I was helping Lacey, a journalism student from WTAMU whom I met during an AAJA-Seoul’s event last month. She asked me some questions about South Korea and North Korea for a story, and they helped me clarify my thoughts. Though very subjective in nature, I thought it was an interesting dialogue. So here it is.
1. How would you describe the moral of South Korean people?
I think they’re pretty moral. I mean, there are always bad apples, but generally speaking, South Koreans are good people trying to live harmonious with others and help people when they can.
2. What words would you use to best describe South Koreans?
Resilient and industrious. South Korea was completely devastated after the 36 years of the Japanese colonial regime and the Korean War immediately following that.Our grandparents’ and parents’ generation worked really hard and built South Korea from the scratch. Now we’re the 12th economic power in the world, just 50-60 years after the war. I think that’s pretty amazing.
3. Do you see them as a strong people?
Absolutely.
4. The kindness found in the country is shocking in a great way. Why do you believe the Korean people are so kind? Is it due to their history?
I think traditionally community and family came before anything else. Korea didn’t become a modern, industrial state until the middle of the 20th century – that is, after the Korean War. Seoul is a megalopolis now, but I think it used to be a loosely tied community of small villages scattered all around. Korea was an agricultural society and the community was small. So naturally everyone had to help each other out. It was probably also based on survival instinct.
But it definitely has some drawbacks, too (e.g. stifling individual voices and creativity in the name of the whole and in favor of uniformity), and the value of community and family is breaking down nowadays.
I thought when I was visiting, Texans were very kind, too. It’s all relative, I guess. Maybe people are generally kind to foreigners? Haha.
5. Why does the “threat” of North Korea not seem to impact the people of South Korea?
We’ve been living under such treats for the past 60+ years. Some did materialize, but most of them were false alarms. So in a way we’ve been desensitized. But more importantly I think the younger generation now sees through the propaganda and thinks that it’s a strategy and bluffing by the North to get what they want.
Also, there is a false hype created by the media. Simply put, North Korean stories sell and intimidate. So whenever something comes up, they play things out bigger than they really are. It’s almost reactionary now.
And the Korean peninsula is surrounded by superpowers – China, Russia, Japan and the U.S.. All of them have interest invested in this region. There is a delicate balance of power, and I don’t think North Korea is
stupid enough to mess with that balance, which will eventually lead to their demise.
Having the U.S. military force with us, though it does have some negative social implications, definitely helps us and makes us less anxious about the threats, too.
6. Do you hope for unification one day? Does the general public want unification as well?
I hope so, but I’m not very optimistic that it’ll happen anytime soon. We’ve been separate states and blocked off from each other for 60+ years. That’s a really long time. And there is a lot of misunderstanding and harsh feelings accumulated over time, generation after generation.
I think the general public is pretty ambivalent about unification, too, mostly because they worry about the economic implications. Unification sounds nice, but it is very complicated and elusive.