North Korea is its 70. Anniversary with a demonstrative military parade commit. In South Korea, the neighbor is perceived in the North after decades of division increasingly as a foreign
According to satellite images, tens of thousands of soldiers has already been practicing for weeks on a military site with the distribution system which is inspired Kim Il Sung square of Pyongyang for the military parade on Sunday. North Korea is its 70. Founding use to demonstrate in the spotlight of the international press its military Power. The attention of most experts is, what is the weapons Arsenal has the Kim Regime. It should present Intercontinental ballistic missiles, this could be as an Affront to US President Donald Trump and his efforts for the denuclearization of the country is interpreted.
To the South of the demilitarized Zone, however, the annual TV are included twitching pictures of the step by step marching soldiers, usually with axillary and bewilderment. Finally, they illustrate especially how diametrically different directions the two companies since the Korean war (1950-1953) have developed: If in the South Korean capital, tens of thousands of people paraded in front of crowds, then it is, in principle, to demonstrations – most recently in the Seoul Pride for the rights of sexual minorities. Or last Winter when the government protests that eventually led to the impeachment of Ex-President Park Geun Hye. In North Korea, this would be inconceivable: the Spontaneous assemblies are not under a prison sentence, an oppositional civil society.
Parades in North Korea …
Learning from the German division
The interest of the South Koreans towards North Korea is still up in the Wake of the recent rapprochement since the Olympic winter games noticeably. The two summit meetings between President of South Korea, Moon Jae-in, and North Korea’s commander-in-chief Kim Jong-Un in power contributed to the public have been effectively transferred in the television. At that time, many South Koreans have wondered whether the human Gestures by Kim Jong-Un, in contrast to the usual parodies and demon authorizations in the media. After the first handshake between the leaders of the two Koreas over the demarcation line and the subsequent, from the Protocol provided for common step in the Northern part, headed in the following weeks, thousands of South Koreans on a movie set East of Seoul, the peace village of Panmunjom as the setting was rebuilt – only to those historical gesture to play and for the photo album.
As a German correspondent in Seoul, is currently a highly sought-after guest for talk shows: How, exactly, the delivery re-Union between the FRG and the GDR at that time, want to know a lot of TV presenters almost daily from me. Or how you can prepare, starting from the example of Germany’s reunification. The disappointed reactions are hard to miss, if I tell the sobering historical comparison: In Korea, the separation is finally made it more strict, it is now more than double so long and the prospects of a speedy Union are correspondingly gloomy.
… and in South Korea
Young South Koreans do not want reunification more
Regularly be queried in surveys, the settings of the South Koreans towards North Korea. A depressing Trend for years: the younger the respondents, the less emotional Connections people have to the neighboring country. Although North Korea is not perceived as the enemy par excellence, as in the times of the Cold war, but as an economic millstone, for it is not pay in the event of a reunification.
Finally, the state-run National Youth Policy Institute has collected in July, the opinions of South Korean students in a representative study. Only more, almost 20 percent indicated that a reunification should be achieved on the Korean Peninsula. Ten years ago, there were still over 30 percent. However, four-fifths indicated the desire to visit once in the context of a class trip to North Korea.
Soon, this desire could be the dream a reality: A student club of Seoul national University is currently in favour of establishing the Kim Il Sung University in Pyongyang, an academic exchange. The project was initiated by students, Shin Jae Yong, is the fact that the youth of his home country’s interest for North Korea: “We are a people, a Nation,” says Shin self-consciously. 70 years of division, can not conceal the fact that Korea joined a thousand-year-old culture.
Ultimately, however, may normalize the relations of the two States only if a formal peace is signed the contract between Korea and the United States. Until today, the cold conflict is only through a ceasefire agreement to stand.