Korea has been a country living under constant invasions and threats from several different foreign nations. Throughout its history, Korea has been repeatedly devastated by powers such as Japan, China, and Mongolia. Despite these different attempts to subjugate the country, Korea has still survived and has been able to maintain its culture and traditions since ancient times. Since August 15, 1945, Korea has been left divided by two foreign powers. This occurred soon after another foreign power, Japan, was defeated and left its occupation in Korea. Some Koreans see this today as another attempt by foreign nations to keep Korea under foreign power. Many feel that unification of the two Koreas is important and is purposely prevented by the United States. Other Koreans view themselves as belonging to one of the Koreas, rather than from a single Korea, and thus don't view unification as something important. This essay discusses these points and compares them to situations shown in two Korean fictional stories: JSA and Lee Mun-Yeoul.
North and South Korea today live on totally different ideologies. The North has adopted a communist government, while the South runs a capitalist government. The governments on each side wish to unite the country, but both wish to see it happen in their own ways. The North, for example, has invaded the South on more than one occasion, trying to implement a communist government on the entire peninsula. The South would like to see the whole Korean peninsula united as a capitalist country. However, costs of unification are indeed high, and some predict it will be a more difficult process than the unification of East and West Germany. There are several reasons for this. According to an article entitled "The Cost of Unification - German lessons for Korea", several of the factors that made unification costly for the two Germanys would be multiplied several times for the unification of the two Koreas.
