![Korean nationalism has not only energized the North's march to nuclear armament, but also exerted a growing appeal on people in the South - the ideological discourse of which republic has received even less attention than the North's. The average American knows only that in the 1980s liberal democracy replaced authoritarianism here [in South Korea]. (Brian Reynolds Myers)](https://cdn.quotesdtb.com/img/quotes_images_webp/03/brian-reynolds-myers-american-868203.webp)
Korean nationalism has not only energized the North's march to nuclear armament, but also exerted a growing appeal on people in the South - the ideological discourse of which republic has received even less attention than the North's. The average American knows only that in the 1980s liberal democracy replaced authoritarianism here [in South Korea].
Brian Reynolds MyersRelated topics
attention growing less march nationalism nuclear 1980s authoritarianism Korean KoreaRelated quotes
Judging from the yin-yang flag's universal popularity in South Korea, even among those who deny the legitimacy of the Republic of Korea, it evidently evokes the [Korean] race first and the [South Korean] state second. There is therefore none of the parodying or deliberate desecration of the [South Korean] state flag that one encounters in the countercultures of other countries.
Brian Reynolds Myers
A major problem is the characterization of the government in Seoul as liberal, as if it were no less committed to constitutional values and opposed to totalitarianism than the West German social democrats were in the Cold War. This makes Westerners think, "North Korea can't take over the South without a war, but it knows it can't win one, therefore it must now be arming only to protect itself."
Brian Reynolds Myers
I grew up as a fifth-generation Jew in the American South, at the confluence of two great storytelling traditions. After graduating from Yale in the 1980s, I moved to Japan. For young adventure seekers like myself, the white-hot Japanese miracle held a similar appeal as Russia in 1920s or Paris in the 1950s.
Bruce Feiler
There's the assumption being made by the national security advisers to the Obama administration that the North Korean leadership is not suicidal, that they know they will be obliterated if they attacked the United States. But I would point that everything in South Korea and Japan is well within range of what they might want to do.
Oliver North
By forbearing to march behind the yin-yang flag at the opening ceremony of the Olympics, the South Korean athletes are making a bigger sacrifice than the North Koreans, in whose iconography the banner of the DPRK ranks lower than the party standard, which in turn ranks much lower than the Supreme Commander's standard, the flag of the personality cult.
Brian Reynolds Myers