Page 2 of 2 BOOK
REVIEW North Korea's no
Mozambique North of
the DMZ by Andrei
Lankov
and likely to last
10, 20, or even 25 years after the unification",
Lankov said in a telephone interview. "The only
thing we can say for certain is that the next few
decades of Korean history are unlikely to be
tranquil."
Lankov is cautious because as a
person who grew up in the Soviet Union, he himself
witnessed the dismantling of the empire
and
saw the transition as a complex and tough process.
Among other things, Lankov predicted there
will be rampant nationalism in unified Korea.
After North Koreans get used to having enough rice
to eat every day, he said, they are nearly certain
to discover that in a unified Korea, they will
live the life of second-class citizens, both
because of their insufficient job skills and
discrimination of all kinds. Thus the government
will need scapegoats, and "nothing can rival
nationalism in its ability to fabricate
scapegoats", said Lankov.
For example,
among the North Korean refugees who have settled
in South Korea's southern city of Gwangju, Lankov
said, only 23% are employed. If we extrapolate
that to the national level, it suggests that
roughly three-quarters of the North Korean
refugees in the South are unemployed. Currently,
North Korean refugees in the South form the lowest
social class as cheap laborers. Their discontent
is rising. Lankov said the situation will only get
worse when the two Koreas become unified.
Lankov refused to speculate on the timing
of the unification, but linked it to the death of
Kim Jong-il. "I don't think anything serious would
happen as long as Kim Jong-il is in power. As long
as Kim is alive, don't expect any serious
changes."
The scholar, who is a regular
contributor to Asia Times Online, has dual
citizenship in Australia and Russia and currently
resides in South Korea. With no political
affiliation, he said he often finds himself at an
ideal vantage point to look at the issue of North
Korea at a politically and ideologically untainted
angle. He believes that most countries relevant to
the matter actually do not want Korean
unification.
China and Russia, he said,
"don't want the unification to undermine the
stability of their own political systems. South
Korea has some reservations about it also, as it
fears the economic burden it has to bear once
unification occurs."
Lankov said the
United States is the only country that "doesn't
dislike" the idea of unification because it has
little to lose, although it also has little to
gain. Lankov said he got this impression while
talking with American scholars recently, adding
that North Korea is even likely to fall outside
Washington's global strategic interest once the
nuclear issue is resolved.
Lankov argued
that for China and Russia, North Korea is
strategically important, but for the US, once the
nuclear issue is resolved, North Korea might
become a country hard to locate on the US global
strategy map - just like Mozambique.
When
this reporter said his argument is an
"interesting" one, Lankov replied, "It's not
interesting, it's very sad," adding that even
those who are concerned about the North Korean
situation are motivated more by ideology than by
humanitarianism.
Regarding the work of
some Christians in South Korea and the US who help
North Korean refugees, Lankov said: "They are good
allies. But some still see North Korea only with
some ideological tilt. For them, North Korea is a
symbol, not a country that has 23 million people.
The country serves as a symbol for communism, or
anti-Americanism, or just for something evil.
People tend to lose sight of the suffering that
North Koreans endure."
Lankov lashed out
at South Korean leftists as well for having double
standards. "They say they fought for democracy and
human rights in South Korea when it was under
military dictatorship. But now they keep silent on
the human-rights situation in North Korea. Because
speaking out would mean siding with the US, which
they dislike very much."
In North of
the DMZ, Lankov challenges us on how much we
really know about the people who live above the
Demilitarized Zone, besides all the media
caricaturing of its aberrant leader and the high
politics of nuclear negotiation.
In sum,
Lankov tries to argue that North Korea shouldn't
be seen as a mysterious "black box" anymore.
Rather, he urges us not to forget the suffering of
people who are made of flesh and blood, just like
you and me. After all, according to Lankov, what
North Korea fears most is being forgotten by the
world.
North of the DMZ: Essays on
Daily Life in North Korea by Andrei Lankov,
McFarland & Company, 2007. ISBN-13:
978-0786428397. US$39.95, 358 pages.
Sunny Lee is a writer/journalist
based in Beijing, where he has lived for five
years. A native of South Korea, Lee is a graduate
of Harvard University and Beijing Foreign Studies
University.
(Copyright 2007 Asia Times
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