By Bernard Rowan
I'm going to write about the unification flag and hubbub surrounding it these days. But before I do, a few disclaimers. I'm a fan of eventual unification. The 1950-53 Korean War is an unending monstrosity. It can't prevent South Korea's continuing advance, but the grotesque division is something to live down. Second, I am thrilled for South Korea and the world the Winter Olympics is happening in PyeongChang. I've enjoyed watching from Chicago, and everything I've witnessed occurs with the usual attention to detail, welcoming atmosphere, and thorough enjoyment of competition in global friendship.
Now, I didn't know there was a unification flag until I read about it with the PyeongChang Olympics. I thought it looked nondescript. It occasionally appears at joint appearances of the North and South, often sports contests. I've read and learned a bit about it over the last few weeks. What's struck me is how it's now a symbol of the geopolitical and generational divides that surround the Korean unification issue and the beautiful country of Korea as well as her people.
I didn't like to read that Korean-Americans protest this flag and its use. That's my opinion, not a judgment on Koreans in America or Korean-Americans. Trumpites dislike the imagined happiness. Korean-Americans favor the conservative view. The flag papers over the horrors of the war, the North's gulags and totalitarian masquerade, and the truths of present nuclear and conventional danger.
I realize that President Moon Jae-in is a liberal and is using this Olympics to foist some resumption of short-term diplomatic efforts with the North. He's surrounded by pressure from China and America. Oh, and don't forget Japan, or the cheerleaders and the divine diva's sister. She's come to provide the cherry on the PyeongChang cake. Undoubtedly, Moon will visit the North. More gravy for Pyongyang. He's promised to continue peaceful efforts with the North up to a point. I don't blame him. And yet, I don't blame the critics either. Perhaps the wrangling efforts and countless meetings are worth it.
Many South Koreans also don't like the use of the flag now. It's common knowledge the North is more alien to younger South Koreans. They are the future of South Korea. They'll pay for unification when it occurs. They have no experience of the war. Their world is unlike North Korea. Many South Koreans don't want unification because of the cost. They don't see the North as compatible.
The unification flag symbolizes a divided Korea. It insults the South's intelligence and lived reality. Like many of the American protesters, many South Koreans see through Kim Jong-un's pathetic maneuvers ― or the American government's or the Chinese.
After all the hard work of local, regional, and national governments and the South Korean people to pay for and run this global event, the North sachets in to look positive. Afterwards, they'll bluster on and threaten to destroy their hosts. "Big smiles and bigger wiles." Too many young Korean adults suffer unemployment or underemployment. (Don't think this fact goes lost on the North and on propagandists.)
As well, the unification flag symbolizes the high patriotism but low politics of rocks, islets and islands. The Japanese wanted to make hay over the flag's past depiction of Dokdo. In the past, the flag depicted Ulleungdo. I read Ulleungdo and Dokdo aren't on the flag this time.
Does the unification flag represent unity or the reality of conflict, conflict between the Koreas, between North Korea and the United States, between Japan and Korea, and so on? It stands for conflicts.
Beware the fads of current leaders, Korean and American. The grand promise of the end of the Korean War isn't close. Let's hope that after the hubbub, a confluence of positive forces will move the issues forward, one step at a time. That's not a drama, but it's reality.
Bernard Rowan (browan10@yahoo.com) is associate provost for contract administration and professor of political science at Chicago State University. He is a past fellow of the Korea Foundation and former visiting professor at Hanyang University.
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Now, I didn't know there was a unification flag until I read about it with the PyeongChang Olympics. I thought it looked nondescript. It occasionally appears at joint appearances of the North and South, often sports contests. I've read and learned a bit about it over the last few weeks. What's struck me is how it's now a symbol of the geopolitical and generational divides that surround the Korean unification issue and the beautiful country of Korea as well as her people.
I didn't like to read that Korean-Americans protest this flag and its use. That's my opinion, not a judgment on Koreans in America or Korean-Americans. Trumpites dislike the imagined happiness. Korean-Americans favor the conservative view. The flag papers over the horrors of the war, the North's gulags and totalitarian masquerade, and the truths of present nuclear and conventional danger.
I realize that President Moon Jae-in is a liberal and is using this Olympics to foist some resumption of short-term diplomatic efforts with the North. He's surrounded by pressure from China and America. Oh, and don't forget Japan, or the cheerleaders and the divine diva's sister. She's come to provide the cherry on the PyeongChang cake. Undoubtedly, Moon will visit the North. More gravy for Pyongyang. He's promised to continue peaceful efforts with the North up to a point. I don't blame him. And yet, I don't blame the critics either. Perhaps the wrangling efforts and countless meetings are worth it.
Many South Koreans also don't like the use of the flag now. It's common knowledge the North is more alien to younger South Koreans. They are the future of South Korea. They'll pay for unification when it occurs. They have no experience of the war. Their world is unlike North Korea. Many South Koreans don't want unification because of the cost. They don't see the North as compatible.
The unification flag symbolizes a divided Korea. It insults the South's intelligence and lived reality. Like many of the American protesters, many South Koreans see through Kim Jong-un's pathetic maneuvers ― or the American government's or the Chinese.
After all the hard work of local, regional, and national governments and the South Korean people to pay for and run this global event, the North sachets in to look positive. Afterwards, they'll bluster on and threaten to destroy their hosts. "Big smiles and bigger wiles." Too many young Korean adults suffer unemployment or underemployment. (Don't think this fact goes lost on the North and on propagandists.)
As well, the unification flag symbolizes the high patriotism but low politics of rocks, islets and islands. The Japanese wanted to make hay over the flag's past depiction of Dokdo. In the past, the flag depicted Ulleungdo. I read Ulleungdo and Dokdo aren't on the flag this time.
Does the unification flag represent unity or the reality of conflict, conflict between the Koreas, between North Korea and the United States, between Japan and Korea, and so on? It stands for conflicts.
Beware the fads of current leaders, Korean and American. The grand promise of the end of the Korean War isn't close. Let's hope that after the hubbub, a confluence of positive forces will move the issues forward, one step at a time. That's not a drama, but it's reality.
Bernard Rowan (browan10@yahoo.com) is associate provost for contract administration and professor of political science at Chicago State University. He is a past fellow of the Korea Foundation and former visiting professor at Hanyang University.
