ROK had three main advantages that allowed it to be more prosperous than DPRK:
It wasn’t mostly destroyed by the US during the war.
It has plenty of plains suitable for farming while DPRK has steep mountainous terrain.
It wasn’t sanctioned or embargoed.
Other events like the fall of the USSR and a major flood have also set DPRK back.
It will be interesting to watch if DPRK becomes the more prosperous nation long-term due to socialism simply being a better economic system and what this will mean for future reunification. But I am getting ahead of myself.
It will be interesting to watch if DPRK becomes the more prosperous nation long-term
Its been interesting to see the recent economic successes of the DPRK and to watch how even the capitalist media in the US is starting to concede to it. Now, whether that means that the US is going to try to get them to “open up” like China did is anyone’s guess.
DPRK is not opening up like China any time soon. China had to open up because they had no alternatives. They had hundreds of millions of very poor people, no industry, no infrastructure, and a fallout with their biggest and most advanced ally.
DPRK is in a much better spot with functioning systems, infrastructure, and a working political system. Once the US collapses, they’ll be able to trade more freely and SK will seem like the forgotten section of what used to be Korea.
Yeah, the new policy is they’re not going to seek reunification, but I think that mostly implies that they see no reason to take over the south by force. If there was a collapse in the south, integrating it would mean removing US presence from their border. And that would be very valuable.
ROK had three main advantages that allowed it to be more prosperous than DPRK:
Other events like the fall of the USSR and a major flood have also set DPRK back.
It will be interesting to watch if DPRK becomes the more prosperous nation long-term due to socialism simply being a better economic system and what this will mean for future reunification. But I am getting ahead of myself.
Its been interesting to see the recent economic successes of the DPRK and to watch how even the capitalist media in the US is starting to concede to it. Now, whether that means that the US is going to try to get them to “open up” like China did is anyone’s guess.
DPRK is not opening up like China any time soon. China had to open up because they had no alternatives. They had hundreds of millions of very poor people, no industry, no infrastructure, and a fallout with their biggest and most advanced ally.
DPRK is in a much better spot with functioning systems, infrastructure, and a working political system. Once the US collapses, they’ll be able to trade more freely and SK will seem like the forgotten section of what used to be Korea.
My prediction is that social collapse in the south will eventually lead to reunification.
Didn’t unoccupied Korea say they were no longer interested in reunification? Why would they want to rehabilitate that cess pool?
Yeah, the new policy is they’re not going to seek reunification, but I think that mostly implies that they see no reason to take over the south by force. If there was a collapse in the south, integrating it would mean removing US presence from their border. And that would be very valuable.
Very likely that SK itself will seek reunification to save whatever is left of its economy
I can’t really see cheon families go for that.
By the time things get to that point, they’ll either be dead, irrelevant, or living in the US
good point