The two Koreas, separated at birth, have grown up squeezed apart by a global struggle between superpowers.
The ancient Hermit Kingdom, so called because of its isolation on the Korean peninsula, was host to international politics and foreign invasion for millennia before the Japanese annexation in 1910, or the Korean war in 1950.  The two Koreas’ ability to play international politics so adroitly and to cope within their situation stems from this history.
In a beautiful landscape, rich with natural resources, 76.5 million people call the Korean peninsula home, 50 million of them in South Korea.  The occupation by the Japanese (1910-1945) divided the economy of the Korean peninsula into mining in the North, and agriculture and manufacturing in the South.
Over time, the two halves of Korea consolidated their power and proceeded on different paths. North Korea, under the patronage of communist superpowers China and the Soviet Union, grew into a paranoid Stalinist regime trapped with a disastrously mismanaged economy.  Under the patronage of the USA, South Korea has recently blossomed into a self-sustaining capitalist system and an increasingly inclusive democracy.
Until it was sanctioned by the international community, North Korea was an exporter of weapons and natural resources.  During the 80’s, North Korea exported $1 billion in arms annually. As recently as 2016, a ship heading from North Korea was discovered carrying 2,300 tons of iron ore with 30,000 rocket-propelled grenades hidden in it.
Despite the collapse of the Soviet Union and reforms in China, North Korea stubbornly stayed behind, a failed communist state.  Conditions in the “Stalinist Utopia” of North Korea are desperately severe.  The limping economy was blown apart by a famine in the 90’s that killed over 500,000 people.  Ironically, a small middle class emerged, sustained by a grey market in cosmetics and electronics following the collapse of the communist rationing system.
Meanwhile, a robust industrialized economy emerged in South Korea in the 90’s, thanks to governmental economic oversight and discipline, after a previously slow start under chaos and autocracy.
Even in medieval Korea, the North had a relatively negative reputation compared to the South.  Because they had to fend off repeated invasions from their neighbors, government officials considered it a hardship post and political outcasts were sent away to the North. The southern provinces of Korea were safer from foreign incursion.
Peer Pressure
Korean traditional values emphasize diligence, stoicism and modesty, subordinating the individual to community norms and expectations.  Koreans tend to sacrifice their ability to think critically and express their individuality. They feel they must swim with the other fish because they have no choice.
The two systems deny the stress that a history of war, Japanese occupation and deprivation have imposed on them, but the emotional strain is well known.  South Koreans are stressed by a highly competitive society and intense social pressures.  In North Korea, the merciless regime imposes constant terrifying propaganda, in addition to the endless stresses of shortages and a failed totalitarian state.
It seems as if the village life of Korea lives on, as everyone self-consciously checks themselves, and each other, in the mirror.  A Korean can always feel the eyes of his peers on him, watching to make sure he saves face. 
In the North it really is a life or death proposition, in a society where life is cheap and lived close to the margin of starvation.  In the South, people jockey for position, depending on social status and ability to make it in a high pressure society.
Highly competitive education and testing have been a central Korean value as far back as the golden age of the Joseon Kingdom when the great Korean writing system was invented and civil service examination was painfully competitive.
North Korean children receive 12 years of mandatory public education, plus hours of “social education” after school.  South Korean school children anxiously study into the night in response to intense competition. 
Only one in five applicants is admitted to the North Korean Kim Il Sung University.  South Koreans liken the process of competing for admission to the top schools and top jobs to going through a funnel; only the best are able to make the cut.
Combined with too few spots at top universities and top companies, impossibly high standards of perfection result in the majority eventually feeling frustrated.  People resort to desperate measures in order to succeed.  Because honest effort is futile, they resort to bullying each other or other emotional tactics to gain social standing.
It’s no wonder that some sensitive souls commit suicide.  South Korea has the highest suicide rate in the world, at 4 per 100,000 annually.  And North Korea’s suicide rate is estimated to be about the same.
An Unlikely Union
People have debated the possibility of reconciliation between the two Koreas since the armistice of 1953, but the desperation of North Korea is really the sticking point.
North Korea lacks arable land, and languishes in a deficit of agricultural and mining technology as well as modern medical equipment.  North Korea was a failed state even before sanctions.
And yet, if genuine reforms were implemented, it would destabilize the Kim regime.  As people came out of their desperation, they would demand regime change.
So, with no other way to receive desperately needed help, North Korea has made a profession of blackmailing adversaries and allies alike.  Like a child threatens to throw a temper tantrum if his demands are not met, North Korea flashes its missiles and nukes to get its way.
The North Korean leadership have mastered the game of playing the surrounding states off of one another.  They’ve leveraged their pivotal position between four great superpowers, China, Russia, Japan and the US proxy, South Korea.
And yet, their situation really is untenable.  North Korea is so close to the margin of life and death that one bad crop could send refugees pouring in to neighboring countries.
South Korea experimented with opening a few test factories in North Korea, in an effort to assist North Korea and give them access to the skills, technology and wage levels of the South.  In exchange, the South would gain access to cheap labor and great deposits of rare earth metals.
The experiment had disastrous results.
Unprepared for the oppressive North Korean bureaucracy, the South was hit with lots of red tape; the workers’ wages were absorbed into a corrupt maze of bureaucracy, and profits swallowed by endless fees, “taxes” and bribes. 
The factories were subsidized by South Korea and never proved economically viable.  Only North Korea profited from the experiment, and it ended up being perceived as a hand-out to the corrupt northern regime. 
After All, They Are Family.
And yet they must, somehow, eventually reconcile. 
Could a bond be built between them, and the rift between the two sides ever be closed?
Despite improving relations, unification remains as tricky as ever.  Both sides know that a true union of North and South Korea would be impossible.
Support among the new generation in South Korea wanes every year.  They view the idea of unification as a political football with little meaning to their everyday lives.  After all this time, there is not much sentimentality toward North Korea.
Some in South Korea see economic opportunity in unification, but many worry about the economic burden and about wasted government money, believing that unification would mean a flood of workers to the South.  More likely, North Korea will open to South Korean companies, and allow workers to travel, with special permission.
South Korea does not want to reunite with a poor partner, though they are interested in cheap labor and minerals.  That is why it is in the South’s interest to see North Korea gradually strengthened with trade.
Despite the difficulty in providing aid to North Korea, there are many enthusiastic takers, for the resources of the North are highly valuable, namely their great deposits of rare earth metals.  Russia’s trade would be important, and they are eager, but their influence dwarfs in comparison to the potential trade with China, a much bigger economy.
Every interest group wants reconciliation on their own terms, but in a true compromise, all sides make concessions.  Everyone agrees the rapprochement will be cautious and gradual.
And yet, they must somehow eventually reconcile. 
After all, they are family.

This is an excerpt from 2010. 
 
Traditionally, Thunder (in the I Ching trigram system) is depicted as something startling and terrible happening. 
 
Descriptions of Thunder in the I Ching (hexagrams 16 & 24) make reference to music and drumming, and this links it to timing or rhythm.  According to the Family Style Bagua, it is the yang, initiating, and vital phase of the yang journey, and most closely associated with “pure” or “true” yang.  Therefore it could also be found in change, a surprise, a joke, an itch, or a sneeze. 
 
Thunder represents the NOW.
I used to think thunder meant something intimidating, like “Buy 100 shares of IBM stock!,” but now “the Arousing” represents something much more innocent to me; it means waking up to the moment. 
 
In contrast to the holistic trend over time illustrated by the Wind/Wood trigram, Thunder represents the emergence of focused awareness on the current moment, also known as “the time.”  The identity of thunder changes with each moment.
 
Sade sang “Its never as good as the first time!” and this describes the identity of Thunder well. 
 
I find the challenge is to not get stuck in some moment or fantasy other than now. I have to refrain from trying to prescribe or control the moment; too often I take action that is prescribed by a reality other than the current reality!
 
Gone  wrong, Thunder manifests as impulsivity. I can barely stand to stay in the moment, and have to DO SOMETHINGANYTHING, even if it is the wrong thing!
 
Many of us spend time trying to reproduce that happy moment in the past, getting into all kinds of trouble trying to relive it.  It seems true that “it’s never as good as the first time!”  What a blessing to realize that this encounter has no comparison, because it IS the first time.
 
Stop trying to make things happen. Enthusiastically pursue what is.  Perfected, the thunder experience can become manifestation and co-creation as we participate fully in the moment, aligning our will with that of the Tao. 
 

My favorite selection has to do with the womanly art of dyeing. This selection reflects that experimenting with dyes was edgy and officially forbidden! Some things never change:
"In this month, Summer, orders are given by the officers of women's work, on the subject of dyeing.

​They are to see that the white and black, the black and green, the green and carnation, the carnation and white be all according to the ancient rules, without error or change; and that their black, yellow, azure, and carnation be all genuine and good, without any presumptuous attempts at imposition.

These furnish the materials for the robes used at the sacrifices in the suburbs and the ancestral temple; for flags and their ornaments; and for marking the different degrees of rank as high or low.​
We can all learn from this original Feng Shui document, the "Yueh Ling," not just the correct positions and materials, but to live in harmony with our environment!

Yueh Ling: https://ctext.org/liji/yue-ling/ens

My correlation vid: https://youtu.be/v2v5NAnUO4s ​

Warning: this video contains hetero normative content. But need not be limited to that. Take what you like and leave the rest!