By Cho Eun-kyo
Will shipping rice, sacks of fertilizer, cows and meeting dispersed family members temporarily, really help South Korea and North Korea to enhance cultural exchange and bring the country under a single government?
High-ranking officials of both sides reached a consensus on testing railways, and it was a huge step for the Koreas to step forward as a one nation.
Although it took about three years to come to an agreement, the South officials struck a big deal through continuous conversations as they strived to listen to North Korea's opinions closely.
South and North Korea officials are planning to make a solid system for using railways more effective. But a delicate problem between South and North Korea is the North Limited Line (NLL).
The NLL is one of many awaiting solutions and the only way to to solve this problem smoothly is by trusting the North a little more and cooperating at the boundary of the Yellow Sea, which will bring us closer to reunification.
The newly tested railways are the Gyeongui and Donghae lines and I hope that these new agreements will last forever so that trains can run from the Korean Peninsula to the European continent. I know that the problems are difficult to solve but we can make it if we think of ourselves as a single race.
Sometimes I feel bad about the fact that Korea is the only divided country in the world. Although Germany was also divided into East and West Germany, they achieved unification as the Federal Republic of Germany by talking to each other frequently, and making an effort to be unified peacefully.
In addition, they also exerted themselves not to lose homogeneity. According to an article, the East German's economy was not as good as West Germany’s, but the West helped with economic aid to the East as their people thought that those in the East were also their people.
Finally the Berlin Wall was brought down in 1989 and they successfully became one nation. And now they are one of the more powerful countries in the world.
Similar to Germany, Yemen was also divided until 1990. The Yemeni people strongly maintained a Cold War system like Germany. However they tried to be unified through continuous talks. These two nations were divided before, but they do not want to be separated incessantly.
For these reasons, they met with each other more and more, and finally they are now one. So we have to meet and discuss a way of unification for Korea and to analyze precedents of these two countries of Yemen and Germany. The example of their unification is a lesson that every generation has to learn if we want to achieve unification.
Actually it is true that the younger generations like teenagers or even people in their 30s do not feel that we have to be unified. Sometimes I also think that possibly I can go to Mount Baekdu freely in the future or even think at times do we we have to find a way for unification even if it is really complicated?
Sometimes I feel alienation toward North Korea's custom and language differences so we have to be unified as soon as possible to narrow these estrangements. We have to realize the fact that we are the same people. That means we cannot live separately forever.
If we wish South and North Korea to become one nation, we have to make preparations, such as closing the gap in political, economic and cultural differences. We have to build up the foundation of political reliance and develop national reconciliation.
In addition, I think national homogeneity is the most important thing for unification. So we have to push this through social and cultural exchange. As I mentioned before, giving supplies to North Korea is worth it. Therefore, South Korea's citizens should be aware that North Korea's economy is not as good as ours, so we have to send goods continually.
As we are the only people who can solve problems, we have to make efforts to unify Korea.
Cho Eun-kyo is a senior studying at Heung Deok High School in Cheongju City in North Chungcheong Province.