North And South Korea Unification - Essay Example

Chris Jun Kim English Rachel Burke 1 May 2013 North and South Korea unification The Korean Peninsula marks the boundary between the South and North Korea. Both the South and North fights to own this Peninsula. Therefore, the Peninsula presents a situation that has sparked increasing misunderstanding and worries, not only between the South and North Koreans, but also throughout the world. Over this Peninsula, the South and North Korea have been fighting for more than sixty years. Indeed this brings a painful reality, considering that not one but several innocent lives have been taken away, leave alone the invaluable property and resources that have been destroyed. So far, no one has come up with the much needed solution for ending the conflict. Instead of the conflict lessening, it is unfortunately triggering even greater alarm and tension. There is more division of families, which exceed hundred of thousands, at the demilitarized zone (Mack 27). While division may be a big problem, the gravity of the issue goes beyond this. This is because the very families, apart from facing the challenge of division, face bigger challenge involving the violation of the fundamental human right of living in peace as one family. Military confrontation between the North and the South Korea further ignites the culture of hatred and mistrust between people. Hatred and mistrust culture could be the worst values to be left to flourish over peace in any given society. Therefore, summing up all these misgivings of the conflict, the point is clear that the time should be no more for both sides to continue fighting. The North Korea and South Korea should inify if these and more potential dangers have to be avoided. There are a number of reasons to support the reunification of the republic of Korea (South Korea) and the democratic people’s republic of Korea (North Korea). First, the people of North Korea would suffer a great pain incase there is withdrawal of the support from China and Soviet Union with no reunification. The withdrawal will see a number of things happening against North Korea. The North Korean economy will worsen considerably because China has been the major pillar to this economy. China has been supporting the economy because it shares communism regimes together with North Korea. Apart from the worsening economy, there have also been severe food shortages and floods at the start of 1996 which attracted more hardships to the North Koreans. The worsening of the economy has been stirred by the economic sanctions against North Korea by the United Nations. Consequently, the situation of prisoners that North Korean government accused them of political crimes is pathetic. Out of the 200,000 prisoners, fifty thousand prisoners toil each day in concentration camps resulting in a death toll of a twenty to fifty percent of prison population each year. . The same problem has persisted till today even with the support of the humanitarian aid. A research carried by the world health organization (WHO) has revealed that more North Koreans continue to suffer with failures to feed themselves through from spring to summer on the expense of government financing military. This problem is compounded by the floods experienced almost throughout the year. It is very surprising that the northern people suffer food shortage while the southern population enjoys lots of food stuffs. The southern part of the old Korea is far much rich and has huge investments. Their reunion therefore, will best fit to save the northern population out of hunger and support them in solving the economic crisis (Kwak & Seung-Ho 26). Second, the split of the two nations have had some other countries take advantage of the situation for their own trade and industry interests. The advantage of the reunion is that the two will call for self political role. This will give them a greater chance to protect their own country without depending on others. The new country will be a self rule and will not be a slave to others. The new country will no longer enrich the superpowers, who pretend to help them but with interests of exploiting the country’s natural resources as well as economy. For instance, at first, the Korean conflict, which is said to be a civil battle between North Korea and South Korea, had its historical roots in the Japanese colonial legacy and rule. This is because Japanese imperial government had put in place the policy of divide and rule. This policy demarcated the Korean Peninsula on the basis of its geographical features to exploit and utilize the natural resources effectively. After World War II, Japanese gave up the Korean Peninsula to Allies. Korea saw liberation from Japanese colonial rule, only to suffer another division from two main Cold War era superpowers. These are Soviet Union and the United States. They occupied the northern half and southern half respectively. This led to the formation of two distinct Korean governments. The two superpowers, like the Japanese imperial government, also got the chance to exploit and utilize the natural resources effectively after dividing and ruling Korea. Leaders have over the past few years shown so much concern over the reunification of the two countries. Plans have been done to cut off the borders of the 38th parallel, which is one of the most protected places in the globe (O'Hanlon & Mike 18). Talks about unification are underway and signs show that time is almost ripe to unite the two. The two long brothers are to unite by their own without out side imposition. It is the trust and wish of most of the citizens and international bodies that the two countries’ leaders agree to negotiate and sign the agreement of unifying peacefully and with no rivalry against each other. This is because there has been clear evidence that the North Korean leadership has been too stubborn to heed reunification calls. =. All the issues that have clouded the two nations for a long time will be resolved through engagement in dialogue. The two leaders will meet and share ideas at any time in good faith for the benefit of the 170 millions of its citizens (Bluth 38). Third, the unification will bring to an end the application of the nuclear programs. It is expected that the North Korean leader will call for the diplomatic resolution of the country’s nuclear issue at the conference for the inter-Korean talk. Consequently, the unification will also drive the qualitative development of the two countries through equally helpful economic cooperation. The set economic progress will be much promoted by the removal of obstacles made before due to the conflict. This move will call for the new projects to be pursued in line with the four criteria: denuclearization in North Korea, economic viability, financial competence and national census. The South Korean administration is intended to implement vision 3000: Denuclearization and sincerity to create the Korean community (Soon-young 25). Fourth, the unity of the two countries will create cultural and social exchanges in efforts to expand and develop a sense of nationalized community. After the unity, the citizens will enjoy a stable and substantial development of social and more so, cultural exchanges. All these efforts will work to see both administrations remain committed to declaration of the humanitarian issues. Under the ministry of unification in South Korea, the two parties have agreed to find a lasting solution to the separate family problem and recognize the South Korean prisoners of war. These are the citizens who have their rights protected by the government. The two countries will form one country and work together in his spirit of brotherhood in respect to humanitarian perspective for the love of fellow citizens (O'Hanlon & Mike 18). For a long time, there has been a continued high tension along the Korean peninsula which has made United States president issue a warning to North Korea. Barrack Obama, the US President warned that his government will take all possible measures to protect its people and associates if the Korean administration made no efforts to stop the confrontational approach they have put in place and try to lower temperatures along the peninsula. There is a clear indication that the Northern government had invested so much of its wealth in military and other related fields from the pockets of tax payers. Actually, the United States is making the situation worst by siding with the South Korea. The reason for siding with South Korea is because US is against the nuclear plans in North Korea and the only way it can counter with these attacks is to side with South. By doing this, US will get the base for tackling North Korea. With this knowledge, North Korea feel sidelined and it therefore, defends itself by fighting (Bluth 38). Fifth, nobody even the Korean citizen would want to see conflicts at the peninsula. Therefore, it is necessary for North Korea to respect the basic set of laws and standards that have been put forth by humanitarians and United Nations resolutions. The unification of the two countries will again be a big advantage to the northerners. The northern government over a long period of time invested huge amount of their revenue on defense which has made them dependable on humanitarian aid. However, its combination will reduce much invest on military which will help the country save for the feeding northerners (Shambaughab 42). For many years, there have been hostilities between the northern and southern Korea. Just few past years, the southern government called for the unification citing many challenges affecting South Korea due to lack of understanding between the two countries. Talking at the country’s capital, Seoul, during the world journalist’s conference, claimed that their northern brother were giving them hard time and suggested that the only cure to the problem is the unification. The national leaders noted their efforts to unite the two countries stating that the unified Korea will benefit many regional partners in the all of northern Asia. During the conference, more blame was put on North Korea for its investment in nuclear weapons. This means that nothing will benefit North Korea from threat other than isolation. Throughout the meeting it was evident that everybody was urging the northern to make a right turn and join the international community. It is important for the northern kingship to note that the international community recognizes the policy from state to personality with the importance on human safety (Soon-young 25). On the other hand, some arguments oppose unification. First, there are wealth disparities between the two nations. Unification will therefore be unfair. South Korea is found to be richer than North Korea and a number of factors portray the northern government with less benefits. A baby born in North Korea will have 11.8 times probability of dying in childhood. The poverty level is very high in that a person living in North Korea makes 93.21% less money compared to a person in South Korea. Therefore, unification will mean that one of the nations will benefit at the expense of the other’s hard earned economy and investments. This beneficiary will be North Korea (Bluth 38). The situation in the North is such that, there is pathetic economic climate. Besides, the embargo has been cut off while the people are living clouded in fear and want. Both South and North Korea have to remember that isolation and war would not offer the solution they seek for the Peninsula issue. Although they enrich themselves socially, the South Koreans live in a lot of fear and want as well. They live as if a thin layer of ice under their feet may crack at any moment. Therefore, none of the nation has tranquility. Each nation lives in readiness for countering the explosion of the ever looming war disaster. Indeed, the time is due for North and South Korea to work diligently and forge reconciliation. As far as the unification is concerned, the North and South Korean nations should realize that negotiation and mutual respect would bridge their reconciliation. Both governments of South and North must try to be fair and honest as far as the handling of their mutual challenges in concerned. In the same note, Cooperation and peace ought to be seen thriving over hatred and mistrust. That is why this paper poses a strong argument of unification regarding the North Korea and South Korea. The South Korea must discover the limitations and frustrations of the North. Upon doing this, the South Korean should join hands with the North Korea and establish solidarity with brothers and sisters in the North. South and North Korea need to do direct negotiations through their national leaders. These national leaders, once they come together, would have the obligation of forging a pact curtailing the nuclear threat. Works Cited Bluth, Christoph. Crisis on the Korean Peninsula. Washington, D.C: Potomac Books, 2011 Internet resource. Kwak, Tae-Hwan, and Seung-Ho Joo. Peace Regime Building on the Korean Peninsula and Northeast Asian Security Cooperation. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2010. Internet resource. Mack Andrew. The Nuclear Crisis on the Korean Peninsula. Asian Survey. Vol. 33 ( 4) (Apr., 1993), pp. 339-359 O'Hanlon, Michael E, and Mike Mochizuki. Crisis on the Korean Peninsula: How to Deal with a Nuclear North Korea. New York [u.a.: McGraw-Hill, 2003. Print. Shambaughab David. China and the Korean peninsula: Playing for the long term. The Washington Quarterly. Vol.26 (2) 2003. pp. 43-56 Soon-young Hong. Thawing Korea's Cold War: The Path to Peace on the Korean Peninsula. Foreign Affairs. Vol. 78, No. 3 (May - Jun., 1999), pp. 8-12 Read More