Europe’s Added Value for the Korean Peninsula Peace Process > Journal

This article examines the key characteristics of the European Union’s involvement in the Korean Peninsula peace process, including examination of the similarities, and differences, of the EU’s approach to that of the United States. It finds that Europe has become a security asset for Washington’s allies in the region. The outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war in 2022 and the involvement of North Korean troops alongside the Russian army have triggered the emergence of a security synchronization between the Korean Peninsula and Europe, leading Brussels and Seoul to bolster their security, defense and military cooperation, also in framework of NATO, with South Korea becoming a major partner supplying weapons to Europe. However, the EU has also become the international actor that has most consistently supported South Korea’s initiatives aimed at promoting dialogue with the North and South Korea-China-Japan trilateral cooperation, even when aspects of them cut against the grain of US strategic interests in the region. Should negotiations with North Korea restart and the inter-Korean dialogue resume, the EU stands ready to become again an asset for those ROK policy makers – both at the state and the local level, regardless of whether they are progressive or conservative – intent on promoting the reasons of unity and trust-building in the region.

Europe and the inter-Korean dialogue

The emergence of two competing camps in Northeast Asia

The security synchronization between the Korean Peninsula and Europe

Towards a return to dialogue and cooperation

Conclusion