One team, one nation
By Choi Sung-jin
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After many twists and turns, the single Korean women’s ice hockey team for the PyeongChang Winter Olympics went into joint training. It is heartening to see 23 South Korean and 12 North Korean players mingle with each other in a cordial atmosphere.
The Olympic spirit that doing one’s best is more important than good results has long become an old story. Most, if not all, athletes, teams and nations appear now more interested in the colors of medals. The final standing for the joint South-North Korean team will be especially crucial given the controversy over forming the unified team.
President Moon Jae-in and his administration went to great lengths to realize the joint team as a symbol of inter-Korean detente. So one can imagine the embarrassment they faced with the stiffer-than-expected opposition to the team from a majority of South Koreans. Especially younger people in their 20s and 30s, the support base of the progressive government, were particularly averse to the idea.
Some conservative media outlets, which do not welcome the reconciliation between the two Koreas, were quick to catch the momentum. Praising the younger generations as the seekers of justice who value the process over the results, these newspapers accused the Moon administration of harming the Olympic spirit for political purposes. They criticized the Seoul government’s ignorance of the South Korean pucksters’ reluctance to make a joint team because it will reduce their opportunities to enter the rink.
Such criticisms may be right but only in part.
These younger people are called the “880,000-won generation” because many of them can earn only $822 a month from part-time work as they can’t find decent jobs. The constant sense of deprivation could have made them sympathize with the young hockey players who might lose their hard-won chances because of unilateral decisions by some influential people. The government has only itself to blame for the lack of prior communication with the players.
Another, more fundamental, reason is the young people’s relative lack of interest in, or skepticism of, the need for the two Koreas to go and act together. Likewise, they don’t necessarily think the divided Korean Peninsula should be reunified.
The first generation of national division, South and North Koreans in their 80s and 90s, hate each other because of their bitter memory of the fratricidal Korean War. The second generation, those in their 50s and 60s, have feelings of both likes and dislikes. The third generation of 20- and 30-somethings is merely disinterested in or indifferent to the other side.
A Seoul-datelined story in the New York Times’ internet edition on Monday says more than 70 percent of South Koreans in their 20s oppose reunification of the Koreas, based on opinion polls.
The reasons might vary, ranging from the North’s continuous military provocations to the anti-North education under the two conservative governments, and to the realistic calculation that reunion would bring about little substantive and immediate benefits compared with prohibitive costs. The biggest reason, however, is the continued division of Korea, which makes the younger generation regard the northern half of the peninsula as a completely foreign country, not much closer to the South than China or Japan.
This means the longer the national division, the dimmer the possibility for its reunification.
This is worrisome given the increasingly nationalistic trends among surrounding powers. U.S. President Donald Trump is brandishing the “America first” slogan. Chinese President Xi Jinping is going all-out to realize the “Chinese Dream.” Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is anxious to make Japan a country that can wage war. And Russian President Vladimir Putin has set about to regain the former Soviet Union’s influence. Korea is far smaller than these giants even if it had not been divided.
As things stand now, it is not even certain that Korea can become one again. Gurus of international politics in these countries say no major powers oppose Korea’s reunification. Few Koreans would accept their assertions at face value, but it is also true if Koreans don’t appear as wanting reunification, it will never come.
It is pitiful in this regard that the conservative Liberty Korea Party is doing all it can to hamper the Seoul government’s efforts for rekindling the inter-Korean dialog and cooperation. They are even calling next month’s Winter Games Pyongyang Olympics instead of PyeongChang Olympics.
The oppositionists say Kim Jong-un and his North Korean singers and dancers will steal the show at Seoul’s expense, injecting Communist thoughts in young South Koreans. If the conservatives really believe so, they are gripped by an extreme “red complex.” It will be young North Korean visitors who will experience shock from the South’s advanced economy and culture.
If these politicians are just pretending to do so, they can hardly avoid criticism for trying to perpetuate the national division for their political and ideological interests.
There are disrupters abroad, too. It seems as if the U.S. hawks, including President Trump, had effectively given Moon some 40 days ― between Feb. 9 and March 19 until the end of Winter Paralympics ― to denuclearize North Korea. Based on a deep distrust of Pyongyang, the hard-liners make it no secret that Washington should bomb the North after the deadline is over. Objective fact checks show the U.S. is no less responsible than North Korea for aggravating things as they are now, however.
All this shows Moon must be far bolder in resuming inter-Korean exchanges and using the momentum for eventual denuclearization. Kim Jong-un might, of course, have different plans and try to complete his nuclear program. Olympics or not, Seoul’s foremost task is to slow the North’s pace at the least and prevent another conflict on this peninsula.
Political leaders should then persuade younger people why the two Koreas should maintain one team, must remain one nation before it’s too late, and how the ultimate goal ought to become a reality.
Choi Sung-jin is a Korea Times columnist. Contact him at choisj1955@naver.com.