Word: koreans
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...That gloom hasn't yet filtered down to ordinary South Koreans. And the startling disconnect between official views of the danger that Kim Jong Il's despotic government poses to the world and the sanguine attitudes of South Korean citizens is making it desperately hard for diplomats from Washington and Seoul to forge a common strategy for defusing the crisis. After years of regarding North Koreans as bitter enemies, the prosperous, democratic South now holds a benign view of the hunger-wracked police state. To southerners, North Koreans may be brothers from another planet (as the International Crisis Group...
...These results reflect the rise of a more nationalistic generation of South Koreans who are frustrated with America's dominant role in the fate of the peninsula. Younger citizens want their leaders to carve out a new, more independent position?one that envisions the eventual, peaceful reunification of the two countries. South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun, elected in 2002 thanks to strong support from younger voters, said in a speech in Los Angeles last year that he could understand why North Korea might feel it needs nuclear weapons as "a deterrant for defending itself from external agression." (Roh still...
...statement might seem startling to outsiders, but it's the consensus in places like Ilsan. Seoul was keenly aware of the threat from the North's Korean People's Army when the South created the town from scratch in the 1980s. Lying across one of the main invasion routes to Seoul, the area was the scene of frequent skirmishes during the Korean War. Planners carefully spaced Ilsan's new high-rises to slow any onslaught from enemy tanks and troops. In those days, the town's proximity to North Korea made it an unpopular place to live. Today, property prices...
...treated North Korea as the enemy. But in 1997, with the election of pro-democracy activist Kim Dae Jung as President, Seoul changed course. The South's leaders realized that if Kim Jong Il's government collapsed and the North unraveled, the burden of feeding millions of starving North Koreans and rehabilitating the North's crippled economy could devastate South Korea's own economy for years to come. Seoul started to send aid across the Demilitarized Zone to help Pyongyang modernize and?it was hoped?gradually become more self-sufficient by substituting capitalism for Marxism. Seoul is building a massive...
...most serious rift between Seoul and Washington arose late last year over contingency planning on what the U.S. and South Korea should do if the North Korean government starts to fall apart or a disgruntled North military officer stages a coup. Under current guidelines, a U.S. general would lead American and South Korean forces in any shooting war with the North, as long as the allies agree that the situation warrants military action. But under what circumstances would troops be called in? Worried that signs of instability in the North might mean nuclear weapons were falling into unknown hands, Washington...