Let’s Promote the Unification of Korea
I immigrated from Seoul, Korea in 1977. I founded the Korean Labor Association in 1979 to protect the rights and interests of Korean workers here in California. I studied at the UCLA School of Public Policy and Social Research as a 2001 community scholar. Now I am leader of Hanwul Movement, training people in such skills as increasing health and wellbeing, enabling them to lead a more purposeful, meaningful life.
It is important to free North Koreans from dictatorship. North Korea must change to a democracy. I believe strongly in a free and united Korea. It is critical that my community and world read and respond to this crucial information. If we don’t actively now, the problem of the nation could pass down to the next generation.
The people of the United States and South Korea live freely, but North Koreans do not have freedom. Furthermore, North Koreans are starved to death and fear for their lives. There are many witnesses who cross the border to China. When I heard their story, I could not close my eyes from this tragedy.
Imagine now that Korea has been unified
DMZ barriers would be dismantled, and Koreans could come and go freely. The relatives who couldn’t forget their North Korean family even in their dreams would rush to North Korea and hug their loved ones. They would fill the hungry stomachs of their relatives with prepared food. The highway and railroad of the South would be connected to the Yalu and Tumen Rivers, and these would be connected to Europe. The electric and communication facilities would come through from the South. The darkened old houses and apartments of the north would be destroyed, and new ones would be built. Everybody was free to go anywhere, including secret places that they were not allowed to visit before. People could move their residences and decide where they want to live. Now that there would be no succession power and no guilty by association, every person from North Korea could graduate a good school if he or she studied well and obtained a good job. They could compete and develop in the society freely in many ways, such as political, economic, and cultural. Koreans living abroad have been divided into two by both South and North governments. This means that folks would unify into one and get better status in their resident country. Our political leader who came to power by a free election would not be subject to criticism and accused of a plot. The officials of Korean foreign affairs might get an equal position with USA, China, Russia, and Japanese officials. A united Korea would be a democracy that is one step above, and that could choose the essence from individual creativity and public welfare. A united Korea would also close the era of dictatorship and we would lead in the disarmament of nuclear arms and weapons of mass destruction. Korea could become a culture-developed world country. People all over the world would want to visit Korea. They can eat delicious food and buy famous clothes. Coming to Korea, people from all over the world can be seen at famous exhibitions and performances. Having unique thought and culture, Koreans would be welcomed wherever they go worldwide. International society would recognize and be proud of Koreans for their efforts and involvement in world affairs.
Who doesn't like this good unification?
Do South Koreans dislike it because they must feed the 27 million people of North Korea?
South Koreans hike to the mountains and walk the fields to diet, due to eating too much good food; it costs too much to dispose of the leftovers. The Korean American doctor who helps North Korea says if North Korea had a million tons of food, no North Koreans would die of hunger. The price of food is approximately four hundred million dollars. It is the total amount it would cost to dispose of leftover food in South Korean restaurants. When unification occurs, collective farms in North Korea will be busy producing more crops with the fertilizer from South Korea and eating problems will be solved.
Why is it some people don’t like unification because of cost and increased taxes?
It costs more than 35 billion to buy and develop arms both in South and North Korea. This money can be transferred to use for the cost of the unification. We can obtain money from bonds issued or loans to North Korea’s development of mineral resources. We can use the money from the sale of the D.M.Z. Of course, the taxes may increase by the size of the business, but it will make the economy boom. In addition, North Korea’s international credit rating will improve, and investment in natural resources and the tourism industry will increase rapidly. The good labor of North Koreans will also make money. The cost of unification is the money invested for the bigger size of the economy. Especially, unification will give the younger generation more hope and chance to develop themselves.
Since now the people of South Korea are living well, don’t you like the idea of unification?
Some people think that if the North Korean people rush to unify with the south, the country would be overpopulated. To ease their minds, we should have some period of preparation to control the traffic of people entering South Korea. Korean people are very generous. There will be much needed services for North Koreans. At the beginning, there will be differences of opinion due to 70 years of living in a very different regime. Due to malnutrition, the North Koreans are starving due to their poor health. To prevent this, we have to unify both countries as soon as possible so that this problem doesn’t keep on growing.
The Korean American medical doctor Dr. Park, who voluntarily donates his services to North Korea said, “Many enlisted persons
were unqualified for military duty due to a lack of intellectual ability when they were examined recently. These were generations of North Korea’s children who were not supplied enough nutrition during the period of brain development when they were 4-5 years old, during the period 1996 to 1997. After that time, even good nutrition did not help in later brain development.” Of most concern are North Korean infants who still do not receive adequate nutrition. The ruler of North Korea has allowed the next generation of his nation to become permanently disabled. We understand that the South Korean government allows civic groups to give food and medicine to the North Koreans and asks UNICEF of the United Nations for their assistance.
North Korea is not a democratic country.
For protection of human rights, we must look to the philosophy of Hongik Ingan. To be considered a democratic country, one must be guaranteed the right of work and food in order to live. Regarding work, a democratic country’s first task is to get rid of unemployment. The industries of North Korea, however, are broken and no jobs can be found. Except for upper class people, workers cannot receive decent living wages. The people who depend on rations should be given the freedom to seek food even when their government cannot supply it to them. There are no freedoms to live where they want and to move without hard restrictions and permission. Therefore, death by starvation is their only sad choice. In other words, the government of North Korea dooms their own people to death. Even though international societies give food and financial aid to North Korea, that money is being used by high-ranking people for their own enrichment and to develop arms.
A former high-ranking person, Mr. Hwang Jang Yup, who escaped from North Korea, said that at least 1.5 million people had died in the two years from 1995 and 1996. He had known about these deaths from statistics of the Labor party in North Korea when he was there. He estimated that over 3 million people have died since then. More than 500 thousand North Koreans crossed the border into China, risking their lives because they refuse to die without doing anything! It must have been extremely difficult for them to escape, but the North Korean government arrests the ones they can catch with help from the Chinese government. North Korea has tortured, detained, and even executed them after they are arrested. In this situation, the defectors in China are living in hiding to avoid arrest. Currently, the Chinese, who know the defectors, are turning the men into slave laborers and the women are sold into sex trafficking.
The second requirement of a democratic country is the protection of human rights from the force of violence. We must cast away robbery, organized crime and violent demonstration, because the violence is like animal behavior. From ancient times to present, an important reason a nation is built is to protect their citizens from violence; thus, the nation’s power should be enforced by the law. North Korea has shown itself to be a crime organization. The regime exists by using surveillance and intimidation. The dictator, Kim Jong Un, unfairly accused and killed his uncle, Jang Sung Taek. Ordinary people who even slightly offend are sent to a political prison camp without trial (at night, in secret). If one person is accused, the whole family will be punished by association. Children also are sent there or are born and stay there. Mr. Gang Cheol Hwan, who is from North Korea, wrote in his book “Song of the Prison Camp”: “The situation today in North Korea is like that of the 6 million Jewish people who were killed in the gas chambers without resisting.” The political prison camp is completely isolated from the general society. Prisoners are continuously malnourished and tortured; they die by hard work and hunger. In this camp, there are no human rights; Two hundred thousand people are being held there; five hundred thousand to one million people have died in these prison camps.
The third requirement of a democratic country is freedom of expression and ideology. Having freedom of expression, we can better understand world news and so form educated thoughts to help our society progress properly. But North Koreans don’t have these freedoms and so are isolated from the world. Propaganda is the only thing they are taught. They are forced into believing the “Juche Ideology” which makes the great leader the king and the people are just slaves. If people don’t compliment or bow to the Great Leader or are of a different religion, or listen to foreign radio broadcasts, they must be sent to prison camps. Contemporary ideology in most countries tends toward human rights, including freedom and equality for all. Only the dictator has absolute power, true rights and wealth. He disregards people’s human rights and continues his regime with lies and violence. He threatens the world by using terror or war, intimidates his own people by abducting South Koreans or foreigners. North Korea became angry and withdrew 53,000 workers from the Kaesong factory zone suddenly because South Korea’s free press wrote the truth about its regime. Now the factories are closed.
North Korea’s logic is far-fetched.
North Korea says that South Korea is a colony of the U.S. because the U.S. military exercises operational control in times of war. Yet, North Korea is willing to create a wedge between South Korea and the United States. After the Second World War, colonization was ended. Now the United States wants to give the wartime operational control to South Korea; South Korea wants to postpone the acquisition because of North Korea’s militancy. European industrialized countries also signed a military alliance with the U.S. It is a current global trend to collective defense because individual countries trying to defend themselves need much money; even so, they are not necessarily safe. North Korea tries to make an excuse for the U.S military to withdraw from South Korea. By replacing the current armistice with a peace treaty, the North Korean military can’t attack South Korea, due to U.S. forces. To accomplish this, both North and South Koreans must use diplomacy and cooperation, then add military trust, and the immediate disposal of nuclear weapons. Presently, North Koreans use these weapons to intimidate South Koreans. North Korea has also declared the armistice null and void, observing the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula in 1991 and the north–south reconciliation, non-aggression cooperation agreements. Thus, North Korea can’t be trusted. We know how, in the past, South Vietnam collapsed less than two years after signing a peace treaty with North Vietnam.
In the past North Korea has demanded the withdrawal of U.S. forces in Korea, just before the Korean War. In December 1948, North Korea demanded the departure of both U.S. troops and Soviet forces, so the U.S. had left in the second half of 1949. North Korea, aiming for an opportunity, invaded the south, taking over by June 25, 1950. To defeat the communist invasion, U.S. troops and forces from the U.N. (16 countries) came back in the same year from June 30, 1950. U.S. troops who were stationed in the South signed a mutual defense treaty, because of North Korea’s targeting and invasion of South Korea. This treaty between South Korea and the U.S. would prevent further war and more than 3 million casualties from ever occurring again.
Now North Korea says up front that peace is the goal. However, in reality, they are instead preparing for war by building up their forces. On the other hand, North Korea sent many secret agents to South Korea. North Korean sympathizers who live in South Korea must beg for peace from the dictator who venerates violence. These South Korean sympathizers are extremely afraid to protest the hereditary dictatorship, human rights abuses, and wrong way dictatorship in Juche Idea. It is a cowardly hypocrisy that they say “reconciliation, cooperation, and peaceful coexistence” only.
Anybody can speak against war. Even when North Korea attacks South Korea, South Korea remains still, not even responding to security! If South Korea gives money to appease the thugs of the North, next time they will extort more money as they prepare to utilize stronger and deadlier weapons. Illegal violence must be stopped. South Korea must be better prepared to face an aggressive North. North Korean law (revised in Sept. 2012) stipulates that if pro-north people desire unity, they can try to force reunification with justification.
Peace is a means to oppose violence and war. South and North Korea cannot use violence to this end, even though their ideology and systems are different. In my opinion, both need peaceful competition to show whose system is superior. It should be compared by the people of the North and South. Both should develop a good system, discarding the bad system. Unification promotes peacefulness, assumes the other party’s good policies. The people of South Korea must not to be afraid of the struggle they would face to democratize the country. War is not the answer.
The North Korea shelling of the people in Yeonpyeong Island shows that even though they say, “our people”, they still attack us as enemies. North Koreans are forced to live and speak a human life without freedom and equality, and they have been suffering from violence and hunger. Now the world sees that human rights are in every democratic country. Even if the parent of a family tried to discipline their children, those parents are subject to punishment by government authorities. In a dictatorship, the people are held hostage to criminal offenses and the government is not eligible to represent their own people. It is the right and duty of the international community to solve this problem. The world should take care of freedom, democracy, and human rights regardless of country or race. There is a large wound in our human history. In some countries both selfish fascism of their own people and the communist dictatorship of the working class were eliminated. Now the world is supposed to be a living community, a brotherhood of all mankind.
North Koreans are the most isolated in the world because they are cut off from the outside. North Koreans can’t be seen on the internet, which is used in every country in the world. The computer technology, which is taught from both South Korea and internationally, has been used in cyber attacks that paralyzed the computer network of South Korea. North Korea doesn’t allow the distribution of various kinds of assistance, including food and medicine necessary to sustain their people. We should not aid the North Korean government if we can’t identify their means of distribution, which North Korean authorities refused to do. By giving assistance without supervision, we make the dictator stronger. For example, North Korea has spent $890 million to build the palace housing the body of Kim Il Sung. They also used that money in the development of nuclear weapons. They are spending money that was meant to help people avoid starvation; instead, they are using it for themselves.
Accomplishing unification should be made through our efforts.
Our nation’s unification should protect the human rights and stand for the principle of a residential people’s democracy. It should be done through peaceful competition by freedom of travel to both South and North Korea. North Korea allows separate families to meet at limited places only and prevents exchange of letters. This cannot be a true exchange, for North Korea also guides visitors by thoroughly monitoring them.
Diplomacy between the countries involved is important. The environment of democratic and peaceful unification is being made, but our unification is made by us, and not by surrounding foreigners. Because of their concern for profits, other countries will continue this separateness. It is our responsibility to change this situation. Presently, Koreans, whether living in Korea or residing elsewhere, should make democracy and unification as their most important goal. The North Korean dictator demonstrates armed force like the Soviet Union of the past which is in fact stronger than North Korea. Hopefully, North Korea will democratize and weaken like the old Soviet Union. With the awakening of the North Korean people, it will be harder for the government to prevent their people from contacting other foreign countries for information on the development of important matters. High officials of North Korea are both afraid and uncomfortable because they are constantly monitored by government secret agents. North Koreans want freedom and prosperity, for they feel disappointment in their dark regime.
After the Korean War, South Korea developed industries from ruined lands. They made today’s democracy through consistent struggle. Now the proud people of South Korea have the power to reunify North Korea. The problem of separation is at the root of the dictatorship system of North Korea. The ruler of North Korea would not give up their vested interests, and South Korea cannot live with slavery like North Korea. There is a feudal dynastic succession just north of our country. All Koreans, whether North or South, can’t unify into one country by leaving a dictatorship, which is incompatible with democracy. Of course, South Korea should continue to develop and refine their democratic system. In South Korea, political and economic adhesion should be eliminated, and welfare should be expanded to the socially disadvantaged.
If we don’t move actively, the problems of the nation would pass down to the next generation. North Korea will continue their regime with the hard–earned dollars of the people who are dying from starvation. Due to North Korea’s failed economy, we can’t expect that the government will quit or change its regime. To protect their regime, North Korea would continue to destroy South Korea and make trouble among the South Korean people. It is hard to reunify when there are nuclear tensions between South and North Korea. Our nation’s power will be exhausted from military spending and foreign competition. This will worsen North Korea’s abuse of human rights and continue to separate the nation. Our culture, which could lead the world, would lose its way. Then we can’t accomplish our task to develop the world. We will receive criticism wherever we go.
Now our folks must go ahead by adding power through cooperation. We must make the dictatorship of North Korea weak. The funds of the North Korean government should be frozen from the international finance system. We are all Korean brothers who can support each other. Let’s send the North Korean people information from outside their country, along with sympathy and warm hearts. Make sure that the international assistance reaches the people who need it. Stop the Chinese government from forcing the return of North Korean refugees, who would become forces for unification. Give divided families the freedom to travel undetected to the North and South, and reunite brothers and sisters, without the threat of being spied upon. We can make unification a reality when North Koreans are awakened to form a democratic system, free from any regime. Let’s become unification workers who roll up their sleeves. Today our mission is to unify our nation and philosophically raise the spirits of our nation. All 70 million people in 3 thousand ri of various parts of our nation would be dancing and celebrating worldwide, this accomplishment would be applauded. Let’s be proud, let’s be reunified.
DEC.13, 2016