3 Kingdoms

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ANALYSIS & FEATURE

FRIDAY AUGUST 28, 2009

Should Korea return to three kingdoms? Many of the obstacles for Korean unification come from other countries By Chris Williams

The talks between Pyongyang’s Kim Ki-nam, Unification Minister Hyun In-taek and President Lee Myung-bak were unexpected, but not surprising. Even after his death, Kim Daejung has the power to bring Koreans together. The earlier meeting between Kim Jong-il and Hyun Jungeun, the head of the Hyundai Group, was similar. It seems that cross-border activities at Gaeseong industrial region will re-start, and families divided by the war will again be able to meet. Apart from his ability to bring Koreans together, Kim also displayed another crucial leadership quality — vision. Perhaps there is a window of opportunity for some more visionary thinking about “progress on interKorean cooperation,” which is not constrained by the political realities of the present. To inspire creative thinking, architects sometimes used the idea of “skyhooks.” The point was to ignore the reality that a building required an internal structure — a skeleton — to keep it up. And then to ask, what might a building look like if it could simply be attached to hooks in the sky? In 1977, Paris saw “skyhooks” become reality. The Pompidou Centre put the skeleton on the outside, and hooked the body of the building to it. Thirty years later it is not astonishing to see buildings like this, particularly airports and factories. When British architect Richard Rogers received the Pritzker Prize for creating the center, the New York Times said that the design “turned the architecture world upside-down.” How might the architecture of the Korean peninsula be turned upside down, with some “skyhooks” thinking? I was living in South Africa in 1986, at a time when there seemed no hope of an end to the divisive Apartheid regime. But a few forward looking companies quietly funded a remarkable series of studies. They commissioned creative experts to envision how each of the public sectors would operate in a post-Apartheid era, when race groups were not separated, and “black”, “colored” and “Asian” people were not required to stay in their “townships” and “homelands”. A similar set of reports about the commercial sector was produced. Looking at how similar situations had turned out, in the past, was a central aspect. The experts were told to forget about the problem, “How do we achieve a unified country?” They were told simply to envision how a unified population would function. The purpose was not to create a perfect strategic plan, but to show different scenarios for how a unified country could work. A key purpose of the reports reflected the “light at the end of the tunnel” principle — that a difficult journey can appear easier if you believe that things will be OK when you get to the end.

Chris Williams ● Chris

Williams is based at the Center for International Education and Research, University of Birmingham, United Kingdom.

● He

can be reached at [email protected]

Perhaps a company or newspaper in Korea could inspire something similar. What vision might emerge? If commissioning “skyhook” thinking, those concerned should be told to forget about “How we get there,” as in South Africa, but also to forget about military aspects. Disarmament is a priority imposed on Korean thinking by other countries. A “skyhook” view of recent discussions might not propose that Korea should be one entity, but maybe not two. What might, in the words of sociologist Anthony Giddens, the “third way” be? What about a peninsular of three regions, one Northern, one Southern and one linking North and South. For now, we could perhaps call the new region “Hyundailand.” Of course, the vision of the Korean peninsula divided into three is not new. In the sixth century it functioned very efficiently as Goguryeo, Silla, and Baekje. And there is nothing unique about living in a nation divided into three countries with a poorer nationalistic North and a richer cosmopolitan south. I live in a nation like that. People forget that Britain is really three countries, four if Northern Ireland is counted separately. This is forgotten, because now it is unproblematic. The Acts of Union in 1207

brought England and Scotland together and, with a few small upheavals and modifications, the island has stayed unified. The devolution at the end of the 1990s, creating a separate parliament in Scotland and a Welsh Assembly, optimizes the advantages of diversity within unity. Last week, the arguments

Few non-Scots know that, although laws are broadly similar across Britain, the Scottish legal system is based on French not English principles. Scots courts even have a very useful verdict between “guilty” and “not guilty” — “not proven”. This was once explained by a judge, to a bemused English defendant, as

these, and they fetch higher prices. How does this relate to a vision for Korea? Here is another seemingly irrelevant “skyhook.” The Japanese government has been proving aid to BosniaHerzegovina for demining fields, and for organic farming. The two endeavors are linked.

People forget that Britain is really three countries,four if Northern Ireland is counted separately.T his is forgotten, because now it is unproblematic.T he Acts of Union in 1207 brought England and Scotland together and, with a few small upheavals and modifications,the island has stayed unified. about the compassionate grounds for the return to Libya of Abdelbaset al Megrahi, who was in prison for the plane bomb over the Scottish town Lockerbie and had developed terminal cancer, drew much criticism, especially from America. Never mind who is right. The important thing is that this was a Scottish minister taking a decision about a Scottish issue, which Scottish people have elected him to take. Scottish law is more compassionate than American law, and Scottish politicians are less influenced American pressure than their English counterparts.

meaning, “Not guilty, but don’t do it again.” Devolution and diversity can inspire vision and progress. In 2004, the Welsh Assembly abolished a very destructive school testing system at age 11 and 14, the British Standards Assessment Tests (SATS). Four years later, when it was realized that schools did not fall apart without SATS, England followed. The Welsh Assembly has also taken firm action to deter the introduction of genetically modified (GM) crops, on the grounds of protecting contamination of organically grown and non-GM crops. Many consumers prefer

Mined fields have been free of pesticides and synthetic fertilizers for more than a decade, and demining is cheaper than decontamination of a field. Cambodia and Vietnam are similar. What of the potential for Northern Korea to become the organic breadbasket of Asia? It might also become a source of non-carbon energy — hydro, wave and wind farms. A “Hyundailand,” providing the technical and managerial assistance in a politically neutral way, could be pivotal. A few moments browsing through the ever-fascinating “Philip’s Atlas of World History” shows that divided countries,

regional governments, and federalism have been more the norm than the exception. Division has not always inspired peace, but in Europe alone it is astonishing how many formally divided entities now live in cooperative harmony. Switzerland grew from the Swiss Confederation and an initial “Peace Association,” between thee “Forest Cantons”, in 1291. Around this time France evolved from more than a dozen regional powers, into two main Kingdoms, France and Arles. For centuries, well before the recent East-West divide, Germany was similar. Prussia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire came about through “unifications” between 1815-71. And despite much turmoil, Germans now extol the virtues of a federal system of government. Belgium encompasses Dutchspeaking Flanders, and Frenchspeaking Wallonia, with a small German speaking minority in the East. Since 2007 it seems to demonstrate that unified countries can even manage without a government. Many of the impediments to a more unified Korea come from other countries. It does not take an economist to work out that a cooperating Korea could become economically very strong. The South’s high-tech systems and

efficient management, combined with a cheap labor force in the North, which shares a language, culture and history, could quickly become the most efficient economic power-house in Asia. But, that would not be welcomed by America and others. China demonstrates this dynamic to some degree, but the region is too large and unwieldy, and the cultural differences too wide, to optimize its diversity. Russia is similar. Counties such as Cambodia, Vietnam, and Laos have the cheap labor force. But well-educated managers and administrators, and skilled technical workers, are in short supply. Japan is now essentially a middle-class nation. It has to import Japanese exiles from Brazil to create a cheap labor force in its car factories, and even that is not sufficient. There are now plans for a largescale immigration of skilled labor through immigrant programs offering education to people from less developed countries. Whether or not it involves a “Hyundailand,” any “skyhooks” vision for the peninsular is likely to come to a simple conclusion. One thing is likely to unify Korea quicker than anything else — when all Koreans realize why the rest of the world does not want it to happen.

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