Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Bo Peabody]

[deleted]

[Bulsajo]

Quite an eye-opener, eh?
I'm not sure where you get the idea that anti-Japan or anti-US sentiment is a new one.

As for the general sentiment that NK is an SK ally against Japan (and possibly Russia, China, and even the US to some extent), I think that was a position around for some time but more or less relegated to the lunatic fringe UNTIL KIM DAE JUNG VISITED NORTH KOREA.

Now, I never really had much of a position on the Sunshine Policy one way or another; It didn't seem to be effective but it didn't seem to be harmful either.

But the sea change that occurred when Kim went to Pyongyang was absolutely astonishing. I mean totally, utterly flabbergasting. Kim Jong Il went from being syphilitic depraved moronic psychopath to a misunderstood genius literally overnight. The politcal conversations I had with Korean friends and co-workers before and after this event were absolutely mind-boggling; People whose opinions I respected up until that time just accepted this change of opinion instantly, without hesitation or reservation. And NK in general went from being the evil communist threat to poor misunderstood northern cousins.

How quickly and easily the general public in Korea allowed themselves to become brainwashed into this position was downright scary. And it wasn't really brainwashing so much as a voluntary turning away from the last 50 years of history on the peninsula. It was wierd; It was more than wierd, it was eerie.

[Bo Peabody]

[deleted]

[Ya-ta Boy]

I went to a PC bahng last weekend. The pop-up on the first screen was a pic of Koizumi with a black eye and a bleeding scalp...and something about ���� written across the top.

[On the other hand]

I wonder if the Koizumi-KJI photo was taken at one of the meetings where Japan agreed to give North Korea a whole bunch of food aid?

[On the other hand]

[Moldy Rutabaga]

Good point. Yet military service has been shortened in the last few years, and once people have the idea that the length is purely arbitrary, military service could keep shrinking away until it's a year, or a half-year, or a few weekends.

The fact that people get warm and fuzzy when they think of their northern neighbor but don't question military service is puzzling. It may reflect the fact that more sober minds make such decisions rather than public sentiment. It may also indicate that some people see Japan, China, or who knows-- French Guyana-- as an equal military threat as well.

Ken:>

[Captain Corea]

A lot will be realized in the next 2 1/2 years. The pendulum may yet swing the opposite way (as it so often does in korea) and as of right now, Noh is at an all time low. His leftist ruling party is losing support and trying to for a coalition gov.

It's not working. Yes, the young often feel that the US is the villian (and in some cases it is justified) and that the North are their brothers (and again, they are Korean), but the over 30 is changing. I have been noticing out of my students (25-45 years, profesional) that they are very dissapointed with the current state of affairs.

The majority I talk to are looking towards conservative figures like Lee Myung Bak for the next presidency.

The Uri party is an opposition party that should never have gotten into power. The conservatives were just too dense to realize how they played into their hands.

[Bo Peabody]

[deleted]

[hypnotist]

[Privateer]

I completely fail to see what's so hard to understand about the young generation's desire to see North Korea in a favourable light. The reasons are obvious to anyone with the slightest desire to see someone else's point of view:-

1) They're all Koreans. Koreans are one people first, two countries a distant second. Why on earth does nobody seem to get this?
2) The young don't remember the Korean war and they never got exposed to all the anti-communist North-Koreans-have-devils'-horns propaganda of the 70s.
3) They're raised to be very nationalist so they want to be proud of Korea. They can be proud of the economy in South Korea but they know it is weak militarily and politically on the world stage, and their government sucks up to the US. So it's easy to transfer a perverse sense of pride to North Korea because it has a) military power and b) is not afraid of the US (read 'talk like it isn't afraid').
4) They fantasize that Korea can be the world's number one country, if only its neighbours, US included, would step aside. Combine the South Korean economic 'dynamism' with North Korean military might and who knows. They're just teenagers (or twenty-somethings with a teenaged mentality) and it's a fantasy.
5) They want reunification and at the same time they know how impossible the situation is. When Kim Jong Il appeared on TV and smiled it was easy to like him because it looked like part of their fantasy coming true. Wasn't Gorbachov popular for the same reason? Suddenly the Russians had a human face and looked reasonable and friendly.

So what you're looking at in that cartoon comic strip is a teenage fantasy that Koreans think is funny. Team America is funny, but perhaps North Koreans would miss the humour. Yes, there are a lot of people who take the whole Dokdo issue too seriously, because this country is far too nationalist, but that cartoon is just a joke.

[On the other hand]

[Gwangjuboy]

[Summer Wine]

Quote:

1) They're all Koreans. Koreans are one people first, two countries a distant second. Why on earth does nobody seem to get this?

It seems from the reading that I did on thier history, that when they haven't been under the thumb of an occupier, they have been quite willing to kill each other. It seems that it has never been a one people, one country unless created by war. I could be wrong

3 kingdoms at one time in thier history, they are down to two, maybe they can make one country.

The biggest problem that I have is that the comments and experiences I have had lead me to believe that many older people in Korea still behave or have the mentality of middle school and high school age people. My middle school students have told me that its great that North Korea has the bomb, because one day South Korea will have it when they reunite and then HELLO JAPAN

If these kids still hold a similar argument when they get older, I would rather that my country be a long way away from Korea and that I not be here as well.

[Gwangjuboy]