| |
|---|---|
|
In Asian countries, where Saving Face is important, being forced to accept the Armistice without any face-saving created massive national shame, which in turn drove isolation and massive military buildup to prevent anything like that from ever happening again and to regain face. The Korean War isn't over. There is only an armistice. Like China holds to a one China policy regarding Taiwan, North Korea holds to a one Korea policy regarding South Korea.
The perspective of North Korea on The US and others is as close minded as Trump. Entering the intercontinental nuclear power club may, I say "may", soften their paranoia. What we must do is stop threatening them. Let the two Koreans alone to work with each other. A one on one meeting with N. Korea, Offer them our withdrawal from S. Korea in exchange for their complete non-aggression. Scholars assess that both Koreans are committed to peaceful reintegration. "The Korean governments’ unification policy lines covered in this paper are consistent to one another in that they are phased, peaceful, gradual, and functional." – South and North Korea’s Views on the Unification of the Korean Peninsula and Inter-Korean Relations.
We solve our Korean problem by getting out of it.
Kim Jong-un's nature is not irrational, but his ideology, insulated by isolation, is incompatible with ours. He's got Trump's ego without Trump's insecurity. He's more rational than most of us, a rigid perfectionist, intolerant of any deviation from his strict militaristic rule model, dictated by the national subjugation enforced by the world nuclear powers. The ruling national drive is to get out from under the subjugation imposed by the UN and other nuclear powers and to achieve unification compatible with his current ideology - without war. By ending isolation, there will be opportunity for both cultures to co-evolve, each hoping to achieve something closer to their own culture.
BACK, To Problems of Democracy