The North Korean population is far more culturally distinct and isolated than the East German population was in the late 1980s. Unlike in East Germany, North Koreans generally cannot receive foreign broadcasting or read foreign publications. Germany was divided for 44 years and did not have border clashes between the two sides. By comparison, the Koreas have been divided for over 70 years, and hostilities have flared frequently over the years, becoming more frequent since the ascension of Kim Jong-un as the supreme leader of North Korea. The Korean ethnic nationalist belief that unification is a "sacred, universally-desired" goal to recover an ethnic homogeneity ("dongjilseong") obscures North-South differences developed since 1945, and risks intolerance for the cultural accommodation necessary for a unified Korean polity.