For most of our fellow citizens, North Korea looks like a black spot on the world map. In Western videos and photos, North Korea is presented as a country where mass repression, hunger, round-the-clock work and other oppression are sure to exist
population. As befits a totalitarian system. At the same time, South Korea looks to us as a quite 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 has been difficult throughout the centuries of its existence: dependence on China, later on Japan. The liberation from the colonial Japanese forces did not bring the long-awaited freedom to the Koreans. The occupation regimes of the USA and the USSR were established in the country, separated by the 38th parallel. In this respect, the fate of Korea is very similar to the development of events in post-war Germany. Here, as in a European country, it was agreed by two world leaders to hold democratic elections in the country over time and transfer power tolocal
government elected by the people. However, as in Germany, when the time came for real action, it turned out that each of the parties sees this process in its own way. As a result, no agreement was reached. North Korea fell 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, the puppet government of Syngman Rhee, who had formed a legally independent republic a month earlier, was in charge. Like the Germans, all Koreans were initially sure that this state of affairs was temporary, and the country would inevitably unite. Interestingly, in the first Constitution of the North, Seoul was given the status of the official capital after the war. Despite the fact that he really belonged to South Korea.
According to polls in the south, most of the locals wanted to unite. However, as the same polls show, in the 1990s and 2000s, the number of supporters of unification in the south of the country was sharply reduced. North Korea is becoming less and less desirable for southerners. So, if in 2008 there were 68% of positive-minded citizens, then in 2012 - only 53%. Interestingly, 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. Experts attribute the reasons for this to the possible economic difficulties that, for example, the unification of Germany brought to the West Germans. The weak development of the East literally hit their pockets. But the gap in the economicthe well-being of different parts of Korea is even greater!
Taiwan neighbor experience
Thus, North Korea in 2013 is less and less attractive to citizens of the south of the country, and its residents are 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 United States, the Kuomintang government, which lost the civil war to the communists, was able to gain a foothold. Today, after the well-known economic and international successes, rising living standards, the citizens of Taiwan identify less and less with the Chinese, now forming a new nation. It is possible that North and South Korea are following the same path, which, after several decades of separation, hardly recognize in each other any kind of mentality and historical destiny.
