I feel that if anytime now would be good to force North Korea into a transitional government and slowly re-assimilate both the North and South Koreans together. This would be a slow and possibly painful process, I understand that. But could that be a potential benefit to both North and South Korea?
South Korea is becoming more of an economic power and North Korea could offer more natural resources and labor which the South Koreans might not necessarily have. From the North Korean perspective, they could gain the rights they've been lacking for the past 60 years or so. Both nations could coexist or at least have a somewhat symbiotic relationship.
Right now for America at least, it doesn't seem like it is the top of the priorities as the new leader of North Korea is most likely going to lay fairly low for a while and our interests are invested mainly in the middle east. But "Korea" could be a powerful ally if it were to present itself as a unified state.
Reunification of the two Korean states is an interesting idea. However, at this point in time, it seems that the two people can no longer identify with each other much further than language and ethnicity, and while those are two very important cultural traits to share, they are completely different in many more ways. I still believe however that North Koreans could see what having more freedom is like and understand the benefits of it. So perhaps, in the next century maybe, Korea can become one state again.
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ReplyDeleteI agree with what Ravi said, I think North and South Korea have become very different and would have a difficult time assimilating into one state, even though South Korea may want the resources that the North has, and the North may want the freedom that the South has.
Even though this is not currently a priority of the United States, do you think that Korea would be more likely to become an ally of the US if we helped them unify? Or would it cause problems if they weren't ready to unify yet?
Also, I'll just leave this here.
http://i.imgur.com/BXz5j.png
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ReplyDeleteSouth Korea is significantly stronger economically than the North and this might create a huge problem if reunification tried to occur. It wouldn't be as simple as "oh now we're together so lets just share everything." An entire culture, lifestyle, and perceptions of the people would have to be changed to adapt and to fit into each others molds. Yes they share the same ethnicity and language but they are split more ways in the opposite direction. They would benefit greatly by a reunification but it would involve a great struggle to complete a successful joining of one state.