Korea: North and South

For most of our fellow citizens, North Korealooks like a black spot on the world map. In western videos and photos, North Korea is a country where mass repressions, hunger, round-the-clock labor and other oppression inevitably exist

of the population. As it should be a totalitarian system. At the same time, South Korea looks to us quite a successful oasis of Western development in South-East Asia. In this regard, interesting studies of prominent Russian historians and orientalists (especially Andrei Lankov) on the relationship between the two parts of the country and how Korea perceives the North in the South and vice versa. First of all, it is necessary to turn to the recent past of this people.

The fate of the country was difficult throughoutcenturies of its existence: dependence on China, later from Japan. The liberation from the colonial Japanese forces did not bring the Koreans the long-awaited freedom. In the country, the occupation regimes of the USA and the USSR were established, 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, the two world leaders agreed to hold democratic elections in the country over time and transfer power to the local

the 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 their own way. As a result, the agreement was not reached. Korea North fell under the power of local communist elements. On September 9, 1948, the People's Democratic Republic was formed. At the same time, in the south, the puppet government of Lee Son of Man ran everything, forming a legally independent republic a month earlier. Like the Germans, all Koreans were initially confident that this state of affairs is temporary, and the country will inevitably unite. It is interesting that in the first Constitution of the North for Seoul, after the war, the status of the official capital was fixed. With the fact that it really belonged to South Korea.

According to polls in the south, most localresidents wanted to unite. However, as the same polls show, in the nineties and two thousand years the number of supporters of the association in the south of the country is sharply reduced. Korea North is becoming less desirable for southerners. So, if in 2008, positively-minded citizens were 68%, then in 2012 - only 53%. It is interesting that among the youth who never knew a single country, or the successes of the socialist camp, the number of negative attitudes is even greater. The reasons for this are associated with possible economic difficulties, which, for example, the unification of the same Germany brought the West Germans. The weak development of the East literally struck their pockets. But the gap in the economic well-being of different parts of Korea is even greater!

Experience of neighbors from Taiwan

Therefore, North Korea 2013 is less and lessis attractive for citizens of the south of the country, and its inhabitants 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 mid-20th century. However, the civil war after the Second World War 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 that lost to the Communists could consolidate itself. Today, after the well-known economic and international successes, the growth of living standards, Taiwanese citizens identify with the Chinese less, now forming a new nation. Perhaps, the same way goes to Korea, North and South, which after several decades of separate residence hardly know each other some kind of mentality and historical destiny.