Thread:Phapha332/@comment-31069973-20170515004433/@comment-27172197-20170515011449

In South Korea, there are two different views on North Korea: The political one and the personal one. The personal one branches off into many different views in itself according to generations.

Politically, South Korea does not recognise North Korea as a country. North Korea, instead, is labelled as an "anti- government state". Because of this, according to South Korea's constitutional law, the territory of the Republic of Korea consists of the whole Korean Peninsula. Any act of recognising North Korea, or showing respect for North Korea, is illegal. This law affects the everyday lives and views of the people.

Firstly, people are prone to thinking that the whole accessible territory of the Republic of Korea consists of the territory of North Korea as well, only to realise a second later that they were wrong. Because of this, there are many young children who don't even know that Korea is parted. This, of course, is the story of children who are 3 or 4 years old. They'll realise soon after.

For children who are old enough to know about some parts of the World, North Korea would be ,to them, the "bad guys". The villains in the storybook, the ones who want to eliminate them. Since these are the newest generation we are talking about, these children have no feelings of brotherhood for the North Koreans. To them, they are either 1. Poor people who starve every day or 2. Bad guys who would love to nuke them.

For the new generation who is just stepping into society now(as this I mean the people in the 20s and the teenagers, who are the so- called "new generation"), they are the ones who have never lived in Korea's days of the dust, where people were starving and there was no electricity. They are the ones who entirely know these days by stories and documentaries. To them, North Korea is entirely a different World. Of course they are aware that North Korea is part of their people, since that is what they learned from the start: that they are one people, they are brothers and they must reunify. However, these people view North Korea as strangers. They believe that they are very different from them. They have no feeling of actual "family" for the North Koreans, even if they know that they are one people. They are also aware of the repercussions reunification can give them, and are more skeptical for the idea of reunification. To them, it is like an idea that they want to achieve but don't know how.

For the older generation who have been separated from their family in the Korean War, they view the North Koreans with a genunine sadness. Especially for the people who left their families behind in North Korea; they feel so sorry for them. They need to reunify as soon as possible; that's what the older generation views. However, sometimes, they would learn to develop a deep hatred for the North Koreans and don't even want to interact with them. This is probably because they know well of the atrocities North Koreans commited in the Korean War and/or their families got lost in the Korean War because of the North Koreans.

That's my response. ^^