As I walked down the steep tunnel, stooping to avoid hitting my helmeted head, I approached the nearest point to North Korea that you can now access from the South. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to bring a camera into the 3rd Tunnel, so I don’t have any pictures showing the surprisingly wide shaft 25 stories below the earth, built by North Korea as a secret access point for an invasion.
The demilitarized zone (DMZ) separating the two halves of the Korean Peninsula seems like a strange jumping-off point for an American physician who writes about personal finance and business. Yet, standing at the precipice of an imagined line separating one people into two countries with wildly differing economic and social prospects was a profound experience that I wanted to share.
Two Koreas
When you think about South Korea, what comes to mind? Technology conglomerates like Samsung, Hyundai Motor, and LG? Entertainment, such as K-pop bands BTS or Blackpink, or the TV show Squid Game? Perhaps you should think about Democracy. South Korea functions as a “presidential representative democratic republic,” with a multi-party system in which the president is elected by direct popular vote. Capitalism? South Korea has the world’s 13th-largest economy and the 4th-largest in Asia. South Koreans enjoy freedom of speech, religion, and the press, and can freely travel the world.
Now do North Korea. Kim Jong Un and his haircut? Launching rockets? How about famine, oppression, and a caste system? Government? North Korea operates as a hereditary dictatorship resembling a monarchy, with leadership passing through three generations of the Kim family since 1948. Communism? North Korea labels itself Socialist, and the government controls the means of production and utilizes collective farming. Its economy ranks 106th in the world by size, and its GDP per capita ranks 168th. North Koreans do not have freedom of speech; the state controls their press; religion is discouraged except to worship the Kim family; and they cannot choose where they live, even within their own country.
How did the Korean peninsula, unified for over 500 years, become so divided with such disparate economic and political outcomes? It’s an interesting discussion, especially for younger Americans flirting with the tantalizing ideals of socialism, who seem to believe Capitalism is the enemy.
A Brief History of Korea
Let me give a disclaimer. I am no expert on the history of Korea, far from it. I had never even thought about going to S. Korea until a few months ago, when it came up as a potential layover on our way to visit friends in Thailand. But as soon as we decided to spend nine days there, the first thing I thought of was a DMZ tour. We’re not usually a tour family, but there is no other way to access this most restricted area, so we made an exception.
The history of Korea goes back centuries, and the peninsula was under unified rule for at least 500 years before coming under Japanese control in 1910, where it remained until WW2 ended. At that time, the country was partitioned along the 38th Parallel, with the Soviet Union occupying the North and the United States occupying the South.
The Korean War started in 1950 when the North Korean forces, backed by the Soviets and Chinese, invaded the South in an attempt to reunify the peninsula under communism. The exact details of the war are unnecessary for our purposes, but they are extraordinarily important to the Korean people. In 3 years, 1 month, and 2 days, there were an estimated 1 million military deaths and 2.5 million civilian casualties.
The result? A net total of 1,506 square miles changed hands from the North to the South, an area slightly bigger than Rhode Island. An armistice agreement without an official peace treaty was signed. And, one Korean people, with one shared history, divided into two countries, both in ruins, backed by two separate world powers promoting two very different economic systems. Sounds like a fascinating experiment if it wasn’t so g*d dam*ed sad.
The Aftermath
Both Koreas left the war impoverished. Millions were displaced; families separated and lives shattered.
North Korea rebuilt quickly. It’s easy to get early results when you can kill or imprison anyone who disagrees with your plan. But their reliance on the Soviets became a critical weakness when the Soviet Union collapsed in the late 1980s, and the new Russia abandoned Marxist ideals and opened relations with South Korea. Centralized control didn’t prevent widespread famine from 1994-1999, partially due to the loss of cheap oil from its Soviet benefactors, resulting in hundreds of thousands of deaths, and a slight relaxation in the government’s social and economic policies.
Meanwhile, South Korea relied heavily on American foreign aid and struggled to rebuild its economy and government until around 1961, when it began a slow and steady march of progress. 65 years later, it’s easy to see where the divergent paths have led. How many of you drive a Hyundai or Kia? Do you have a Samsung or LG product in your home? Do you know someone with South Korean heritage? Have you eaten kimchi or bibimbap?
My Experience in South Korea
My experience in South Korea was great. The people we met were friendly and interested in my family, especially in my daughter’s curly hair. Every grandma wanted to stop us and boing her curls. Koreans seemed shocked that we had three children and wanted to talk to us about it. On two separate occasions, random strangers we interacted with gave gifts to our children. Older Koreans were walking and exercising on the street, and everyone seemed fit. The country was clean, organized, modern, and prosperous. I was thoroughly impressed all the way around.
Because of the tight state control of media in the Hermit Kingdom, it isn’t easy to get a feel for life there. My favorite way to learn about a country is to visit it and meet the people who live there. Unfortunately, travel to North Korea is heavily restricted, and you aren’t allowed to interact with ordinary citizens even if you get in. Additionally, I don’t know any North Koreans living abroad. Do you?
Movement of the 26.4 million people living in North Korea is highly regulated. Ordinary citizens are told where to live; in what city, in what house. Travel between cities is restricted, and travel outside the country is forbidden except for certain government officials. Essentially, North Korea is a prison designed to keep its citizens within its borders. Yet, some manage to escape.
Defectors
There are 34,580 North Koreans currently living in South Korea. The South calls them saeteomin, or “new settlers,” but they are commonly referred to by the Cold War term “defectors.”
My family was fortunate enough to sit in on a presentation from Songmi Han, a North Korean who escaped at the age of seventeen. She describes her life in North Korea, the downward spiral of her family that led her to risk her life to escape through China, and her adjustment to a new life in the South. It was a graphic, but necessary lesson for my children, who, despite our best efforts, are spoiled and sheltered by any reasonable standards. I spoke with my oldest son afterward and had him compare his life to Songmi’s; it seemed that, for a brief moment, a light clicked on as he realized all the advantages he has.
I realize that some people are dealt terrible hands all across the globe. Life is simply not fair. And I’m under no illusion that a defector’s life is perfect once they reach the South. Despite comprehensive and generous relocation benefits provided by the South Korean government, defectors experience prejudice, exploitation, and a lower average income than native-born South Koreans. Yet 81% of defectors report being satisfied with their lives and with their decision to relocate.
In case you are interested in her story, Songmi Han wrote a book about her incredible journey, “Greenlight to Freedom”, which you can find on Amazon.
Conclusion
There was a tremendous split in the fortunes of North and South Korea after WW2, and not every outcome comes down to Communism vs Capitalism. You could argue that it had more to do with the jockeys (the Soviet Union and the US) than the horses. You could argue that not every Communist state is a hereditary dictatorship.
But you can’t argue that the people of Korea are not the same. You can’t argue that the outcomes are different due to language, culture, or work ethic. You can’t say the South Koreans were born on third base. What happened to a unified Korea is as close to a controlled experiment of Capitalism vs Communism as we’re likely ever going to get. And the results are obvious.
I try to avoid politics in this blog as much as possible, and hopefully I walked that fine line in this article. America has its faults, no doubt. Yet American-style democracy and capitalism create a replicable system that allows you to prosper, as evidenced by South Korea’s success. So, the next time someone espouses the virtues of socialism or communism, show them the evidence from the Korean experiment. This famous picture of the Korean Peninsula at night, juxtaposing the lights in the South with the utter darkness of the North, sums it up nicely.
As this article will be released just after July 4th, it seems appropriate to consider the divergent paths of Korea after the end of WW2, especially since 36,515 American soldiers died during the Korean War. Let’s hope that the two Koreas can be united again, if not as a unified country, at least as brothers peacefully sharing the same peninsula. Thanks for reading.
