We Are (Not) One
When I reported to Korea for my first tour there, I recall walking around Yongsan with another Army officer looking at all the Korean civilians and wondering how many were North Korean sleeper agents. Hey, even paranoid people have enemies. I remember that officer saying, “I don’t claim to be able to tell North Koreans from South Koreans.” I laughed, but that was before I actually met any people I knew to be North Koreans.
My views have since changed: there are pronounced differences in posture, mannerisms, eye contact, and physical size. If the individual left North Korea recently, the difference is pronounced and visible, even to a non-Korean. This graphic from today’s Joongang Ilbo pretty much says it all: Korea is not one.
This article is most definitely worth reading in its entirety, as it speaks of how this difference will complicate the reunification process. I agree. I also think that the most understated problem will be the mental health effects of traumatizing 23 million people for their entire lives. It’s difficult to comprehend the effect that this will have on some people.
Some statistical data on that here (see tables 11 and 12, page 25).
My German aunt used to tell me that they could identify British spies by inviting suspected ones to dinner and then observing the way they held their fork. If it was prongs down, they immediately arrested the guest and asked questions later.
That’s pretty thin evidence for sending a man to face Roland Frieseler.
I mean, would it be so hard to just check his teeth and be sure?
If you want to know what problems there would be at the freeing of North Korea look at Iraq, another brutalized country. The culture would account for differences between the two countries but the trouble that would show would be the disregard for life and the desire to do nothing in the face of aggression. It’s not easy to understand, but these characteristics would be born of habituation.