By Andrew Salmon
Talk about getting it wrong. In my last book on Korea, published in 2014, I mused on the changing nature of street politics.
My experience of reporting demonstrations, post-2008, was that most featured more cops than protesters. Given that the hardcore of past demonstrators were students ― who, amid the present, mature economy, need to study hard to get jobs, leaving little time for protest ― I speculated that the day of the Korean mass demo might be over. Buttressing this thought was the ever-expanding bailiwick of the interweb, which enables heated debate without physical protest.
Then came the "Candlelit Revolution," proving my surmise embarrassingly wrong. (Historians! Stick to recording/analyzing the past, rather than gazing into crystal balls!)
However, ongoing events indicate that the overall theme of the tome was bang on. Korea is "The Land of Extremes" ― and if anything, it is getting more so.
Glaringly, the biggest extreme visible is the national divide: South Korea was arguably the greatest economic/political success story of the 20th century, North Korea one of its greatest failures.
Extremes are equally prominent in South Korea's economy: There exists a top-heavy layer of blue chip conglomerates and a bottom-level base of millions of mom ‘n' pop stores, but virtually nothing in the middle. Moreover, we see an ironic extreme in HR: Youth unemployment soars, while the nation imports hundreds of thousands of foreign manual workers every year.
Extremes are visible in the polity, where politicking is confrontational, fraught and furious ― even descending into fistfights on the Assembly floor. Extremes are visible in society, where Koreans are (by most metrics) among the world's most prosperous people, but also (by most metrics) among the least happy.
Extremes are evident in infrastructure and bureaucracy: Korea's internet boasts perhaps the best hardware backbone on Earth, but may be more over-regulated than that of any other democratic nation. Extremes are glaring in personal technologies ― among the fastest/highest adoption rates on Earth; in working hours ― among the longest on Earth; and in education ― one of the most stressful systems on Earth. Extremes are equally visible in the heavy drinking culture, in the frenetic nightlife, in the high suicide rate ― the list goes on.
In this thematic sense, I was on-target: The pendulum of street politics has swung from one extreme to another.
After years of tiny, ineffectual protests, colossal, seismic demonstrations that look set to overthrow the president are back in vogue. Another extreme: Current demos are among the biggest in the world in recent years, but are also the least violent, and best organized.
Amid this, yet another extreme becomes apparent: The broad divide between the young (anti-Park Geun-hye) and the old (pro-Park). While it seems universally true that the aged are more conservative than the young, Korea's demographic divide is more extreme than most.
Korea's pace of development was so swift that the experiences of different generations ― those who grew up in poverty in the 1960s-70s, those who grew up fighting for democracy in the 1980s, and those who have grown up in prosperity ever since ― were radically different. The ongoing situation may have widened this chasm: I know of families here that are on virtual non-speaking terms over the current crisis.
Speaking of which, with two of Korea's three most recent presidents having faced impeachment, the question now is: "Will an impeachment process become par for the course for every future late-term president?"
Looking North, Pyongyang continues to operate in extreme style, accelerating its tempo of nuclear and missile tests. And the rogue state grows ever more roguish, apparently deploying a miniaturized weapon of mass destruction ― an ultra-toxic chemical agent ― to off regime critic and potential defector Kim Jong-nam in (shock, horror) an international airport terminal.
Will the peninsula ever calm down? Amid a refusal to acknowledge the concept of win-win ― where everything becomes a zero-sum game ― with triumphant winner and infuriated loser, are we fated to witness ever-more extreme actions, behaviors and trends? Until and unless the overarching national mission of reunification is achieved, I suspect so.
Meanwhile, for those of us who are in, but not of Korea: Enjoy the theatrics. Few nations offer such compelling and incendiary drama.
Andrew Salmon is a Seoul-based reporter and author. Reach him at andrewcsalmon@yahoo.co.uk.
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My experience of reporting demonstrations, post-2008, was that most featured more cops than protesters. Given that the hardcore of past demonstrators were students ― who, amid the present, mature economy, need to study hard to get jobs, leaving little time for protest ― I speculated that the day of the Korean mass demo might be over. Buttressing this thought was the ever-expanding bailiwick of the interweb, which enables heated debate without physical protest.
Then came the "Candlelit Revolution," proving my surmise embarrassingly wrong. (Historians! Stick to recording/analyzing the past, rather than gazing into crystal balls!)
However, ongoing events indicate that the overall theme of the tome was bang on. Korea is "The Land of Extremes" ― and if anything, it is getting more so.
Glaringly, the biggest extreme visible is the national divide: South Korea was arguably the greatest economic/political success story of the 20th century, North Korea one of its greatest failures.
Extremes are equally prominent in South Korea's economy: There exists a top-heavy layer of blue chip conglomerates and a bottom-level base of millions of mom ‘n' pop stores, but virtually nothing in the middle. Moreover, we see an ironic extreme in HR: Youth unemployment soars, while the nation imports hundreds of thousands of foreign manual workers every year.
Extremes are visible in the polity, where politicking is confrontational, fraught and furious ― even descending into fistfights on the Assembly floor. Extremes are visible in society, where Koreans are (by most metrics) among the world's most prosperous people, but also (by most metrics) among the least happy.
Extremes are evident in infrastructure and bureaucracy: Korea's internet boasts perhaps the best hardware backbone on Earth, but may be more over-regulated than that of any other democratic nation. Extremes are glaring in personal technologies ― among the fastest/highest adoption rates on Earth; in working hours ― among the longest on Earth; and in education ― one of the most stressful systems on Earth. Extremes are equally visible in the heavy drinking culture, in the frenetic nightlife, in the high suicide rate ― the list goes on.
In this thematic sense, I was on-target: The pendulum of street politics has swung from one extreme to another.
After years of tiny, ineffectual protests, colossal, seismic demonstrations that look set to overthrow the president are back in vogue. Another extreme: Current demos are among the biggest in the world in recent years, but are also the least violent, and best organized.
Amid this, yet another extreme becomes apparent: The broad divide between the young (anti-Park Geun-hye) and the old (pro-Park). While it seems universally true that the aged are more conservative than the young, Korea's demographic divide is more extreme than most.
Korea's pace of development was so swift that the experiences of different generations ― those who grew up in poverty in the 1960s-70s, those who grew up fighting for democracy in the 1980s, and those who have grown up in prosperity ever since ― were radically different. The ongoing situation may have widened this chasm: I know of families here that are on virtual non-speaking terms over the current crisis.
Speaking of which, with two of Korea's three most recent presidents having faced impeachment, the question now is: "Will an impeachment process become par for the course for every future late-term president?"
Looking North, Pyongyang continues to operate in extreme style, accelerating its tempo of nuclear and missile tests. And the rogue state grows ever more roguish, apparently deploying a miniaturized weapon of mass destruction ― an ultra-toxic chemical agent ― to off regime critic and potential defector Kim Jong-nam in (shock, horror) an international airport terminal.
Will the peninsula ever calm down? Amid a refusal to acknowledge the concept of win-win ― where everything becomes a zero-sum game ― with triumphant winner and infuriated loser, are we fated to witness ever-more extreme actions, behaviors and trends? Until and unless the overarching national mission of reunification is achieved, I suspect so.
Meanwhile, for those of us who are in, but not of Korea: Enjoy the theatrics. Few nations offer such compelling and incendiary drama.
Andrew Salmon is a Seoul-based reporter and author. Reach him at andrewcsalmon@yahoo.co.uk.
