Views on America and N. Korea (1)

Mr. Bachrach asked a few questions about Korean perceptions a little while back, and having gotten a chance to talk to some Korean university students and soldiers, I thought I'd post some preliminary results.

What do South Koreans think of the North Korean government?
They don't seem to like it much, but they also don't seem to perceive it as much of a threat to them. It's an unfortunate part of reality, but not one they see changing any time soon. I asked if the recent talks/results of their president's meeting with Kim Jung Il changed that at all, but they didn't seem to feel that it did. They don't see it as changing much about the situation.

What do they think of the US Government?
They don't seem to understand why we re-elected Bush. He's not popular here, and they don't seem to like American policy. They don't seem to think there was much point to the Iraqi war, and aren't thrilled that they're helping us out in Afghanistan, either, though they don't really harbor resentment against Americans in general.

They know who Barack Obama is, and Hillary Clinton, and Giuliani, and can recognize their faces. They don't know too much about their respective positions, and claim they don't have a preference on who wins the American elections ("We'll care a few months later, once they start doing things"), but they're certainly following the elections ("I'm just not sure Obama has enough experience...") and know their ways around American politics. I've even had a few who could listen to me mentioning states I've lived in/been to/family is in, and point out "Huh...all blue states" without my mentioning anything about politics.

As a whole they seem well-aware of what's going on in America, and the issues that are being tossed around. Given how much they seem to know about and how much they care about what policies or activities occur, I find I almost feel bad towards the end of the conversations that they can't vote in American elections - they know more than half of American voters, and definitely have interests in who America chooses as leadership. Whereas we pay little to no attention to their elections, leadership, issues, or politics. As one of them said when I mentioned this, "When we elect a president, we elect the president of Korea. When you elect a president, you elect the president of the world."

That said, these are the best and brightest of Korea - I have no idea how representative they are of Koreans as a whole. And given that older Koreans are substantially more socially conservative than the US, maybe I wouldn't want to see them voting. Still, it doesn't seem entirely democratic that officials only Americans can elect have such broad powers and influence over the entire world.

Do they think the US should continue to keep military forces in their country?
Tricky question, they say. Ultimately, they think it's an issue that's easy to gripe about and bemoan, but they don't think most Koreans want the American military gone. Politicians here may say things like that for popularity, but they think most Koreans recognize that American forces are a huge safety net for them.

The ones who have already served their 2 years in the military have no issues at all with American troops, and many trained under Americans and got to know a lot of them. They say the Korean military has no problem with the American military presence. They say that the main group that wants the American military gone is, in fact, the American military - Koreans as a whole don't mind its presence here.

What are the prospects for reunification?
They seem a bit disillusioned with that. Even with all of the recent developments with North Korea, at the 6-party talks and their own president's meeting with Kim Jung Il, along with all of the promises and agreements that came from those, they don't seem to think the chances of unification are very large. To be honest, they don't seem to think anything will change much from the current relationship.

Additionally, the youth seem not to care. According to one of my professors, schools used to enforce and teach that the North are Koreans, and that unification was inevitable and going to be a great and wondrous thing, and is something to strive for. Recent surveys have somewhat surprised the older generations in that the younger generation says they don't particularly care if they unite with the North again or not. So older Koreans are probably still thinking unification is great, and that it will happen someday. The younger generations (presumably because they never knew relatives or siblings in the North) increasingly don't care.


That's as much as I've been told right now - I'll keep asking around when I get the chance, and hopefully will find some older Koreans I can get the opinions of as well.