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The korean peninsula fight against coronavirus
 
PIIS032150750010857-4-1
DOI10.31857/S032150750010857-4
Publication type Article
Status Published
Authors
Alexandr Vorontsov 
Occupation: Head, Department for Korea and Mongolia
Affiliation: Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences
Address: ,
Journal nameAsia and Africa Today
EditionIssue 9
Pages29-35
Abstract

The purpose of the article is to try to demonstrate the most effective ways to help the people of the Korean Peninsula quickly stop COVID-19 in the first half of 2020. To put it as simply and briefly as possible, in our opinion, the Koreans were saved from this terrible pandemic by the long-ago and deeply assimilated roots of Confucian self-consciousness. This philosophical and ethical teaching is not so much a pressure from above, but rather the accumulated verified experience of the survival of a fairly small Korean nation on a small territory, with a critical minimum of cultivated land, surrounded by powerful and not always peaceful neighbors, etc.

We are talking about the DPRK and the Republic of Korea (ROK), for which the world has recognized success in the fight against COVID-19. Although the practical steps, the manner of communication with the population (domestic and foreign ones), and the response tools used in the fight against a little-known disease in the first half of 2020 often outwardly contrasted so much that a number of experts in the world now claim with full confidence that Pyongyang and Seoul have demonstrated to the world community two alternative, almost incompatible approaches to solving the same complex problem.

Our task is to show the inaccuracy and even deceptiveness of such a superficial impression. To prove not only the existence, but also the continuing effectiveness of the root factors, of the Confucian identity of the Korean nation, which are again manifested today, of course, in very different forms.

In the phenomenon under consideration, we again find an obvious example of the unity of opposites. To put it as simply and concisely as possible, it should be emphasized that in the diverse set of domestic and international factors for all merits modern medicine of that emerged during the crisis, an invaluable role in saving Koreans in 2020 from the threat of COVID-19 was played by the long-established roots of Confucian self-consciousness, psychological codes of this ethical teaching.

KeywordsThe Korean peninsula, Confucianism, collective solidarity, government-society trust, COVID-19
Publication date28.09.2020
Number of characters24758
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