South Korean President Park Geun-hye will tour the German cities of Berlin, Dresden and Frankfurt next week for a state visit following her attendance at the third Nuclear Security Summit in The Hague. While the President’s January trip focused mainly on economic partnership, the forthcoming visit will prioritize dialogue about security issues.

There has been considerable speculation that Park’s Germany visit will result in the disclosure of a new vision for unification with North Korea. South Korea has previously used diplomatic trips to the unified Germany to publicize their latest strategies or intentions on relations with North Korea. President Park will meet with German President Gauck and Chancellor Merkel in Berlin, with increasing economic partnership and sharing unification experiences on the agenda.

After announcing unification with North Korea as a policy of great importance, Park hopes her visit to the country that succeeded in uniting East and West will become a significant opportunity to broaden and enhance cooperative relations with Germany, alongside laying the foundation for Korea’s own unification. Previously, former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung enunciated his “Berlin Declaration” in March 2000, presenting his plan to bring peace and unification to the Korean Peninsula.