By Danny Jooyoung Kim
Don’t ask us how we feel about North Korea because more than likely, it won’t be much different from your feelings and thoughts. Contrary to what most people think, South Koreans have little to no contact with North Koreans. This is especially true in the younger generation. In my grandparents’ time, it was quite normal for people to have families and friends from the North or even to be from the North. In fact, my grandmother was born in the North but had to escape when the war broke. To her, North Korea is a place to return…or it used to be. Nearly 70 years have passed since my grandmother left her “home.” Now, to her, Seoul is her home.
The indifference towards our neighbors up North is growing as the time goes on. We might speak the same language, but we live in two different worlds. Last month, Northeastern had a pleasure of hosting a group of Korean student entrepreneurs, and to my surprise, a third of them were North Korean defectors. After a wonderful lecture from Professor Shaughnessy on social enterprise, a group of Korean students (from South and North) and I gathered at a nearby cafe to chat. What began as an amusement of how similar our social entrepreneurship curriculums are (their Korean professor adopted the SEI curriculum) quickly turned into a three-hour long conversation on topics ranging from Korean society’s obsession on bitcoins to what the future will look like if the two Koreas unite.
Some interesting thoughts exchanged in this later part of the conversation are as follows:
* There’s a serious lack of infrastructure in North Korea; accordingly, if the countries were to unite, there will need to be an outside capital involved to build the infrastructure. Korea’s awkward current position between the World Bank (led by the US) and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (led by China) will force the unified country to think of creative, financially-smart solutions.
* Our group noted how the newly unified country will experience technological leapfrogging—instead of adopting the old, inefficient technologies of the 20th century (e.g. fossil fuel), the new country will and should adopt the new, efficient technologies (e.g. solar power). Leapfrogging is not a new concept in the context of the Global South, but since the new unified Korea will embody both Global South and North (no pun intended), it would be interesting to observe how this new country will respond. Will there be inequality as a result of this unification and development that follows? If so, how do we reconcile it? How do we address the difference in our educational backgrounds? Will we have enough jobs? How will we prepare the people who have been separated for so long?
* These questions might seem like obstacles or mountains beyond mountains. Add the growing indifference of South Koreans towards North Koreans, and this might sound like a problem that will never be solved in our lifetime. But, I want to leave you with what my North Korean friends said when I shared these concerns.
* “To entrepreneurs, every problem is an opportunity. Opportunity to disrupt. Opportunity to innovate. Opportunity to change people’s lives.” When I asked Kim what he thought of the growing indifference or even animosity in the South towards the North, he replied “I believe people are inherently good. From my experience in South Korea so far, South Koreans don’t like the regime–not the people.”
