“North Koreans are more eager for reunification than South Koreans,” Ri Il-gyu, a former North Korean counselor responsible for political affairs at the North Korean Embassy in Cuba, said in an interview with the Chosunilbo. Ri, who defected to South Korea with his family last November, attributes this desire to the harsh living conditions in North Korea. He said both North Korean officials and ordinary citizens share the sentiment: “My children should have a better life than me. The only answer is reunification.”
No parent wants their children to live miserably under the North Korean regime, even if they can’t help themselves. This sentiment is echoed by many elite North Korean defectors, including former lawmaker Tae Young-ho, whose primary motivation to defect was their children’s future.
“Miserable” living conditions do not only refer to economic poverty. It also includes lifelong brainwashing, control, and severe human rights abuses. Ri cited the case of Han Song-ryol, a former Vice Foreign Minister who was publicly executed. Officials forced to witness the gruesome execution had trouble eating for days. North Koreans have long been reduced to the status of slaves and livestock, and even high-ranking officials live in constant fear of machine gun executions. It’s natural for parents to want to avoid passing this life on to their children. The only way to end the nightmare is defection or reunification.
For a long time, North Koreans had no access to the outside world. The regime blocked their ears and mouths through extreme surveillance, control, and repression. Many North Koreans didn’t know that “Hanguk” (what South Koreans call South Korea) meant South Korea.
But things are different now. Information from outside, once limited to the border areas, is now spreading across North Korea like wildfire through cell phones and marketplaces. The influx of South Korean pop culture, known as Hallyu (the Korean Wave), has created a longing for South Korea among North Koreans. This is why Pyongyang has outlawed South Korean culture and enacted a series of draconian punishment laws to suppress it. “But no matter how much control and punishment they imposed, the Korean Wave didn’t slow down,” said Ri.
In a desperate attempt to stop the Korean Wave, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has declared “no reunification” as a last resort policy. “He is trying to block the people’s longing for reunification,” said Ri.
North Korea closed roads and railroads connecting the two Koreas and laid landmines in their place. A barrier has been constructed along the Demilitarized Zone, and electrified barbed wire now lines the Amnok and Duman rivers. The word “reunification” has been removed from the name of Pyongyang station, and “Samcheonri” - referring to the entire Korean Peninsula, which extends about 1,000 kilometers - has been omitted from the national anthem’s lyrics. But even the sturdy Berlin Wall eventually crumbled. No amount of repression by Kim Jong Un will be able to crush North Koreans’ desire for reunification.
