Summary:
This study explores the strategic and intellectual framework around which President Roh Tae-woo crafted his grand strategy of Nordpolitik in the late 1980s. Inspired by West Germany’s Ostpolitik, this successful strategic realignment had economic and political components, including the promotion of trade and the improvement of relations with North Korea, the Soviet Union and China. Having buy-in from both the public and the ‘elites’ from the outset provided a strong foundation from which to begin seeking internal reforms and new external economic relationships, particularly with China. Though he was constrained by a single five-year premiership, Roh’s initiatives built a transgenerational consensus and allowed his strategic realignment to survive across successive governments.
