In many situations in life, it is a luxury to think of vision and picture the future. Most of us struggle with the moment desperately so that it is assumed to be a good advice 'to live the present.' But the present/moment without the future could be destructive, meaningless, demeaning, and nihilistic. It could give the feeling of emptiness. In the end left is defeated nothing. To earn anything worthwhile, vision is the must; constructive, positive vision that is.

Well, we all have different visions, you may claim. Yes, but it must include making life better for the people around you. The bigger the circle the better. The circle should not include just you.

The nuclear-armed North Korea is one of the hottest issues in the world at the moment. Many different understandings/ policies are being offered by, practically, everybody in the world. At the same time, the attention span of the world and people are very short. Very soon, the attention will shift to other urgent issues. While it is hot, we should make clear what our vision for Korea is. Koreans should understand the vision as well as the world.

The vision is simple and clear. More and more Koreans should live better life. Let's not argue with what better life means. We should all know, instinctively, what better life for as many people as possible means. It definitely does not mean comfortable life for a few people. After all, it is the founding philosophy of Korea: long, long time before any direction/divided country was mentioned.

As long as Korea is divided, there would be a chokehold in Korean psyche. For the first time in history, Koreans have chance to be free and creative. Hopefully, free from feudal backwardness, and immature narrow-mindedness. They should fully develop the free and creative potential. The unification will release any remaining psychic barriers. They are invisible barriers, to be sure, but they are there. Then, Koreans have to show what they are truly made of. Of course, this is a universal concept, not unique to Koreans. Just that, people lucky enough to have the chance to be free and creative should recognize the great opportunity, and seize upon it. At the same time, there has to be the nurturing environment to blossom into maturity. It takes a village, a wise village, for any people to be free and creative. This is the possibility of Korea in peace with itself.

The issues we're facing are complicated and complex; the solutions are multilayered and intertwined. It takes time and effort to understand an issue. Without understanding clearly, good solution is impossible to be devised. Evan Osnos of The New Yorker made an interesting and amusing point in his article, 'On The Brink.' "I had wondered what it must be like to experience the United States through the fog of Twitter. It turned out that it wasn't much different from Americans trying to make sense of North Korea through its propaganda.---- To some in the Trump Administration, the gap in our knowledge of North Korea represent an argument against deterrence; they are unwilling to assume that Pyongyang will be constrained by the prospect of mutually assured destruction. But, if the alternative is a war with catastrophic costs, then the gap in our knowledge should make a different case. Iraq taught us the cost of going to war against an adversary that we do not fully understand. Before we take a radical step into Asia, we should be sure that we're not making the same mistake again."

Evan Osnos is making a clear point. Agreed.

Once, clearly understood, the North Korean situation can be handled to move toward our vision, peacefully. The only thing is, once again, it takes great efforts to clearly understand anything. I mean anything.