Korean unification

How difficult would it be to integrate North and South Korea? Would it be as abrupt as East and West Germany?

it would probably completely fuck south koreas economy and the north would remain an utter shithole for decades onward.
not that china would ever let them reunite.

What if a second Korean War were to only push the border upwards, north of Pyongyang, still leaving a small buffer state between china?

It would be much harder and more expensive, so much so that South Korea would probably prefer not to unify at all.

>second korean war
literally n e v e r e v e r

I want to see a conventional war fought in the 21st century, that isn't in the Middle East

it would be extremely difficult, german reunification cost something like 2 to 3 trillion euros - and that was annex east germany whose standards of living were lightyears ahead of north korea's and their people far more educated and healthy. other user is right, it would totally fuck south korea's economy right up and might even collapse it barring a colossal amount of foreign aid.

china might go for it under some real particular circumstances, like all US and foreign troops off the korean peninsula, but is unlikely they'd greenlight it either.

autism. such a scenario would be all or nothing, china wouldn't be to interested in having a buffer rump state leftover as they'd look weak for letting it happen, the allies (SK+USA+whoever else) wouldn't stop short of the yalu river once the guns started going off.

What is the chance of it turning into a hot war with China ?

Between who? North Korea and China? It would go down in history as one of the shortest and most one-sided conflicts ever.

Between hypothetical NATO forces pushing north, and the PLA

i assume he means between china and the US+SK+maybe japan

also completely improbable but it would be a definite defcon 1 tier shitstorm.

decent if that scenario were to happen, but it never will since nobody wants it to really. china doesn't want their erstwhile ally to up and die on them, south korea doesn't want their economy to collapse and to be swarmed with malnourished, traumatized north koreans, the US doesn't want to go to war for korean reunification, and on top of that nobody wants to risk nuclear war or the cost of a north korean collapse. the country is like like the biggest version ever, of all time, of "you break, you buy it"

Any unification would be managed by the US and China jointly, with China taking the lead. No way the Chinks are dumb enough to go to war with teh US over a shithole like NK.

China would rather give up Korea than going to war against their best trade partners.

i did say improbable

India and Pakistan going to war again is improbable, China siding with NK against the US is as close to impossible as anything in politics.

I doubt itd ever be unified unless nk becomes a well governed state that wont fuck the economy of sk up. But if NK was to go tomwar with sk or china or USA itd be more to dispose of the dictatorship rule and impose someine who is friendly to both sk, USA and China so no more threats arise.

Ok you're a fucking sadist and should stay away from the nuclear launch codes.

These, basically. The differences between North and South Korea today are MUCH larger than the differences between East and West Germany in the 1980s.

North Korea would have to improve dramatically before that sort of thing would be feasible. I'm talking something like how China improved under Deng Xiaoping.

What if someone (US or China or whatever) removes Kim and then the UN takes action? UN provisional government until they set up elections, then UN overseeing and peacekeeping for a few decades

Removing Kim won´t help much. There are probably dozens of people trying for power below Kim, all of them with a decent power base. Just like in any totalitarian state.

Remove Kim, and its civil war. Either someone wins fast and everything stays the same like under Kim or the country collapses in anarchy. Certainly none of them would accept a UN provisional government.

is right. NK is bad, but everyone knows that messing with it will only make it worse.

Don't forget that the population counts are closer to each other than East Germany and West Germany were, which leads to problems coming from the other direction as well.

NK is a theocracy revolving around the Kim family.

Removing him is everything.

Pretty sure the south Koreans don't even want it. Maybe it'll be annexed into china someday.

Thats anathema. Korean people fucking hate Chinese people for fucking with them throughout their history, and especially their last intervention with the fucking "Volunteer Army." Any land annexed would just invite further Chinese intervention on the peninsula. They would never give up what they consider their sovereign land.