For the average westerner, the term "Korea" means South Korea, nothing more, nothing less. "Korea" is K-pop, TV dramas, films, famous footballers, Gangham Style, Samsung, the list goes on. Except, it shouldn't be that way. Whilst I pour praise on South Korea for its thriving prosperity and enormous cultural contribution to the modern world, it is gravely mistaken to limit the definition of "Korea" alone to South Korea, for South Korea is not one "Korea", it's half a Korea. "Korea" is not one country, it's a landmass which currently embodies two countries, North Korea & South korea. Whatever your opinions might be on it, the situation of what we know to be "North Korea" does not make it any less "Korean" than its Southern counterpart. A tragedy of history, a geopolitical struggle between the USA and the USSR, forcefully sliced one Korea into two. Whilst other states that fell victim to this kind of division, such as East Germany and West Germany and North Vietnam and South Vietnam were able to reunify themselves; the division of the Koreas remains stagnant and frozen in history. Consequentially, the two sides are left in a continual struggle against each other in their dual claims as the legitimate government of all Korea and the Korean people, with no end in sight.
Thus, few westerners when visiting "Korea", ever give thought to this situation or its background. South Korea is "Korea" and the North is just some deranged country that is best ignored or worse, laughed at, not worthy of the title of the nation it is part of. I however, ponder deeply about this situation every time I think about Korea, as two countries. My interest in Korea lies beyond that of the average westerner, I have no interest in "K pop", "Psy" or silly "TV dramas", rather it consists in a deep reflection on and study of the politics, societies, histories and situations of both countries. There are few westerners who have visited North Korea and even fewer who have visited both Koreas. I have achieved that, I have seen both Koreas, two countries which were once one. Now, they are worlds apart. It is an experience that nobody should neglect if they have the ability to do so, it is a deep and moving lesson of life and humanity itself. The contrast is amazing, eyeopening and frightening. If you only visit South Korea, then your experience of Korea is only half complete. You must see both sides to truly understand it.
Seoul
South Korea is a thriving, modern, urbanised, booming hub of life and activity, with packed roads, sprawling metropolises and towering skyscrapers. A mirror of Tokyo. The people are diverse, free, and prosperous, living the lives they want to live, even wearing the clothes they want to wear. They can eat whatever they want with an unending range of shops and restaurants with their local cuisine combined with options from all over the world. They worship freely, some choose to believe, some choose not to believe. There are catholic cathedrals, baptist churches, Jehovah's witnesses on the streets, a mosque even. Yet above all South Korea has never forgotten its unique history and culture, it has incorporated the best of what the world has to offer into itself and has became one of Asia's most successful states.
Pyongyang
When you first witness this and then you witness (or have witnessed) North Korea, you may never a observe a more staunch contrast in your life. Gone are the sprawling metropolises and hubs of international trade, in its place sit clusters of rural villages and fields in squalor conditions, or old and gray soviet era apartment complexes crumbling away. Neither tend to have electricity, or even heating. The night falls and these places are hidden away in a cloak of darkness. Absent are the booming luminations of city lights and buildings, we see only the equivalent of candles in the night as the sparse power is directed towards lighting up the statues of the great leaders. As life goes on, the people do not choose what they want to wear, every man and woman wears a little red badge with the faces of the leaders upon it. They do not choose what they get to eat, for average citizens must make do with whatever they can get, some portions of rice, maybe a little Kimchi. Bar those constructed for propaganda purposes, there are no churches, mosques or diversity of belief, there is just the ideology of the state which all must submit to without hesitation or question.
Such here is life. Yet do not be fooled into thinking that these people are brainwashed robots or soulless monsters, such an accusation is wholeheartedly untrue. The people of North Korea are humble, sincere and brave as they face their daily challenges and learn to just live life in the face of their system. It is a system which fears its own demise, it is not the intent of North Korea to "start world war III" or "Nuke America" it is rather attempting to survive in a world which is deeply hostile to it. It has watched as a communist world around it shattered into pieces overnight and its own economy crumbled into the midst of famine and ruin in the 1990s. The truth of the success of its southern counterpart has not passed by unnoticed and nor have their authorities been able to keep that truth from penetrating the gossip of everyday people. Yet somehow, in the face of all odds, it has held on and it is determined to further hold on. The people do not all secretly "oppose it" or seek to "rebel", we are narrow to judge their perceptions and thinking in the western frame of mind. It is a society built on an entirely alien political, philosophical and cultural tradition to our own.
People must be prepared to acknowledge and witness both Koreas, especially that of the North. We must be prepared to visit and witness a world that is not the same as our own, one which lives differently, thinks differently. Only by doing these things can we truly begin to understand the world, to understand people and then grasp just how small we really are. We step out of our comfort zones, we learn and we grow. We must not attempt to force change upon them or our way of life, but we must reach out to them, this is why Visit North Korea is here, because the awareness it promotes on both sides is priceless to the human experience.
