Comments on: !!!MUST READ!!! Lankov on the Korean Reunification Process

By: VG866

VG866 — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 23:42:08 +0000

19,31, 32, 33

No offense Baduk but youre clinically insane. What kind of fantasy world do you live in?

By: dokdoforever

dokdoforever — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 08:37:35 +0000

Another distinction between NK’s situation today and the old E Germany is the Korean War, in which average N Koreans fought and died for the state they have today. E Germany, on the other hand, was almost entirely a Soviet creation. So, while Northerners may oppose the regime, may desire higher standards of living, political choice, and market reform, that doesn’t necessarily equate to a desire for unification with the South. The citizens of that country gave their lives to be independent, they may not willingly part with it.

By: wjk

wjk — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 21:10:26 +0000

just for fun, check out Mr. Park’s movie, Joint Security Area.

They forget to mention Chinese Imperialism.

otherwise, a good movie.

By: Sonagi

Sonagi — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 21:01:00 +0000

We could take down the entire DMZ and very few North Koreans would bother coming across. Across for what? A cell phone? Hot water? It’s 15 years now of this line of crap and they’re still not coming. Maybe they don’t want to come to South Korea, maybe they like North Korea?
Is that okay?

You must be trolling.

By: Sonagi

Sonagi — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 20:35:29 +0000

@#67:

How do you know what North Koreans want or do not want? How do you know that many would not flock south for a better life? According to the Pew Center, 40% of Mexicans would come to the US if they could. Now Mexicans are extremely proud of their country and the culture, but let’s face it - poverty sucks.

Your insistence upon speaking for 22 million people in a country you’ve never lived in is incredibly arrogant.

By: Richardson

Richardson — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 19:29:15 +0000

I don’t think Cambodia can aptly be compared to North Korea in this context. North Korean’s may love “North Korea” or the notion of a unified “Korea,” but knowledge of the outside could (as has in many cases) completely destroy faith in the regime, Kim Jong-il. Loving the country is not the same as loving the regime, though only some North Koreans are figuring that out or have/can do anything about it, for now.

I’ve spoken to defectors in South Korea, and read the accounts of others, that believe that when/if the non-elite North Korean’s are in fact exposed to the truth in large numbers, it will undermine the regime.

If you really do “‘believe’ North Koreans are just like everyone else in the world” then assuming, “that exposure to wealth and individual freedoms matters to a North Korean” follows - either they are like “everyone else” or they are not. But being lied to for decades also matters. At least that what I heard from the defectors I spoke to, and what I’ve been reading for the past decade with no convincing or credible counterevidence.

By: hardyandtiny

hardyandtiny — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 18:09:31 +0000

Sonagi: “However, those North Koreans you speak of who think the South sold out are the ones employed, fed, and housed by the regime, not the refugees Dr. Lankov speaks of.”

I’m sorry, I must have missed that point. Did he say that?

What do we know about people who live in North Korea? There are Cambodian farmers/refugees/city dwellers who went through hell and now love their nation, Cambodia. What leads us to believe North Koreans want to be part of modern South Korea after North Korean political revolution? Does change in North Korean government equal instant unification?

By: hardyandtiny

hardyandtiny — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 17:26:44 +0000

“If you see the outside world and compare what you see with what you were taught and with the reality of North Korea, you’ll turn.”
What leads you to believe that people in North Korea will see the “outside world” and suddenly turn against their own nation? Nothing will ever convince a North Korean that North Korea is not the greatest country on earth. As a matter of fact, it is more likely a North Korean will look at South Korea and complain that it is no longer Korea.
It’s just your fantasy.

By: hardyandtiny

hardyandtiny — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 16:54:04 +0000

Lankov: “They believe that North Koreans have acquired a distinct and strong feeling of their own national identity and, hence, their superiority in regard to “impure” Southeners. They also believe that this identity is strong enough to withstand the shock produced by full exposure to the South Korean life with its prosperity and individual freedoms.”

Actually, I “believe” North Koreans are just like everyone else in the world; they love their country. It’s not a unique situation. It is you who believes North Koreans are a special case. You assume that exposure to wealth and individual freedoms matters to a North Korean.
North Koreans love North Korea, just as South Koreans love South Korea.
We could take down the entire DMZ and very few North Koreans would bother coming across. Across for what? A cell phone? Hot water? It’s 15 years now of this line of crap and they’re still not coming.
Maybe they don’t want to come to South Korea, maybe they like North Korea?
Is that okay?

By: Sperwer

Sperwer — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 12:34:03 +0000

Sperwer, Myers is a North Koreanist with a PhD in literature, right? I’d be interested in reading where he writes that. Do you have the source?

Some of it is in his book on Socialist realism in NORK literature, which in part is a cultural history tracing the origins and distortions from the Stalinist model of the peculiar NORK version of socialist realism to the Japanese influenced and in many cases collaborating Korean literary figures of the colonial period. He cast the net wider in his lecture at RASKB lecture several months ago.