LYCOS RETRIEVER 
North and South: North and South Korea
built 225 days ago
Leaders of North and South Korea are due to meet in Pyongyang on Tuesday, marking only the second time in history that the governments have come together. The meeting had previously been delayed in part due to North Korea's pursuit of nuclear weapons and its tensions with the United States.
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While economy structure has been maintained under state-owned enterprises in North Korea, class structure of South Korean society has been changed by rapid economic growth, industrialization, and urbanization under market economy system. The one of the big change emerged since the end of Korean war is that “new middle class”, such as engineers, healthcare professionals, university professor, and journalists, has grown enormously from 6.6 percent in 1960 to 17.7 percent in 1980. Moreover, “the proportion of industrial workers grew from 8.9 percent to 22.6 percent of labor force during same period. However, this rapid industrialization in South Korea has been heavily relied on urban areas, such as Seoul, so there exists inequalities between rural and urban area. Therefore, for example, “the population of rural lower class declined from 64 percent in 1960 to 31.3 percent in 1980”(hopia.net). This heavy tendency of labor force in urban area made the “inequality of income” and “disparity in living standard” between urban and rural area”(lcweb2.loc.gov).
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The leaders of North and South Korea have started discussions in the North Korean capital aimed at starting the two countries down a path to lasting peace. VOA's Kurt Achin reports from Seoul, where substance is sharing the spotlight with symbolism.
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Although North Korean schools heavily mixed in propaganda to their curriculum, this doesn't mean everything they were taught is worthless. The people of north Korea will still be able to contribute to society. They produce doctors, engineers, mechanics, electricians, carpenters, farmers just as any other nation does. Of course some of their technology may be outdated, but in some jobs that doesn't matter. Even in a highly paced jobs like internet and telecom, they won't have to get an entirely new degree, because although the equipment and capabillities change, the principles remain the same. Farmers would likely stay on their land.
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Earlier this week, North Korea agreed to disable its main nuclear centers and document all of its programs by the end of the year. The agreement came in the six-party talks with China, South Korea, Japan, Russia and the United States. They are offering North Korea financial, diplomatic, security and energy aid if it gives up its nuclear arms program.
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North Korean families like to measure their status by the number of wardrobes they own, and Joo’s family had five — plus a television, a refrigerator, a tape recorder, a sewing machine, an electric fan and a camera. They didn’t have a phone or a car — at that time those were unthinkable even for a well-off family — but they did have a bicycle.
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