Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
agrarian North Korea is abruptly dark, as empty as the remotest stretches of Siberia or the
Sahara. The distinct line between light and dark looks like a power outage moving across a
cityscapegridbygrid,exceptthatthisblackouthasbeengoingonforsixtyyears.Bynight,
South Korea isn't a peninsula. It's an island.
Bordersmaydivideus,but,paradoxically,they'realsotheplaceswherewe'renearestto
oneanother.BordersonamapmaystartoutasausefulwaytoseparateUsfromThem,but
then they become symbols of our own complacency; by their very existence, they dare us
to cross them. The breaching of a border doesn't have to be the result of an invading bar-
barian horde; when the Berlin Wall collapsed in 1989, it was gleefully sledge-hammered
intothepastbythoseonbothsidesofit.EvenChileandArgentinasignedaTratadodePaz
y Amistad (“Treaty of Peace and Friendship”) at the Vatican in 1984, ending the century-
long Beagle Channel conflict for good. “We'll meet on edges soon,” as Bob Dylan once
sang.
South Korea's secret double life: peninsula by day, island by night
JohnHébertisalsothechairmanoftheU.S.BoardonGeographicNames,afederalbody
createdin1890byPresidentBenjaminHarrisontostandardizeAmericanplace-names.For
more than a century, the board has worked to sort out tangles of inconsistency and con-
