The Hindu Business Line : They yearn for unification

The river is pretty broad and, despite perched atop a 140-metre hill, the view from the observation desk is only blurred. Even binoculars, which zoom 20 times, provided at the observatory help see only a little better.

However, the poor vision is not a big loss because in any case what you could see of North Korea from the southern bank of the Hangang river is not much. A few nondescript buildings, some farmlands, mountains with clutches of houses here and there. Of roads, automobiles and the like, there is no evidence.

But the Odusan Unification Observatory, located on the 140-metre Mt Odusan, an hour’s drive from Seoul, is not so important for what it shows, as for what it tells.

On the one hand, the Observatory houses displays of models of North Korean homes and schools. There is a souvenir shop that sells gift articles made in the Gaeseong Industrial complex, located in a special administrative region of North Korea but run by South Korean companies. On the other, the audio-video narrative at the ‘screen room’ frequently points to the poor quality of life in North Korea.

For example, it points to primitive agriculture in North Korea and the fact that few people could be seen in the villages. (That appears to be true. The habitation across the river appears to be practically deserted.)

The message is clear: One, the North Koreans are so poor off and two, South Koreans yearn for unification.

Though neither message needs articulation — thanks mainly to the Western media, the world has long been sensitised to them — the Odusan Unification Observatory continues to make them to the millions of tourists who visit it annually. It also contains a ‘unification wishing room’, where visitors may write what they had seen or felt during their visit, or simply make a wish for the unification. “The writings will be used as historical data after unification,” says Odusan promotional literature.

But the “after unification” is not going to be anytime soon — and the Koreans know it only too well. The “political situation” will not allow that to happen. Unification is a complex process involving issues of North Korea’s ‘weapons of mass destruction’, US military presence in South Korea, economic imbalance of the two countries and the pull and push of other powers in the region. Very complex.

Nevertheless, they continue to plod on in the path of re-unification. Indeed, few other countries in the world, if any at all, would have had the need to create a Ministry of Unification. The Ministry’s efforts include helping North Korean refugees find jobs.

Chat up a Korean and what he suspects comes out quick: maybe there are vested interests acting against the Korean unification. Korea has a long history of being subjected to attacks from both its giant neighbours — China and Japan — and a hatred of Japanese still lurks beneath a thin surface. A unified Korea will be a huge economic power, which, the average Korean suspects, is not something that many powers in the world today would want. Prof Hideshi Takesada of National Institute of Defense Studies, Tokyo, acknowledges the “misunderstanding that Japan is opposed to the unification” and calls for its erase.

The propaganda instrument that the Odusan Observatory is but an infinitesimal component of the unification process. But the importance that Koreans attach to it shows their zeal to become one country.

Someday, the two Koreas will be one country. It is interesting to speculate over what might be the economic impact of it on countries like India. South Korea has money and technology, the North has people and natural resources. It is inevitable that the South Korean conglomerates will use the North as their manufacturing yard.

H S Lheem, Managing Director, Hyundai Motor India Ltd, says that labour intensive components – like foundry products, wiring harnesses, seats – could be sourced from North Korea. But cars would be manufactured closer to markets.

Lheem’s insight echoes the message embedded in the reunification efforts for countries like India — keeps a sharp eye on North Korea, like visitors do through the binoculars at Odusan Observatory.

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They yearn for unification