Reunification of Korea

This is an interesting topic that I have been reading much about and talking to other people who have lived in Korea for an extended period of time. There was an article in the Korean newspaper the other day about how the "reunification minister" has been working on a plan to reunite the South and the North to form one country again. They have even gone as far as talking about how the transition would be paid for and who will lead the union of the two countries. The South Korean Government even went as far as to bring in the old East German President and leader of the reunification of Germany to ask his advice and opinion on merging the two nations.

I mention this for a couple of reasons. For starters, I am a social studies teacher and I just find it to be fascinating, but more importantly is the way in which it is being talked about. The papers that I have read and the things I have heard have been phrased where it is not a question of "if" the countries will reunite, but a question of "when". The paper talks in a such a way as all of the things that they are working on are actually formalities and that it will happen next week. They also act as though there is no major differences in the two countries. For example, I have been told that the North Koreans refuse to use any English assimilated words in their language, so in essence, they speak an old form of Korean. The South Koreans on the other hand use English words in their language and have assimilated other aspects of western culture into their own.

Some people seem to be unaware that the countries have been separated for a long long time, both have their own capitals, their own borders, and are separated by a protected, mine-infested defense border. Even the ads for the DMZ tours list it as the "only separated country in the entire world"... which is wrong on a couple of levels. For starters, they are in fact separate countries and not "separated" like a married couple looking for counseling. Second, by their definition, Sudan is now in the same boat since they voted to split the country.

The last and most surprising aspect of this whole thing is that the South Korean citizens also believe that the reunification is going to happen sooner than later. In fact, many young South Koreans believe that they are one country and in fact some maps who the two nations as one (and I am not talking about maps from the pre-war times). I am all for peace and stability and the reunification of the country, even though its not my country, but what I find interesting is how its considered to be a finished deal. As nice as it sounds, the North has its own government, and it will not be that simple to bring two warring nations together.

Just something to think about