Authors Foster Klug and Hyung-jin Kim describe the the repercussions of the election of South Korea's first female president and how that may complex the relations of the two Koreas in the article "First Female South Korean President Faces North Korea Crisis". North Korea
continues to push the envelope in their pursuance of developing their nuclear
programs. The United States, along with many other prominent world powers, have
insisted and warned North Korea of the consequences of acquiring greater
weapons of mass destruction.
The country north of the 48th parallel recently
debuted a national propaganda commercial which illustrates an American city
resembling New York City engulfed in flames. The country in the greatest state
of urgency is South Korea, the north's blood enemy. The two Koreas represent
the contrast of democracy and totalitarianism in which the south has flourished
economically and the north is struggling to stay afloat. In attempt to conclude
the north's nuclear pursuance, the newly inaugurated female South Korean
president, Park Guen-Hye, has been placed in a potentially precarious, life threatening
situation regarding the north.
President Park, South Korea's first woman
president, was also the daughter of the later South Korean dictator, has
stepped back into her childhood presidential mansion. Park has a hard history
in politics. An assassination attempt on her father's life accidentally killed
her mother instead. Park has also become a South Korean inspirational figure
for women. South Korean women have the lowest income rate amongst developed
democratic countries. Park will surely spark a women's equality revolution
within the border(s) of South Korea, while on the other hand, North Korea has
repressed both men and women in their society.
Women in North Korean society have a greater array
of opportunities than that of most Arabic women, as long as they remain within
the borders of their respective countries and regions. The found of North Korea,
Kim ill-sung, attempted to eliminate their patriarchal social systems through
reforms in their laws, such as the implementation of sex equality, the labor
law, and the law of the nationalization of essential industry. North Korean
women are allowed to work within the countries work force, most likely because
the country wishes to fully utilize their able bodies.
Women of the north primarily dwell within the lower
class work force, but a minority of women has broken into upper class jobs. Those
jobs, however, were presented to those women through family ties, and the ratio
of women to men in the upper echelon of jobs is far smaller than that of the
lower class of jobs. Although women are in theory supposed to have greater freedom
due to the disestablishing of the patriarchal system, North Korea still follows
neo Confucian teachings, which states the women must answer to men
unconditionally.
The tradition of neo-Confucianism (spell check) will
most likely conflict with president park's attempts to quell the north's
nuclear ambitions, if the north would be willing to comply in the first place. The
north's disregard of women's equality can affect tensions between the two
countries in first place, along with park's heritage as an enemy of the north. The
north and the south have been notorious archenemies for as long as the baby
boom generation can remember. Technically, the Korean War still commences until
this day. An actual treaty has never been implemented but rather a cease fire
or an armistice has.
The likely hood of North Korea responding
positively to South Korea was slim to begin with, not to mention the south's
new female president will draw little favor from a male dominated north society.
The future of the Korean peninsula in general seems to be grim, but as for the
south's womanhood, their future has just begun. Women in the south may begin to
experience the recognition and equal respect that they so surely desire.
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