Korean reunion

Unification of the Korean Peninsula might seem a long way off. The two Koreas are more often than not at odds and have even engaged in deadly clashes in recent years. But earlier this week, Seoul's point man to the North, Unification Minister Yu Woo Ik, told the Bloomberg News Agency that he intends to seek private donations for a 50 billion US dollar unification fund. "Government agencies are near an agreement over the unification account and I hope lawmakers will pass legislation within this year," Yu said during an interview in Seoul. "This will unite people and foster their desire for unification."

Yu's remarks were published just ahead of his first official trip to the United States. The unification minister is holding talks at the State Department concerning its North Korea policy and is expected to meet with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in New York at the end of his trip.

But a 50 billion dollar fund might just be a drop in the bucket. In August, a South Korean government-run think tank put the potential price tag at up to 209 billion US dollars. The economic disparity between the two nations is enormous. Statistics Korea estimates the South's gross national income at 18 times greater than that of the North.

Yu's proposal is not the first time the government has proposed setting aside money to offset the costs of reunification. Earlier this year, South Korean President Lee Myung Bak suggested that citizens could be asked to contribute to what he called a unification tax. But surveys have shown that the majority of Koreans do not support such a plan.

Unification in sight?

No one can predict what the future holds for North Korea. Under the rule of Kim Jong-il the reclusive country is, according to international aid groups, facing another severe food shortage. Some experts believe its economy is in its last throes. There's also a great deal of uncertainty over a power transition that appears to be underway in which the third youngest son of Kim has been tapped to one day take his father's spot.

Lee Seun Shin is a member of the Unification Ministry's public relations team. He says because of North Korea's unpredictability, the South Korean public needs to be prepared for reunification.

"Given the current state of affairs on the Korean peninsula, we believe that unification will come soon and like the German reunification 20 years ago, we believe it will happen when we least expect it," Lee says.

Analysts agree that South Korea will have very little control over when and how unification will take place. "Unification will come and not as a result of negotiations between the two governments, but as a result of a revolution in North Korea," Kookmin University's Andrei Lankov believes.

Talk of North Korea's demise was taboo during the South's two previous liberal administrations. Leaders did not want to upset Pyongyang and ruin historic cooperation projects that had been underway. But with the conservative Lee's inauguration in 2008 inter-Korean relations have hit a low point. Seoul now feels freer to openly discuss the eventuality that the Korean Peninsula will sooner or later be run out of Seoul. And money needs to go toward that now, experts agree.

A distant country

Despite the unification minister's suggestion that a special fund could foster the desire for unification, it remains unclear whether South Korean citizens actually want to contribute toward it.

Observers have noted that in the nearly 70 years since the Korean peninsula was divided, each generation becomes less and less interested in reunification with the North.

"Pretty much nobody among the younger generation of Koreans is seriously interested in unification and North Korea," says Lankov. "North Korea is increasingly seen as a distant country, an irrelevant place, a poor dictatorship whose population happens to speak the same language."

That's unfortunate, adds Lankov, because the South Koreans who are most likely to witness reunification and all the consequences that come with it, is this young generation.

The South's Unification Ministry is aware of the apathy of young Koreans and is making efforts to appeal to them and spark interest in reunification. The government has recently launched a Facebook page as well as an online television channel. The website features press briefings, interviews with policy makers and even a sitcom, all about North Korea-related issues.

The Unification Ministry's Lee Seung Shin understands why many young Koreans don't want to pick up the bill for integrating the two economies. "People here know reunification will be tough on them, so this is another reason why they have lost interest in reunification," he says.

Duty of our generation

For a group of students taking an English language course at Seoul Women's University, talk of a unification tax or other government-collected funds generally does not sound like a good idea.

One 21-year old student, who gave her name as Lindsey, says she can't imagine how Seoul can afford to bring the North out of poverty when there are still economic problems at home. "Every person in North Korea, almost everyone is poor. But we also have poor people in South Korea," she says.

Other students doubt reunification will actually take place. Some point to North Korea's November 2010 attack on Yeongpyeong Island and the sinking of a South Korean navy ship several months before that, an incident Seoul blames on the North but denied by Pyongyang, as evidence that the two countries are just too far apart.

"It seems like they do not want to cooperate with us or the world. I think that all the members of the world are trying to solve the bad relationship between the South and the North, but only the North is uncooperative," says Ta-eun, a 21-year-old student.

But amongst the unification skeptics in this class are some optimists. Twenty-one year old Mirae, a history major, says she is interested in North Korea and is ready and willing to cope with any of the consequences that will accompany reunification. She says that is because it is "the duty of our generation."

Author: Jason Strother
Editor: Sarah Berning