On October 22, the Export-Import Bank of Korea (www.koreaexim.go.kr, Chairman Yong Hwan Kim, “ Korea Eximbank”) held an international conference under the theme of ‘Unification and the Korean Economy’ at the Lotte Hotel in Seoul, together with the Institute for Global Economics, KDI, the Konrad Adenauer Foundation and the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

The conference was an occasion to explore ways to finance the costs of unification and to define the role of the international community in facilitating unification based on an assessment of the rapidly changing inter-Korean relations and of the potential unification costs. It was attended by over 200 scholars, government officials, and journalists from countries including Korea, the U.S.A and Germany.

The conference was divided into 4 sessions under the respective themes of ‘the current state of inter-Korean relations and the challenges that lie ahead’, ‘The costs and nenefits of unification’, ‘Financing unification costs’ and ‘The role of the international community’; and a wrap-up panel discussion.

Chairman Yong Hwan Kim of korea Eximbank stated in his congratulatory remarks, “I hope this conference will help generate lively debates on the unification of the Korean Peninsula and attract wider support and interest from the international community toward unification. The ideas raised in this seminar will be very helpful for the management of the Inter-Korean Cooperation Fund.”

The conference was attended by a wide array of top policymakers and experts from Korea and abroad including Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Sung Hwan Kim, Deputy Director of PIIE Marcus Noland, Minister of Unification Woo Ik Yu, Minister of Strategy and Finance Jae Wan Bahk, Chair of DPRK Economic Forum of Johns Hopkins University Brad Babson, Professor of Economics at the University of Halle Saale Ulrich Blum, former Deputy Finance Minister Manfred Carstens of West Germany at the time of German reunification, and Professor of Economics at the University of Magdeburg Karl-Heinz Paqué.