Our top story this Friday afternoon...
President Park Geun-hye's state visit to Germany...
The Korean leader is waking up to her fourth
day in Germany... and today, in the former
East German city of Dresden.
The day before, on day three of her state
visit to the European country, reunification
continued to top the president's agenda.
She visited the remains of the Berlin Wall
and met with the leaders of German reunification...
to listen to their experience.
Our Choi You-sun is traveling with the president...
and she filed this report from Dresden.
President Park, the leader of the world's
only divided nation, visited a highly symbolic
site of unity and freedom.
Berlin's East Side Gallery is what's left
of the Berlin Wall, covered in painted murals
by more than 1-hundred artists from around
the world to commemorate the tearing down
of the wall in 1989.
The South Korean president also visited a
photo exhibition that compares scenes from
the demilitarized zone on the Korean peninsula
and Germany's Grunes Band , which is now an
ecological park.
The president had proposed turning the DMZ
into something similar.
"It makes me hope and look forward to a day
when our demilitarized zone will change into
a symbol of peace."
Staying with her reunification campaign, President
Park met five former and current officials
who were at the center of German unification,
asking them to share their insights and wisdom.
The group told the president there were frequent
people exchanges between the East and the
West, that eventually led to a peaceful reunification.
They said the German case is different from
the situation on the Korean peninsula, in
that East Germans themselves had wanted change.
At a luncheon with Korean and German businessmen,
President Park vowed to prepare the Korean
peninsula for a peaceful reunification.
She then asked the business community to do
their part in achieving a successful economic
integration between the two Koreas.
"President Park is now in Dresden for the
second leg of her state visit.
Here, she is expected to lay out details of
her reunification policies during a speech
on Friday.
Choi You-sun, Arirang News, Dresden."
As our Choi You-sun just reported, President
Park is expected to unveil her vision of a
Korean reunification in Dresden - at the Dresden
University of Technology
Dresden is a symbolic city in German reunification...
as some of the decisive events which led to
the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and German
reunification in 1990 took place here.
Arirang News will bring you a live coverage
of her speech in Dresden at roughly 6:30 p.m.,
Korea time.
