Energy production and supply play a crucial role in shaping political relations and security issues in Northeast Asia. The countries in the region have developed tight intertwined trading relations including fossil resources. The North Korean trade with China and Russia creates challenges and poses unresolved questions for a possible future unification of Korea. Intending to shape a stable cooperation in energy and resource issues, Northeast Asia can draw on lessions from other regions. On invitation of KAS and Yonsei University, politicians, scientists and economists from Asia and Europe gathered to discuss different aspects of resource and energy politics of Europe and Germany and its implications for Northeast Asia.

The transition of energy systems will be an important issues when it comes to the unification of Korea. Germany, having made the experience of reunification in 1990, can provide a good example. In the conference, German experts explained how the energy policy developed in different ways in the former German Democratic Republic (East Germany) and the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany). The GDR having been under socialist rule, the comparison of East and West Germany shows some commonalities with the current situation of North and South Korea. The participants were also were eager to learn about the way how Western Europe reacted to the sudden start of the reunification process in Germany and how the incorporation of the East German economic and energy system in the Federal Republic was mastered. In the following discussion, the experts drew implications from the German experiences for a possible unification of Korea.

In the following session, Koreas energy policy was regarded in a broader context of its neighbour countries. Scientists and economists presented various concepts for coordinating and fostering the gas trade between Russia, China and the Korean peninsula. The Russian Federation had only started several years ago to export and sell gas to China in a remarkable amount, but the trade volume has the prospect to grow rapidly in the coming years. However, China is also reaching towards Central Asian countries within its One Belt One Road initative. These dynamic developments raise the question how to structure the trilateral trade relations between China, Russia and South Korea. Furthermore, Russia and China are the only trade partners and suppliers for North Korea. These formalised relations and contracts are a legal issue to be solved when preparing the unification of Korea.

The experts, scientists and politicians did not only exchange ideas, experiences and knowledge about the latest trends in the Korean and Northeast Asian energy market. The conference also served as platform to identify challenges and prospects, formulate goals and elaborate concepts. The Asian and European participants recognised the importance of a coordinated intraregional cooperation and affirmed their intention to collaborate closer for shaping the resource and energy cooperation on the way to a sustainable economic growth in Northeast Asia.