Korean reunification: Difference between revisions

File:Korea unified flag.png

Unification Flag of Korea

Korean reunification is the possible future unification of North Korea and South Korea under a single government.

Division

Main article: Division of Korea

Japan occupied Korea from 1910 until 1945. After Japan's defeat in World War II, the United Nations developed plans for trusteeship administration of Korea. The 38th parallel divided the peninsula into two zones of administration: the United States to the south and the Soviet Union to the north. Cold War politics resulted in the 1948 establishment of two separate governments. In June 1950, North Korea invaded South Korea, beginning the Korean War. After three devastating years of fighting that involved China, the Soviet Union, and the U.S., the war ended in a ceasefire agreement at approximately the same boundary, with South Korea making slight territorial gains. The two countries never signed a peace treaty.

Despite now being politically separate entities, both governments proclaim as a goal the eventual restoration of Korea as a single state. Even though Korea is no longer a single state in real political terms, it is very much alive in the minds of Koreans and as an ethnocultural space critical to Korean national identity. A unified Korean team marched in the opening ceremonies of the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney and the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, but the North and South Korean national teams competed separately in sporting events. There are plans for a truly unified team at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Similarly, in the 1991 table tennis world championships in Chiba, Japan, the two countries formed a unified team.

Potential reunification process

The "Sunshine Policy"

Supporters of the "Sunshine Policy" argue that sanctions and threats from the governments of the United States and South Korea have harmed, rather than improved, prospects for reunification. They argue that if the North Korean government does not feel threatened by South Korea or the United States, it will have nothing to lose and everything to gain from dialogue and engagement with the outside world, and will have no reason to build weapons of mass destruction. Many argue that the only alternative to dialogue is the unthinkable resumption of hostilities, therefore they see no other option. Many supporters of the "Sunshine Policy" are motivated by prospects of reunification, a desire to avoid conflict on the Korean peninsula, and a desire to pursue a policy towards North Korea independent of the United States. The "Sunshine Policy" was introduced by the Millennium Democratic Party, and is continued by the Our Party government. A major player in North Korea trade is Hyundai Asan.

A hard-line policy

Opponents of the "Sunshine Policy" argue that dialogue and trade with North Korea has done nothing to improve prospects for peaceful reunification, and have helped bolster the North Korean government, which many see as corrupt, undemocratic, and totalitarian. Many feel that the North Korean government has no real interest in efforts to reunify the peninsula, and is only trying to ensure its own survival. Some argue that trading with a government which they believe is "starving its own people" is morally corrupt. Some even fear that North Korea may still ultimately be planning to reunify Korea by force. It is also argued that South Korea has seen little benefit from engagement with North Korea. Some believe that the entire engagement process is a fraud, as suspicion still lingers that the former Korean President Kim Dae-jung gave government money to Hyundai, which in turn paid the money to the North Korean government (presumably for such purposes as opening up the Kumgangsan tourist area). Many also believe that an "overly generous" policy towards the North Korean government will leave South Korea less prepared in the event of a North Korean attack. The Grand National Party is in favour of a hard-line position on North Korea.

Hurdles in the process

South Korea

• There are fears among some Koreans that the length of the division makes reunification difficult, since the culture of both halves has developed independently following partition. However, traditional Korean culture is equally shared between the North and the South. In addition, many families have been split by the division of Korea.

• Economic differences between South Korea and North Korea also are a cause of concern. It is apparent that Korean reunification would be more difficult than German reunification:

• Firstly, because South Korea does not have an economy as strong as that of West Germany.
• Secondly, the state of the North Korean economy is far worse than that of East Germany. While the difference in income per capita (PPP) was for West Germans about US$25,000, and for East Germans about US$8,500 [1] (about a third of the West), the income per capita for South Koreans exceeds US$17,700 and, for North Koreans, is about US$1,000 (CIA Factbook 2005) (about an eighteenth of the South). This income gap is also rapidly increasing as the North Korean economy stagnates and the South Korean economy is characterized by moderate to high economic growth. Note, however, that the result of GDP calculations tend to differ between organisations--see List of countries by GDP (PPP) per capita.
• Thirdly, while at the moment of the German reunification the East German population (around 17,000,000) was about a third of the West German (more than 60,000,000), the North Korean population (around 22,700,000) is currently around a half of the South Korean (around. 48,600,000).
• Fourthly, it must be noted that the fact that the German economy still suffers (more than 15 years later) from rapid reunification. In addition, some analysts warn that rapid reunification might bring the South Korean economy to the point of collapse. It could also bring a flood of refugees into South Korea, causing a social and economic crisis.

• The consequence of the economic differences is that many South Koreans, while desirous of reunification in theory, want to delay the process of reunification until the Northern economy can be developed separately, having seen the results of the sudden reunification of West Germany and East Germany, and knowing the differences between the two Koreas.

• Currently, political issues, such as diametrically opposite forms of government, and the influence of the U.S. government over South Korea, cause most concern. Nevertheless, the attitude of the South Korean government towards North Korea has changed dramatically in the last few decades; during the Park Chung-hee administration, hatred towards the North Korean government was fostered in the civilian population. For example, a poster displaying two Korean characters (반공; 反共) meaning "fight Communism" was posted on every schoolhouse wall. In contrast, a recent comic book published by a South Korean author detailing a less-than-flattering portrait of the North Korean leader Kim Jong-il was banned because the South Korean government feared that its publication could hurt reunification efforts.[2]

North Korea

North Korea faces many challenges: recent famines have made North Korea incapable of feeding itself and has placed the government, as well as the Juche ideology, in a difficult position. It is not known how much support the government commands among North Korea's common people; it has been suggested that few North Koreans are loyal to Kim Jong-il himself; he is allowed to remain in power partly due to the respect many in North Korea have for his father, Kim Il-sung. North Korea's government is reliant on the foreign aid which feeds most of North Korea's people; at the same time, potential social and political instability caused by the influx of outside influence remains a constant worry for North Korea's government.

China

The Chinese government has shown a desire to mantain the status quo on the Korean peninsula; any potential sudden moves that would destabilize the Korean peninsula and threaten a mass exodus of North Koreans into Chinese territory are a major cause of concern for the Chinese government.

See also

• List of Korea-related topics
• Reunification

External links

• Ministry of Unification (South Korea)