Defining Korea: 'Land of Extremes?'

By Andrew Salmon

Ever heard of an “elevator speech?” If not, permit me to explain.

The term references the ability to accurately and memorably describe the key points of someone or something in a concise manner ― i.e. as if you were asked to describe something by someone you were sharing an elevator with, and had to provide that information in the short time before the elevator reaches the questioner’s floor.

For marketers, the “elevator speech” ― compressing critical data down into memorable sound bites ― is a key element in branding. But the ability to distill key information down to core components and sum up complex concepts is also germane as an exercise in thought discipline; a kind of intellectual shorthand.

So what is Korea’s “elevator speech?”

This was a question that vexed me over the last year, since being asked to write a short, snappy guide to the Koreas by a trans-Atlantic publisher. How do you adequately describe two diametrically opposed states that stem from the same nation in 150 short pages?

It is a serious question, for over the last several years I have noticed while travelling abroad increasing interest in Korea among people I meet when I tell them where I live. But although these people recognize that exciting things are underway here, most still have only vague notions about the peninsula.

They also have a myriad of misconceptions. For example, businessmen can come adrift if they assume South Korea is capitalist in the Anglo-Saxon sense. Equally, politicians, diplomats and journalists are mistaken to regard North Korea as a “Stalinist” or even a communist nation.

So how best to sum up the Koreas?

Other writers have defined the peninsula’s polity as “the politics of the vortex,” Pyongyang’s Kims have been dubbed “a guerilla dynasty” and both Koreas have separately been referred to as “impossible nations.”

For a more encompassing definition, I suggest that the Koreas comprise a “Land of Extremes:” On this peninsula, moderation is sidelined and things extend to their most distant limits.

This is most clearly visible in geopolitics.

South Korea is one of the world’s wealthiest nations, having pulled off economic, political and (I would argue) social “miracles” it wrote perhaps the greatest national success story of the 20th century.

Conversely, North Korea is among the world’s poorest countries. But having mutated from communism to de facto monarchy in defiance of all global trends and expectations, it could also be considered “successful“― albeit in terms of the maintenance of its system and in its exercise of totalitarianism.

Extremes are not just notable in the inter-Korean picture, they also feature domestically.

Economically, South Korea did not just give birth to competitive companies: It created some of the biggest manufacturers, and most powerful brands, on Earth. Technologically, it embedded the world’s fastest broadband network and one of its most advanced mobile telecommunications nets.

Politically, Korea achieved democratization and embraced it so enthusiastically that it is impossible to walk through a city without encountering a demonstration or two. Culturally, it did not just promote taekwondo, it made it an Olympic event and one of the most widely practiced sports around, while the hallyu continues to impact other parts of Asia.

In terms of change in society, Koreans urbanized at a precipitous rate, working and studying for extreme hours and ameliorating their stresses by heroic partying resulting in soju being the world’s most widely sold spirit (by volume). So socially competitive are Koreans, that as in addition to being well-qualified and hard-working, they also feel compelled to be gorgeous to the eye ― hence their massive spending on fashion and cosmetic surgery.

Naturally, extremism has negatives. Economically, a canyon gapes between top chaebol and other economic players. Politically, although the main parties have moved closer to the middle ground, “victory-or-nothing” habits are so engrained that confrontation, not consensus, is the parliamentary norm. And socio-culturally, life is a pressure cooker that engenders the highest suicide rates in the developed world.

Amid this, the moderate behaviors of Old Corea – the measured, contemplative traditions of the gentleman-scholar, the meditative monk, the water-color artist– have been almost (though not entirely) erased from the consciousness of a people whose unofficial motto is “palli-palli.”

North Korea is equally extreme. The only ex-communist state to pass power through a third- generation dynasty, it is probably the most reform-resistant, militarized and insulated society on the planet. Despite its small population and its inconsequential economic and diplomatic status, it has been one of the free world’s most intransigent political challenges for six decades.

I grant you: The above are “broad-brushstroke” generalizations; the well-informed can probably name multiple exceptions. Even so, generalizations have their uses. For newcomers to the Koreas, I offer this “elevator speech” sound bite as a starting point on the road to understanding this idiosyncratic, but fascinating, peninsula.

Andrew Salmon is a Seoul-based reporter and author. Reach him at andrewcsalmon@yahoo.co.uk.