After assassinating a Japanese leader, Kim Hyun Jun escapes the Japanese National Intelligence Office and reminisces the places where he and Choi Seung Hee made memories together. Sa Woo follows Seung Hee following Sun Hwa, who is in pursuit of Hyun Jun. As Hyun Jun is about to depart back to Korea, Vick takes Yuki hostage and demands the USB that Dr. Hong gave Hyun Jun.
Episode 7 discusses the possible reunification between the DPRK and ROK. In exchange for food and basic living needs, the DPRK would have to cease the production of their nuclear weapons. I was surprised to see that the president of the DPRK was leaning to agree to these terms because they already spend so much on their military instead of their people. I didn’t believe he would give in so easily. However, it wasn’t surprising to see Chul Young disagree to this decision. He didn’t want to surrender his power to the South Koreans or risk the dissolution of North Korean ideals. Through this we can see his sense of pride and nationalism. Although this agreement would be beneficial for the people of North Korea, many nationalists and other countries would protest against it for the sake of politics, thus highlighting the debate between focusing on humanitarian needs or military arms. When the two countries are seen meeting in secret, Japan and America start worrying about what they’re plotting. If both Koreas were to ever unite, I believe that China, Japan, Russia, and America would all become fearful of their potential nuclear power. While some might want peace among Koreans, in actuality creating a division may be key in stopping all countries from engaging in another world war. With such contrasting ways of living, keeping both Koreas separate could be better than inducing a power struggle on which way to lead the country.
ReplyDeleteThis episode links with the lecture given by Dr. Saeji on the DPRK. There is an obvious tension between the South Korean government and the North Koreans in a nuclear arms race throughout this drama thus far. During the middle of the episode, the South Korean president meets with a high ranking North Korean officer which alarms both neighbouring countries and the United States as this meeting was not known to the foreign countries. During this meeting, South Korea proposed the idea that North Korea stops their nuclear development and in return, they will assist the DPRK in opening up to the world and solve their domestic problems. In the drama, Kim Jong-Un is willing to accept this offer from the South Korean government and meet the demands of the South. This acceptance to reunification and dropping all nuclear programs contradicts what we learned in class. Kim Jong-Un would never drop these programs because he will lose control over his regime once he does it. The nuclear threat of the DPRK and his harsh dictator style government keeps both the world on their toes and his citizens in line. The only kind of reunification Kim Jong-Un seeks is having the whole Korean peninsula under his rule and not the other way around. The fact that he agrees in the drama to submit under South Korea is not feasible or realistic.
ReplyDeleteBoth Korea and Japan have been strongly influenced by the Confucian philosophy. Filial piety, is dominated in Confucianism in Korea. Filial piety is a virtue of respect towards one’s parents, and elders. In this episode, Yuki’s parents’ death caused her a lot of sadness. She couldn’t tell Hyoon joon what happened, instead she kept repeating papa, and mom. In Korean religions, the conceptual value between kilial piety and death related rituals was exercised since 1392 in Choson Korea. It has been considered as an ethical norm and the foundation of social order to demonstrate death related rituals. This norm of filial piety has been brought up many times in Iris. Hyoon joon drops tears, when he tended to remember something related to his parents. These tears symbolized not only the sadness, also his norm of filial piety.
ReplyDeleteI feel like the main “event” of this episode is very much on the possible reunification of North and South Korea. In this episode, we see South Korea attempting to persuade the North to unite with them and the North seems to be leaning towards that notion, with the consequence of dropping their military program. As Donny mentioned, this contradicts what we learned in class—that North Korea needs their military program to keep the world on edge. I also agree that the possibility of North Korea dropping their military program in real life is slim. However, in this episode we see that South Korea decided not to inform their allies about their plan. This makes makes me wonder whether there is already some consensus or agreement that South and North Korea reached without the rest of the world knowing about it.
ReplyDeleteSince a lot of my group mates talked about the possible reunification of North and South Korea in this episode, I will talk about the side story of the female characters. Sun Hwa's character becomes a little more complex in episode 7. After escaping and going back to Japan, Sun Hwa calls up Chul Young, to see if it's true that her family is dead. Chul Young doesn't deny it, so she hangs up. Chul Young immediately sends an agent after to eliminate her, in case she defects. I think that this scene would have made more sense if it happened before she left for South Korea, as it could be seen as her last straw. Her country has betrayed her multiple times, and she was finally done with them. The first time was when she was the one to blame for Yoon's assassination and having been put in jail, and the second and final straw was her family's death after Chul Young promised to protect them. This should've acted as a trigger for her to go to South Korea and help Hyun Joon out, as he cared more about her than her country. Her feelings for him is ironic in a way since Hyun Joon was the one who put her in this state. She did end up getting rid of the North Korean agent that was sent after her, but a stronger one is on his way as well. I look forward to seeing her relationship with North Korea entangle. On the other hand, she finally has another encounter with her love rival Seung Hee, and the action scene shows how strong and fierce they both are. The scene also showed how determined they both are in trying to win, as they both had their reasons. Sun Hwa wants to protect Hyun Joon from the NSS, because she knows that Hyun Joon went to seek revenge. She feels sympathetic towards him as well, as they are both in an abandoned state. As for Seung Hee, she is determined to win and find out where Hyun Joon is, and believes that he is still alive. Unfortunately, this fight ends with Sa Woo interfering, forcing Seung Hee to give up.
ReplyDeleteDepictions of North Koreans
ReplyDeleteWhat I appreciated until this point for this drama was the portrayal of the North Korean characters. They were not posed as overtly evil or good because there were bad and good guys in South Korea too. It suggests that IRIS is trying to diffuse negative images of North Koreans by depicting their characters with nuance--especially with episodes five through seven where there is a lot of focus on Sun Hwa. She is a woman who, despite her role a North Korean agent, sacrificed her freedom after the Yoon assassination to face a punishment, lost her family, and tried to gain what is lost by eliminating Hyun Jun (but fell in love, LOL). I feel that foreign popular media (TV shows/ films) that talks about North Korea are treading on thin ice since they usually work with North Korean stereotypes while IRIS has so far painted the characters with humanity. However, I was really thrown off with episode seven’s events with the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un, hinting his interests in working together with South Korea. Continuing with Donny’s comment with the contradiction, I was not sure whether to see this as the drama challenging the depictions of North Koreans and their leader as uncooperative or reigniting the discussion of reunification within the viewership as their personal hope.
In episode 7, we see a somewhat unexpected scene of three North Korean vehicles entering the South without any inspection. Then, the following scenes reveal a secret operation between two officials, one from the North and another from the South shaking hands in an atmosphere of agreement. This led me to think about the relationships between the North and the South especially after a lecture on DPRK. I am intrigued by the shift changes in the relations based on the leaders of each side of Korean peninsula. It also questions our near future and which direction we are heading in terms of a unified Korea and the aftermath. We learned about the changes happening in North Korea through the optional reading by R.Frank and how China is involved in reshaping North Korean economy. As mentioned in class, the South's policy toward North has been on a downhill since president Kim Dae Joong and Noh Moo Hyung and their sunshine policy. Are we just reinforcing the impossibility of reunification? what must it take for us to hope for a unified Korea? do we really want a unified KOrea? what could it look like/ are some of the questions that may be asked for fruitful discussion.
ReplyDeleteIn this episode, I found it interesting how the drama portrayed North Korea. In the early scenes of the episode, there is a call between Sun-hwa and Chul-young about her family getting killed because Sun-hwa failed her mission. Chul-young was supposed to protect Sun-hwa's family and promised Sun-hwa that he would but very much like what we learned from the DPRK that there are no exceptions or special treatments. Chul-young then proceeds after the call to tell his subordinate to go find her and kill her, worrying about the information that she might leak since she feels betrayed by the country. That is why in the Unification scene that all my group mates have been talking above didn't seem like it would be a possible outcome. I find that DPRK is a country that has pride in being isolated and not allying with other countries, being dependent on themselves rather than others. This is a lot like what Dr. Saeji mentioned in class about how families are at fault if they can't support themselves rather than it being the government's fault.
ReplyDeleteMelissa and Donavan, Yes, it's not that realistic, is it? But in 2009 can you blame Koreans for sort of dreaming that this might happen? That the new leader could put the people first? I don't think Kim's name is used, either. So this is 'a' leader, not the leader.
ReplyDeleteShengjie, I don't know why you're talking about Confucianism in reference to the death of the Japanese teenager Yuki's parents. Filial piety is much bigger than Confucianism, it is instinct, culture, love-- do you think that ANY person from ANY country would have been less traumatized by the death of their parents? Why is Confucianism your explanation for how Yuki or Hyeonjun feels?
Karisa, I hope so. If it's a good one, that is. Sometimes leaders do the right thing, after all. Look at de Klerk in South Africa.
Rachel, so an interior analysis of the character's motivations-- but isn't all this a bit obvious? How can you make this a deeper analysis?
Karen, There is a lot of media that depicts people from the north in a humanistic way. Gojijeon, Welcome to Dongmakgeol, JSA, Swiri and other major movies are good examples. Def. JSA most of all. Also, Seonhwa falling in love with Hyeonjun-- LOL for me, too.
Good questions, Jiyong. Do we want a re-unified Korea? So many don't, anymore. Does this drama convince with the rationale that the leader of the DPRK will protect the people, surrendering personal power? After all, one of the only ways reunification can happen is if it is on the type of conditions we see here-- peaceful and under the gov't of the south, not the north, not changing the south's political system, just subsuming the north. 노무현= official English spelling Roh Moohyun.
Byeonghan, good point. The drama portrays a schizophrenic north-- they're supposed to be ready to reunify at the same time that any deviation from the existing governmental style is still punishable by death-- very different than in the south.