Reunification and our generation
South Korean people around my age - in their mid-20s - don’t feel strongly about unification with their neighbors to the North. That much you can find out when talking to pretty much anybody born in the 1980s, and so writes an Australian Ph.D. candidate Emma Campbell:
This is the first generation of South Koreans, who define themselves in terms of the southern part of the peninsula only. They have the least interest in unification relative to previous generations. For those who do desire unification, the motivation is often derived from South Korea-centred goals: unification for the benefit of South Korea or to prevent China’s spreading influence over the North.
While her article is unfortunately under-sourced, I think she makes accurate points about the “G-generation” (“G” presumably standing for global? I can’t find references to this elsewhere).
But while it’s probably true that people of this age don’t feel the same sort of connection with people in the North, it seems to me that, as long as Korean values that emphasize age and seniority are maintained, it will still be a long time before people from this generation have any real power, perhaps 20 or 30 years.
In the meantime — again, citing Confucian influence on how it seems to me opinion and consensus are shaped — the people who will eventually be entering politics or the bureaucracy will probably have to step in line with the conventional wisdom of their elders in order to be in a position of power themselves. Thus, I don’t think the idea of Korean unification is going to fade into the background easily; after all, there’s an entire cabinet ministry devoted to it! I can’t believe that the Ministry of Unification would be shut down for anything less than living up to its name. (Then again, South Korea has been known to simply change the name of its ministries.)
And if I’m right, that it might take another generation before this generation does come to power, I think the chances of regime change or collapse in North Korea is pretty good. Such an occurence has the potential to expose more Koreans from both sides of the border to each other, and perhaps reignite a sentiment of “uri nara” - “our nation” - that does not exclude people from the North.
Thanks to Aaron in Jakarta for passing this along.
1 year ago