There will be sacrifice in unity

Sorry to interrupt. I know you have a lot on your mind. Like, whose daddies were goodies or baddies under the nasty Japanese. Or how about those nice (so we thought) Chinese, sneakily trying to steal Korea’s ancient history and pass it off as their own? But could we change the subject? I mean, all that stuff is ― well, past. You can fight about it until you’re red in the face, but what for? Nothing you can say or do now will change it. I would rather look forward. Unlike the past, we can still influence and make tomorrow’s history. If there are clouds on the horizon, hopefully we can act now to guard against the coming storm. Were I Korean, I would be looking forward ― and north. “Over the mountains are mountains,” says the proverb. The nearer slopes are plenty steep: nuclear weapons, missiles, chemical shells targeted on Seoul, famine, refugees, human rights. Maybe put Goguryeo and quislings on hold, while you cut a path up the cliff face ahead? Yet those are mere foothills. Once painfully past all that ― unscathed, if you’re very lucky ― comes the real steep ascent. Reunification, or Tongil. Every Korean’s cherished dream. Correction: nightmare. I hate to be a party-pooper, but have you any idea of what this is going to be like to live through? Let’s take the best-case: Germany. By some miracle Korea is reunified, without bloodshed. The trauma of 1945 has been healed: Korea is one again. And they all lived happily ever after. In your dreams. Just look at Germany ― 15 years on, despite huge investment in the east, Wessis and Ossis still feel separate. Each resents the other, as arrogant or ungrateful. In Korea, this will be worse. One big happy family? No way. Northerners will stick out like a sore thumb, even before they open their mouths. Bad skin and dowdy clothes they may shed ― but not the stunting. Thanks to their Great Leaders, today’s northern kids are as scrawny as in Japanese times. You’ll know them; they’ll know you. And that’s about all they’ll know. Ill-educated, with none of the skills needed to survive in the South’s capitalist maelstrom, northerners are in for a still bigger shock than you are. Even the handful who’ve made it south so far have a lousy time: Official support is inadequate, and southerners won’t hire or be nice to them. If you can’t even cope with a few thousand of the poor things, what chance 23 million? Better get ready. Think the economy is slow now? Wait until public finances are strained to the limit rebuilding everything in the North from scratch (there’ll be little fit to save or mend) while feeding and training the huddled masses. And all paid for by your taxes. What price brotherly love, with you working overtime to support them on welfare? Too pessimistic? There’s an upside. A huge infusion of cheap labor will be salvation for small firms. The posturing proletarians of KCTU better watch out. Northerners will undercut union wages; summer strikes will be history. You can throw away that red headband, comrade: soon you won’t be needing it. Workers’ unity? Want to bet on it? Demography adds a neat twist. That sordid habit of aborting female fetuses has created a male surplus ― whom unification will rescue from frustration. Nam nam, puk yo: the old saw will come true. Northern girls will get their piece of the unification pie by marrying southern lads, who hope to gain dutiful old-style wives. Bad news for southern feminists, and spurned northern lads. And when the million-strong Korean People’s Army is demobilized, what will all those tough young bloods find to do? Expect a crime wave. That’s just a few examples. Koreans are resourceful, so I dare say you’ll find a way. Eventually, after a generation or two, an 80-million strong single Korea will be a force to be reckoned with. Or could be, if you work at it. Korean unification is a certainty, in my view ― but whether it turns out a triumph or a disaster lies in Korean hands. The challenge will be immense: less “one country, two systems” than “one country, two planets.” Even after formal reunification, the north-south divide will be huge for decades. Today’s south-south rifts ― petty matters of region, class, generation, ideology ― will fade into their true insignificance alongside this vast chasm. All this, remember, is the best case: the path of peace. It could easily go far worse, if the road to reunification is via conflict: within the North, or between North and South. Yet we ― you ― have to think the unthinkable, because we cannot wish it away. * The writer is honorary senior research fellow in sociology and modern Korea at Leeds University in Britain. He has followed Korean affairs for more than 30 years and for the past decade as a Korea analyst. by Aidan Foster-Carter