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Comment By Washington Post MailTribune.com By Washington Post Posted Dec. 6, 2014 at 10:00 AM By Washington Post Posted Dec. 6, 2014 at 10:00 AM » Social News GYEONGJU, South Korea — Concepts like political repression, debilitating hunger and torture are difficult for tweenage girls to grasp. But rules stipulating that their skirts must be at least knee-length? Restrictions on how long they can grow their hair? Now that gets their attention. Here in the ancient capital of the Shilla kingdom, one of the realms of a fractured Korean Peninsula more than a millennium ago, about 120 students from a nearby middle school recently went on a field trip with a difference: They were learning about piecing together the current fractured peninsula. At this "unification camp" run by an educational institute attached to the South Korean unification ministry, the 12- and 13-year-olds thought about what kinds of jobs there would be when the two Koreas reunite, they did art projects related to unification, and they watched a comedic skit in which a North Korean woman fell in love with a South Korean man. They shrieked when the couple lowered an umbrella in front of them and then wiped their smiling lips when they took it away. But they also got a glimpse into just how different the two halves can be — when one, the North, regulates even personal appearance. "The purpose of this camp is to raise leaders after unification," said Kim Jun-hee of the institute. "These are the people who will live in the time of a unified Korea so we're trying to get them to think about unification." This is a huge change in the way South Koreans are taught to think about their estranged neighbors. Ask any group of 40-year-old South Koreans what they learned about North Korea in elementary school and they will recount stories of being told to draw pictures of red devils with horns and to write the words "I hate communists." North Korea is a complicated issue for South Koreans, who share the same blood and language and traditions but who, after almost 70 years of division, live very different realities. Those in the North live in the world's most highly repressed state, and hunger remains part of most people's daily existence. In the South, people use their smartphones as credit cards and it's hard to walk a city center block without encountering some kind of protest. Older Southerners generally remember the pain of the war or the pain of separation, but younger ones seldom feel they have much in common with the people in the North, and worry about the cost of reunification on their high-tech, consumerist lifestyles. The 27,000-odd North Korean defectors who live in the South describe having to learn about foreign concepts such as bank accounts and the Internet, and frequently talk about feeling as if they're viewed as country bumpkins. But at the unification camp, Lee Sol-mi and Lee Ji-min, two unrelated 21-year-old defectors who are both studying for the South Korean equivalent of the GED, were greeted with nothing but curiosity when they took to the stage to answer the girls' questions during the "Meeting with North Korean friends" session. What surprised them most about South Korea? Electricity all day long. Could they marry for love? It's possible. What about makeup? Chinese products were available, but expensive. The girls gasped in shock at many of the answers. Asked about the television programs they watched in North Korea, Lee Sol-mi responded that there was only one channel and all the dramas related in some way to the ruling Kim family. She cited one show called "Red Sorghum," in which people go out into the fields to contribute to agricultural production. That was a sharply different plotline from the numerous soap operas made in the South, which invariably involve a lot of relationship-related melodrama. The differences became more stark when the girls asked about their favorite foods in North Korea. On any night of the week in the South, young people can be seen huddling in groups around an extravagant delicacy called pat-bing-su: a mountain of shaved ice topped with soft-serve ice cream, red beans and various fruits. But what did the defectors answer? Lee Sol-mi said she missed North Korean sweet potatoes, while Lee Ji-min talked about fake soybean meat. What about the famous Pyongyang cold noodle dish? Neither of the defectors, both of whom are from outlying provinces, had ever tried it, although Lee Sol-mi said they sometimes had noodles made from corn — a poor substitute — at home. Throughout, the girls giggled and threw their arms around each other, and fixed their hair in their cellphone reflections. Things took a more serious turn when Lee Ji-min talked about her time in a Thai prison as she made her journey from North to South Korea. Even though the defectors were speaking Korean, Lee Chan-mi, the moderator, was acting as a kind of translator throughout the session — not of language but of culture. She explained how brokers helped defectors cross the North Korean border into China, how the rations system worked — or rather, didn't work. She also sought to minimize the differences, pointing out that just a couple of decades ago, South Korea also regulated hairstyles and that Seoul indulges in its own kind of propaganda. (Speaking good of the North is still technically a crime on this half of the peninsula.) Eating lunch — french fries and pork cutlets — after the session, the students expressed surprise about what the North Korean defectors had to say, especially when it came to hair and makeup. "It made them feel more real," said Lee Kyung-min, a 13-year-old in a blue hoodie. "I've seen North Korean defectors on TV, but I've never met one in person." Another 13-year-old, Kwon Min-ji, added: "I had only negative thoughts about North Korea and the North Korean system before, but I like them more now." That was the whole point of the camp. "We want to focus on the fact that normal, ordinary people live in North Korea, because many South Korean people don't know anything about North Korea," said Kim of the unification ministry's educational institute. It didn't matter if the discussion highlighted the differences as much as the similarities, Kim said. "Understanding and accepting the differences counts as progress," she said. "We are trying to narrow the gap." But the gap narrowed only so far. The girls all said they hoped for unification, but, asked how they would feel if a long-lost relative suddenly knocked on their apartment door and wanted to be taken in, they paused. That would be going a bit far, they said. By Washington Post MailTribune.com By Washington Post Posted Dec. 6, 2014 at 10:00 AM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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