South Korea Starts Internet Channel To Inform Young People About the North
South Korea has started a new Internet television channel aimed at informing its young generation about North Korea and what they will be expecting if and when the two countries unite. The new TV channel shows news reports and press conferences as well as light entertainment.
However , many South Koreans, especially those born after the Korean War, are not interested in North Korea. They have other things on their minds, like getting a good education and a good job. It is doubtful whether South Koreans’ attitude towards the North will be changed by the new internet channel.
The new website is supported by the government. It wants young people to get to know more about North Korea, which is considered a country far away by many Southerners. One highlight is a sitcom about a South Korean family who lives near the North Korean border. One day they adopt a young North Korean who escapes from his home country.
A government spokesman claims that the political situation in the North can change at any time and South Koreans need to understand what this will mean for them. The South Korean government believes that reunification will not come because the governments of the two countries will reach an agreement but because the political system of the North will eventually collapse.
Economical experts claim that the cost of reunification will be high and estimate that South Korea will have to pay over $100 b dollars to integrate the two economies. The government’s new Internet channel explains how this money may be used.
Some young people in South Korea, on the other hand, have already started to deal with the situation. They think that a collapse of the regime in the North will have enormous implications on life in South Korea. A stream of refugees will undoubtedly move southwards to a country that has become one of Asia’s major economies in the last few decades.
Older South Koreans have a different view on the issue. They think that the two Korean states belong together and should never have been separated. North Korea, on the other side, has reacted angrily after the government announced the launch of its new internet channel. It claims that South Korea wants to destabilize the North with psychological warfare.
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Words
- adopt = to take a young person into your family
- agreement = promise to do something, made by two people, groups or countries
- aim = for special people
- announce = to say officially
- attitude = position, feelings
- border = line between two countries
- channel = a station that broadcasts programs
- claim = to say that something is true
- collapse = break down
- considered = thought to be
- deal with = think about
- decade = a period of ten years
- destabilize = to make a government less powerful
- doubtful = not sure
- economy = the system of money and production of goods in a country
- enormous = very big
- escape = get away from
- especially = above all
- estimate = guess
- eventually = slowly
- explain = show
- government = people who rule a country
- highlight = here: important program
- however = but
- implication = future effect
- integrate = bring together
- issue = topic
- launch = start
- light entertainment = films, shows , performances that are easy to understand
- major = very big
- psychological warfare = actions that make your enemies feel afraid
- react = answer
- refugee = person who has to leave their country because of conflicts, wars or disasters
- regime = government that is not elected by the people
- reunification = when two countries come together again
- separate = divide
- sitcom = funny television program with the same characters appearing in different situations every week
- spokesman = a person who presents the opinion of a government or company
- state = country
- stream = long line of
- support = help, finance
- undoubtedly = certainly
- unite = to become one country
- whether = if