SEOUL, Oct. 21 (UPI) -- Has the word unification ever been this frozen? There was a time when politicians, citizens and students spoke it without hesitation. Today, however, unification has become an uncomfortable word.
The North proclaims itself to be a complete and sovereign state, while the South, in response, speaks of a "de facto two-state" reality. The Korean Peninsula remains divided, but in the realm of language, a deeper fracture has already set in -- the hardening of a divided spirit.
At this frozen linguistic frontier, two men stand face to face. One declared that unification is unnecessary; the other cried out that without unification there can be no peace. They are Unification Minister Chung Dong-young and Hyun Jin Preston Moon.
The two-state debate: Chung's conviction
On Aug. 14, at Seoul's Lotte Hotel, a civic organization hosted a banquet commemorating the eve of National Liberation Day. In his congratulatory address, Chung spoke boldly of what he called the "irrelevance of unification."
