Welcome to BASE21

Writer: Cho su hyun

Soon, there will be a summit meeting between North and South Korea. Considering the half a century of history since the division of the Korean peninsula, this summit is quite an event. There are many arguments about the relations with North Korea. Though I don't think we can expect the unification to occur now, I expect that we can at least start to see North Korea as being much closer than before. But let's talk about this frankly. If I ask any Myongjian the question, "Do you want the unification?" how many of them will unhesitatingly say "yes, I want the unification as soon as possible"? As for myself, I'm not sure.
Most of us have experienced anti-communist education in elementary school, and saw the movie about 'the great conduct of Lee seong-bok', who supposedly fought against the North Korean communists. Many of us have also been given anti-communist education by defectors, thanks to the prudent consideration of the Ministry of Unification before entrance into university. Are these the reasons why we don't want unification? No.
Then what does fill the heads of our generation? Labor? Human rights? Ideology? Political movements? No. We merely have our own interests. What doesn't interest me or matter to me doesn't reach me at all. It is difficult for our generation to imagine a unified Korea, and we'd rather be across the Pacific in the USA than in North Korea. Instead of the unfamiliar language of North korea that calls for pure Korean expressions, the English we learnt at school and academies come easier to us. We have no idea as to the difference between the North and South, and when we occasionally see the tragic situation up North due to the famines on television, it merely seems like something happening far away.
Are we doing well? With the indifference of the younger generations, I don't know how far the exchanges between the two Koreas can go. Since we are indifferent, we must blindly follow the paths the politicians lay down for us. We think the unification problem is just a cultural topic, just another subject for us to be acquainted with as educated people.
Do you think that all that I have stated above is wrong? We always talk about unification, but we have never once thought about our homeland or the North Korean brethren. We have not donated a single egg or a bag of rice to the North. Unification remains unreal in our minds. Could the fact that unification takes up less space in our minds than soccer matches against Japan be because we've heard about it too often?
The summit is as good an opportunity as any to think about unification. So let's think about it. If we meet North Koreans, what will our expressions be like? I want to see Northern girls who are said to be cute and spunky, and I want to meet suave men from Pyongyang instead of slick boys from Seoul. I want to go on dates to the windy piers of Heungnam and go on school trips to Changbaek mountain. I am more afraid of our generation's indifference than the nuclear capability of the North, and I am worried that we will forget the fact that we are not just 'me' but members of a people with five thousand years of common history. Instead of merely calling out slogans for unification, or even the grand political event of the summit meeting, shouldn't I start my own unification movement by sending a letter to the North?