6 October 2022, Arirang Radio KOREA NOW, “Energy Crisis of Germany and Europe”

Host>

Global Now, today we’re heading to Germany.

Recently, we talked about a powerful explosion that ruptured the natural gas pipelines that run between Russia and Germany. With winter coming up, Europe is facing its worst energy crisis. Let’s get the news from Germany.

We have Choi Kyung Hun (최경헌) our Frankfurt Correspondent in Germany, connected through Zoom. Hello.(인사)

[HUN] Hello to the audiences of <KOREA NOW> and good evening in Korean time. My name is KYUNGHUN CHOI. I am a senior student at Yonsei University and I am currently studying in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It’s been around 1 year living in here until now.

Q1>Russia and the Western countries are still at odds against each other for who’s behind the Nord Stream 1 and 2’s explosions. We still don't know what happened and who’s behind this. What does the German government say about this?

[HUN] I could not find any official statement from the german government about this yet but the german press is taking this very seriously.

Tagesspiegel reported that because of this damage, Nordstream lost its capability permanently. Additionally, Spiegel quoted experts saying, “this damage seems to be caused by an explosion of 500kg of TNT", which means Nord stream got so severe damage that it can lose its capacity forever. Recently, Swedish government started investigation around 9㎞ area from the explosion point after prohibiting anyone to approach.

======== Reference ==========

https://bit.ly/3V3EL15

Q2>How important are the Nord Stream pipelines to Germany? How much of the energy used in Germany comes from Russia?

[HUN] Germany relies heavily on natural gas. 27% of total energy portfolio is coming from natural gas. In terms of heating and industrial power, around 37% of the energy supply is taken. Before the start of Russia's invasion in Ukraine, just over half (55%) of gas consumed in Germany was imported from Russia.

======== Reference ==========

https://bit.ly/3MbTbrH

https://bit.ly/3SHUW2m

Q3>Currently the EU is pushing for a price cap on Russian gas, so would this explosion affect that in any way?

[HUN] The West’s biggest economies agreed to impose a price cap on Russian resource a bid to limit Russia’s ability to finance its war, also against global inflation. Russia had already threatened to retaliate by banning oil exports to countries that implement a price cap. I am not sure if European Union will relate this explosion with the price cap or not but it seems it depends on the result of current investigation.

======== Reference ==========

https://cnn.it/3CfsGx4