Veranstaltung

After the sinking of the South Korean corvette Cheonan in March 2010, which led to the loss of 46 lives, relations between the two Koreas reached a low point. North Korea has denied involvement in the sinking of the warship and has threatened to react to joint US–South Korean naval drills by military means, including the use of nuclear arms. Speculation is rife that the renewed tensions between the two Koreas are connected to a planned dynastic succession in the North, which would see a transfer of power from Kim Jong Il to his third son, Kim Jong Un. Against this background, this GIGA Forum will zoom in on the current political and economic situation in North Korea, the perspectives of inter-Korean relations, and the humanitarian situation of North Korean refugees.

The presenters are all senior research fellows at the Korea Institute of National Unification (KINU), South Korea’s premier think tank on North Korean and inter-Korean relations. David Shim is a re-search fellow at the GIGA Institute of Asian Studies (IAS) and a member of GIGA’s Ph.D. programme. Patrick Köllner is acting director of IAS and a specialist on Japanese and Korean politics.