Dr. Hiroki Takeuchi, a SMU assistant professor, discusses the future of the Korean peninsula during a panel discussion Tuesday night. (Sidney Hollingsworth/The Daily Campus)

The Korean Peninsula is a region of contradictions.

After the peninsula was split into the areas that currently make up North and South Korea in 1945, the nation-states have moved in two different directions.

A panel composed of Dr. Hiroki Takeuchi, a SMU assistant professor, Chong Choe, the chair of the Korean American Coalition and Brian Park of the National Advisory Council discussed the past, present and future of the Korean Peninsula on Tuesday.

After the split, South Korea became one of the world’s greatest economic powers while North Korea became a totalitarian state with a monumental food crisis.

“Koreans were the same people for more than 5000 years. They speak the same language and shared the same culture,” Park said.

With the rise of communism in North Korea and further militarization under Kim Jong-Il, the nation became especially important to world affairs.

“The issue of nuclear development in North Korea is the most troubling,” Takeuchi said. “While the rise of China and the Taiwan Strait issue are on balance because of a strong economic relationship, North Korea is crucial to the future of East Asia.”

Under Kim Jong-Il, North Korea developed nuclear weapons. Since then, the country has continuously agitated its neighbor to the south.

A South Korean island was attacked by the Kim Jong-Il regime on Nov. 23, 2010.

The event marked one of the heaviest attacks on South Korea since the Korean War ended in 1953.

With Kim-Jong Il’s death earlier this year, the reins of the nation have been put in the hands of Kin Jong-Un.

Many experts hope that Un will bring a change to his country by allowing for free market reforms and international dialogue.

“Some believe that Un is willing to reach out to the foreign community but very little is known about him,” Choe said.

However, Takeuchi warned that more emphasis should be put on individuals other than the leader.

“What a leader can do is quite limited. Officials in government wield large amounts of power and they are very good at the tasks they are given,” he said. “And the military holds a lot of importance in North Korea.”

He also alluded to a possible post-famine shift in North Korea’s economic system.

“After failed reform and a famine in China, there was an opening up of special economic zones and the country began to understand the importance of market economy,” he said.

Panelists stressed the humanitarian need in the northern half of the peninsula.

“It is very difficult to portray how horrible it is to live there,” Choe said. “There is a system of espionage where you are told to spy on your neighbor and you cannot disrespect the leader in anyway.”

North Korean citizens have been put in work camps — effectively known as death prisons by the academic community — for folding a newspaper on the face of any leader.

“When I visited the country, I only got to see the absolutely perfect part of the country,” Choe said. “Even when I was at a fancy restaurant, one of the few in North Korea, it was hard to eat when you knew people around you were starving.”

South Korea has often tried to aid its northern neighbor through economic policies.

The Sunshine Policy, which was effective from 1997 to 2008, provided North Korea with food assistance with a combination of help from the government, the private sector and non-governmental organizations.

“But, the policy has been criticized because it might have saved the Kim Jong-Il regime from collapse and a social revolution that might have followed,” Park said.

All the experts hinted at the possibility of reunification — a possibility that might occur in the next decade under the correct conditions.

“Unification will definitely come true,” Park said. “Once North Koreans experience the world and its true shape, there will be real change.”

While there are great hurdles to reunification, the hope of a united Korean peninsula touched Korean students in the audience.

“I hope that this happens one day for my country. I hope the experts are right, ” Kang Park, a local high school student, said.