동과 서로 분단된 국가로서 1960년대 말 1970년대 초 동방정책을 실시하고 있던 서독이 남북으로 분단된 남한의 통일정책과 남북관계를 어떻게 바라보았는가? 하는 문제제기가 본 논문의 핵심 주제이다. 이 연구를 위해 필자는 주한 서독 대사관의 관련 당시 기록들을 분석하였다. 초국가주의에 눈을 뜬 서독은 국가주의에 의거한 남과 북의 통일정책을 주시했으며 평화통일을 지향한다는 측면에서 동방정책의 보편성을 확인하고 자 하였다. 주변 강대국들이 한국의 남북관계에 어떠한 영향을 미치는가 하는 측면을 자신의 상황과 비교하면서 관찰·분석하였다.
The West Germany (FRG) was intensely interested in the Korean South-North relations, especially at the end of 1960``s into the early 1970`s. Their prime motivation was the belief that they could glean valuable insight for Ostpolitik from the Korean case. In particular, the West German government estimated that the Red Cross talks and the Joint Communique of July 4, 1972, contributed to easing tensions in East Asia in the most spectacular way. Understandably it saw a fruitful comparison in the moves towards detente on the Korean peninsula in the northeast Asian geopolitical context and the broadly European dimension of Ostpolitik. In consequence the West German government was assured that its constructive policy orientation of Ostpolitik was the right one to have championed. According to West Germany the fundamental difference between the German West-East relations and Korean South-North relations from the perspective of the condition of dialogues lay in the fact that, politically speaking, West Germany was prepared to endorse East Germany as a state in the framework of the theory of the "two states in a nation", while for the two Korean governments such mutual recognition was absolutely not on their respective policy agendas. The German concern with the war crime during the Second World War and the strong will of West Germany to participate in post-WWII European cooperation and eventually pan-European supranationalism is all understandable even today. East Germany, alternatively, aimed to establish an independent sovereign state under the tutelage of the Soviet Union. In contrast again nationalism predominated as the central political value in Korea especially after the liberation from Japanese Colonial rule. Dual nationalisms and the distant goal of unification differently conceived still - are the paramount goals in both South and North Korea.