The advisory board will focus in particular on the Two Plus Four negotiations that led to the so-called final settlement between the Federal Republic of Germany, the German Democratic Republic, France, the Soviet Union, Great Britain, and the USA. The trust-building process among the treaty partners during the Two Plus Four treaty negotiations is also intended to be a model for offers of discussion between South Korea and North Korea.

The decision to form an advisory board was made in March 2014 during a visit to Berlin by the South Korean President Park Geun-Hye. In September 2014 such a board was formally established through a "Memorandum of Understanding" between the governments of Germany and South Korea. The German members include Professor Lee, the professor of political science Michael Staack of Hamburg Helmut Schmidt University, and Markus Meckel, Secretary of State of the GDR after the first free elections in March 1990. The advisory board is led by two co-chairs, one a member of the Bundestag and expert on Korea, Hartmut Koschyk, and the other, a former Foreign Minister of South Korea, Han Sung-joo.