The Other Option

In the last post I intentionally wrote "the Korea". This is because I wanted to express a sense of unification. I, for one, feel strongly that the country should some day be one again. But not everyone agrees with me. Perhaps the older Koreans feel the same way I do, but some in the younger generation see North Korea as a different country. Imagine this, all your life there has been this 'other country' that here and there blows something up or kills some people in your country. Your parents and teachers try to convince you that this 'other country' is actually part of the country you're in, but you're not allowed to talk to the people in that country or see them (under normal circumstances) and in general the people there could hardly imagine the life you live. People tell you how difficult it will be when the two countries try to unite. They will use Germany as an example and mention how the split between East and West there was not as prominent and the split lasted for much less time, but the consequences are still being felt today. No one can tell you when we'll be on a clear path towards unification, but for now you just need to deal with the 'other country' acting out and generally being a pain. If you're male, when you turn twenty-something you'll need to "give-up" a few years of your life, because of that dangerous neighbor.

You don't strongly believe in reunification. The shenanigans in the North have gone on long enough that you say it's over. Forget making one great nation; they are so far behind it'll only create one poor and destroyed country that'll probably be taken advantage by the superpowers. You live in a country that is always on the brink of war, but you don't think about it because well let's face it you could die at any time from alot of things you'd never even think to worry about. The people in the North are starving and facing terrible human rights injustices. You may feel for them and even do some things to help them, but by no means can you say "I know what it's like, I went through tough times when I was young too."

So what happens if North Korea's recent provocations get just "a firm stare and clenched shaken fist". The North's government might find some stability and another 20~40 years will go by just like the last 40. But now you've got this generation all grown up and the new generation really REALLY can't imagine why the North and South would unify. The adults feel kinda pressured to do it for the old folks' sake, but can they really muster up the effort. And what will the people in the North think? Humans have a problem with believing things that get repeated hundreds of times. Will they really want to open up to the world? What a shock! Hey, you know how you've never heard anything about America except how terrible they are? Do you want to go there or watch some movies/TV shows from there? Did you know there is a foreigner in town teaching Taekwondo? Can you imagine that? No foreigner could possibly be any good.

Yes, to me, it looks like if reunification will ever happen then it better happen soon. There is really no time to wait.

"He who knows how to win will not start a war"

This morning I found this fortune cookie wisdom mysteriously in my pants pocket. For me it's related to the situation in the Korea, but honestly it could have said anything and I'd probably take it as some insight towards what's happening over there.

This NY Times article gives all the important details so I don't bore anyone who already knows what's happening.

Unless you win all the time you'll probably think that fighting isn't a good idea. Every time you fight you run the risk of injury of death. Animals know this; that's why they use intimidation techniques. We humans are not so different. No one wants to fight, but intimidation can be a quick way to get something for free. When looking at the Korean peninsula I'd like to see one country, but everything about the North and South is so divided that it's hard to be the middle man.

The easy way to look at it is that North Korea is crazy and dangerous. Nobody likes North Korea. "What about China?" you may ask. China seems to take the same attitude I do whenever I meet a social outcast. The social outcast comes to me and I act polite enough; I'm not going to criticize or alienate. But if you could read my thoughts you'd know that I wish this person would just be normal and/or leave me alone. With countries though China is permanently stuck next to this weird kid, so unless China is cool with the weird kid assimilating with 'the douche crowd' he will step in and act like the weird kid's friend. Whenever they meet China will act like a normal friend and pretend that he really understands what the weird kid is thinking, but when China goes back and talks to his real friends he can't help but burst out laughing at how seriously crazy that other kid is.

But we all know North Korea isn't some kid... This is a country with some serious problems. Some say Communism would work great if anyone ever tried it. Indeed, maybe it could, but that's not happening in the North. Unfortunately, and sadly perhaps because of innate human greediness, the North has not been successful in producing anything, not even enough food for the people. Even though the North tries to block communication with the outside world, we know very well they are starving because the government asks for aid. I'd like to speak generously about the North and not demonize them, but wow that's difficult. The closest I come to painting a more acceptable picture of the North is to point out that here in America we also have starving people. The only difference is we have the capacity to provide for everyone in this country. Our land is huge. We have enough money to give everyone what they need. But even children go hungry in this 'great nation'.

If you read about Kim Jong-il then you'll soon get an impression of him like he doesn't care what the world thinks; he'll do whatever he wants. And like all of us, sometimes we aren't very good at getting what we want even when we have everything we need to get it. So, here's this guy that is the leader of a broken country that just drinks and watches movies all day. No one really values those qualities in a leader. And the rest of the world wants to tell him that he can't just do that. Now if he was just some rich guy, then by all means do whatever you want, but if you call yourself the leader of a country then please do something for someone other than yourself. Let's imagine the next leader of the Korean peninsula is the reincarnation of Sejong the Great. Wow, now this man is worth of a world respect. Korea doesn't have many historical figures to look up to, but it seems like when someone is worthy to go down in history the whole world could agree. When faced with the fact that Chinese Characters are hard to learn (yeah, you can learn a few hundred and kinda get by, but imagine if you could only read a few hundred English words) he created a new simple written language. Think about it, there are two choices: invest a bunch of money in eduction or simplify the language. Creating hangul wasn't be the same as changing English spelling, because the Chinese language was not adequate to express Korean grammar. And that's just one example of how cool Sejong was. Maybe he was too great though. No Korean leader seems to think he can be that great, in fact it seems like they don't even try.

Now on to the South. Many of our poor views of the North comes from the South. Yikes! How can this Korea ever be one? Who can blame them? The only thing the North is capable of at this point is destroying things. How are people supposed to feel when their island gets shelled? If somehow the barrier is lowered between them the South will have to be convinced that all the evil people are gone/killed. Our hearts go out to the suffering Koreans, but the ones acting irresponsibly will face harsh consequences. As you could have guessed, I can easily think of a long list of good things to say about South Korea. They have a national health insurance and pension plan. There are many wealthy and successful businesses.

I guess one criticism of Korea that I heard from a Korean was the deep-rooted division. No, it's not just North and South Korea that are divided; every little area has a divided mentality. A long time ago Korea was three independent nations. The peninsula was unified and that was the start of the Later Silla dynasty. But how can two places really be unified. China went through a similar process of unification. Historically it seems that people are united with a conform or die attitude. Also, unification can come slowly to some extent. With today's modern technology it's possible for distant places to be much more connected than they traditionally were. Perhaps the long history of Korea, the country of division, will fade away. However, the division between North and South is so great that they may never feel like one people. Although Korean is just one language it may be more accurate to talk about North Korean and South Korean as two separate languages. Of course, there is no great way to make a dividing line between two languages when they are so similar. But anyone who has studied English and Korean may notice many borrowed words. Likewise, if somehow you're teacher is from the North you probably won't hear one borrowed word from English (but then again I'm no one to ask. Japanese borrowed English words and maybe even infused them into Korea during the occupation era).

No one knows how to win. What is the best end game? The US seems to be the guy that wins just about every fight (or at least acts like it) and doesn't seem too afraid of war. In fact many people would argue the the US is looking for war. It's not that simple, but if I was North Korea I'd feel pretty intimidated. But I'm not one to stick out my tongue and say "You want a war; come and get it!" North Korea knows they could never win a war, but they can destroy alot of stuff. The risk is too high to go in and try to blow up everything North Korea has before they can do any damage. But if peace can't be found through war, what other option do we have? I'm not sure about the US's track record on how many wars were avoided (because really when you're a country that could start any war any time how can you count how many are avoided) but it seems like we aren't the experts to go to when confronted with a "please please please whatever you do don't go to war" request. How can South Korea handle this? Angry people want blood for what's been done. How can the North be tolerated? Even if we can speculate as to why North Korea does this stupid stuff, how can they be forgiven? The idea is that any time the country is in trouble and the people need a reminded that government is important they do some outlandish thing like taunt the US and South Korea; seemingly begging for a response. And that's exactly what they want, the response will be "Hey, knock it off or else!". The North will report to the people the "or else" part and everyone will be scared back into line. But the situation is becoming pretty bad. History has shown that when things get bad enough riots or war breaks out. The North is not in a stable situation. The only way to avoid war is to promote stability. But the problems in the North call for radical immediate change (a very unstable thing). Can a great leader like Sejong find his way to the top? It seems very unlikely. Every soldier in the North is afraid of death; not from the US, but from the guy marching next to him. So when is it all going to fall apart? Who knows, but let's just hope war is not the outcome.