Soludo Calls For Unity In Building Nigeria

A Nation Divided by Lines Not of Its Own Making

Emeka Chiaghanam   

October 1985. A frail, white-haired woman presses her face against the cold glass of a reunion center. Her trembling fingers trace the reflection of a man she hasn’t seen in 35 years. When the doors finally open, she collapses into his arms, weeping in a language only they understand, the dialect of a homeland that no longer exists.

If you think this is fiction, bury the thought. This is the lived reality for millions of Koreans, severed from their own flesh and blood by a border drawn in someone else’s war.

For centuries, Korea was one, united by blood, language, and a culture that survived invasions, dynasties, and colonial rule. Then, in 1945, with a single stroke of a pen, it was split in two. Not by Koreans, but by foreign powers who saw a peninsula not a people.

Today, the dream of reunification flickers like a candle in the wind. Dim, yes, but never extinguished.

I’ve asked myself this countless times: Could North and South Korea ever become one again? And if they did, what would that mean for the families still waiting? For the soldiers still guarding an armistice line that was never meant to be permanent?

Let’s journey beyond politics, beyond headlines, into the human heartbeat of Korea’s greatest unanswered question.

How Korea Was Torn in Two

August 15, 1945. Japan surrenders, ending 35 years of brutal occupation in Korea. Freedom, at last. But it’s a fractured freedom.

The Allies, mainly the U.S. and the Soviet Union, decide Korea needs “temporary” oversight. They draw a line at the 38th parallel. The Soviets take the North. The Americans take the South.

What was meant to be temporary? Became permanent.

By 1948, two rival governments form:

• North Korea: A communist dictatorship under Kim Il Sung, backed by Moscow.

• South Korea: A capitalist democracy, supported by Washington.

Each claimed to be the true Korea. Each vowed to reunify the peninsula, by force, if necessary.

The Korean War: A Forgotten Battlefield of Global Powers

June 25, 1950, 3:00 AM. North Korean artillery shells rain down on the South. Tanks roll across the 38th parallel. Thus began the Korean War.

For three grueling years, the fighting rages. Seoul changes hands four times. The U.S., China, and the Soviet Union turn Korea into a proxy battlefield.

When the armistice is signed in 1953, it has left 2.5 million people dead. But there is no peace treaty.

Technically?

The war never ended.

Two Koreas. Two Worlds. One History.

South Korea: The Miracle on the Han River

Walk through Seoul, South Korea’s capital today, towering skyscrapers greets you,, neon-lit streets welcome, K-pop billboards embrace you. A global tech and culture powerhouse.

But beneath the glitz? Grief.

“My father crossed into the South during the war,” says Min-jun, a 72-year-old retiree. “He died waiting to see his brother again. Now, I’m the one waiting.”

North Korea: The Hermit Kingdom

Beyond the DMZ, the most fortified border on Earth, lies a nation frozen in time. The heavily guarded Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) stretches across the Korean Peninsula, close to the 38th parallel. It acts as a border separating North Korea and South Korea. It’s worth noting that agreement was made in 1953 to help prevent further fighting between North Korea and South Korea.

In Pyongyang, North Korea’s capital propaganda murals glorify the Kim dynasty. In rural villages, malnourished farmers bow before statues. The average North Korean is three inches shorter than their Southern counterpart, a stark legacy of famine and poverty.

Yet even here, the dream lingers.

“My grandmother told me about her sister in the South,” whispers a defector now living in Seoul. “She said if Korea unites, the first thing she’d do is visit her grave.”

The Impossible Dream? The Mounting Challenges of Reunification

1. The Political Chasm

One is a nuclear-armed dictatorship. The other, a flourishing democracy. .

• Kim Jong Un will never willingly surrender power. His late father Kim Jong Il nor his grandfather Kim Il Sung didn’t tinker with such idea.

• South Koreans will never accept tyranny. For a country that prioritizes freedom and supremacy of democracy over tyranny, it’s unthinkable.

Could these two systems coexist under one government? That’s unimaginable.

2. The Economic Abyss

• South Korea’s GDP: $1.8 trillion

• North Korea’s GDP: $32 billion (less than the U.S. state of Vermont)

Reunification would cost trillions. South Korea would need to:

• Rebuild North Korea’s infrastructure

• Feed 25 million malnourished citizens

• Integrate a workforce unfamiliar with capitalism

Would South Koreans tolerate higher taxes for decades?

3. The Cultural Divide

They still speak the same language, but not the same vocabulary.

• South Korea: Internet slang, English loanwords, globalized youth.

• North Korea: Stale 1950s jargon, propaganda phrases, complete isolation.

A defector once asked a Seoul teenager: “What’s a hamburger?”

4. The Global Chessboard

Wait a minute; Reunification is not just a Korean decision, it’s a geopolitical earthquake.

• China fears a U.S.-aligned Korea on its border.

• The U.S. won’t give up its military presence.

• Japan fears a united, nationalistic Korea.

But What If It Happened? A Vision of Reunification

1. The Emotional Reckoning

Picture this:

• Families reunited after 70 years.

• North Koreans seeing the ocean for the first time.

• Southern children meeting relatives they never knew existed.

The emotional healing would be historic.

2. An Economic Powerhouse?

• North Korea’s raw minerals + South Korea’s tech = a new industrial juggernaut.

• A single market of 80 million people.

• Direct land routes to China and Russia.

But the growing pains would be massive.

3. The End of the DMZ

A 160-mile scar could become:

• A nature reserve (it’s already home to endangered species).

• A monument to peace, Korea’s version of the Berlin Wall Memorial.

Is Reunification Possible?

Short answer: Not yet.

But history is full of surprises:

• 1989: No one saw the Berlin Wall falling.

• 2018: Kim Jong Un and Moon Jae-in shook hands at the DMZ.

The seeds exist.

• Young South Koreans are less hostile toward the North.

• Sanctions are squeezing Pyongyang.

• China’s patience is thinning.

One day, the dam may break.

The Dream Lives On

In a tiny apartment in Seoul, an old man keeps a faded photo of his sister. He was ten when war separated them.

He’s 81 now.

“I know she’s gone,” he says. “But if Korea unites, I’ll go north. Just to stand where she once stood.”

Reunification isn’t just about borders or politics.

It’s about a people who refuse to forget they were once whole.

Will it happen in our lifetime? Maybe not.

But the dream?

That will never die.