Reunification

I'm aware this is opening up a can of worms, but I am also absolutely of the belief that all forms of art, should generate social commentary and real life discussions. 

On to the discussion I hope to have:

I am intrigued by the fact that young people in South Korea are not interested in reunification with Nth Korea, but rather, see it as irrelevant to their lives and a costly pursuit in foreign affairs. 

I'm baffled by this view, simply from the perspective that this would FINALLY mean the end of the war.  And potentially an end to Compulsory Military Service.  This DIRECTLY affects Korean youth.

I am also vaguely aware that the governments of the day in SK, swing between SK-Japan relations and SK-NK relations.  I'm intrigued to see how much of a political stance or political commentary Tempest will actually pursue.

I would love to discuss any informed insights anybody has to offer!

it'd be amazing if this kdrama actually sparked a social discussion about it, but i doubt that's gonna happen… the us is way too entangled with south korea right now (the biggest example being just last week when south koreans were literally waving us flags in the streets… for such a nationalist country, that's kinda weird). i'm not surprised they went with a heavyweight cast (all veterans who definitely have the means to survive any backlash).

Does NK want reunification? KJU doesn’t want to be controlled—especially not by the west, and SK is controlled (somewhat) by the US. 

NK is currently a force to reckon with; Nuclear Weapons , they are always working on nukes, no one really knows how developed they are in that regard

Sure, we see images of impoverished scenes from NK but no one knows the full scale of their capabilities. 

 And frankly, economically SK and NK are worlds apart, reunifying will take decades to stabilise, and with how conservative NK is, whew 

 (I’m just an outsider and this is my view on this topic(

hi toot! considering the history between sk x japan, i don't believe they'd ever choose to side with japan and china just to push the US aside... also, for sk and nk, their war never actually ended, it just “paused,” since they weren't the ones who signed the so-called “peace” agreement; it was the US and another country (i can't remember exactly, maybe china or some european country, as usual). that's also why, even today, they're still not really “good” with each other. now, looking at the current history and recent events, i still think sk has a long way to go if they ever want to remove US influence from their territory. honestly, i find it really hard to imagine, not only because of how much the US has shaped their culture in the past years (kdramas aren't the same anymore, their music is heavily american-influenced, and even the korean language is full of english words now), but also because of all the US military bases there. 

maybe at some point south koreans will start to rethink and want to distance themselves from the US, but it won't be that easy  (the US won't let go). plus, there's the messy sk x japan history and china's terrible image in global media (certainly under US influence). it's really a shame. i honestly believe a unified korea would be the best for everyone, and it would make them stronger.

 Toot:

I'm aware this is opening up a can of worms, but I am also absolutely of the belief that all forms of art, should generate social commentary and real life discussions. 

On to the discussion I hope to have:

I am intrigued by the fact that young people in South Korea are not interested in reunification with Nth Korea, but rather, see it as irrelevant to their lives and a costly pursuit in foreign affairs. 

I'm baffled by this view, simply from the perspective that this would FINALLY mean the end of the war.  And potentially an end to Compulsory Military Service.  This DIRECTLY affects Korean youth.

I am also vaguely aware that the governments of the day in SK, swing between SK-Japan relations and SK-NK relations.  I'm intrigued to see how much of a political stance or political commentary Tempest will actually pursue.

I would love to discuss any informed insights anybody has to offer!

Late but thanks for opening this discussion into something I’ve been noticing and tracking from the time Netflix entered the KDrama market (and almost immediately made things worse which caught my attention although I didn’t quite understand why) during the early Cvid years when KDrama viewing spiked in the west. Today we’re at Tempest back by Disney and a character’s assertion that “china prefers war”, the complete opposite of reality - historical and contemporary, is stimulating negative real world impressions on China/Korean relations bringing us full circle.

Since the country was partitioned by US invasion to stop the momentum towards a socialist Korea, South Korea has been an occupied territory of the US. That means it’s entire education system, it’s politics - even the South Korean military is under US control any time it enters a war - and every aspect of its culture is shaped by US imperialist domination for over 70 years.

That still wasn’t enough to stop South Koreans from wanting to be reunited with their family members in the north, and to end the war (the scuppering by ordinary South Koreans of the attempted American backed coup - by former President Yoon last year, aimed to launch a war on North Korea is evidence of that) and as authentic anti-capitalist Korean filmmaking like Parasite and Squid Game finally got mainstream attention in the US Netflix had to rush to South Korea to directly influence the productions coming out of South Korea at source, not primarily for profit but to subvert those narratives. Specifically anything *meaningfully* anti-capitalist, sympathetic to Korean unification, pro-sovereignty for South Korea, or pro-socialist (aka pro-China).

Subverting and making more conservative and reactionary any consistent narratives coming out of South Korea cultural protection, while maintaining the aesthetics people have come to associate with “progressive” politics isn’t only psychologically targeting South Koreans but also American citizens(the most highly and effectively propagandised people on the planet) because they’re the most dominant voices on the internet/pop culture. They will then help sway other NATO members annd partners. Intensifying the anti-China sentiments of these targets of cognitive warfare will help enormously to manufacture consent for any illegitimate war against China to bring down its development.

Don’t want to go on too long but for more detail Samantha Youssef as a Hollywood insider has been doing some good work as a public intellectual helping people to understand the relationship between Hollywood (investment patterns, psychological techniques etc) and the capitalist, military, academic industrial complex of empire: https://www.studio-technique.com/blog/2025/8/20/conversations-on-blockbuster-hollywood

PS: This is part of why  one might notice  signs in English in Asian countries the US regime change industrial complex is targeting for destruction via “freedom and democracy/anti-corruption/LGBT/women’s rights” NGOs (Nepal, Sri Lanka, Syria, Arab Spring, Iran, Ukraine and other Color revolutions in Eastern Europe for eg) as that’s part of the highly sophisticated cognitive warfare on the ground to get local people to act against their own national interests and reflect this manufactured consent back to citizens in NATO countries, in order to mobilise their empathy in support of a march to war.

@toot 

“That's a very interesting take, and not the history I learned”.

Haa that’s what I learned too over three degrees in IR and war studies up to PhD level.  But who’s in control of Korea and its military at war is still in the constitution so can be verified.  If you live in a coloniser state or have been formerly formally colonised that’s the history we all have learned and rarely question.

“It is on record and there's pretty good consensus, that the Korean War began with NthK invading the Sth in 1950, with Soviet support.” Again the western spin but not the actual history.

It’s sort of like how now that many who lived through the war are dying out European research shows populations of the main western European countries that took part in World War II now believe that World War II was won primarily by the liberal capitalist democracies of the European allies rather than by overwhelmingly the Communists of the Soviet Union and of China. So the revisionism is what most people alive believe, have been taught and accept but it’s not the facts of history (The same research done among Germans, French, British after the war showed the direct opposite - that’s the work of revisionist propaganda not facts).  Same with the Korean invasion by the US with the backing of the UN.

“I can understand why there is a pervasive belief that SK is a "Vassal State" of USA, but I don't agree.” The fact that SK does not have literal sovereignty IS the reason the country is divided and still at war. It is Not up to North Korea or South Korea by themselves but there remains considerable struggle for and against this principle (Japan the same).  That’s what Yoon’s almost-coup was about and now a new  SK President that is pro unification and wants to be closer to China, sustains that internal conflict - hence increased propaganda against these principles and against facts. If South Korea was in charge of its own government, they could simply make steps towards unity as most of the population on both sides want but the context of US imperialism means its by no means as simple as that.

“It does beg the question, who in South Korea, benefits from this propaganda? Which hopefully leads us back to the Reunification question.” Doesn’t benefit anyone in Korea as it’s not designed to. It’s not for Koreans’ own interests but for the benefit of empire. Many North and South Koreans are still resisting the war propaganda.

NODUTDOL https://usoutofkorea.org and Qiao Collective https://www.qiaocollective.com are independent organisations doing some good work in English enlightening outsiders on what is a complex and often confusing situation with documentary sources of the facts and history (such as US documents recognising Taiwan as a region of China while speaking about as “an independent country threatened by invasion from China” in U.S. public statements, US media, US school/university educational materials. Same happens with the history, armistice and ongoing Korean War. There have been months of anti government protests against the U.S. backed Yoon Presidency but  censored and never shown on western media - same for protests against the governing party in Taiwan.  

The links I shared earlier are from scholars who focus on the role of Media in Manufacturing Consent for War since we were addressing Tempest and reunification politics which are foundational to addressing the question.

@ Toots 

“Can you give me some references for what is "...the actual history?" I gave some websites at the end of my reply that do a very thorough job of cataloguing by subject area the laws, treaties, documents and articles etc. you’re interested in . If it’s not there, I’ll try to find it for you.

“I too have multiple degrees and a Masters.  Many of us have degrees.  I don't need anyone to use their education to justify their statements”. The point is not for showing off is it to say that this is something that after a decades long career in the field preceded by more than a decade in structured education on the specific issue of war/conflict at some of the best educational and research institutions in western Europe and North America it still takes working and travelling in dozens of the countries that we are discussing to realise there is something wrong with our analysis and maybe some more time of digging and thinking before we’re able to understand how much we didn’t understand. Not to say you don’t have multiple degrees.

“I think you missed my point re the propaganda I referenced.  SK media creating propaganda about China, definitely benefits Yoon's ideology.” Yoon is no longer in power and even if he were the propaganda that he would support is not in the interest of his country which is why his people acted to remove him and replace him with someone that does not agree with his mission - that is a new president who’s pro-unity and pro Korean sovereignty which they do not yet have in practice. Netflix and Disney funded Kdramas are going to be very much in line with the rest of the US military industrial entertainment complex and Against the interests of Koreans,  that’s the point I’ wanted to make.

“I just need a clarification. Are you suggesting that reunification 'benefits empire' and does not benefit the Korean people?” Sorry, I was unclear; unification would definitely benefit the Korean people since that is their wish and not to have a protracted Korean War which is officially still on, or the prospect of war  - likely inclusive of nuclear war, with their own family members constantly hanging over their heads.

And by 'empire' what do you mean exactly? Wow huge question; short answer: Empire or imperialism is premised on denial of or usurpation of sovereignty to peoples/countries subjugated by this relationship. We tend to think about imperialism in the classic sense of Britain going to China flooding it with opium (opium wars) defeating it in several skirmishes and taking as it’s reward several parts of China where it controlled money going in and out of that territory, exploited the land and resources, enslaved the people for its own benefit etc. But even after that classical kind of imperialism was generally (never 100%) dislodged after the end of WW2, imperial relations continue to exist involving the coercive use of denial of sovereignty to orient the subjugated people, their lands, resources and labour towards servicing the interests of the usurping entity. Whether systemically imperial or directly one-on-one colonial both imposed relations are intended to produce almost identical results.

This is not only done militarily - this is now somewhat of a last resort, but through the control of access to capital, of prices, tariffs, debt traps, access to technology as well as ultimate recourse to wars and genocides, And also ideological control of knowledge and of knowledge generation - of what is legitimate, what is historical fact, what meanings do we make of facts/history, what is just etc. Empire requires a monopoly on these things in order to survive.

The last aspect in the list is where empire’s media propaganda comes in which is why Hollywood (Netflix, Disney etc) are extending themselves into places like South Korea and even Nollywood in West Africa which were producing wildly popular alternative narratives. It’s why we grew up having sympathy for the settlers in American Western movies but dread when the indigenous people kill their colonisers - the facts are clear but how we are indoctrinated to *feel* about the facts and strongly motivated to defend “consensus” representations and interpretations of those facts, is another thing altogether. It is done so well, we are not usually aware.  Same with Palestine and other anti-imperialist liberation movements who are understood by this same manufactured consensus as violent religious terrorists, in what the empire calls the “Middle East”.

If empire can maintain cultural monopoly - monopolies on interpretation via education, on information via important trad and new/social media ( from BBC to Twitter) for example, it might not even have to fire a single shot. Multipolarity (a world of no hegemon but all sovereigns) with no monopoly on narratives is a threat to empire in every sphere.