TIME: Almanac 1993/TIME Almanac 1993.iso/time/070290/0702004.000

Text File | 1992-08-28 | 10.6 KB | 230 lines

                                                                                WORLD, Page 39

THE KOREAS

Same Bed, Different Dreams


They fought the hottest clash of the cold war, but 40 years
later, Koreans still stare across an armed divide. Is it time
for them to reunite -- and for the U.S. to go home?

By DAVID S. JACKSON/SEOUL


    Looking back, what was accomplished? The end of World War
II sundered the Korean peninsula, leaving half allied with the
Soviet Union, half with the U.S. Ready to reunify the country
by force -- and, with help from Moscow, strong enough to dare
it -- North Korea sent its tanks south across the 38th parallel
on June 25, 1950. Communist leader Kim Il Sung hoped to destroy
the U.S.-backed regime of South Korean President Syngman Rhee
in a bold blitzkrieg. Kim nearly succeeded before U.S. troops
and a hastily assembled United Nations force pushed the North
Koreans back to the Yalu River on the Chinese border, prompting
the intervention of a 1.2 million-man Chinese army that
ultimately brought the conflict to a stalemate. After three
years of battle, 33,600 American, 58,000 South Korean and
500,000 North Korean and Chinese soldiers had lost their lives.
And little had changed.

    Today the peninsula is still divided near the 38th parallel
-- half communist, half capitalist; half dependent on Soviet
military and economic support, half still reliant on the
presence of 43,000 U.S. troops. But the old reasons for these
alliances are fading. The Soviet Union is no longer eager --
or able -- to finance the aggressive extension of communism by
its satellites, and communism itself is a dying ideology. South
Korea has risen from the ashes to become an economic powerhouse
capable of assuming most of its own defense against a
diminished threat from the North. Yet the U.S. is still there.
In the new world order of the 1990s, will transformation come
anytime soon to North and South Korea? And what would that
mean for U.S. involvement?

    A strong hint of change came three weeks ago, when the
leaders of South Korea and the Soviet Union met for the first
time. The summit between Roh Tae Woo and Mikhail Gorbachev
demonstrated how far both nations have come: trade between
Seoul and Moscow is expected to reach $1 billion this year, and
diplomatic relations are pending. Despite its ties to the
North, the Soviet Union needs investment and trade from Seoul
more than it needs to help sustain one of the world's last
holdouts against reform.

    But a deep gulf continues to separate the two Koreas.
Technically North and South Korea are still at war, and they
have moved no closer to reunification. As long as Kim, now 78,
continues to rule the North, significant reform or concessions
to the South are unlikely. And even though millions in North
and South Korea share a yearning for reunification, the two
countries have pursued different paths for too long to
reconcile easily. As a Korean proverb says, "We may sleep in
the same bed, but we have different dreams."

    SOUTH KOREA

    Few issues more clearly symbolize the 40-year stalemate than
the continued presence of U.S. soldiers on Korean soil. While
the majority of South Koreans still welcome -- even count on
-- them, the question of how much longer they will stay is
beginning to trouble both Seoul and Washington. Young Korean
protesters call the troops an obstacle to reunification, while
Americans cannot understand why South Korea, with its booming
economy and population, continues to need American help.

    South Korean politicians unanimously support retaining U.S.
troops. They note that while Seoul fields a 650,000-man army,
North Korea's Soviet-equipped force is more than 1 million
strong. Just as worrisome is Kim Il Sung's unpredictability,
amply demonstrated in his complicity in terrorist acts like the
bombing of a Korean Air Lines flight in 1987 that killed 115
people. Many fear he could become even more dangerous if he
felt threatened by the kind of reforms that have toppled
communist dictators in Eastern Europe.

    The Bush Administration agrees that some American forces
should stay. But Washington wants South Korea to assume more
responsibility for its own defense. Current plans call for a
ten-year, three-phase troop reduction, beginning with the
withdrawal of 7,000 U.S. soldiers by 1994. In addition, Seoul
has been asked to double its direct financial support to $680
million this year.

    If South Korea's resurrection has been an economic miracle,
the country has been slower to mature politically. A succession
of authoritarian rulers transformed the nation into the world's
13th largest trader -- but at great cost to personal freedom.
The first truly free elections in 27 years were held in 1987,
when Roh beat a divided opposition by pledging to support
democracy.

    He has largely fulfilled that promise, lifting restrictions
on the press and political activity. Although the relaxation
of labor laws unleashed an epidemic of strikes, they are
subsiding as salaries go up. While the government's popularity
tends to rise and fall with the economic statistics, most
citizens today want nothing more than domestic stability.

     But undemocratic laws and practices persist, most of them
defended in the name of the threat from the north. It is still
a crime to give any support to North Korea, even to write or
paint about it. Suspected subversives are routinely beaten, and
the government keeps politicians under surveillance. While
these remnants of the authoritarian past have severely tested
U.S. support, Washington now believes Seoul is on the right
track.

    In fact, the South is at a generational turning point, torn
between those who remember the hardship and the dangers of the
past and young people who often seem heedless of the lessons
of history. Many older South Koreans still distrust the chaotic
uncertainties of democracy, with its attendant student riots
and labor unrest. While they may be uncomfortable with the
nation's continued dependence on U.S. troops, they remember all
too clearly why the soldiers are there.

    But to the young, the U.S. troops are only an unwelcome tool
of American colonialism. Although radical students constitute
a mere fraction of the population, their xenophobic views --
blaming the U.S. for everything from the slow pace of
democratization to the country's economic problems -- are
winning sympathy from a growing number of Koreans.

    The one issue that unites all generations, however, is their
longing for reunification. South Koreans look enviously toward
East and West Germany, but they know that the two Germanys
never clashed in war. And unlike the rapidly changing East
European nations, North Korea remains a hostile state.

    NORTH KOREA

    Only 120 miles north of Seoul lies another world. There,
from a drab, cheerless capital, the self-proclaimed "Great
Leader" Kim Il Sung presides over an Orwellian state where the
radios have dials that cannot be tuned and loudspeakers
broadcast propaganda 20 hours a day into every home. Such
totalitarianism is fast becoming extinct everywhere else in the
world, but Kim not only survives, he is virtually worshiped by
his people.

    Kim's popularity is all the more impressive given the
failures of his rule. Food shortages are common, and energy is
scarce. Hardships, when they are acknowledged at all, are
attributed to the need to maintain a strong defense. Internal
travel is carefully monitored, and households are organized
into groups of five, with each family encouraged to report
subversive activities by its neighbors. Still, few North
Koreans admit envying their brethren in the South. Most accept
their government's description of South Korea as an undemocratic
U.S.-puppet regime plagued by AIDS, pollution and prohibitive
costs.

    The key to the future is the Kims. While Kim Il Sung may be
above criticism, his son and intended successor, "Dear Leader"
Kim Jong Il, 48, is not. The younger Kim, who is in charge of
the nation's day-to-day affairs, is being groomed for the
communist world's first dynastic succession, but many North
Koreans privately blame him for the country's economic
problems.

    Most observers expect young Kim's rule to be short lived.
"As soon as his father dies, Kim will be overthrown by the
military," predicts Kwon Moon Sool, director of the Research
Institute on National Security Affairs in Seoul. In an attempt
to guard against a coup, Kim has installed trusted allies in
the Defense Ministry and the army. But if his father's death
provokes unrest, the military could well take over: there are
no known democratic alternatives or any organized opposition
groups.

    So far, the elder Kim has kept his nation ignorant of the
tumultuous events shaking the rest of the communist world. The
only "news" allowed in North Korea is local propaganda. As a
result, North Korea is not a place where the citizens are
clamoring for democracy.

    Kim may have more cause for concern in the abrupt shift by
the Soviet Union. While Moscow continues to provide arms,
relations between the two nations began cooling well before
Gorbachev's summit with Roh. In April Radio Moscow broadcasts
criticized North Koreans as "completely brainwashed." Soviet
officials accompanying Gorbachev to the summit could barely
conceal their impatience with Pyongyang.

    Even in a hermetically sealed society, ideas do seep in.
Some privileged academics, artists and athletes have traveled
abroad and been exposed to the freedom of the outside world.
Many foreign analysts believe the pressure for change will
eventually be overwhelming -- but only after Kim Il Sung is
gone. Says Professor Kim Kook Chin, of Seoul's Institute of
Foreign Affairs and National Security: "They have to open up
their system to develop their economy. But if they do open the
door, it will undermine their system. The more they open up,
the more vulnerable they will be."

    For years, battered by the conflicting demands of its larger
neighbors, Korea shut out the world and became a "Hermit
Kingdom." Today that is neither possible nor desirable. South
Korea's future is bright: economic prosperity should ease the
transition to full democracy and lessen military dependence on
the U.S., resulting in a more balanced partnership that will
be welcomed by both nations. For North Korea, however, the
immediate future is likely to be brutish. Until the kind of
change that transformed Eastern Europe comes to this Asian
outpost, reunification of the peninsula remains a dream for both
North and South -- dreams that are still very different.