Skip to main content
Support
Article

NKIDP releases Working Paper #2, "Overconfidence Shattered: North Korean Unification Policy, 1971 -1975" by Bernd Schaefer

Based on newly declassified East German, Romanian, and Bulgarian archival documents, Schaefer sheds light on the North Korean policy-making process during the brief period of inter-Korean détente in the early 1970s.

NKIDP is pleased to announce the publication of Working Paper #2, "Overconfidence Shattered: North Korean Reunification Policy, 1971-1975" by Bernd Schaefer. Based on newly declassified East German, Romanian, and Bulgarian archival documents, Schaefer sheds light on the North Korean policy-making process during the brief period of inter-Korean détente in the early 1970s.

The Working Paper includes an extensive appendix of translated East German and Romanian archival documents.

Bernd Schaefer is a senior scholar with the Woodrow Wilson Center's Cold War International History Project, an associate with the Parallel History Project, and former research fellow at the German Historical Institute in Washington. Dr. Schaefer's publications include "North Korean "Adventurism" and China's Long Shadow, 1966-1972" (CWIHP Working Paper No. 44).

Related Programs

North Korea International Documentation Project

The North Korea International Documentation Project serves as an informational clearinghouse on North Korea for the scholarly and policymaking communities, disseminating documents on the DPRK from its former communist allies that provide valuable insight into the actions and nature of the North Korean state. It is part of the Wilson Center's History and Public Policy Program.  Read more

Hyundai Motor-Korea Foundation Center for Korean History and Public Policy

The Center for Korean History and Public Policy was established in 2015 with the generous support of the Hyundai Motor Company and the Korea Foundation to provide a coherent, long-term platform for improving historical understanding of Korea and informing the public policy debate on the Korean peninsula in the United States and beyond.  Read more