For most of our fellow citizens, North Korea looks like a black spot on the world map. In Western videos and photos, North Korea appears to be a country where mass repression, hunger, round-the-clock labor and other oppression certainly exist.
population. As befits a totalitarian system. At the same time, South Korea seems to us to be a completely prosperous oasis of Western development in Southeast Asia. In this regard, the studies of prominent Russian historians and orientalists (especially Andrei Lankov) about the relations between the two parts of the country and how North Korea is perceived in the South and vice versa are interesting. First of all, it is necessary to turn to the recent past of this people.
Korea: North and South
The fate of the country was difficult throughout all the centuries of its existence: dependence on China, later on Japan. Liberation from the colonial Japanese forces did not bring the Koreans the long-awaited freedom. The occupation regimes of the USA and the USSR were established in the country, separated by 38 parallel. In this regard, the fate of Korea is very similar to the development of events in post-war Germany. Here, as in a European country, two world leaders agreed to hold democratic elections in the country over time and transfer power to the local
government elected by the people. However, as in Germany, when the time came for real action, it turned out that each side sees this process in its own way. As a result, an agreement was not reached. North Korea came under the rule of local communist elements. Here, on September 9, 1948, the People's Democratic Republic was formed. At the same time, in the south, everyone was ruled by the puppet government of
Lee Seung Man, who formed a legally independent republic a month earlier. Like the Germans, all Koreans were initially convinced
that this state of affairs was temporary, and the country would inevitably unite. Interestingly, in the first Constitution of the North, after the war, Seoul was assigned the status of the official capital. Despite the fact that it really belonged to South Korea.
According to polls in the south, most locals wanted a pool. However, as the same polls demonstrate, in the nineties and two thousandths the number of supporters of unification in the south of the country is sharply reduced. North Korea is becoming less desirable for southerners. So, if in 2008 there were 68% of positively-minded citizens, then in 2012 - only 53%. It is interesting that among young people who have never known a single country or the successes of the socialist camp, the number of negative attitudes is even greater. Specialists attribute the reasons for this to possible economic difficulties that, for example, the unification of Germany itself brought the West Germans. The weak development of the East literally hit their pockets. But the gap in the economic well-being of different parts of Korea is even greater!
Experience neighbors from Taiwan
Thus, North Korea in 2013 is becoming less and less attractive to citizens of the south of the country, and its residents are becoming less and less perceived as compatriots. A somewhat similar situation is observed in Taiwan. After all, this island was also an integral part of mainland China until the middle of the 20th century. However, the civil war after World War II and the coming to power of the Communist Party in China separated Taiwan from the main part of the country. There, with the help of the USA, the Kuomintang government, which lost the Communists of the Civil War, was able to gain a foothold. Today, after the well-known economic and international successes, the rising standard of living, Taiwanese citizens are less and less identifying with the Chinese, now forming a new nation. Perhaps North Korea and South Korea are following the same path, which, after several decades of separate living, are unlikely to recognize in each other any kindred relationship of mentality and historical fate.