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By this coming Wednesday, Germany will have been a united country for 28 years (and my
most popular video will have been up for a year).
However, the Korean peninsula still remains divided in much the same way (minus the whole
Berlin scenario), so could Korea reunify the same way Germany did?
Well, as I really like to say with everything, in order to understand current issues, you
really need to understand all the underlying history.
So let’s have a quick recap of the history of both areas.
Germany was united under Brandenburg Prussia in 1871, and a new German Empire was established.
However, over the next few decades, as Europe proceeded to douse itself with kerosene, people
became shocked when one small spark set the whole thing on fire, and the whole continent
went to war with itself, with Germany playing a big part for the losing side.
After WWI, Germany’s monarchy was disbanded, and the new Weimar Republic was forced to
pay crippling war bonds.
This gave rise to the Nazi regime, led by Adolf Hitler.
During WWII, Germany started to expand across Europe, killing millions and destroying whole
countries in its wake.
In 1945, Nazi Germany was defeated, and occupied by the US, the UK, the USSR, and the France,
who split up Germany, Austria, and Berlin into different sections until a more permanent
solution could be found.
Austria fully reunited, as did the non-USSR sections of Germany and Berlin (which was
deep inside the Soviet sector of Germany).
However, since the USSR kind of fell out with the other three countries, their sector eventually
gained their independence as the socialist German Democratic Republic, whereas the west
became the Federal Republic of Germany.
After this happened, in 1949, the two countries went their own ways.
The west started to grow into a powerful country in its own right, but the east mostly stagnated,
and so many easterners tried to defect to the west that a big, terrifying wall was built
to stop them in their tracks, the infamous Berlin Wall, a wall that wrapped around West
Berlin, built by the East to keep Easterners out of the West, like a defensive wall, but
halfway in reverse.
It’s confusing to look at without the context.
So, general, how are we going to take this castle?
Take this castle?
What do you mean?
We built those walls.
Oh, okay, so are we taking the land back?
No, we built the wall around their land.
To keep the other side in?
No, to keep us out.
So, we’re protecting them from ourselves?
No, we’re protecting ourselves from them and their propaganda!
They’re going to invade us in reverse if we keep our guard down!
What the f#$k’s gotten into you this time, Larry?
There was also a border going straight through all of Germany.
In both border areas there were traps, fences, guard towers, and open stretches of sand,
so that soldiers would have no trouble spotting illegal border crossers.
No one thought reunification was remotely possible, until Günter Schabowski misspoke
in a press statement in 1989, and accidentally said that the border was due to be opened
then.
The wall fell, and the German governments agreed to reunify, but also had to get their
former occupiers on board.
Eventually, this happened, and Germany is now essentially the beating heart of the EU,
and the third biggest manufacturer on the planet, after China and the US.
So what about Korea?
Well, the Korean peninsula was united by the Silla Dynasty in the 7th century, and Korea
maintained its independence until the 22nd of August, 1910, when the Joseon Dynasty was
annexed by the Japanese Empire.
A couple decades later though, some bombs were dropped on two strategic cities for manufacturing
purposes, and Japan was forced to surrender.
Since the government of the Joseon Dynasty of Korea was effectively no more, the US and
the USSR split the country at the 38th parallel, as a temporary solution, but there’s one
thing you need to know if you want to study geopolitical history: there is nothing as
permanent as a temporary solution.
Unsurprisingly, both sectors established their own radically different governments.
So, who will control Korea?
“Me”, they both said at the same time.
Thus, when the Soviet-backed Kim Il-Sung established the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
in 1950, and attacked Syngman Rhee’s Republic of Korea, anticipating a quick victory, all
hope of quick unification came crashing down.
After the Korean war ended in 1953 with an armistice agreement, the peninsula was left
virtually destroyed, and millions of people died.
However, both sides quickly rebuilt.
Initially, the North’s redevelopment was faster than the South’s, as their government
went through at least six different types.
However, as the South started to become an industrial superpower akin to Japan, the North
was quickly left in the dust.
When Kim Jong-Il took the position of Supreme Leader from his father, he redirected most
of the government’s funds towards the military, mobilizing the country for war, as the country
has become more and more isolated and vulnerable with the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Everything right now seems just as stagnant as Germany in the 80’s, though suddenly,
earlier this year…
what?!
However, to this day, the Koreas are divided by a strip of land called the Demilitarized
Zone (DMZ), riddled with guns, land mines and electric fences, which you can actually
go to!
Main attractions include lots of checkpoints, North Korea being right there, and the wildlife
sanctuary that the lack of humans has provided for… though this is probably thanks to the
land mines.
(Side note, please don’t bring your kids here!)
There are so many parallels you you draw here; none of the split countries had a geographic
denominator in their name and they simply had differing pre-titles, this happened almost
immediately after WWII, and while this was happening, no one really thought that reunification
was truly possible.
I could combine either side with its equivalent all I want, but that wouldn’t really be
getting the point across, I mean, I could say the same about Austria and Australia:
both are named after a compass direction, both have only recently become independent
countries, even though both have a lot of history, and neither of them really exist.
German reunification saw a lot of hurdles, mainly convincing the four former occupying
countries to let it happen.
Margaret Thatcher was even quoted saying, “We’ve beat the Germans twice, and now
they’re back!”
Similarly, it’s very likely that Korea would also have to overcome these hurdles.
Basically, though, it’s not so much a game of who doesn’t want a strong Korea, so much
as who wants North Korea to still be a thing.
The US doesn’t, and Japan certainly doesn’t, as you can see by the fact that Japan is one
of two countries that doesn’t recognize the DPRK as a country (the other being the
RoK).
However, the real issue likely lies with North Korea’s only real ally; China.
China and the DPRK have led an increasingly uneasy alliance, especially since the DPRK
effectively serves as a buffer between them and US-backed South Korea.
However, relations aren’t exactly akin to that of the US and Canada, and their friendship
has been described as an “alliance of convenience”.
Seoul has been openly talking about reunification, but recent polls actually indicate that many
South Koreans might not even want reunification, or at least might not view it as “necessary”.
Incorporating the North, and its weak economy, would likely be seen as a burden on the South’s
much larger economy.
This was much the same as with German reunification, as the West’s much stronger economy had
to deal with the East’s much more stagnant economy.
The reunification of Germany also wasn’t exactly the two sides forming into one larger
country, so much as it was really just the DDR surrendering its authority to the West,
and the West moving the capital back to Berlin.
Notice how it’s always used the same flag, national anthem, political system, and all
that?
Oh, and how both modern Germany and former West Germany both call themselves “the Federal
Republic of Germany”?
This is what many speculate would happen under Korean unification, as the Kim family would
most likely have to lose its power and authority in order to reunite under a democratic, Southern-style
government.
However, the North actually does frequently call for reunification, but I have a feeling
they’re thinking of it going the other way.
Okay, so we’ve gotten the issue of reunifying the country out of the way (or well, not really,
we kind of just smashed our way through a brick wall on this one, but I’m not here
to make a documentary), but now we should also talk about what Germany has been like
since reunification.
In short, obviously, many would say it’s been great, but there have been some hurdles,
most notably with bringing up the East’s relatively weak and stagnant economy up to
par with that of the West, and healing the damages of the Berlin Wall.
With Korea, things might be even harder, especially since, while Germany’s been relishing in
being one country, Korea has still remained divided, meaning nearly seven decades of near
total isolation for those on the northern side.
Between the two sides of Korea, not only could the societies not be any more different, but
the average North Korean is a few centimeters shorter than the average South Korean, due
to the famines, and the language has even started to diverge.
Linguistically, the North has effectively been more or less stuck in a time loop, making
it much more traditional, but this also gives tremendous difficulty to defectors who have
made it to the South.
Overall, this issue has a hell of a lot to unpack, I mean, it was difficult enough to
make this video, imagine how difficult any of this will be to actually pull off!
However, one thing is clear, which is that Korean reunification should not be half-assed,
and if you hear someone talking about “temporary solutions”, I would run, because that’s
how this whole mess even started to begin with.
Thanks for watching this video, and please be sure to give a like if you enjoyed it,
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