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IV. Integration with the Single Constitution
German unification has been of great significance to European and world politics.
In the two Koreas, which have been divided by ideology and regime during the same era, Germany’s sudden reunification was both a great shock and inspiration for a country that has shared a similar fate of division. Korean reaction is likely one more of envy than anything else. In particular, the reunification of East and West Germany reveals many implications and instructive lessons for the two Koreas in their efforts at unification. The study and understanding of the process behind and the experience of German unification is an essential task on the road to Korean unification and one that I will venture to undertake here as well.
4.1. The Beginning of Division and the Process of Integration 4.1.1. Yalta Conference
In the Yalta Conference on February 12, 1945, the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union discussed and agreed on an agenda for governing post-war Germany. On May 8 of the same year, Germany finally surrendered unconditionally which was followed by the Allied nation’s announcement on June 5 of the “Berlin Declaration” outlined below.
i) The sovereignty of Germany under the "Yalta Agreement" is taken over by the Allies.
ii) Establishment of the "Germany Compensation Committee for the Allied Powers".
iii) The nominated representatives of the four governments of the United States of America, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the United Kingdom, and the Provisional Government of the French Republic as the “Allied Representatives” would from then on exercise supreme civil and military authority within German territory and over the former German forces.
The Potsdam Conference of July to August 1945 included discussion by the Allied Powers on the fate of postwar Germany and announced at its conclusion the "Potsdam Declaration" as follows.
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i) The Conference reached the following agreement for the establishment of a Council of Foreign Ministers to do the necessary preparatory work for the peace settlements:
ii) It was agreed that the three Governments should each address an identical invitation to the Governments of China and France to adopt this text and to join in establishing the Council. The text of the approved invitation was as follows: Soviet Union, United Sates and Great Britain (The Big Three plus China and France)
iii) It was understood that the establishment of the Council of Foreign Ministers for the specific purposes named in the text would be without prejudice to the agreement of the Crimea Conference that there should be periodical consultation between the Foreign Secretaries of the United States, the Union of America, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the United Kingdom.
iv) The Conference also considered the position of the European Advisory Commission in the light of the Agreement to establish the Council of Foreign Ministers. It was noted with satisfaction that the Commission had ably discharged its principal tasks by the recommendations that it had furnished for the terms of surrender for Germany, for four the occupation zones in Germany and Austria and for the inter-Allied control machinery in those countries. It was felt that further work of a detailed character for the coordination of Allied policy for the control of Germany and Austria would in future fall within the competence of the Control Council at Berlin and the Allied Commission at Vienna. Accordingly it was agreed to recommend that the European Advisory Commission be dissolved.1
The “international agreement” of this kind had been decided as a provisional agreement at the “Warsaw Pact”, but over time, it had become firmly established as a border.
1 Vertrag zwiscjen der Bundesrspublik Deutschland und der Deutschen demokratischen Republik uder die Herstellung der Einheit Deutschlands (Einigungsvertrag) Unification Treaty signed by the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic in Berlin on 31 August 1990 (official text, in German)
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The borderline of “Oder-Neisse line” was first presented in the Yalta Conference to revise the Polish borderline at the expense of German territory, which had absorbed the eastern territory of Old Poland and confirmed it in the "Potsdam Declaration".
The border of the defeated Germany had been changed from east to west by the borderline of ‘Oder-Neisse line’, and Germany had lost about a quarter of its pre-war land.
The capital city of Berlin was similarly divided into four sectors. Between 1947 and 1949, the three zones of the western allies were merged, forming the Federal Republic of Germany and West Berlin, aligned with capitalist Europe. The Soviet zone became the German Democratic Republic with its capital in East Berlin. However, the three allied countries decided to set up a single governing body for their controlled parcel that eventually ended up with a Berlin divided into East & West.
4.1.2. The collapse of the Berlin Wall
On March 11, 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev took office as Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. In the late 1980s, political change began in Poland and Hungary, blowing the winds of reform across Eastern Europe. Compared to Hungary and Poland, where reform took a top-down trajectory led by the Communist Party leadership, changes in East Germany began at the grassroots with the people. The seed of significant changes could be glimpsed starting from July 1989 when East German residents began to escape across the Austro-Hungarian border. The number of migrants continued to increase with about 25,000 East Germans having escaped to Hungary through Austria as of the end of September. The Hungarian government, in consultation with the West German government, then permitted them to transit to West Germany on a humanitarian basis. In the midst of this situation, protests demanding free elections, travel liberalization and political reforms occurred simultaneously in various East German cities, such as East Berlin, Leipzig, Dresden, and Karl-Marx-Stadt on the 7th of October. East Germans strongly demanded the freedom of relocation, the right to self-determination, free elections, and right to participate in national sovereignty, government by the rule of law, the unification of Germany, and so on. The adoption of a socialist market economy system in place of the socialist planned economy was also among the demands. As the protests continued and the
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number of people escaping to West Germany increased, the East German leadership decided that it would not be able to both maintain its regime and resolve the grievances of the people without a major breakthrough. On November 8 Willi Stoph and his cabinet resigned their leadership posts and the new general-secretary, Egon Krenz, who had succeeded the traditionalist hard-liner Erich Honecker, reorganized the ruling party. A day later November 9, 1989, marked the epoch-breaking step of opening all borders to the West, including the Berlin Wall. Thus, the Berlin Wall, which had symbolized German division for roughly 30 years, fell dramatically on the evening of 9 November.
4.1.3. Conclusion of German Reunification Treaty
Lothar de Maizière, who took office as the head of East Germany on April 12, 1990, after forming a new People's Assembly in East Germany on 5 April 1990, spoke with West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl in a summit meeting to discuss social and economic integration. As a result, the West German and East German Finance Ministers signed the Treaty on Economic and Social Integration (Staatsvertrag über die Schaffung einer Währungs-Wirtschaafts-und Sozialunion zwischen der Bundesrepublik Deutschland und der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik) on May 18th, 1990, which came into force on 1 July 1990.2
On August 3, 1990, East and West Germany signed a treaty on Federal Elections and the Legislation (Vertrag zur Vorbereitung und Durchführung der ersten gesamtdeutschen Wahl Des Deutschen Bundestages zwischen der BRD und DDR) as a step in the process of holding elections after reunification.
On May 18, 1990, the two countries signed a treaty between the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic for the completion of German unification (Vertrag zwischen der Bundesrepublik Deutschland und der Deutschen Demokratischen Republiker die Herstellung der Einheit Deutschlands: the Treaty on Unification of the German Democratic Republic and the Federal Republic of Germany) that set up a new political system and constituents. The two German states signed a treaty
2 Frans G. der Dunk and Peter H. Kooijmans, "The Unification of Germany and International Law," Michigan Journal of International Law, Vol.12, 1991, p.510 ; I.L.M., Vol.29, 1990, p.1108.
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agreeing on monetary, economic and social union.3 (“Treaty Establishing a Monetary, Economic and Social Union between the German Democratic Republic and the Federal Republic of Germany”).
On September 20, 1990, the Treaty was adopted by the Federal Assembly of West Germany and the People’s Congress of the East. This treaty, which was established through short but serious and intensive negotiations, contained articles 45, along with several additional protocols and special provisions. In Article 1, East and West German authorities agreed to October 3, 1990 as being the day of reunification, so that the legal effect of unification occurred from that day forward. As a result, East Germany as a nation ceased to exist on that day and its constitution lost all authority. The Basic Law of West Germany, known also as the constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany, became the unified German constitution, taking effect in the former East German territories. In other words, the East German state was absorbed into West Germany so that the West German state then became the unified Germany, and, thus, a unification treaty of the “absorption type unification,” was concluded.
It is worth noting that the unification treaty has been applied to the East German region in a form that is amended to include the provisions of the Basic Law of West Germany along with some other provisions. The East and West German governments were fully aware of and had anticipated new problems that would arise by the sudden unification of the law, so that some parts of the Basic Law were postponed until January 1, 1996. In addition, the unified version of the West German Basic Law, which was based on the right of self-determination of the unified German people, would supplant the previous ‘Basic Laws.’ Furthermore, absorption settled all possible issues from all East German treaties with foreign countries and other domestic affairs like social security, labor, family and women rights, health, culture, environmental protection, education and science and technology.
4.2. Yemen Integration
3 “Vertrag uber die Schaggung einer Wahrungs-, Wirtschafts- und Sozualunion zwischen der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik und der Bundesrepublik Deutschland” Die Verfassung in Deutschland.
Retrieved 22 March 2013.
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4.2.1. The Path of Regency in North Yemen
In 1839, the British occupied Aden in the southern Yemen region and ruled under the jurisdiction of England’s India colonial government. The British also entered into a protectorate agreement with 20 independent tribes in South Yemen excepting the Aden area (1882 ~ 1914), to establish colonial rule in the South Yemen area.
The agreement between the Ottoman Turkish Empire, which had long held influence over the region, along with a border line dividing North and South Yemen in 1914, secured the right to govern the region of South Yemen, and led to the division of North and South Yemen becoming internationally recognized.
However, since 1911, Imam Yahya, the patriarch of Zaidi, had led a revolt around the northern mountainous regions and took control of the northern part of the province, excepting the coastal zone. After defeat in the First World War, the Ottoman Empire withdrew from the northern part of Yemen in 1918, and Imam Yahya, the leader of the indigenous tribes of Yemen, succeeded in the imperialist struggle for independence from Britain. A Muslim monarchy was then established in the northern part of the country as the first independent state in the new Arab state that would soon become known as the
“Yemen Arab Republic”.4
4.2.2. Yemen’s Regime Course
On the other hand, Britain continued its dominion over the region of South Yemen and, in 1937 modernized the Aden region, which had remained under the direct control of the British government, making it into an entrecote port that maximized British economic interests The region had been gaining economic importance since the opening of the Suez Canal in 1839; however, after the Second World War, various social groups of South Yemen developed independence movements influenced by Arab nationalism which spread throughout the South Yemen region in the 1960s. In this process, the “Front for the Liberation of Occupied South Yemen” (FLOSY) and the “National Liberation Front” (NLF) fought against each other and the British. Eventually the national liberation front declared
4 On November 30, 1967, the independent Nam Yemen elected Qathan al-Sha (abi), the clerk of the National Liberation Front, as the first president (Kim Kuk-shin, Sang-gi Seo, p. 27).
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victory and the secretary Qahtan Muhammad al-Shaabi of the National Liberation Front, established “The People's Republic of South Yemen” with the support of the Soviet Union and China. Thus, the region of South Yemen had been colonized by Britain for 128 years from 1839 to 1967.
In this way, North and South Yemen became a “divided nation” separated from each other by a time difference of 50 years due to the independence of North Yemen in 1918 and the independence of South Yemen in 1970.
In January 1986, fighting erupted within the ranks of the Yemeni Socialist Party (YSP), leading to bloody clashes in the streets of Aden There is no doubt that this conflict helped accelerate the eventual unification of North and South Yemen in 1990.
4.2.3. Dialogue and Reunification Policy of Yemen
Yemen’s reunification process has been generally characterized by the recurrence of intensifying clashes that escalate into armed conflict. However, after the resolution of such conflicts the process of negotiations is repeated.
Border disputes between North and South Yemen broke out periodically. The first of two major clashes broke out in October 1972, and the second occurred in February 1979, in relation to the south regime’s support of anti-government guerrilla activities in North Yemen.
The two nations immediately decided to change course of the armed conflict into negotiations because they recognized that a small number of troops would not be able to reunify the armed forces, and there was also active interventions by Arab League countries such as Egypt, Libya and Saudi Arabia.
The process of unification of Yemen can be divided into three periods.
4.2.3.1. Yemeni Negotiations
The first border conflict of October 1972 was almost over before it began as the two nations’s quickly traded out the military option for diplomatic negotiations that led to the Cairo Agreement of October 28, 1972. Adoption of the Cairo Agreement, named after
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the Egyptian capital where the truce was concluded following the intervention of the Arab League, initiated the process for unification with a declaration that the "the two governments of Yemen and the Democratic Republic of Yemen exist in the name of the people of Yemen" for whose benefit a unified nation should be established. The Cairo Agreement called for the establishment of a joint summit conference with eight joint expert subcommittees to facilitate unification into a single country.
During the period from 1972 to 1979 the two countries held five summits involving unification negotiations.
4.2.3.2. Dispute between North and South Yemen
The Arab League intervened once again in February 1979 to put an end to the second short-lived border conflict initiated by an incursion of South Yemen troops in the northern part of the peninsula. The Arab League pressured the two governments to observe the unification principles agreed to by both sides in the 1972 Cairo Agreement. Resumption of the unification process resumed with the adoption of the Kuwait Agreement. This second period of negotiations began with the re-opening of unification talks following the 1979 Kuwait Agreement and lasted up to January 1986 when the onset of civil war in South Yemen shut them down again. During this period of unification talks, the two countries jointly participated in two summit talks, four top summit meetings, and seventeen senior ministerial meetings to advance the cause of reunification.3-3. Preparation for Unification
4.2.3.3. Preparation for Unification
The third (1988 - unified consensus) period was from April 1988 to May 22, 1990, when the unification negotiations resumed upon the ascension of Haidar Adu Bakr Al to the position of leadership in South Yemen. During this period, four negotiating sessions and two joint ministerial meetings were held to promote full-scale preparations for eventual unification.
On April 17, 1988, President Saleh of North Yemen and President Ali Salem al Beidh in South Yemen held a summit in Taiz. (In January 1986, North and South Yemen
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agreed to carry out the agreements made before the political crisis in South Yemen and continue dialogue on unification and military arms reductions).
The two leaders finally signed a draft Unification Constitution in Aden on November 30, 1989, and, after completing unification preparations within a year, signed a memorandum of understanding declaring reunification a year to the day later on November 30, 1990. The main contents are as follows:
i) Summary to the draft of the Unification Constitution
ii) Approval of the National Assembly of the two countries within six months of drafting the Unification Constitution
iii) Within a period of six months after ratification, a referendum will be agreed upon and a specific schedule for unification will be decided.
iv) North and South Yemen announced the draft of the Unification Constitution on December 1, 1989 under the Aden Agreement. The Constitution was adopted by referendum on May 16, 1990.5
On April 19, 1990, visiting Secretary Ali Salem al Beidh continued his talks with President Saleh, and finally reached an agreement on unification on April 22, signing the
"Agreement on Proclamation of the Republic of Yemen and Transitional Organization".
4.2.3.4. Republic of Yemen
One week after the adoption of the agreement in Sana’a on May 1, 1990, President Saleh and Secretary Ali Salem al Beidh met again in Aden, and agreed to declare Yemen’s unification by May 22 of the same year. On the day of the agreement, the Shura Parliament of North Yemen and the Supreme Court of South Yemen held a joint council on May 21 and entered the unification process into force by approving the “Agreement on Declaration and Transitional Organization of the Republic of Yemen” and the Unification Constitution.
5 As a result of the referendum on the Constitution of Republic of Yemen on May 15 and May 16, 1990, out of 1,890,646 eligible voters, 1,364,788 people cast votes (turnout rate, 72.2%) and 1,341,247 people were in favor (approve rate, 98.3%), and, thus, it was confirmed. This Constitution was based on the Constitution of the Republic of Korea, The 129th, 131st, 132nd, 133rd, and 136th articles of the 136th draft of the Specialized Basic Act, which were signed at the 30th meeting of the Aden summit, were deleted and consisted of 131 specialists (Ministry of National Security Planning, No. 247- 81; ,pp. 134-54)
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On the 22nd of May, the president of the former Yemen Arab Republic (North Yemen) Ali
On the 22nd of May, the president of the former Yemen Arab Republic (North Yemen) Ali