The true meaning of national unification

AHN CHAK-HEE
The author is the head of the global cooperation team at the JoongAng Ilbo.

Oct. 3 marks the 4,356th National Foundation Day of Korea. Another country celebrates the same day at the national level just like Korea: Germany. On Oct. 3, 1990, East and West Germany reunited and started anew as one country, after their division from World War II.

At midnight that day, a unified German flag of three colors — black, red and gold — was raised with celebratory fireworks embroidered in the sky over Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate. Many Germans shed tears of emotion, recalling the oppression, tyranny and painful memories they endured during the division.

Unified Germany is 33 years old. Even after a considerable period of time, the journey of integration is still ongoing. In recent years, multinational companies such as Tesla and Intel have been making large-scale investments in the relatively underdeveloped former East Germany, but the gap with the former West Germany remains.

According to statistics from Deutsche Bundesbank — the German central bank — the average net assets of West German households is almost 130,000 euros ($136,110), whereas that of East German households is just over 40,000 euros, one-third of West Germany’s. Tax reform measures, including inheritance tax, are being discussed to close this chronic gap. But there is a long way to go due to fierce political confrontation and resistance from the wealthy.

Another problem is the decades-long trend of the younger generation avoiding East Germany. It is not an exaggeration to say that an entire generation is missing in the former East Germany, as a number of young people there left their hometowns in pursuit of higher wages in the former West Germany.

Still, thanks to continued government efforts, the former East Germany’s wage level is now close to 90 percent that of the former West Germany. Perhaps because of this, some young people are returning to where they lived.

But Germany is facing another challenge — the record low population of people aged between 15 and 24. Thanks to the baby boomers, the ratio of the population group peaked at 16.7 percent in 1983, but it is barely over 10 percent. Labor is desperately needed in Germany.

There is also a difference in perspectives between the people of the former East and West Germany over the role and obligations of the state. But clearly, the miraculous unification has improved East Germany’s standard of living, and the freedom the East Germans had longed for is now the given right.

Korea’s National Foundation Day celebrates the founding of Gojoseon (2,333 B.C. to 108 B.C.) — the first nation of the Korean people and a country without national division. Looking at the inter-Korean relations that are growing more distant as time goes by, I cannot help envy Germany moving forward for economic and social integration.