

 

 

Summary

The initial phase of the East German and North Korean relations in the 1950s fostered solidarity and a similar heritage as divided countries under the involvement of the USSR and the USA. Postwar reparation aid to North Korea was supported by the smaller countries, especially by East Germany. Ideological constraints of the two communist super powers, the Soviet Union and China, influenced the GDR-DPRK relationship intensively, so that the relationship froze during the 1960s. Although the East German idea of unification in form of a confederation was taken over and maintained by the DPRK, the GDR changed its approach to the later proclaimed Two-Nation-Theory, hence stating a sharp difference to the North Korean view about a natural need for unification of people of the same affiliation.

 

Paradoxically, it was the GDR that early withdrew from the unification idea, established a new aproach and failed first anyhow. Finally, it is seldom a theoretical and/or political idea or concept that reunites people rather than the power of the people themselves. However, this is true just as long as they find ways to gain some.

 

 

 

References

 

Appelt, Rudolf (1947): Zur Frage Korea. In: Einheit, Nr. 6/1947, p. 596f.

 

Grabowsky, V. (1987): Zwei-Nationen-Lehre oder Wiedervereinigung? Die Einstellung der Partei der Arbeit Koreas und der Sozialistischen Einheitspartei Deutschlands zur nationalen Frage ihrer Länder seit dem Zweiten Weltkrieg: Ein Vergleich. In: Park, S.J.; Weber-Schäfer, P. (2005): Sozialwissenschaftliche Studien, Bd. 36, Studienverlag Dr. N. Brockmeyer: Bochum, 1987.

 

Kuark, Yoon T. (1963): North Korea’s industrial development during the post war period. In: The China Quarterly, No. 14, pp. 51-64.

 

Paige, Glenn, D.: The Korean People's Democratic Republic. Stanford, California: Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace, 1966.

 

Park, J.Y.: Kommunismus-Kapitalismus als Ursache nationaler Teilung: Das Bild des geteilten Koreas in der deutschen und des geteilten Deutschlands in der koreanischen Literatur. Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg. Dissertation, 2005.

 

 

 

 

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