North Korea outlives America

Courtesy of Franzisko Hauser

By David A. Tizzard

Governments, nations, borders and cultures flow in and out of existence. They emerge and flourish amid waves of hope and triumph. They perish as bodies age and congregations decline. Some fade into irrelevance while others suffer unimaginable tragedies. Thus has it ever been: the stark inevitability of the human experience. The forever rise and fall of nations.

It's commonplace to project a sense of the eternal onto countries and organizations as if to provide greater legitimacy. And the younger we are, the more we take the idea of the state for granted. Yet political entities millions once called home have fallen off the map, split up, changed names, been taken over or had their recognition denied. Bohemia, Czechoslovakia, Persia, Prussia, the Ottoman Empire, Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union are all gone. Taiwan and Tibet face a daily struggle, while Palestine's reality is debated in chambers of diplomatic authority. Parallel to all this has been the creation of 34 new countries since 1990.

The world map of 2121 will no doubt look different in many ways to our current incarnation. In what ways things will unfold, one cannot tell. Bearded "tankies" will talk of rising socialist blocs while suited neo-cons will sell books proclaiming the inevitability of China's demise (again). Liberals and cosmopolitans will create visions of global states shaped in their image alone and permitting no dissent. Anthropologists will bemoan the loss of cultures and peoples amidst rapid urbanization and gentrification. Nationalists in Scotland and Catalonia recite Wallace and Francesc Macia.

But there's a possibility that few consider: North Korea surviving longer than the United States. Imagine looking at a map in 2121 and seeing North Korea still there nestled between China and its southern counterpart, but no America as we currently experience it. Do not take this image as promotion; I offer it merely as a possibility. Could North Korea survive another century? Absolutely it could. It has come through the 20th century amid great international hostility, opposition and sanctions, and emerged with a relatively modern capital city and nuclear weaponry. Despite the world's super power being openly opposed to any of these developments, Pyongyang has established itself as a member of the United Nations, a sporadic representative at various Olympics and World Cups, and the producer of its own political system and culture. It has also committed fragrant acts of international terrorism and imprisoned many of its citizens.

The United States shares the last two in common to some degree. But it has fared much better with its cultural products, sporting prowess and military conflicts (despite its rather sketchy record since the end of WWII). But where once a clear and proud culture demanded that the world pay heed to its shining example of a city on a hill, now it looks internally and asks itself if there is a single identity remaining. Or is there merely internal opposition, division, growing social cleavages, economic inequality and multiple societies wracked with drugs and guns? It also seems to have a problem handing over power to subsequent generations choosing instead continually to elevate those in their 70s and 80s to the highest positions in the land.

There is forever a tension between freedom and order: A nation cannot have both at the same time and so must choose. It is quite possible that the United States' greatest strengths ― its focus on individuality and freedom ― will in the long run prove to be its weaknesses. Conversely, the perceived horrors of the North Korean system with its totalitarian approach to thought and ideas might turn out to be a positive attribute in terms of its survival (if not in the rights of its citizens). Because of that totalitarian approach as well as popular media's representations, many of my international students see North Korea as a puzzle to be solved. It holds a great fascination, as they believe if only people would look at the country in the right way, the political conundrum that has existed for the past 70 years would finally be solved. And they might just be the ones to do it. But North Korea is not a puzzle to be solved by other people. And why are similar visions not applied to the States?

I do not advocate a future world containing North Korea in the east and a reimagined set of divided entities on the North American continent similar to how they stood two and a half centuries ago. But I do not rule out the possibility. And one does not need the greatest of imaginations to foresee how this all might play out should the cards continue to fall in a certain way. There is a world in which North Korea outlives America. Whether it is this world or another, we will have to wait and see.

Dr. David A. Tizzard (datizzard@swu.ac.kr) has a Ph.D. in Korean Studies. He is a social/cultural commentator and musician who has lived in Korea for nearly two decades. He is also the host of the Korea Deconstructed podcast, which can be found online. The views expressed in the article are the author's own and do not reflect the editorial direction of The Korea Times.