{"product_id":"2940148137795","title":"A Focus on Costs, not Benefits, Dampens Koreans' Desire for Reunification","description":"While reunification remains South Koreans’ preferred method of ending the peninsula’s long division, Korean youth increasingly are contemplating alternatives, such as permanent separation.  Many consider North Korea another foreign country, albeit one whose inhabitants share language and ancestry.  Numerous factors underpin their changing attitude. Sixty years have passed since the Korean War sealed the frontier, reducing familial ties and other linkages with the North. Rapid increases in wealth, plus advances in communications and transportation, have brought South Korea closer to the West in mindset.  The strongest catalyst of anti-unification sentiment among ROK youth, however, is the monetary cost of unification, which could surpass $2 trillion.\u003cbr\u003eOvercoming anxieties that equate political union with impoverishment will require ROK decision makers to portray costs as investments and highlight reunification’s economic benefits – which will endure long after expenditures subside. Since a reunified Korea furthers long-term U.S. interests in northeast Asia, the United States should support the ROK effort.\u003cbr\u003e©Copyright 2014, Penny Hill Press, Inc.","brand":"Pennyhill Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47108653875440,"sku":"2940148137795","price":5.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940148137795_p0.jpg?v=1763697881","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940148137795","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}