Can Korea Be Peacefully Unified?
by "Samuel Lee" in his blog "http://eastasiaaffairs.blog.com/328632/#cmts"
North Korea
The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) has ruled the North with an iron fist and fear; they have suppressed and eliminated any opposition to their power by brutal means. The North has put the well-being of their army first at the expense of millions of starving North Korean civilians.
The DPRK is the most brutal and merciless dictatorship in the world (not including China). They are responsible for the longest state of misery and despair the Korean people have ever experienced, even longer than the Japanese occupation of Korea. The dictatorship's ruthlessness and stubbornness has resulted in their refusal to acknowledge faults. They have put on the masquerade that North Korea is strong, while millions have died through starvation, public and private executions and torture or "re-education."
When Madeline Albright, the United States Secretary of State during the Clinton Administration, visited North Korea, Kim Jong Il put on a show that mesmerized her and her aides. An aide described it as "a show to end all shows," while the timing and synchronization amazed himself and his colleagues.
As he arrived at the 100,000-plus seat stadium, he thought it was empty; there was no sound, you could hear a pin drop. When they entered the stadium, a tidal wave of sound hit them as the capacity crowd let out a great roar. The choreography put the opening and closing ceremonies of the Sydney Olympics to shame.
There are some questions that must be asked: if the DPRK did not have enough money to feed their citizens, how were the performers paid, how long were they rehearsing? If they were not in perfect unison were they threatened with starvation or with a free-paid trip to Club DPRK for re-education and a therapeutic session of torture?
South Korea
After coups and dictatorships, invasions of privacy, the restriction of the freedom of the press, and an endless supply of corrupt government officials from all administrations, the Kim and Roh administrations are left with some corruption. The level of corruption in their administrations alone is more than in the entire history of Australian politics.
The South Korean people do not use logic when it comes to politics, they use emotion-- a very dangerous thing. Ever seen a 386er (a Korean in his or her 30s, educated in the 80s and born in the 1960s) wielding a metal pipe during a riot? The conservatives abused their power and revoked South Korea's civil liberties, the liberals overthrow the conservatives, they vow to maintain a free, democratic government, then turn around and do the same thing as the conservatives.
There are several questions pro-North and pro-unification activists refuse to ask themselves about North Korea and themselves.
Can Kim Jong Il, a man that has murdered millions to maintain control, relinquish his power over North Korea and restrain himself from taking the reins of a unified Korea? Will North Korean hardliners allow a democratic, unified Korea?
Will South Koreans be content with no human rights, are they willing to call Kim Jong Il, "Dear Leader," are they willing to undo the economic and technological supremacy they have built during their democratic era? Are these emotional, self-righteous and sometimes downright violent South Koreans willing to bow down and submit their lives to the DPRK?
The answer to all these questions is "No." Kim Jong Il would rather "burn Seoul in a sea of fire" than see a unified democratic Korea and South Koreans would rather die than give up their freedom. Remember, next time you decide to riot, a democratic government would shoot over you, while the DPRK would shoot at you. A democratic government is answerable to the people and the media, but the DPRK is answerable to no one.
Unification cannot be done peacefully with the DPRK still controlling the North and emotion is clouding this glaring fact.
Korea peacefully united
by che
Korea will be unified under South Korea. Kim Jong il understands that his reign is not eternal with the awareness of the international community, thus, accepting change. He knows his time is around the corner. Therefore, he might be trying to end his regime on a positive note bringing in capitalism and possibiliy democracy. China's recent reforms have played a major role allowing Kim Jong il to sense the potential of capitalism.
As a result, 6 party talks have resulted in a very positive note today. (We shall see the Korean stock market fly in the coming weeks.)
The only thing I'm really considered about is how N.Korea has been very friendly towards S.Korea with Roh in the govt. Things are going too smoothly for S.Korea. Something I consider very fishy.
I believe SK and NK had been very close in creating new scenarios for the Korean peninsula before 6 party talks began. This is very good and bad. For the short term, we shall see positive outcomings in S.Korea but I'm not sure why N.Korea has been very aggressive in softening their stance towards S.Korea. I am hoping that it is just an outcome of the two Koreas realizing the need for unification and putting an end to dividing this land that should be one and most likely N.Korea realizing the limitations of communist ideology.
The way I see it, United States had to make this deal. They know and we all know that they can't go to war with N.Korea and ignite a two front war with depleted resources and the twin deficit. N.Korea was also inadvertently affected by Hurricane Katrina. This was an exclamation mark on United States depleting resources. With Bush's approval rate continuously falling, his entourage most likely wanted to complete this deal to add one to the category of success in its foreign policy. But the fact of the matteris they probably lost on this deal too. If they didn't agree, they knew China and S.Korea would of took the matter in their control leaving United States out as a lameduck. In ways, United States were forced into this agreement, not by any nation or power, but naturally due to the shifting of power to China and S.Korea, in dealing with N.Korea.
A loss of United States foreign policy is evident with United States accepting N.Korea's sovereignty. This is quite shocking for what United States had been stating regarding N.Korea as terrorists and an Axis of Evil status.
The biggest prize of this closure is that now we know that United States and N.Korea does not want to enter a war with each other and that N.Korea has no interests in entering a war with S.Korea. Therefore, the potential of war had been eradicated, clearing S.Korea of possible nuclear clouds.
South Korea has most to gain from the talks. President Roh is probably one the luckiest President in Korea's history. He is in position to bare fruits from this advancement. But we also have to give him credit for some of the workings behind these results. Roh is in seat to see the potential beginning of the re-unification and economically seeing the stock market reach new highs in the midst of political turmoil nationally and the domestic economy lagging.
I see positive days ahead of S.Korea. We are probably seeing Korea leaving the shadows of the Korean War, moreover the Cold War finally.
But there is one thing we have to keep an eye out for and that is the ambiguity behind N.Korea's softening stance towards S.Korea. This might be a far fetched conspiracy theory, but the chance of Roh and some of his party members actually wanting Korea to be united under N.Korea's manipulated communist policies. And that there might be some relation between Roh and Kim that we don't know. Otherwise, I don't have an explanation of N.Korea's exaggerated amicable stance towards S.Korea. Or maybe we have again secretly sent our taxpayers money funding N.Korea. Its just probably N.Korea seeing China becoming a true hegemonic power, as a result of opening up to it doors to capitalism and that they want to be part of this before its too late.
But this is a far fetched scenario and I hope it's not true. Otherwise, we are in an era of Korea....
posted by Joa at
Tuesday, September 20, 2005
