29개의 게시물을 찾았습니다.
As today's "weekend reading" I would like to suggest following article, published in last Monday's Guardian(UK):
Korean unification: dreams of unity fade into past for young South Koreans
South Koreans questioning goal of union with poor neighbours reared on different values as even the shared language diverges
Unified Korea is a desperate, dystopian country, beset by police tyranny, ravaged by organised crime and roamed by a growing underclass of destitute northerners.
Lee Eung-jun paints a chilling portrait of 2016 for readers in prosperous, ordered South Korea. But perhaps the most striking aspect of his novel The Private Life of a Nation is its rarity: portrayals of a unified Korea are unusual enough – never mind such a bleak challenge to the rosy official image of the future.
Periodic crises and North Korean sabre-rattling frequently fix the world's attention on the divided peninsula, yet scant consideration is given to what might one day emerge from such tensions – an oversight, said Lee, that impelled him to write the book.
"The North Korean nuclear weapons [programme] is a scary problem, but it is a one-time issue; the more frightening problem is what would happen afterwards," he declared.
The peaceful pursuit of unification is inscribed in South Korea's constitution. Questioning it would be political suicide for public figures, say analysts, because ethnic nationalism is a key element of political belief across the spectrum.
But there is growing indifference, doubt and even opposition among ordinary citizens who fear the cultural, social and economic impact could crush their society. "It's still strong as an ideal," said Stephen Epstein, an expert on South Korean society and its images of the North at the University of Victoria in Wellington, New Zealand.
"If you ask them: 'How about tomorrow?' Everyone backs off … When confronted with it as something that might happen, people are a lot less sanguine."
In 1994, 92% of South Koreans considered unification "necessary"; by 2007 that had fallen to 64%, according to research by Seoul National University. Support is lowest among the young: a 2010 survey found that only 49% of twenty-somethings judged it necessary, compared with 67% of over-50s.
For many, the peninsula's crude division by foreign powers remains a traumatic historical anomaly. "As a foreigner perhaps you can think of other options, but unification is so natural to me," said Kim Seok-hyang, a professor at Ewha Women's University in Seoul. "No one really asked any Koreans, do you want to be divided and stay like that for over 60 years? With your family members separated?"
But fewer and fewer have close relatives across the border. Not many remember life before the split: less than a tenth of South Koreans were born before 1940.
The differences between North and South are ever starker. In the early decades after the division, South Korea repeatedly fell under military rule and lagged behind the North economically. Now it is a technologically advanced democracy with cultural clout and powerful economic ties across the region.
"I think young Koreans these days feel they have more in common with an American or European student than with North Koreans," said Kim So-young, a 21-year-old student in Seoul. She grew up at the height of the "sunshine era" of engagement with the North, when unification was more easily imaginable.
Her friend, 22-year-old Park Min-jin, said: "I thought it would come by the time we were in high school or university … I imagined running around with [North Korean] children in their uniforms."
Kim has moved from indifference to outright opposition. Unification is impractical, she said: "There will be a lot of costs and problems. What should we do to help North Korea with cultural and economic issues? It's not just the financial cost. They have had such a different education."
Park acknowledges the problems, but believes South Korea's responsibilities cannot be dodged. "I might be a little bit naive, but I wish the younger generation was not so preoccupied with economic priorities and would think in a more historical and humanitarian context."
Even the way people speak has diverged, leaving new arrivals in the South puzzled by differences in the vocabulary: as the old joke has it, they are divided by a common language.
Epstein believes growing knowledge of the North has increased rather than bridged perceptions of difference.
"There are almost 25,000 North Koreans in the South. The North is no longer anywhere near as mysterious as it was," he said. "Because of the famine and malnutrition, the difference between the two is not just linguistic, it's been inscribed physically at this point."
Many refugees struggle to adapt; research three years ago found high unemployment rates and an average income of roughly half the average South Korean salary.
They lack the social networks for career success. Their manners and mores are different."There's no longer this mystic idea of 'we are one' … They think: they are really different, [this is] a pain in the ass and why do we have to deal with all these sorts of issues economically just to bring them back into the fold?" Epstein added.
The gulf stretching between North and South dwarfs the gap between East and West Germany before reunification. There, the difference in per-capita income was 1:2 or 1:3; in Korea it is at best 1:15 and some think closer to 1:40, Andrei Lankov writes in his book The Real North Korea. This year, Seoul's finance ministry estimated that unification could cost the South up to 7% of annual GDP for a decade, although it would benefit from cheap labour and the North's natural resources.
Earlier research commissioned by the Unification Ministry suggested the cost would be between 371.5tn won (£215bn) and 1,253.5tn won if it happened by 2020. That unification would almost certainly be born of a crisis increases its difficulties. Attempts to manage the transition – such as controlling population movement while the North developed – could quickly be overtaken by events. Yet unification might prove equally traumatic for northerners, even if it brought a rise in living standards.
"A better option might be: 'You go your way, we go ours; let's do business with you and see you treat your own people better,'" suggested Epstein, who otherwise foresees rampant exploitation and an underclass.
Tellingly, Lee's protagonist is a North Korean – a former army hero who has turned to crime – and his novel highlights the marginalisation and exploitation of northerners. He believes his compatriots should face unification head-on instead of seeking to avoid it. He thinks they have avoided discussion of the issue because of its complexity.
"Unification will come soon. I would say before 10 years and we need to prepare," he said. "Let's say it is understandable that ordinary people don't want to talk about it but this is a problem at the political and administrative level, with structural problems in that the government is not ready either.
"We need to know what to do when we are living next to each other."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/may/27/south-north-korea-unification
Have a nice, relaxing weekend!!
Since almost ten days residents of Miryang were clashing with "officials"(workers and hired thugs) from Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) and riot cops in their protest against the power company’s resumption of the construction of 52 transmission towers...
Today's Korea Herald reported the following:
Construction of Miryang power-line towers halted
Korea Electric Power Corp. agreed to halt work on high-voltage transmission towers in Miryang, South Gyeongsang Province, on Wednesday while a group of experts reviews alternative plans.
The company and residents accepted the parliamentary Trade, Industry and Energy Committee’s mediation measures.
The nine-member group ― consisting of experts picked by the residents, KEPCO and the National Assembly ― will review various alternatives for 40 days.
The panel will give priority to plans for circumventing the Miryang area, but will also be allowed to analyze the feasibility of building underground power lines and other possible alternatives.
The group will be required to submit a report on their findings, including issues on which consensuses have not been reached, to the parliamentary Trade, Industry and Energy Committee.
The committee will then draw up solutions to the problem based on the report, which KEPCO and the Miryang residents will be required to follow.
The construction on the 52 transmission towers, which are part of a 161-tower, 90.5-kilometer line connecting the Shin-Kori nuclear power plant in Ulsan to a substation in Changnyeong, South Gyeongsang Province, resumed on May 20 after being stalled eight months due to opposition from residents of the area.
Of the 161 towers, 109 in other areas have been completed.
Miryang residents have opposed the towers from the outset, citing a 2003 World Health Organization report warning of the possible carcinogenic effects of such facilities.
http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20130529000861
Mainly elderly residents of the southeastern city of Miryang(South Gyeongsang Province) are clashing now since one week with "officials"(workers and hired thugs) from Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) and riot cops in their protest against the power company’s resumption of the construction of 52 transmission towers there after eight months of suspension.
"As of yesterday, eighth day of protests, 18 people have been injured as local residents try to block KEPCO from bringing in equipment to construct electricity transmission towers", today's Hankyoreh reported...
Related articles:
☞ KEPCO takes legal action against poor, elderly protestors (Hankyoreh, 2012.7.06)
☞ KEPCO, Miryang residents clash (Korea Times, 5.20)
☞ Controversial power-line works resume amid strong protests (K. Herald, 5.20)
☞ Elderly people injured in pylon protest (UCAnews, 5.21)
☞ Elderly residents in a tooth and nail fight against electricity towers (Hankyoreh, 5.22)
☞ No end in sight for dispute over Miryang power-line towers (K. Herald, 5.28)
More related articles/reports(incl. lots of pics) in Korean you'll get here(LabourStart)!!
Letters from a conscientious prisoner(No. 125), Lee Jong-hwa(*), today(5.26) since 29 days in jail(for his resistance against the Jeju Naval Base project).
As a poet and writer, he drafted numerous letters. A few of those are in English(**)...
* You may write him solidarity letters to the following address:
Lee Jong-hwa
161 Ora-2 dong(Jeju Prison)
Jeju City
Jeju, THE PEACE ISLAND
South Korea
* To see a collection of his letters, please check out:
http://cafe.daum.net/peacekj/496a/854
http://cafe.daum.net/peacekj/496a/860
Illusion...
Pyongyang, May 24 (KCNA) -- Vice Marshal of the Korean People's Army Choe Ryong Hae, member of the Presidium of the Political Bureau of the C.C., Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) and director of the KPA General Political Bureau, on a visit to China as a special envoy of the dear respected Kim Jong Un, met with Liu Yunshan, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau and member of the Secretariat of the C.C., Communist Party of China (CPC), at the Great Hall of the People on Thursday...
Choe Ryong Hae said he came to China as a special envoy of the dear respected Kim Jong Un, adding that it is the invariable stand of the WPK to consolidate and develop generation after generation the DPRK-China friendship associated with the devoted efforts made by the leaders of the elder generation of the two parties and countries.
The DPRK will always advance hand in hand with the Chinese comrades to defend the socialist cause in the two countries and boost the friendship and solidarity between the two peoples, he noted...
...and reality(today's Rodong Shinmun, without any word about Choe's visit in Beijing):
Yesterday(5.21) in central Seoul: 49 activists of Korean Gov't Employees' Union incl. Kim Jung-nam(KGEU's chairperson), who have been requesting a meeting with minister of public administration for union recognition and reinstatement 135 dismissed workers since May 1, were arrested for conducting an "illegal" sit-in protest in front of the Ministry of Security and Public Administration(for more info please read "South Korea: 49 trade unionists arrested"!!)...
KGEU's yesterday's report(incl. a lot of photos) you'll get here! More related and updated (Korean)articles/reports you'll find on LabourStart...
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