2025 BERLIN FORUM ON KOREA

Korea at a Crossroads: 50 Years After Helsinki, 70 Years After Bandung

Abstract

The 2025 Berlin Forum on Korea: Korea at a Crossroads revisited two landmark moments in international history—the 1975 Helsinki Accords and the 1955 Bandung Conference—as analytical tools for reassessing the Korean Peninsula’s position within a rapidly transforming global order. Rather than treating these historical events as transferable models, the forum explored how they illuminate strategies of conflict management, norm-building, and sustained dialogue under conditions of deep geopolitical division. This approach situates the Korean Peninsula at the intersection of renewed great-power rivalry and shifting Global North–South dynamics, raising critical questions about how South Korea and the international community might engage North Korea amid accelerating technological change and strategic uncertainty.