Article Analysis

The article describes how the relationship between North and South Korea has reached its worst point in many years this Tuesday. The connection was already strained due to the sinking of a South Korean warship and now it has reached a place where the South Korean president has renamed the North as its archenemy, and the North, in return, has severed its few remaining ties with the South.

The actions of both countries have been major—the North banned the South’s ships and airplanes from using its territorial waters and airspace, South Korea declared North Korea as its “principal enemy”, South Korea cut off trade with North Korea, etc. These two countries have been at war for over 50 years. There has never been a peace treaty between them and the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas is one of the world’s most heavily armed borders.

Correlation: A common term used in Human Geography is centrifugal, which describes a force that tears a country, or in this case two closely related countries, apart. This article directly shows how the differences between the two Koreas act as major centrifugal forces.

The main problem with North and South Korea deals with the differences in government. North Korea is currently a communist country while South Korea is a democracy. This major dissimilarity is what has created the problem, but the same problem can easily result from differences between religions, ethnicities, languages, culture, etc.

The idea that many cultural and political aspects can be centrifugal forces is one found in Human Geography. Apply: The article defined the relationship between North and South Korea as being at its worse point in many years.

In the future, I think there are only two things that could happen between these countries. First, things could get better and compromises could be found. Second, and the one I think is more likely to happen, the relationship between the Koreas will remain and stay the same, or our definition of “worse” will change.

Once barriers have been put up between two countries, especially on an issue as sensitive as a country’s entire government, it is very difficult to break those barriers down again and have cooperation. Other places that might face problems similar to this would be countries that are very close together but have very dissimilar cultures, including religion, language, and ethnicity.

These are the things that often cause conflict and disagreement between two countries or inside one country.