NationStates Jolt Archive

Thread prompted by this news


http://www.minjok.com/english/news.php3?code=775
Two Koreas to Compete as Single Nation at Olympics

I think eventually the Koreas will reunite...as soon as dear leader is incapacitated and the Americans concede that the Koreas are in the Chinese sphere of influence. Interestingly the south Koreans themselves are not too keen on US militarily intervening to remove NK nukes, because they see that when they reunite, they will become a nuke nation.

Dunno if it is a good thing or not..depends on whether the CPC gives up its hegemonist ambitions..and stops propping up the next dictator (after Kim dies) to continue keeping NoKo as a proxy..

So what do y'all think?

Do you think it will happen? Why and why not? What time frame?

Two Koreas to Compete as Single Nation at Olympics


So they are going to do it? That's great! I'd heard they might, but previous, similar projects had never been completed.


I think eventually the Koreas will reunite...as soon as dear leader is incapacitated and the Americans concede that the Koreas are in the Chinese sphere of influence.

Koreans themselves want reunification. If it happens, it will be with the North being integrated into the South (anything else is extremely unlikely), so it'll probably take some time still. Not to mention that the US isn't keen on it happening (they keep trying to revive tensions which the Koreas are trying to appease), and that the South would have a *lot* of work cut out for it modernising the North. Plus, imagine the culture shock for North Koreans. What few people realise is that most North Koreans are indoctrinated to the point that they do genuinely worship their leaders almost as gods. The change would be difficult.

The change would be difficult.
Indeed. It was a tough one to swallow for West Germany, and that was the third largest economy in the world, and in a reasonable position at the time.

Even if reunification was politically possible, I have absolutely no idea how they could realistically do it without every last Northern citizen leaving for the South.

Or as an East German Proverb says: "The last one switches off the light."

Well, every Korean want unification. The main question is whether the united nation will be Communist or parliamentarian. I like the idea of the two states peacefully reuniting- the way I see it, the more practice humans have with peaceful unification, the better. Hopefully, Kim Jong Il will just sit on the nukes and his successor will be a fairly liberal leader, like the last leaders of the former Societ bloc before the end of European Stalinism; they may then follow the example of East Germany.

The biggest problem is going to be the moment the Koreas do reunite. It'll be the same case as in Germany; the shot-to-shit pseudo-communist dictatorship's economy is going to drag down it's prosperous and modernized neighbor considerably.

Hopefully, Kim Jong Il will just sit on the nukes and his successor will be a fairly liberal leader...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3203523.stm

Pick one....I don't think we'll see it happen, to be honest.

Hopefully, Kim Jong Il will just sit on the nukes and his successor will be a fairly liberal leader, like the last leaders of the former Societ bloc before the end of European Stalinism; they may then follow the example of East Germany.

Your hopes are misplaced. Kim Jong survives by giving the coterie around him what they want. Power and opportunity to make money (at the cost of the citizenry). This is a self-sustaining group and they would be loathe to give up that. The next ruler would be preserving the equilibrium instead of upsetting it (unless other factors happen which upsets the equilibrium)

Not... gonna... happen...

Personally, I don't really like the idea of a nation of brainwashed people being joined with a freer nation of people with more free will. I doubt the North would want to give up power and I don't like the idea of more people being intigrated into a dictatorship led by one of the worst world leaders in modern history. Yes, worse than Bush, you super-biased "Bush is Satan. He's more evil than Hitler and Stalin combined" re-affirmers of the liberal stereotype. Bush doesn't brainwash people and he definitely doesn't starve people. That's what laziness, greed, poor educational standards, and general unluckiness is for. Plus, Bush isn't threatening to make more nuclear armaments. He isn't ready to use them either. If he was ready, Iran would be a smoldering crater of fallout by now.

-snip-
Talk about attempted thread-jacking!

Talk about attempted thread-jacking!

lol..I think we should come up with a Bush version of the Godwin law.

lol..I think we should come up with a Bush version of the Godwin law.

Call it the Avika Corrollary.

Personally, I don't really like the idea of a nation of brainwashed people being joined with a freer nation of people with more free will. I doubt the North would want to give up power and I don't like the idea of more people being intigrated into a dictatorship led by one of the worst world leaders in modern history. Yes, worse than Bush, you super-biased "Bush is Satan. He's more evil than Hitler and Stalin combined" re-affirmers of the liberal stereotype. Bush doesn't brainwash people and he definitely doesn't starve people. That's what laziness, greed, poor educational standards, and general unluckiness is for. Plus, Bush isn't threatening to make more nuclear armaments. He isn't ready to use them either. If he was ready, Iran would be a smoldering crater of fallout by now.You forgot Poland....:D

But....Bush the II loves Poland. Poland also loves Bush.:fluffle:

I think they just might have the political will to reunite sometime in the near future. However, its a completely different question when you talk about economics. Its definetly not going to happen for many many years. Anytime shorter than that, the economy of the united Korea would crash, big time. Minimal reunification costs are something like six times South Koreas entire GDP. I think we would really need to see unprecedented North Korean cooperation, so that they can implace economic reforms recremended by the South Koreans and Americans. Which wont happen for many years. There's more of a chance of North Korea putting in place more "Deng-like" economic reforms while opening itself up to the world, and eventual turn around to a more "communist with Chinese characteristics" policy, which is basically capitalism on socialist steriods. But even then it would take a hella lot of time to recover.

With out that recovering period, unifying prematurely would be a social and economic disaster. Not to mention a possible mass exodus into South Korea, and possibley into China. I mean, in context to the unification of Germany: South Korea's economy is worse in relation to West Germany's, and North Korea's economy is much worse in relation to East Germany's. And Germany today still is deeply impacted economically, and are still largely recovering.

In our lifetimes? Most likely so. Near future? Very unlikely. Unless they're forced to reunify as a result of war.

Not to mention that the US isn't keen on it happening (they keep trying to revive tensions which the Koreas are trying to appease)...

Um, I think you are...well, competely wrong. This is just "the U.S. is the evil satan of the world" drivel. I expect this type of comment from an Al Qaeda spokesman.
If anyone is to blame for the hostility and problems between the Korea's, it is clearly the leadership of the north. EVERY time a treaty is formed, they break it. EVERY time things calm down, they saber-rattle and start building nukes again. North Korea is a terrorist state, and its leadership is directly responsible for not only their own economic problems, but for the much-too-large U.S. military presence in the area.

As for Avika's comments...although I agree that a G.W. version of Godwin's law should be invented, I think Avika was merely trying to launch a premptive strike against those who inevitable try to blame Bush or the U.S. for everything, including the price of tea in China.

If anyone is to blame for the hostility and problems between the Korea's, it is clearly the leadership of the north. EVERY time a treaty is formed, they break it. EVERY time things calm down, they saber-rattle and start building nukes again. North Korea is a terrorist state, and its leadership is directly responsible for not only their own economic problems, but for the much-too-large U.S. military presence in the area.


*sigh*

I wasn't trying to say the North wasn't to blame for remaining tensions. But the US must shoulder a large part of the blame too. The US has officially refused to condone Kim Dae-Jung's Sunshine Policy. They've consistently thwarted efforts by the two Koreas to get on better. A few years ago, Bush travelled to the ROK and made an inflamatory anti-DPRK speach which caused thousands of South Koreans to take to the streets in protest. On several occasions, the US has resumed provocative military exercises along the DMZ, knowing full well that it would provoke an angry response from the North (source: The Two Koreas, an excellent history book, by an American who, incidentally, is anything but anti-American).

Yes, the DPRK has a history of backing out of agreements. But who reneged on their agreement to supply them with lightwater reactors, after North Korea had already upheld their side of the bargain, remember? Blame has to be shared around here. Don't be so simplistic.

Incidentally, North Korea is not a terrorist state, by any possible definition, and has not been since 1987.