"katy" wrote in message
...

Our oldest son is a professor of English in Pusan (Busan) and has a Korean
wife. His take is that whatever we here in the States know about Korea is
corrupted by the American press. When we have called, concerned about
something that has happened over there, he almost always laughs and says
"Why do you believe that crap on the news? It's all propoganda." And you
are correct..the average S. Korean does want reunification. The reason,
though, is that they want the cheap labor that N. Korea would afford them.

That sounds logical, if cynical. Some close friends of ours are Korean,
visit Seoul often, and report that the younger generation is quite liberal
and anti-US in an ideological sense. Their interest in cheap labor is
non-existent. The big businesses, such as Samsung, Hyundae, Daewoo, etc.,
probably want the cheap labor. And I'm sure the North Koreans would love to
have the jobs and the incomes. Most of them, outside the military, are
starving and living in abject poverty.

When we've asked my daughter-in-law if they would ever consider moving
back here, she smiles and shakes her head. They could not have the
lifestyle here on a professor's salary that they do there. She has a
nanny for the kids and a full time housekeeper...if N. Koreans were let
in, says she, she would be able to get help for even less than they pay
now but would stuill be paying those people more than they have ever made
before.

I believe that completely.

Max