Ex-German Chancellor Schroder to marry Korean woman
Interpreter Kim So-yeon and former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroder hold a press conference at the Press Center in Seoul, Jan. 25. / Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul
By Ko Dong-hwan
It was love at first sight that bound them together.
German news outlet Bunte broke the story earlier this month that former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroder will marry his South Korean interpreter Kim So-yeon. The report triggered a media frenzy in Seoul. Reporters captured the moments the pair dated at Changdeokgung royal palace in Seoul and dined together at Korean restaurants in the city and Kreuzberg, Berlin.
The couple held a press conference at the Press Center in Seoul, Thursday, admitted their romance and announced they will marry this year.
Schroder, 73, and Kim, 47, did not seem uncomfortable in front of the Korean press as Kim faithfully interpreted Schroder’s opening speech and answers to journalists’ questions. And Schroder didn’t shy away from tugging her close to him in front of tens of photographers. Whenever they smiled at each other, cameras flashed to capture the moment.
“We have met each other’s family members who agreed to our engagement,” Kim said. “And we will move back and forth between Hanover and Berlin, where Gerhard lives, and Seoul after marriage.”
Schroder met Kim in May 2015 at a conference in South Korea. / Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul
The couple have not yet set a wedding date but wished to live “like ordinary Korean spouses.”
Kim said she had not seen netizens’ scathing remarks made after the wedding news.
“I have never encountered such comments myself,” Kim said. “As to people’s curiosity about my divorce, I had a clean split with my former husband.”
Schroder ended his 19-year marriage to Doris Kopf in 2016. Some suggested the romance with Kim influenced the divorce. Even Kopf commented on Facebook last year that the divorce was because of the Korean woman.
“I don’t have a Facebook account so I never saw her post,” Schroder said. “And she has never made any public comment about us after we announced our romantic relationship.”
Schroder said Kim was not influential in his divorce. He said even before he split from Kopf in March 2015 they had used separate rooms for years.
He met Kim in May the same year, at a conference in South Korea. He claimed Kopf made it official in the summer of 2016 that she was dating Boris Pistorius from the Social Democratic Party of Germany, who governs in the state of Nedersaksen. Kopf has been serving the same party since 2013.
Kim has a daughter, while Schroder has two children with Kopf.
Kim and Schroder wish to live “like ordinary Korean spouses.”/ Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul
The German report said Schroder and Kopf tried to save their marriage and they were seen vacationing at Borkum Island with their children in the summer of 2015. They were also seen together at a football stadium in Hanover.
“My divorce with Kopf was my mere affirmative response to her wish to end our relationship, and she had already publicized her romance with Pistorius,” Schroder said.
Schroder filed for divorce in September 2016 and had to wait a year before finalizing the decision. Kopf ran in the Nedersaksen state council election and asked him to wait until the end of the poll before making the divorce final. After the election, Schroder was determined to ink the divorce for good.
Gerhard Schroder visited Cheong Wa Dae on Sep. 12, 2017, to meet South Korean President Moon Jae-in and present his biography, translated into Korean by Kim So-yeon. / Korea Times file
Schroder, who said he has never talked about his private life in front of the media, compared the divided Korea to Germany’s former divided state. He praised the fact that the two Koreas are uniting at the PyeongChang Winter Olympics in February. He said he will be at the event’s opening ceremony and is excited to see the two Koreas’ united ice hockey team.
“We need to remember that the Olympics’ true spirit is not about winning but participation,” Schroder said.
Schroder’s interest in the divided Korea was evident at the press conference. He said Willy Brandt, the former Chancellor of West Germany from 1969 to 1987, was a friend of former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung.
He said Brandt led the divided Germany’s unification through talks and he hoped talks can bring the two Koreas together.
“As I will be living part of my remaining life in Korea, its future is my interest and how it plays out its relationship with the North is also my interest,” Schroder said.