Abby Kim's List: F/J Kim, Abby; Korea 2020

• Koreans share a common culture, but a sense of regionalism exists between  northerners and southerners and between southeasterners and  southwesterners in terms of customs and perceived personality  characteristics.

  • This shows that South Koreans and North Koreans have had differences since the past because of the surroundings that they're in, the economy, the community, the language, food, culture, beliefs, and how that can effect the present and the future.

• In South Korea politicized regionalism has emerged between the  southeastern (Kyongsang Province) and southwestern regions (Cholla  Province) since the late 1960s as a result of an uneven pattern of  development that benefits people in the southeast. 

   

  • This shows that ever since 1960, so many things have changed between the two countries. This could answer the unit question based on seeing how things have developed since the past, how much they could change in the future, resulting a even greater result.
• Geopolitically, the peninsula is surrounded on three sides by the sea and  by Russia, China, and Japan. Korea has suffered from the attempts of these  neighboring countries to dominate it, particularly in the twentieth  century. Each of them considers Korea to be of major importance to its own  security, and since 1945 the United States has had a major security  interest in the nation. The peninsula was divided at the 38th Parallel in  an agreement between the United States and the Soviet Union at the end of  the World War II. Subsequently, the Military Demarcation Line established  by the Armistice Agreement of 1953 to bring a cease-fire to the Korean War  (1950–1953) replaced the boundary. A 2.5-mile (four-kilometer) wide  strip of land that runs along the cease-fire line for about 150 miles (241  kilometers) is fixed at the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) as the no  man's land between North Korea and South Korea.

  • This paragraph explains how much possibility Korea could have been taken over by different countries that surrounded it. It also talks about how America decided to help Korea to keep it's country as is. But because of the complications between the United States and the Soviet Union, they made an agreement to be divided. This shows what countries would/could support North Korea and what countries would/could support South Korea.

• In contrast to the cosmological symbolism in the flag, the national  anthem,    Aegukka    , conjures a sense of the national identity of the Taehan people by making  territorial references to the East Sea (Sea of Japan), Paektusan  ("White Head Mountain," on the northern border with China),  and the beautiful land of    mugunghwa    (the rose of Sharon, the national flower). The phrase    samch'ol-li kangsan    ("three-thousand-li land of range and river"), which is  included in the national anthem, refers to the national territory. 

   

  • This paragraph explains the importance of the flag, and the national anthem, and the meaningful meaning of it. The flag and the national anthem relate to things that have happened in the past, including victories and losses of both countries.

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