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THE PLAYERS - SOUTH KOREAUntil the 1980s, South Koreans yearned for reunification with North Korea, but that changed after the German reunification of 1989. At the time if its reunification, West and East Germany were respectively much stronger economically than South and North Korea are today. East Germany was the powerhouse of the East European economy, and the income gap between West and East Germany was only 4:1. Yet the economic burden of rebuilding the former East Germany staggered the reunified Germany and the rest of Europe for a decade. The current income gap between South and North Koreas is 18:1. North Korea is bankrupt, its infrastructure is obsolete, its technology and labor forces are decades behind the rest of the world. Even if reunification could be achieved peacefully, rebuilding the North will cost South Korea at least 15-20 years and much of its wealth. With that realization and as the pre-war generation continues to die out, neither the South Korean government nor the majority of its people now favor reunification in the near future and is leery of anything that could destabilize North Korea to implode, let alone launch another war. Today, the South Korea's government will fly out and grant citizenship to North Koreans who make it to its embassy or those of nations with which it has diplomatic ties. But it will not help North Koreans reach those embassies, the entrances to which are now heavily guarded by the Chinese police. What about the South Korean Christians? Many South Korean Christians today live in or travel to northeast China to feed the North Koreans, buy back North Korean women from sexual slavery, and keep escape routes open, as well as teach the Gospel and equip those who wish to return to North Korea as missionaries. But too few of them volunteer for the task at hand. As in the rest of the developed world, Christianity in South Korea is dominated by health and prosperity false teaching. True disciples willing to serve Christ, let alone risk danger, are a sadly small fraction of the 14 million church goers in South Korea today. |