[Insight & Opinion] The Unbearable Lightness of Reunification

North Korean Residents Struggle in Poverty
South Korean Youth and Defectors Become Structurally Disadvantaged
A Time to Reflect on Our Social and Economic Structure

The children’s song "Uriui Sowon" (Our Wish), composed by An Byeong-won and written by An Seok-ju, which everyone sang in childhood with hopes for reunification, actually has an original version from 77 years ago titled "Uriui Sowoneun Doknip" (Our Wish is Independence), a history we are not well aware of. Just like a country's independence, there was a time when reunification was equally urgent. However, at present, most of our people have little interest in reunification. Even the political circles, which used to talk about reunification casually as a habit, rarely mention it these days.

The situation in North Korea is similar. Focused on regime maintenance, North Korea no longer talks about reunification. With the development of communication technologies and storage media such as the internet, it has become increasingly difficult to block information about South Korea’s economic development as well as the infiltration of our popular culture represented by K-pop and K-dramas. The tragic scenes of public executions of young teenagers who have been exposed to this culture are evidence of this urgent situation. The spread of popular culture within North Korea, overcoming even the fear of death, has become a cultural martyrdom surpassing past religious martyrdom. In a controlled society, the thirst for culture becomes an inescapable human nature even stronger than the thirst for religion.

On the other hand, the market economy that has grown in North Korea since 2002 is now taking root. Recent statistics show that 80% of the North Korean economy is conducted through private currency and barter transactions. Women’s desperate efforts to survive, such as gathering wild vegetables and medicinal herbs in the mountains to sell, trading goods like cigarettes leaked from officials, and items smuggled from China in the underground economy, have grown to a scale that the North Korean authorities can no longer ignore. The recent construction boom utilizing the military has also contributed to North Korea’s economic growth. Pyongyang is now sometimes called "Pyeonghattan," a neologism comparing it to Manhattan in the United States, and is referred to not as the "City of Equality" but the "City of Desire." However, despite these signs of some economic growth, the poverty of North Korean residents, whose benefits are concentrated in the ruling class, is an undeniable fact.

Are we really different? As of last year, the top wealthiest group, less than 1%, holds 59% of the total household financial assets. Their real estate assets amount to 2,543 trillion won, increasing sharply by about 900 trillion won compared to 2019. The increase in asset income due to wealth concentration undermines the will to earn labor income and leads young people to give up economic participation. In the current market structure, a significant portion of labor income is forcibly transferred to the asset income of the wealthy. With the Korean political circles and government showing no will to manage or supervise speculative real estate ownership such as multiple homes through appropriate property taxes, young people have no hope.

In this situation, even if reunification occurs, is our economic structure prepared to accept North Korean residents on a humanitarian level? Let’s look at the reality of defectors. According to recent surveys by the Seoul National University Institute for Unification and Peace Studies and the Seoul Institute, 65.5 to 69.4% of defectors have experienced economic difficulties such as maintaining their livelihood in the past year. Among defectors living in Seoul, 37.7% are recipients of basic living security, and more than half of them have a monthly living expense of less than 1 million won. Among them, about ten people attempt suicide each year.

The market economy never protects the weak. Both our youth and defectors become structural weak groups in the shadow of economic growth. The exploitative motive of the market due to wealth concentration surpasses the evil of exploitation by dictatorial power. The remedy ultimately lies in the government’s will and the communal consciousness of our members. Our economy faces a crisis due to population decline caused by low birth rates and regional extinction. At this point, the necessity of reunification is also reconsidered. It is a time for reflection on our economic structure for a society where all members participate together.

Professor Kim Gyu-il, Michigan State University