Response to Discussions

       From the discussions we did last week on the Korean era of 1945 through 1994, what stood out to me was the understanding that we all had that North Korea is a country that is enveloped in mystery, which makes us more curious to know about what is going on within in terms of the life people lead and the way the government runs in that part of the world sealed from the outside world community unlike any other country we know, and perhaps, our students know. Some of the interesting points we discussed, and which can be shared with our students in class in connection to the study of government types and the impact that those have on life and experience, are as follows: 

            First, it is the understanding that leadership informs the progress of a country and of its people. There is hope that the new leadership in North Korea, for instance, will be more open for dialogue and negotiations than the previous one, since we talked about how the earlier rulers of North Korea were more reclusive than the one that rules the country nowadays. Second, it is the point about the widespread symbolism in North Korean statues of the sickle, the hammer, and the calligraphy brush. I did not know that the last one meant bureaucracy. Students can begin to see meaning in the symbols they see around them, whether those are statues, or the currency of the dollar and the symbols represented within. Third, we talked about the shogun principle that was an important way to understand the government in North Korea with its emphasis on a centralized government that needs a military in order to keep its power centralized. Students can use this lens to interpret more instances of shogun in the politics of any war and conflict they study about in literature. The military is the source of pride in every country. Students can study the role of the military and its agency as an important tool for totalitarianism, but also for democracy and freedom. 

            Finally, regardless of how mysterious and reclusive North Korea appears to us,  and also regardless of how precarious has been the process of democratization of South Korea, we talked about events and life experiences that humanize the former and make South Korea a vital force in building international communication and relations with global communities. For instance, we talked about the desire that exists in North Koreans to check the news in an unofficial way, such as when they are able to check the internet through signals received from China, particularly, for those living close to the border with China. There are humanitarian agencies, moreover, with Red Cross as one of them, who support the union of families for long separated because of the war. The role of such agencies suggests that their services are not entirely oppressed. In addition, we talked about the participation of South Korea in the 1992 World Cup, which  suggests to me how sports can bring people together and unite them, regardless of past enmities, or divisions.