Generation gap: South Koreans fear, welcome, ignore the North
SEOUL (AFP) – In the freewheeling democracy of South Korea, views of the authoritarian North, the prospects for reunification, and Friday's summit between President Moon Jae-in and Pyongyang's leader Kim Jong Un vary widely.
Attitudes differ along both generational and political lines, and AFP spoke to three South Koreans with very different perceptions of the situation.
The survivor Retired English professor Lew Je-bong was a teenager during the Korean War and remembers walking miles across the war-ravaged country with his family in search of safety after Pyongyang invaded.
He is still wary about the North's intentions and warns the South should not play into its hands.
Pyongyang is the "world's best liar," he said angrily, and Seoul should learn from its history of broken promises.
"My hope for the South-North summit on April 27 is that our president does not get tricked," Lew said.
"They will never give up nuclear weapons, and if they don't, nothing should be negotiated."
The businessman Businessman Lee Jeong-jin almost cried with joy when he heard that the
TAIPEI (AFP) – Taipei accused China Thursday of endangering the health of Taiwanese people and compromising global epidemic prevention by blocking it from the World Health Organization (WHO), as its hopes of attending a major meeting next month dim.
Last year was the first time in eight years that Taiwan was not granted access to the World Health Assembly (WHA) – the WHO's main annual meeting – due to pressure from Beijing as part of its efforts to exclude the island from international events.
China, which sees self-governing democratic Taiwan as part of its territory awaiting reunification, has used its clout to diminish the island's presence two Koreas will hold their first summit after a decade of tensions.
The 52-year-old is among the generation of South Koreans who attended college in the 1980s amid heightened pro-democracy and anti-US activism, partly fuelled by resentment over the division of the Koreas after World War II and Washington's alliance with the military dictators of the time.
He was once stationed at the nowshuttered Kaesong Industrial Complex in the North as the top on-site manager for the South's Korea Telecom.
He worked with North Koreans every day, telling AFP: "I realized that we could quickly achieve harmony and become a prosperous nation."
Lee is upbeat about the diplomatic developments and welcomes them as a promising step towards lasting peace on the peninsula.
"We are one people," he said. "We've been divided for 70 years. The fact that both sides are willing to discuss peace and overcome differences is a big step forward."
An avid supporter of reunification, Lee added that one Korea will be much stronger than two divided halves.
The youth News of Friday's summit has been making headlines for weeks in South Korea and around the world, but hip hop artist Choi Won-young does not on the world stage since Beijingskeptic leader Tsai Ing-wen took power in May 2016.
Taiwan has yet to receive an invitation to the WHA assembly in Geneva next month.
The island's foreign ministry accused China Thursday of having a ''secret arrangement'' with WHO granting Beijing power to veto its attendance even at smaller technical briefings.
Out of the 154 WHO briefings Taiwan applied for between 2009 and 2017, only 46 were approved, the foreign ministry said in a statement.
It also said China had delayed timely notification of health information to Taiwan.
''The unilateral arrangement benese care.
"I saw a headline once but I don't know it well," Choi said. "I don't really know what they are doing.
"I think it's just South Korea and North Korea meeting to talk but I'm not that interested," he added.
A survey conducted by the staterun Korea Institute for National Unification found that more than seven out tween China and the WHO not only poses a threat to the health of the Taiwanese people, but it also causes a loophole in global epidemic prevention,'' it said.
The comments came in response to a Wednesday statement from China's Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO), which said Taiwanese experts were free to attend WHO conferences aside from the WHA and were still receiving timely of 10 South Koreans in their 20s now oppose reunification.
"I don't really feel the need for it," Choi said of reunification. "It doesn't matter if we do or don't but I don't know if we have to.
"North Korea's image is not good in South Korea," the 19-year-old added. "It's widely known as a country that is very authoritarian." information on disease prevention.
The foreign ministry said the TAO statement was ''untrue.''
Taiwan was expelled from the WHO in 1972, a year after losing the ''China'' seat at the United Nations to Beijing.
In 2009, Taiwan was invited to attend as an ''observer'' under the name ''Chinese Taipei'' under former Beijingfriendly leader Ma Ying-jeou.