South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min-soon expressed confidence Tuesday that the peace process between the two Koreas would lead to a normalization of relations and enhanced trade links within the region and beyond, reported dpa. Speaking after talks with his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier in Berlin Tuesday, Song said he was confident that peace on the Korean peninsula would allow "travel by train from Seoul to Berlin." A direct land link between the two countries would cut goods transport costs by a third, he said. Sea freight currently took a month, whereas a land link would result in journey times of 10 days. Song also said he hoped talks a free trade agreement (FTA) between the European Union and South Korea would be reached by the end of the year. The EU was South Korea's most important trading partner, he said, pressing for both tariff and non-tariff trade barriers to be cut. Steinmeier said Germany hoped that the six-party talks on ending North Korea's nuclear weapons programme - involving the two Koreas, the United States, Russia, China and Japan - would result in the demilitarization of the Korean peninsula. Germany was "watching with great sympathy," Steinmeier said, alluding to the German reunification process that began in 1989. The German foreign minister said he hoped the impetus for a new peace settlement on the Korean peninsula would lead to the end of a state of war through a peace treaty. The leaders of the two Koreas, which are still technically at war more than 50 years after the Korean War ended with an armistice, held an historic three-day summit in Pyongyang at the beginning of the month. Asked whether he would back Seoul's bid to hold the 2012 Expo, Steinmeier said he could not comment. But he described as "very clever" South Korea's bid to hold an Expo with the theme environment and climate change in the year the Kyoto Protocol expired.
