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GOLDSEA |
ASIAMS.NET |
ASIAN AMERICAN ISSUES
Impact of Corean Unification
(Updated
Tuesday, Apr 1, 2008, 05:52:36 PM)
t's been over a decade since the Iron Curtain came crashing down in Europe. The Bamboo Curtain is little more than a quaint phrase. Yet the Cold War remains very much alive on the Corean (Korean for those who prefer the colonial spelling) peninsula.
Across a 186-mile DMZ glare opposing armies collectively totaling 1.7 million. By all reckoning the Pyongyang regime should have become ideological roadkill following the collapse of communism. Instead, it remains an impregnable roadblock to the economic integration of East Asia, the world's fastest-growing region.
How can an economic nonentity be such a roadblock?
Consider its location at what should have been the crossroads of East Asia. With 56% of the peninsula's land mass, North Corea separates on one side the world's greatest market and labor pool (China) and the biggest reserve of natural resources (Sibera) from, on the other, two of the world's leading technological and manufacturing nations (Japan and South Corea).
But for Pyongyang's intransigence Seoul would already be linked by railroads and superhighways to Beijing, Moscow, Berlin, Paris and London. All those cities would also be linked to Tokyo via a bridge across the 126-mile strait dividing Shimonoseki from Pusan. The savings in shipping cost and time alone could amount to tens of billions of dollars a year. Such a trans-Eurasian land link would accelerate the cultural and economic integration of not only East Asia, but the world. In the process, the Corean peninsula would shed the burden of financing the world's most heavily fortified frontier and become the center of the global economy.
That's the vision dancing before the eyes of farsighted statesmen and business leaders pushing for the political leaps of faith needed to keep Pyongyang taking its unsteady baby steps toward opening North Corea.
But skeptics and pessimists abound. Even a loose confederation with the North would only burden and destabilize South Corea's economy and political system, they argue. For decades to come the impact on the global economy would be entirely negative as investors and customers begin shunning the uncertainties, denying capital and trading partners to hundreds of world-class Corean manufacturers. The ultimate result, argue the naysayers, would be to throw a monkey wrench into an alignment that has allowed three decades of strong growth for East Asia.
What is the likely impact of Corean unification?
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WHAT YOU SAY
[This page is closed to new input. --Ed.]
huu76,
You wrote, “True Christians believe in Armageddon, but do they go out and try to cause it w/o being attacked first? The crusades were a response to invasion from the Arabs.”
I disagree. Read the Bible. The Bible, especially the Old Testament, is a quasi-historical account of invasion and retribution. The Jews, who originally were a Bedouin tribe from the Arabian Peninsula in present day Saudi Arabia, were instructed by God to conquer the Palestine (present day Israel) from the Philistines and Canaanites. “Ye shall drive out all the inhabitants before you…and ye shall dispossess the inhabitants of the land, and dwell therein..” God to the Jews, Numbers 33,52-54 In the modern era, many Jews and Christians still have an unhealthy preoccupation about the Holy Land, even though it involves the forced eviction of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to create the modem state of Israel. This of course has created a diplomatic mess that has caused many wars in the Middle East. Nonetheless, many Jews, particularly the secular ones see the injustice in all this and oppose Zionism. They are in the minority, as the hard-core Sharon-types are the ones in power. Now, Christian America is ready to draw first blood by taking military aggression against Iraq without the UN’s consent and with nukes if the going gets tough. Decades ago, Andre Malraux, the minister for Charles De Gaulle predicted that the 21st century would be the bloodiest in the history of humankind, and the conflicts would all revolve around God. Before the first shot is fired, will anyone or could anyone prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Jesus is whom he claims he is? Of course, no one can, and the fact that millions has died and will continue to die because of him is truly tragic.
I Ching
Thursday, January 30, 2003 at 23:14:12 (PST)
[209.232.16.86]
Christboys go home,
Truly, all Asians who back Christianity over pan-Asian brotherhood or even ethnic/national unity should get their heads re-examined.
Before anybody goes rambling about how the Jesus cult (love this term!) has made a world a better place, let me say this -1492 and the conquistadors, manifest destiny, and basically all the other crap the Jesus-loving WHITE man and HIS doctrines that used to displace indigenous beliefs and traditions.
Although I do not condemn whoever takes it upon himself to adopt this foreign faith, I do think it pathetic to use in any discussion about Asian geopolitics.
Christboys, christgirls, go to a Seeker forum if you want to promulgate your beliefs. Christianity is just another relic inherited from imperialist times. Only an Asian race-traitor would even consider it on par with race unity and/or national unity.
It's a good thing that countries like North Korea and China has already expunged such relics. Japan realized the destabilizing factors of a foreign hegemonic faith a long time ago. That's why they persecuted Christians with a vengeance before and that's why theres no such thing as a Japanese crossbearer.
Confucian Dogma
Thursday, January 30, 2003 at 20:23:50 (PST)
[24.193.136.183]
huu76,
"Americans can't be that bad."
Your shortsightedness never ceases to amaze me. Look the immigration practices in the USA.
Look the Puerto Rico to see what the USA does to political activist of a colony.
The USA tendrils in SK are not the dreamy either. You ever heard of those intellects in SK who are call "alternate history" writers.
Their veiw of history of SK and USA are not so rosey. Granted some of it very extremist, but they do base their interpretation on historical events at least.
Where sometimes official history in SK is just wiped out by Big Brother.
AC Dropout
Thursday, January 30, 2003 at 12:34:25 (PST)
[24.136.115.189]
I Ching,
I wrote a brillent non-rebuttable rebuttal to your last post, but alas the server error at Goldsea lost them. Now I cant remember what I said.
One thing about cult of Jesus, is singularly allows one to forgive and forget, everyone has a new chance, new beginning at any time...it allows one to jump ahead and try new things...its probably the best solution for NK citizens to get over thier schizophrenic brainwashing - when they start toward market/open economy.
So you think Korea will fall back to China's orbit, i.e. gravity will happen. Why cant we have both? Why the jealocy?
NYx+y=Xboy
Wednesday, January 29, 2003 at 23:14:06 (PST)
[24.90.48.98]
I Ching,
Japan vs. America. Who struck first? Who wouldn't surrender even when defeat was in clear view? Nuclear weapons killed about 150,000. An invasion of Japan was estimated to cost 1,000,000 Americans, then you have to factor in the Japanese casualties. Which is the lesser of two evils? Look at today where Christians (both pacifist and hawk) worry about enemy casualties just as much as their own. Does anyone else afford Christians this generosity?
True Christians believe in Armageddon, but do they go out and try to cause it w/o being attacked first? The crusades were a response to invasion from the Arabs. Cuba made JFK force the Russians to decide if the world would end.
Anyway, back to Corea.
Everyone's awful silent about NK now. Maybe America's getting tired of the rhetoric, they don't seem to care too much about what SK does about it either (both are just hot air).
It'll be interesting to see what China and NK have to say after America roles over Iraq a second time.
Speaking of the DMZ.
In the 70s, 2 U.S. marines were trimming a tree in the DMZ when they got jumped and axed to death by a group of NK soldiers. Maybe they accidentally cut down Super Kim's favourite tree.
Do you really think SKs really want to be ruled by someone who endorses such action? Americans can't be that bad.
huu76
Wednesday, January 29, 2003 at 20:33:02 (PST)
[65.95.203.19]
NY1+1=3boy,
Actually, 1+1=2, doesn’t it?! ^_^
You wrote, “I say again, the issue is not religion, it's individualism or collectivism.”
It is practically impossible to understand geopolitics and world conflicts without considering religion. After all, isn’t the reason why President Bush is so obsessed with getting Saddam Hussein really about religion or the security of Israel, and not so much about communism? Samuel Huntington, in his book “The Clash of Civilizations” has stated that we are now beyond the Cold War days, (capitalism vs. communism, and individualism vs. collectivism) and that world is now divided along civilizational and religious lines.
While it is true that the Koreas is an interesting exception in that there are some vestiges of the Cold War past, that I give you credit, the situation today is so different than when it was in 1950. Now, so called “commie” China has better diplomatic relationship with South Koreas than with North Korea, and the same can be said with Russia with the U.S. than with North Korea. Now, many South Koreans like the North Koreans more than the Americans, rooting for their brothers during sporting events. The situation is now so complex, unlike the black and white situation of decades ago.
I bring religion into the discussion because it is the only logical explanation of the actions and position of the various stakeholders involved. What we are seeing in the Korean peninsula is really a battle of religious madness between the cult of Jesus and the cult of Kim. On one front, the cult of Jesus is tries to undermine North Korea, by branding them as part of the “Axis of Evil” primarily because of its sale of missiles to Muslim Middle East, which in turn threatens the survival of Israel, the ‘promised land’ instrumental for the occurrence of the Tribulation. In another battle front to undermine North Korea, the cult of Jesus are active in Northeast China by illegally trying to aid North Koreans to jump foreign embassies while trying to convert them to Christianity. Not surprisingly, apart from the Korean War veterans, the most pro-American elements in South Korea tend to be Christians, and they tend to be the one advocating the military destruction of evil ‘pagan’ North Korea. Meanwhile, China and Japan, neither of whom are into the cult of Jesus nor the cult of Kim, would rather not take sides with the Americans or the North Koreans, just hoping that both ‘phony’ cults would simply go away. Incidentally, both China and Japan have strong laws that have successfully contained the spread of Christianity in their respective country. As for South Korea, since only 30% of them are Christians, and the President-elect, Roh Moo Hyun, being an atheist, its position in this crisis is now more in line with that of China and Japan than with the Americans. In essence, the Korean peninsula has now become a battlefield between two mad cults of foreign origin. Peace will ensue only when the Korean people finally wake up from their mad delusions.
I Ching
Tuesday, January 28, 2003 at 23:40:53 (PST)
[199.183.33.13]
huu76,
You wrote, “The Christian tendency to forgive has prevented them from nuking everyone else hasn't it?”
I respectfully disagree. Christian America didn’t quite turn the other cheek when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor or when bin Laden blew up the World Trade Center. Instead, America immediately bombed back Tokyo with the Doolittle Raid in 1942 (which in fact did little) and nuked the hell out of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. Catholic President Kennedy was close to nuking the Soviet Union during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. If anything, Christians are more likely to nuke the world than an atheist. Christians believe the world is evil, belonging to Satan, and must be destroyed before paradise can be restored. Christians believe in an after-life and are not afraid of death, thinking they can move on to something better, and thus have nothing to lose in a nuclear war. In addition, Christians believe in Armageddon, the Mother of All Battles, and would have the motive to use nukes to self-fulfill the prophesy of final destruction in the Book of Revelation, just for the sake of proving the truth of their cult. It is therefore, not a good idea at all to permit Christian nations to possess weapons of mass destruction. Ditto with the Arabs, who believe in jihad and martyrdom in heaven with seventy-two virgins.
I Ching
Tuesday, January 28, 2003 at 23:34:44 (PST)
[199.183.33.13]
[Recent comments have been lost due to server error. Our apologies. --Ed]
Hahahhaa..
AC, as for the "That's really funny. Sun Tzu's Art of War is required reading for all three military academies in the USA (Army, Navy, Airforce). I guess you should listen to your own advise." comment, I must admit that was pretty witty. Touche.
Unfortunately what really isn't funny is how you trivialize the human holocaust that is NK. Look, even I Ching, who have this really wacked view of the cosmos sympathizes with the human suffering of NK. You on the other-hand, you only have "Chinese-pride" and hence sees any of this as being just an irrelevant nuisance. I wonder if you would feel the same way if your family in NYC was being hunted down like a dog by NYC policemen. Of course you will. Because Americans are the very face of the devil for you, but no matter what PRC does, it is for the glory of the chinese civilization.
Again, I am not a racist like you. You have talked vehemently about "half-breed" babies. If an American GI falls in love with a Korean prostitute and raises "half-breed" babies, what's that to you? Why call this rape? If a Chinese man had sex with a white prostitute and raised "half-breed" babies, I really doubt you would even raise this as an issue. Of course, this only shows me how little understanding you have of Korean peninsula, as American GI's rarely interact with Korean society in general. On the otherhand, NK women are regularly sold in Chinese brothels like cattle.
Also, I love how you have become so quiet about Tibet already.
Oh, and as for opening up the DMZ. AC... I get very tired from your non-sensical rebuttals. In case you have not seen any news, NK soldiers will open-fire on anyone who tries to cross the DMZ. SK for a very long time has appeased Kim Jong Il on EVERY terms, so that NK would allow a measly railroad to connect. NK has now seized the process the connect the railroad. What you forget is that the DMZ is the most heavily fortified border on the earth, and it is nearly impossible for NK refugees to go anywhere near the 1 million NK troops lined up on the DMZ. What do you think NK will do to such people? They get executed if they go anywhere near the DMZ as NK fears reconnainance of their artilleries hidden in bunkers. AC, reason with me instead of living in delusion.
I Ching,
You have assumed that I am a Christian. But to clear up some misunderstanding here, I am somewhat agnostic man with a christian leaning--if you will. Mainstream Christians would no doubt call my spiritual views to be a gnostic heresy. But that belongs in a different forum. For the purpose of this forum, I have defended both Korean Buddhism and Christianity alike. The only religion I rebuked was Juche theocracy and Maoist cult.
And as such, my "master" Jesus may be burning people in hell, but Kim Jong Il is burning people in the here and now as we speak. This is the only reality I care about. What I do see is these "delusional" christians spending their own personal disposable income to smuggle in NK people into freedom. In 2003, I have yet seen any pentecostal, baptist, methodist, lutheran, or prebysterian human rights groups in NK, forcing christianity upon NK people. They have only given them bread. On the otherhand, I see Maoists in China pointing a gun on the heads of these people, so that they may go to the hell-on-earth that is Juche theocracy.
For me, I am also a pragmatist when it comes to religion. YOu say that Roh will take Korea to it's "natural state." The "natural state" of Korean spiritual belief is shamanism and animism. This is hardly atheistic my friend. You must understand this aspect of Korean psyche in order to understand why DPRK regularly publishes wacked stories about how birds were seen bowing the statue of the "great leader" kim jong il.
ka
Tuesday, January 21, 2003 at 07:33:06 (PST)
[168.103.182.191]
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