The EUSKOR project concentrated on creating a set of “outside-of-the-box” tools that the EU could use in order to influence the situation on the Korean peninsula and would increase its weight as a global actor in Asia and beyond. From the scientific point of view, as well as from a policy perspective, this is the main contribution of the EUSKOR project to the state of the art. As an illustration, the EUSKOR project suggested:
• Appointing an EU Ambassador to the DPRK and opening an EU Delegation, or a liaison office, in Pyongyang
• Allowing to open a DPRK embassy to the EU in Brussels
• Appointing a Special Representative/Envoy for Peace on the Korean Peninsula
• Resuming the EU-DPRK political and human rights dialogues
• Promoting Brussels as a convening point for negotiations with the DPRK and setting-up an international conference on the Korean peninsula
• Drafting a new EU Strategy and/or a “Borrell Peace Plan” for the Korean Peninsula
• Resuming EU humanitarian aid and creating an INSTEX-like facility
• Starting off a “de-sanctioning” process by easing the EU restrictive measures against the DPRK, in agreement with the US and in return for steps towards denuclearization
• Promoting educational and cultural exchanges; bringing North Korean students to the EU via the Erasmus programme
In WP2, in the light of global challenges, the EUSKOR project suggested:
• Using the EU’s contribution to COVAX to engage the DPRK that had requested vaccines through the facility
• Including the DPRK into climate change negotiations and discussions on the EU and ROK’s “green deals”, possibly together with the Biden green transition plan and China’s promise to decarbonize by 2060
The EUSKOR project has enabled the MSCA fellow to deepen her expertise in European studies while adding a new geographical area – the Korean peninsula and NE Asia – to her research portfolio. Thanks to the EUSKOR project, the MSCA fellow has become one of very few experts who work on the EU-(North) Korea relations, leading to new academic collaborations between the MSCA fellow and other EU and Asia-based scholars. For her work on improving the situation on the Korean peninsula, the MSCA fellow has been selected as one of the 2020 Emerging Leaders by South Korea’s Ministry of Unification. The EUSKOR project has had a positive impact on the future career of the MSCA fellow who has been offered the position of a Korea-Europe Center Fellow at the Institute for Korean Studies, FU Berlin. Furthermore, the MSCA fellow has been awarded the Korea Foundation Policy-Oriented Research grant that will start in the summer 2021 with the same beneficiary, i.e. FU Berlin.
Thanks to reaching high-level decision-makers in Brussels, other European capitals and in South Korea, the EUSKOR project contributed to good relations between the EU, its Member States and South Korea. Moreover, it helped facilitate dialogue between the EU and DPRK. Given its implications for the role of the EU on international stage, the EUSKOR project promoted the EU as a global actor in Asia and beyond. Most of all, however, the EUSKOR project contributed to mutual understanding between the Europeans and the Koreans, both from the South and North, and created new ideas how to solve the conflict on the Korean peninsula. From the societal perspective, this aspect may remain the lasting legacy of the EUSKOR project.
