Geography and ideology

When I was young, my father had a truck transportation business in Gangwon-do, transporting ore. My family felt very stuffy being stuck in the mountains. My heart was pounding when I heard the horn of the train. It was like a train to another world I didn't know.

 

My father, who received the trucking fee as a bill, used to come by early morning train from Seoul after discounting the bill (changing it into cash). One day, my father brought a set of milk caramel gifts and a bromide plate of a precise map of the Korean Peninsula. I repeated the map of the Korean Peninsula numerous times, because I had nothing to do with the countryside. Later, I learned that humanities and society were closely related to geography.

 

One day, while looking for an island where North Korean leader Kim Jong-il often held banquets, I found out that it was not an island but a beach near the Sijungho train station in Wonsan, Hamgyeongnam-do. People thought it was an island because everyone was blindfolded and boarded a boat. Geography teaches us many things like this.

 

In Korea, there was an atmosphere in which Gyeongsang-do and Jeolla-do were divided into conservatives and progressives, or rightists and leftists. It has been so far, but it should not be done. Jeolla-do, which has a large number of plains, was active in rice farming, where landlords and peasants were divided. It had good conditions for the class consciousness of many tenant farmers to occur. In addition, rice farming that requires cooperation such as reservoirs and doure also strongly instills a sense of community.

 

On the other hand, Gyeongsang-do has many mountainous areas, so field farming and self-employed agriculture are active. It has an environment in which individualism is more likely to occur than a sense of community. However, Gyeongsang-do and Jeolla-do, which have different characteristics, were divided into the Sobaeksan Mountains, making it difficult to exchange. The reason why it has been divided into Baekje and Silla since ancient times is because of the terrain that is difficult to interact with. Therefore, the Korean Peninsula was too distinct in its small territory.

 

Just as Mount Baekdu's volcano erupted and formed a lava field called the Gaema Plateau, North Korea has a large number of New Era strata. There are many hard underground resources compressed and pressed, such as limestone and anthracite, in the old Paleozoic strata, and there are many soft underground resources such as lignite and oil in the New Era strata, which are strata on the surface. The reason why the Aoji coal mine produced a lot of lignite is that the Tuman River basin is a new-generation stratum.

 

My parents are from North Korea, my father is Tongcheon, and my mother is Jeongpyeong near Hamheung. So I have never thought North Korea was another country. Soft lignite had a sudden and good firepower, so when I put it in the stove, the stove melted, my father said.

 

North Korea has a severe inland climate, so the winter is very cold and the summer is short. In addition, due to the small plains, they suffered from chronic food shortages for a long time. So, the temperament of North Koreans is the same as that of a nomadic people. It seems that there is not much desire for stability and happiness. It is just tough. Sometimes the power to endure like this seems to be a hindrance to change.

 

The Korean Peninsula has many hilly areas and short rivers. Water transport cannot develop because those rivers flow rapidly through the sloping country. Furthermore, the Korean Peninsula, which has four distinct seasons, has a large riverbed coefficient, which is the ratio between high and low water. That's why it's hard to see Huckleberry Finn riding a steamboat on the Mississippi River, where the riverbed coefficient is small.

 

The U.S. State Department recommends Professor Harm de Blij's WHY GEOGRAPHY MATTERS, a master of geography, as a must-read for diplomats. When you know geography, you can see many things.