The Vice Chancellor of Germany's Robert Habeck, who is visiting South Korea, today visited the country's heavily fortified border with North Korea at a time when tensions on the Korean Peninsula are rising, DPA and BTA reported.
After returning from the border region, Habeck compared the Korean Military Demarcation Line that separated West and East Germany for decades before the end of the Cold War.
"This is a very different border from the one we know from the division of Germany," Habeck said, adding that, nevertheless, the visit reminded him precisely of Germany's past.
The vice chancellor noted that his visit made him reflect on the history of Korea, the Korean War, bloody battles and division, as well as the threat posed by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) following Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit there.
Habek's visit to the demilitarized buffer zone was prompted by Putin's visit to Pyongyang two days earlier, during which he and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un concluded a mutual defense agreement under which each side pledges to immediate military support to the other in case of armed aggression against either of them.
The democratic South and the communist North remained de facto at war as the Korean War (1950-1953) ended in an armistice - a peace treaty was never signed. South Korea is a staunch ally of the United States, and its modern army regularly conducts exercises with the American armed forces, while Pyongyang is developing missile and nuclear technologies that, according to Seoul and Washington, violate UN resolutions, DPA recalls.
The buffer zone, about 240 km long and 4 km wide, was created at the end of the fighting and is currently the de facto border between the two countries.