THE NONSENSE OF A SEPARATED NATION

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“Dad, I am your son”, that´s how the conversation started between Chae Hee-yae, a 65 year old South Korean, and his father, Chae Hoon-sik, an 88 year old North Korean. Before that moment, they hadn’t met each other. After the Korean War in the fifties, Hoon-sik had to live in North Korea. His son, who had been born a year before, stayed in South Korea with his mother. Tears were unavoidable in the meeting, but they weren´t only surfing the cheeks of these two men; 389 SouthKoreans and 141 North Koreans had assisted to a gathering of families separated by 38º Parallel North.


Korea was always a little country between two giants, Japan and China. It was isolated in the North by the Manchuria Desert, which was considered a place without value before oil was found in its earth. It was also where the Russian, Chinese and Japanese armies had fought for centuries. The truth is that even Korea is a rich country, located in a really strategic place between the competition of the most powerful nations in Asia. Its independence has been always compromised and the last time Koreans got what they wanted, the price they paid was too high.

The records about this little Asian nation go back a century before Christ, when the Chinese emperor, Han Wuti, invaded the peninsula and created three little Kingdoms. Since then, the history of this nation can be defined as a regular coexistence between traders and soldiers. As a frontier point and the last port before Japan, the strategic importance of the country was never overlooked. Nevertheless, they lost their independence in a short amount of time, being last of the times that originated the division that now marks the development of both countries.

The flag of a joined Korea

“None of the Koreans who are living abroad expect that there will be a war again with the North. I can´t help but laugh when I see on Facebook one of my friends talking about the hard relations in Korea. The only thing we want is to finish up this problem” says Eubin Ko in Oh My News, a Korean web page known as the biggest media of the world based on citizen journalism.

On August 22nd of 1910, the Japanese Empire invaded Korea and its military superiority broke every attempt of defense Korea tried. Japanese colonialism is known for its cruelty with the non-Japanese people and that created an emergent anti-colonialism movement.

Located in Shanghai, in 1919, the Provisional Government in the Exile of the Korean Republic was created. The objective of this organization was to expel Japanese invaders from the continental part of Asia creating associations to protect the Korean culture and attempt terrorist attacks against the Japanese leaders. Outside this organization, when Japan was involved in the WWII some guerrillas started to originate some problems in the colony. The most famous soldier of those guerrillas was Kim Il-Sung, the grandfather of the current dictator of North Korea, Kim Yung-Un.

When the 89 years old, Chae Hoon-Sik hugged his long lost son he ignored all of this. In some way, at that moment the causes of the division of Korea were not important. It is probable, that this old man preferred to forget why he couldn't enjoy the childhood, the adolescence or, even, the maturity of his son. In some way that's the best decision because, actually, we can't understand why the bicephalous world order, originated at the end of WWII, thought that the division of a nation was a good idea to equilibrate forces. In instance they showed how unreasonable the idea was when they put to criminal leaders in charge of the two nations.  Kim Il-Sung was the president of North Korea and Shyngman Rhee the president of South Korea, when they got the government of their countries they started a witch hunt against all opposition. Under these pretexts the reunification became impossible and five years after the the division the war started.



60 years have gone by since that war where the future of the two nations were determined . North Korea developed a communism regime based in the defense of the nation (Juche Communism), and South Korea became a occidental democracy that has emerged as an important nation in technology products. The decades have created a really big economical difference between the two Koreas and the armistice that put an end to the war is just a stigma of the past, the witness of the nonsense reality that both countries want to overcome, but by their owns mind.

The meeting celebrated last Tuesday was the 18th that has taken place during this century. Even with the great differences between both nations the relationship is becoming more fluent and with little tries and some disillusion, the reunion of the families separated by and old war it is becoming easier.

Negotiations should be hard, both countries have a lot of interest in the issue but as they can't leave the situations as it is now, they can't go too fast. In 2003 Hyundai, a SouthKorean company, created a big technology complex in North Korea. It was the first step of a big project that developed before 2010. Now, after the complications raised when North Korea announce that they have the nuclear bomb, the complex was closed. But for seven years in 110 factories, 42.000 North Koreans and 400 South Koreans showed the world that they can work together to become better.