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The cover of “Divided Minds,” by Kim Seong-gyeong

The division of South and North Korea has remained a hot topic not only for domestic politics but for the international community over the past 70 years. North Korea’s missile launches and nuclear tests have raised international tensions. But while other countries have fretted over the threat of war on the Korean Peninsula, people in South Korea have peacefully gone about their daily lives. Foreign news outlets have often published footage of North Korea’s provocations side by side with images of Seoul’s vibrant streets.

Analyzing Korea’s “mental division,” author Kim Seong-gyeong focuses on the attitudes of South Koreans and their emotional distance from the inter-Korean divide. In some respects, this insensitivity represents a psychological defense mechanism to escape an irresolvable fear. At the same time, this can also be a source of insensitivity when it comes to peace: “Those who cannot perceive what the problem is find it nearly impossible to fathom what a peaceful state would be.”

Hostility toward North Korea represents the other side of the division-insensitivity coin. Trumped-up espionage cases under dictatorial administrations, political and social discontent being labeled as “communist,” North Korean conspiracy theories that have mostly faded but continue to rage in fringe groups such as the Taegukgi rallies -- all these phenomena represent ideologies and collective emotions underpinning core aspects of South Korean society.

According to the author, many of the interactions that South Koreans engage in “more or less unthinkingly” in their daily lives are “actually forms of practice taking place under the ‘norm’ of division.” As examples, he mentions “the tendency toward compliance with authorities and hierarchy, the tendency for distinctions of ‘us and them’ within groups, behaviors rooted in military culture due to the conscription system, the excessively collectivist consciousness, a rigidly patriarchal culture, and inherent sexual violence.” The author suggests that these “divided minds” are unlikely to undergo any fundamental changes unless the division is structurally dissolved. Conversely, he predicts that the societal structures associated with division can only be broken down when “division feelings” such as insensitivity, hostility, and hatred are replaced with sympathy and solidarity.

By Kim Eun-hyoung, staff reporter

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