[Opinion] 2 Countries, 2 Movements

The Saemaul Movement, a movement for rural area development, balanced regional development, and awareness reform that started in 1970, laid a crucial foundation for the so- called “Han River Miracle.”

The movement became so famous that delegations from over 70 Southeast Asian, Middle Eastern and African countries visited Korea to learn about its successful development model.

Meanwhile, North Korea began a movement of its own, known as the Chunlima Movement, to increase production at the end of 1956. It failed to upgrade the North Korean economy due to its systematic limitations of not recognizing private properties.

But a high school textbook titled, “Modern and Contemporary Korean History” published by Keumsung Publishing claims that the Chunlima Movement “played a great role in developing [North Korea’s] socialist economy.” On the other hand, the textbook criticized the Saemaul Movement as being led by the government and a tool justifying the dictatorship of the Park Jung-hee government.

Other middle and high school textbooks play down the high economic growth of Korea during the Park regime as well, emphasizing the regime’s negative aspects, such as the dictatorship utilizing anti-communist sentiment and widening the gap between the rich and the poor.

Lee Seung-man’s efforts to build the country are also downplayed as mere efforts to secure the legitimacy of the regime, while at the same time, Kim Il-Sung’s purges of his political enemies are depicted as methods used to establish Korean communism.

Park Hyo-jong, a professor of Seoul National University, points out that some textbooks paint Korea’s industrialization and democratization, critical aspects of Korean contemporary history, as insignificant, while at the same time overemphasizing the division of the Korean peninsula. He said that he was concerned that there were many one-sided arguments in textbooks, which are for the future citizens of Korea, and are as important as the Constitution in many ways.

He adds that biased textbooks are often adopted as the official textbooks in schools thanks to the covert support of the teachers who are members of Korean teachers and education workers’ unions.

It is a relief that textbooks are not the only source of school education for students. Ogum High School in Seoul provides students with economic field classes led by sociology’s teachers, including Kwon Jae-won and Ham Sung-sik. The school’s Economic Tour Group, which is attended by more than twenty students and led by Ham, visits companies, markets and research institutes more than once a month. Kim Eun-ji, a student who participated in the tour, wrote, “On my way from the visit to Samsung Electronics, I developed a dream of becoming a product designer.” One wonders, what inspires North Korean students to develop their dreams?

Hong Kwon-hee, Editorial Writer, konihong@donga.com