Nordpolitik

Nordpolitik (German for "Northern Policy") was the signature foreign policy of South Korean president Roh Tae-woo.^[1] The policy guided South Korean efforts to reach out to the traditional allies of North Korea, with the goal of normalized relations with the closest allies to North Korea, China, and the Soviet Union. By adopting Nordpolitik, South Korea abolished the doctrine of the enemy of my enemy is my friend and understood that the indirect approach was a more plausible way to engage with North Korea. The policy improved the South's economy while leaving the North more isolated and was a dramatic and historic turning point of South Korea's diplomatic goals.

The policy was named after the West German policy of Ostpolitik ("Eastern Policy") towards the then communist East Germany, although the Ostpolitik was aimed directly at a normalization of the relationship between two German states. The successor of the Nordpolitik was the Sunshine Policy, which bore more tangible similarities with the German Ostpolitik.