Tragedy of a divided country

THE MOVING SCENES at Seoul and Pyongyang witnessed during the arrivals of the members of the long-separated families scattered in the two divided Koreas for nearly half a century should bring about more than just a one-time reunion. Had it not been for the Second World War, Korea would have remained united instead of being torn apart with its people being hurled away from their near and dear ones on either side of the 38th Parallel with little hope of their coming together again. With elderly parents well past eighty having no idea for over fifty years of what had happened to their sons and daughters who are now in their sixties, there is no reason why such a tragic state of affairs should continue. The optimism aroused recently in the two Koreas after the meeting of the leaders of the divided country should bring about the much longed for reunification for ending an agony inflicted on their people.

Korea has had a very raw deal starting with the Japanese occupation of it before the Second World War. Hopes of its getting liberated at the end of the war brought about by the U.S. nuclear bombing of Japan in 1945 faded fast when the Soviet Union moved in quickly to occupy its northern half while the U.S. acted just as promptly to occupy South Korea. While a Communist regime took over in the northern half of the island, the U.S.-backed Syngman Rhee imposed his dictatorship on South Korea. Prospects of the two Koreas settling down to their own ways of life turned out to be a mirage in 1950 with the over-running of the southern borders by the North Korean troops. The U.S. immediately plunged into action by seeking U.N. approval for its intervention to end the invasion. It turned out to be a war of attrition mainly because of Washington's refusal to halt its U.N.-backed troops at the 38th Parallel and their advancing right up to River Yalu. This provoked China's intervention and the war dragged on till an armistice was signed by the U.S. and the Soviet Union on behalf of the two Koreas in July 1953. India played a major role in the Neutral Nations' Repatriation Commission entrusted with the return of the prisoners of war.

While the Korean War ended nearly half a century ago, the agony of the Koreans living in their divided country remains. The same kind of tragedy which the divided families of the two Germanys had to endure for nearly half a century after the Second World War ended happily with the collapse of the Communist regime of the German Democratic Republic nearly a decade ago. The televised scenes of East Germans in an euphoric rush towards their West German families and friends after the historic bringing down of the Berlin Wall will stay fresh in the minds of those who had seen them. If Germany could become re-united only after the collapse of the Communist regime in the GDR, there need not be such a pre-condition for the reunification of the still divided Koreas. History has not taken the same course in Asia as it did in Eastern Europe but there is no reason why it should come in the way of the reunification of the two Koreas. The eclipse of Communism in the erstwhile Soviet Union ended the rift in Europe into its Western and Eastern halves. But China and North Korea still remain Communist. The headlong rush of European and U.S. multinationals for investments in China which is becoming a big economic presence is fast blurring its differences from the free market countries. If their economies which were long supposed to belong to two different systems no longer divide them, there could be nothing to divide their people. While the political reunification of the two Koreas may take time, their Governments should have no objection to the free movement and migration of the Koreans from either side of the 38th Parallel.

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