Preparing for Korea's reunification

Abstract

Although the democratic revolution of 1989 in Eastern Europe was closely watched all around the world, it left a particularly strong impression on the people of the Republic of Korea (ROK, or South Korea). After watching Germans hammer away at the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989, South Koreans came to believe that Korea's own reunification had to be just around the comer-- given the collapse of communism worldwide and increasing economic troubles under the oppressive regime of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK, or North Korea). When Rumania's Nicolae Ceaucescu, who had sometimes been compared to North Korea's Kim Il Sung, was put to death by angry demonstrators, South Koreans became even more confident that unification would come in the near future- be it through transformation or collapse of the communist system in North Korea.