ORIGINAL LINK : https://germanunification.tistory.com/14979437
“Sovereignty resides in the people, and power comes from the people.”
The anti-communist struggle that started in East Germany’s Leipzig in the summer of 1989 led to a public demand for reform and spearheaded the reform movement. The Honecker communist regime, tainted with corruption and incompetence, was ousted, and the people of East Germany declared themselves as sovereign citizens.
“Wir sind das Volk!”
On November 9, the day the Berlin Wall fell, West Germany’s Chancellor Helmut Kohl, who was contemplating how to lead Germany’s future, clarified the issues to be pursued in the future by declaring a program of ten articles through a speech to the federal parliament on November 28.
He included messages for the European and international community, as well as for the East German communist forces and the people. He clearly stated that he would respect the will of the people, not the Communist Party, in dealing with the East German issue in the future and would stand on the side of the people.
The North Korea policies of all past South Korean governments lack the principle of sovereignty residing in the people. The dialogue partners have always been the communist dictatorial powers such as Kim Jong-il and Kim Jong-un. North Korean residents have been treated only as supporting actors, the subjects of human rights protection, excluded from the main dialogue.
No wonder many politicians have been criticized for singing the “Kim beer heaven song” and for their humiliating diplomacy towards North Korea. The North Korea and unification policies carried out while ignoring the North Korean people will come back as a boomerang in the future, and those who initiated them will be held seriously accountable.
