Unification awareness campaign gets human touch

By Kim Young-jin

“We’re going to take the tough issues of unification and North Korea and make them easier,” two young meticulously-dressed women proclaimed brightly as they launched a state-funded webcast station dedicated to the topic.

Dubbed “unification messengers,” the two anchors are part of a team that provides Internet, television and radio programming on unification that falls in line with the government’s drive to build a national consensus on the matter.

Consisting of news reports, interviews and television dramas that feature North Korean defectors as characters, the new format shows Seoul applying human touches to an issue that prompts mixed emotions from South Koreans as well as vehement protests from the North.

Divided since the 1950-53 Korean War, the idea of unification of the sides has long been embraced here. But with a huge wealth disparity between them and the projected economic burden for the South expected to top $2 trillion, the prospect now brings about as much apprehension as hope.

And as the generation with relatives still in the North slowly fades, many observers say younger South Koreans are fast losing interest in unification due to cultural differences or fear of economic repercussions.

Against this backdrop, the Lee Myung-bak administration has prioritized awareness-building efforts and has called for a special tax to pay for such an event.

“Unification issues can be rigid and not very interesting,” Minister of Unification Yu Woo-ik admitted upon a recent visit to the webcast studio in downtown Seoul. “The fact is we must make it easier and livelier so we can reach more people.”

A newly-opened English-language Facebook page shows the ministry attempting to do just that, engaging in friendly conversations with visitors, sprinkled with smiley-faces and exclamation points. The page has been “liked” by hundreds of people.

Many experts point to the potential of marrying South Korean capital and technology with North Korea’s labor and abundant natural resources as outweighing the costs, saying it would make a unified peninsula an economic powerhouse.

But inter-Korean relations have been strained since 2008, when the Lee administration drastically reduced aid and tied its provision to denuclearization steps by Pyongyang, a move aimed at bringing about a fundamental change in the regime’s behavior.

The North, nursing a moribund economy and thousands of defections a year, continues to recoil at the mention of unification, saying such talk is aimed at undermining its regime.

Many believe instability could occur when 69-year-old North Korean leader Kim Jong-il dies. Kim is currently working to pass power to his youngest son, Kim Jong-un, who analysts say could face a power struggle when that day comes.

Last week, Pyongyang through its state media called on Seoul to halt the Internet broadcasts, calling them a grave provocation. It has also repeatedly threatened to fire on border areas where South Korean activists launch balloons filled with anti-regime flyers.

In this light, Kim Yong-hyun, a North Korea expert at Dongguk University, argued that the ministry was “overdoing” its efforts, saying that publically-funded broadcasters such as KBS were already doing enough to deliver news on inter-Korean relations.

Officials here stress the broadcasts are not a tool for propaganda but simply focus on the benefits of unification and the need to prepare for it.

Yoo Ho-yeol, an expert at Korea University, said the North likely views the balloon launches far more seriously than the internet broadcasts, given that the vast majority of North Koreans are blocked from accessing the Internet. “The broadcasts seem like a reasonable effort,” he said.

The North also operates pages on social networking sites and has an official website, all of which are blocked in the South under the National Security Law. The North blocks its citizens from outside information.

Cross-border ties sank to their lowest point in decades last year when the North waged two deadly attacks on the South.