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 By Michael Breen
Korea Times Columnist
Sixty years, a full Chinese calendar cycle, on from now, Korea will be a very different country from today, although still recognizable in many ways to those old enough to remember this time.
Here, based on the recent past and current trends, some imagination with regard to new technology, and moderated by a conviction that human nature remains the same, is how it may look.
Mid-century Koreans live in peace and prosperity. They are healthier, live longer, and enjoy more leisure and luxuries than their grandparents did in 2008.
The international context is a relatively harmonious world. Conventional warfare between nations is a thing of the past but multilateral forces still exist. Their main concern in 2068 is the international drug trade and control of homemade weapons capable of creating mass pollution and destruction
Students study the democratization of Russia, China and Arab states and the rise of African economies in modern history classes.
The United States is no longer the unifying power in the world and no one state dominates international discourse. This role is spread through a number of global bodies. At the same time, some countries, trying to repeat the success of city states such as Singapore and Dubai, are giving greater powers to local government. Most countries allow free movement across borders. Many, including Korea, have adopted a flat tax regime. Taxation and benefits are provided according by residency, not nationality.
The result has been a reduction in the significance of the nation state and a tendency in some countries for people to identify with cities and regions. The growing trend among economists is to compare population groups, rather than nations. Thus per capita income in Bahrain, for example, comes in above San Francisco, but below Vancouver.
One of the most remarkable developments in recent years was the detection of intelligent life in the universe. Scientists claim to have identified several distant planets which not only could sustain life but which have been around for long enough for complex forms to have evolved. Several unmanned spacecraft have been launched on long-term missions in recent years and are expected to start sending back information to Earth before the end of the next decade.
While this revelation has ended mankind's historic sense of being alone, the excitement has receded with the slowness of the wait for further news. Political disputes and economic worries have reduced the story of life on other planets to the inside pages of newspapers.
Koreans live in a nation unified. Following the death of Kim Jong-il, leadership of the former DPRK changed the focus from ideology to the economy and adopted a cooperative approach with South Korea and other states. This period was not without tension as the governments of the two countries had to contend with agitation from unificationists in the north and popular opposition to unification in the south.
The two states formed a joint consultative union 50 years ago and this evolved into the modern renamed and unified Republic of Coryo in 2039 on the 120th anniversary of the March 1 Samil uprising. Coryo retained two seats in the East Asia Economic Association, but surrendered one in the United Nations.
Seoul remains the largest city and the center of commerce and culture, but the administrative capital moved to Gaeseong.
The region encompassing the two cities and the logistics center of Incheon is considered a model of modern urban development and is studied by other states eager to copy its innovative environmental approaches.
Researchers based in Songdo, Incheon, are noted for their creative and cost-effective solutions to environmental issues, the most noted being the use of yellow dust from China, which once blanketed south Korea every spring, to carry airborne water particles back to the Gobi desert.
Politics has undergone considerable change since the introduction of online voting. In a world-leading trend, Koreans of voting age are able to vote on how the national budget is allocated and on other issues. This practice grew out of the electorate's historic contempt for the lawmakers it sent to the National Assembly. The parliament still exists, but its function is largely administrative. The president remains the head of state and is elected every four years. A president may serve no more than 2 terms consecutively or three terms in total.
Perhaps the most remarkable change, which would flummox Koreans from earlier generations, is how English has become the de facto official language. Koreans still speak Korean at home, local literature has thrived and produced two Nobel prizes in this century, and all signs remain trilingual ― Korean, English and Chinese ― but all education is conducted in English. Hangeul now includes new symbols capturing the English "z," "f" and "v" sounds.
Upon unification, the government adopted a revised Romanization system for rendering Korean into English. In the new system, linguists who championed simplicity won out over those who argued for precise capturing of the Korean sounds.
The most controversial decision was the dropping of the distinctions between the two "o" sounds, the two "e" sounds, and double and single consonants. A "g" sound after "ng" now has only one "g." Seoul retained its "e" for reasons of familiarity, but "Incheon" is now spelled Inchon and "Gyeonggido Province" is now Gyongi Province.
Accented Korean, which doesn't draw these distinctions, became fashionable among the young generation for a while but there has since been a backlash with a remarkable decline in Korean spelling standards.
The switch to English grew out of the great education debate of the 2020s. By that time, the leading businesses were showing a clear preference for Koreans who had been educated abroad. Korean or foreign, and other Asian universities had replaced Korean colleges in the lists of top global universities.
What began as an experiment in schools in Jeju gained ground after a series of candlelit "Save Korea" protests by nationalistic parents and students calling on the government to reform education and adopt English as the official language. While not formally adopting English, the government allowed schools and colleges to make their own choice and the overwhelming majority opted for English.
Some private Korean-language schools remain with many of the students, ironically, coming from immigrant families who do not speak Korean at home. Bad English is now a source of popular humor. The longest-running musical in the famed Chungmuro theater district is "pipperty piber yee-orj old today," a comedy set in 2000 about middle-aged ladies in an English hagwon, or language institute, which were very common around the turn of the century.
The Coryo Times, formerly known as the Korea Times, is the most widely read newspaper in the country and the leading daily in East Asia. Although older people prefer to read it on computers, the younger generation prefers its hard copy size. The paper has recently returned to its old broadsheet format after what it admitted was an unpopular experiment as a tabloid.
The paper has Korean, Chinese and Japanese editions. Several of its editors are over 100 years old and some have been with the newspaper since the 1990s.
Another enormous change from the past is that Korea is now a multi-ethnic state. Despite some incidents of violence by North Korean gangs, the different races get on well thanks mainly to the widespread level of intermarriage with Koreans that dilutes racial identity.
Korea's image overseas is no longer nationalistic or anti-foreign, as it once was, but the people are still known for their passion and tendency to extremism, although this tends to find expression in its success in sports and in the pages of the Guinness Book of Records.
Neckties are a thing of the past and even though, in 2068, black is the new black, Koreans wear far more colorful clothes than they used to. The fashion for "mini-shorts," extremely short trousers, began in Korea.
Automobiles are also more colorful, with black vehicles now only favored by the elderly. No longer a status symbol, few city households own an automobile, opting instead for the more practical rental system. Many apartment blocks operate car pools for residents. Vehicles are mostly battery driven, but gas-driven autos are still popular with car enthusiasts.
In the main cities, most residents still live in apartments and commute to work in central business districts. Stricter zoning laws, modern concepts of urban planning, and increased autonomy for local governments have led to far greater differentiation between regions and cities and even between districts within cities. Cities are no longer divided into "dongs," with administration stopping at the "gu" level, although areas, like Jungdong in Seoul, keep the word in their name.
Villages have seen a return to the thatched roof. The countryside in Korea, once dotted with ugly motels and commercial buildings is now attractive and draws huge numbers of tourists from China and Japan.
Modern Koreans remain very health-conscious. All year round, people take to the hills in the early morning hours. Office workers exercise in gyms and swimming pools in the basement of their buildings.
The Korean diet has changed somewhat in recent decades and Koreans have developed a taste for what was once considered foreign food. Most small towns have Indian, Thai, Ethiopian and Lebanese restaurants.
With the departure of the Blue House to Gaeseong, the area around the old Gyeongbok Palace in Seoul is now a vibrant restaurant center featuring every type of cuisine imaginable. Several of the world's top chefs work there and at any given time, two or three establishments feature in the Hankook Tire Guide's list of top 20 restaurants in the world.
Koreans are still noted for heavy drinking, although ironically, the country has a higher proportion of non-drinkers than other Asian or European countries. Despite the fact that many carcinogens have been removed from cigarettes, the smoking rate remains low at just over 10 percent of the adult population.
With improved environmental standards, lifestyle changes and medical breakthroughs, including a simple breath test for cancer detection and cures for most forms, life expectancy is now 92 for men and 96 for women. Koreans from the former communist north part of the country still record lower figures due to stress and higher alcohol use.
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yistory@koreatimes.co.kr
