Is unification possible between North and South Korea?

River between North and South Korea

The Final Destination

Yesterday, we went to Odusan Unification Observartory where we look into the differences between South Korea and North Korea. Im-jin river separates North and South Korea. From what we see, North Korea is more rural as there were no prorper roads. On the other hand, South Korea is developed and advanced with proper transportation. 

If North Korea and South Korea unifies, North Korea will be able to improve its’ quality of life via the availability of job opportunites and education. This will help in the finanical issues of individual families and eventually, the development of South Korea will also benefit in terms of resources like land.With more land, South Korea can minimize problems of increasing population density in an area.Furthermore, with more resources, the government is able to gain more wealth and thus help to boost the economy.

Both North Korea and South Korea can benefit as the problems of aging population can be reduced. With a better lifestyle for both South Koreans and North Koreans, women can focus more on raising their children.This will boost the birthrate in Korea and with more youngsters in the country, the country can progress further to heed the needs of a competitive world.

On the other hand, if South Korea and North Korea were to unite, a lot of sacrifices will have to be made.South Korea and North Korea will not be able to unite successfully, as their governments cannnot cooperate with each other.They may not want to lose power and reputation and hence, disagreement in the governement structure and ruling procedures of the nation may occur. Due to the disareement and uneven voting rights, a war may erupt, leading to a great loss of wealth and resources which will hinder the country’s progres.

The social cohesion of the Koreans will be affected, leading to disputes and disorder.As a result, transnational corporations will lose confidence in the security of Korea and thus neglect investing Korea, which will lead to a decrease in the economic development of Korea.

In addition, if North Korea were to merge with South Korea, it would be challenging and stressful for the North Koreans to cope with the fast pace development of South Korea as they are normally used to their peaceful rural atmosphere.If South Korea were to merge with North Korea, South Korea may have to sacrifice their resources and be compromised in terms of economic benefits which will affect the power, reputation and growth of Korea as a whole.

To conclude this issue, we believe that unification of North and South Korea is indeed possible. However, a significant amount of sacrifices must be made.Such sacrifices involved making the whole of Korea a democratic nation. Despite North Korea being upsetted, it will have a long term benefits. Communism has lost much popularity among world leaders as it destroyed much nations due to its idea of isolating themselves from the rest of the world.Should a democratic system of government be adopted, other countries will be more willing to have relationships with Korea as they will not have to fear that communism will spread into their country.Hence, North Korea can become a developed nation like South Korea.If both sides benefits, why will they hesitate? South Korea,on the other hand, needs to be willing to spend much of its resources and money on a nation that had  not been seeing eye to eye for many years.North Korea is largely rural.Even proper road system could not be found in North Korea. If such basic issues, that requires low cost had to be addressed , how about more complicated issues that requires most cost? They are one family afterall. They speaks one language, have same looks,history and reaction.If all Koreans believe in this perspective they can definitely make unity possible.

Group Members:

Xaverie Sng, Jow Ming Tong, Choo Xin Yee, A. Nithyadarshiny, Pang Shi Jie, Lim Jun Yang