Korean reunification thread

Considering the divide since the armistice almost 70 years ago, is Korean reunification even possible any more?

Extra credit: Compare and contrast with German reunification

yes but definitely not any time soon, most South Koreans probably dont even want to reunify anymore

I don't think it will unless by China's terms, since it's in China's backyard as opposed to capitalist Europe's in the case of Germany. Because of this, I think the North could absorb the South, but not vice-versa. FOR South to take North, the US and China would need to fight something dangerously close to direct war between wold powers.The U.S. and South Korea would need to creep up to China's borders, which I cannot imagine unless China suffers a catastrophe on the level of the dissolution of the USSR.

It would be a complete disaster for South Korea and is not comparable to German reunification.

The differences between the DPRK and RoK are massive. If they were to reunite, South Korea would have to reeducate the entire population of North Korea, this includes educating them to disavow the Juche ideology and their commitment to the state. This would include reeducating to function in urban and services environments unlike the agricultural and industrial environments which dominate North Korea. This would include reeducating them away from the militaristic attitudes which dominate North Korean society.

North Koreans are living in a society where their technology level is back in the 1980s. They have extremely low wages and lack professional education required in a first world country. The RoK would suffer an economic collapse if they had to carry the weight of 25 million, highly militarized, highly indoctrinated, poorly educated, and impoverished people.

As for German reunification, East Germany was by far the best place to live in the Eastern Block, it had by far the highest standard of living, and they weren't nearly as impoverished as North Koreans are. In Germany, there was a 3:1 GDP per capita gap between West and East respectively, while between South and North Korea there is a 20:1 GDP per capita gap.

In Germany, East Germans wanted to reunite with West Germany because East Germans knew that life was better in West Germany. This created some enthusiasm for the reunification to work. North Koreans would lack such enthusiasm because they do not know of any benefits of living under RoK rule. North Koreans know nothing about the outside world aside from propaganda, East Germans were a lot more connected.

Chinese officials have stated in private that they would want Korea to be reunited under Southern rule, provided that they are not hostile to China. North Korea is too unstable.

But to those Chinese Officials give a shit what happens after to the Korean peninsula? IMO, I'm worried about South Korean groups committing mass violent acts and discrimination against the regular joe North Koreans 'liberated' into a united Korea.

This is really a debate for /pol/, not Veeky Forums.

Anyway, Reunification is inevitable. But it's really tricky, because everyone, even the North Korean leadership, knows that reunification will be on South Korean terms.

Eventually, the North Korean regime will collapse, most likely from internal pressure and discontent. This is likewise inevitable. When that happens, Korea will be unified under democratic rule once again.

There is however a paradox here.

>most South Koreans probably dont even want to reunify anymore

Most South Koreans DO want unification. But the politicians realize that this will be extremely difficult and costly for South Korea. The GDP of SK is at it's most optimistic 15 times higher than that of NK. Compare to West/East germany where the GDP was three times higher in the west. And that number (15) is the most optimistic. The actual number could be somewhere as high as 50.

So SK politicians do not want reunification at this time, but stating so openly is political suicide in SK. Instead they implemented the Sunshine Policy in 1998, which has as one of it's Overt Goals "To not make any attempt at Influencing NK Policy". In essence it was just the illusion of better cooperation between the two countries to placate political opinion, while at the same time postponing any reunification plans.

The paradox is that the longer time it takes, the wider the gap the two countries will grow...

Meanwhile, China/Russia does not want reunification because that would mean they bordered a NATO member on it's eastern border. They too realize that it is inevitable, and that the SK will outlast the NK.

They are more worried that refugees fleeing North Korea due to economic collapse and general fear of capitalist South Korean society will destabilize Manchuria.

>This is really a debate for /pol/, not Veeky Forums

You know damn right why I'm asking Veeky Forums instead of /pol/.

Besides, the answer resides in the almost 70 years of North and South Korea so it necessarily becomes Veeky Forums.

>destabilize Manchuria

And what? Join back with Japan?

They are worried that an increased number of Koreans in Manchuria could perhaps fuel nationalist sentiments among the Koreans and the Manchurians.

Good thread so far. It'd be nice if I knew enough to contribute.

Do you think the North Korean [COLAPS] will happen in the life time of a 20 year old?

If another humanitarian crisis threatens NK stability, will they just be propped up by the rest of the world again? How long can that go on for?

>is Korean reunification even possible any more
You'd first however have to built up a provisional North Korean state with a stable economy and then reunite them

So is the most likely scenario, after the collapse of the DPRK, a new North Korean government highly, amicable/reliant on South Korea, with the goal of eventual reunification?

Will there be a mass desire for emigration? How will China and SK handle that?

>Do you think the North Korean [COLAPS] will happen in the life time of a 20 year old?

It is highly likely. North Korea's society is not functioning without outside aid. The further we get away from 1991, the less friends NK have in the international community.

These days NK only procures aid via waving it's nukes around. But even Korea is not immune to outside influence, often via China. Even North Koreans who visit backwater Chinese trade posts are amazed at how developed those places are.

>bordered a NATO member on it's eastern border.

SK is not NATO. Notice the full name of the acronym?

>They too realize that it is inevitable, and that the SK will outlast the NK.
Inevitable? Ahh yes because NK hasn't lasted 71 years now.

Difference is that for most of those 71 years, North Korea hadn't alienated it's allies.

North Korea's economy grew 2012-2015 user.

They had a record harvest two years in a row.

Autarky is plausible for NK.

In 1991 aid formed 20% of NK's economy.

Last year it was 1%.

I think they're going to last without it.

If the opportu ity arose, I'd say reunification would go slowly
Germany rushed into it thanks to the CDU. While this made it a very quick process, it cost the West a lot of money, and the divide is still not overcome.

Now I don't have numbers, but the economic difference between the Koreas must be much higher than was the case between the DDR and BRD. South Korean leaders will go for a slow process of integration and catching up before reunification.

No. Think of the refugee crisis in Europe but all the rapefugees are ACTUALLY starving, and also have been military trained.

Lookup Norks killing chinese on the border.

>LE EBIL RUSSIA'S FAULT

2002:

>29 January: U.S. President George W. Bush in his State of the Union Address named North Korea as part of the axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world and posing a grave danger.

2003:

>29 January: North Korea says President Bush's speech is an "undisguised declaration of aggression to topple the DPRK system" and dubs him a "shameless charlatan". At the same time, however, it reiterates its demand for bilateral talks on a non-aggression pact.

>9 December: North Korea offers to "freeze" its nuclear programme in return for a list of concessions from the US. It says that unless Washington agrees, it will not take part in further talks. The US rejects North Korea's offer. President George W Bush says Pyongyang must dismantle the programme altogether.

2004:

>23 August: North Korea describes US President George W Bush as an "imbecile" and a "tyrant that puts Hitler in the shade", in response to comments President Bush made describing the North's Kim Jong-il as a "tyrant".

2005:

>19 January: Condoleezza Rice, President George W Bush's nominee as secretary of state, identifies North Korea as one of six "outposts of tyranny" where the US must help bring freedom.

>10 February: North Korea says it is suspending its participation in the talks over its nuclear programme for an "indefinite period", blaming the Bush administration's intention to "antagonise, isolate and stifle it at any cost". The statement also repeats North Korea's assertion to have built nuclear weapons for self-defence.

WHEN
WILL
AMERICAN
ISOLATIONISM
FINALLY
HAPPEN

I think reunification is possible but it will be a very long process, that might take decades. I can see NK sort of becoming a protectorate of SK, full of Samsung factories but not fully part of the same country.

>axis of evil
AGZEEZ UB EBIL

fucking americans, imagine a world where mexico and canada shared a border

I never said it was Russia's fault. Just that now, with the Soviet regime gone, NK's collapse is inevitable.

>SK NATO

Ok, yeah, but an american puppet nonetheless.

does anyone have the REAL unshopped version of this image?

SKorea did a study of the reunification of West and East Germany. They discovered that reunification with North Korea in its current state would be too expensive. It would kill the South Korean economy for a decade or more.

Now of course this was back when Kim Jong IL was in charge. North Korea was doing through a famine.

SKorea, China, and Kim Jong Un have improved things in North Korea. Though they still have a GDP of an impoverished african nation.

North Korea would have to raise it self up to at east Eastern Europe standards before the South would ever considered reunification.

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