Support NeoGAF

[EvilMario]

I hope they do come together eventually. The living conditions in the North are terrible, but unification is going to be really trying on South Korea's economy, even with all this planning.

 

[klausbert]

This,no point saving up if the people there ain't gonna open their eyes.

Their eyes will be very open when they see the amount of food the south has.

 

[Kuro Madoushi]

that's an outmoded Cold War view. there's little to gain with NK as a buffer state at this point considering the low possibility of the US staging a ground invasion into China.

Heh. So the US won't stage a ground invasion, but that doesn't discount the possibility of another type of invasion. China is definitely to blame for this mess, but I would spread the blame to the States and bloody MacArthur as well. China will cock block until it feels the States isn't a threat.

 

[Escape Goat]

This is truly laughable and reeks of a publicity stunt in my opinion.

Always a possibility with NK

 

[heyf00L]

This,no point saving up if the people there ain't gonna open their eyes.

They are told and believe that the South is occupied by the US and is held hostage by the US's nuclear arsenal. This shouldn't be too hard to disprove I think.
Also, yeah, the food and cars and electricity and stuff might be compelling.

 

[Takeda Kenshi]

That might be enough to get Pyongyang somewhere close to being 20 years behind the rest of the developed world.

 

[Deku]

Heh. So the US won't stage a ground invasion, but that doesn't discount the possibility of another type of invasion. China is definitely to blame for this mess, but I would spread the blame to the States and bloody MacArthur as well. China will cock block until it feels the States isn't a threat.

The North invaded the South, if MacArthur had his way, there would be a unified Korea.

Are you spinning your pro-China stuff again?

 

[scorcho]

Heh. So the US won't stage a ground invasion, but that doesn't discount the possibility of another type of invasion. China is definitely to blame for this mess, but I would spread the blame to the States and bloody MacArthur as well. China will cock block until it feels the States isn't a threat.

there's no threat - China's a nuclear power and could level Japan and Korea/SK in retaliation to any US first-strike. China's increasingly ruled by technocrats at this point, not the stodgy Communists from the days of yore. the calculation of having millions of refugees streaming across the border due to Kim Jong Il's idiocy is far greater than having a unified Korea in its place.

 

[B!TCH]

I'm wondering what South Korea could possibly gain from this as well. Aside from the security concerns, are there any incentives to own that fucked up region or is this straight up altruism?

I don't think you are truly appreciative of how much Koreans hate the Japanese.

 

[Deku]

there's no threat - China's a nuclear power and could level Japan and Korea/SK in retaliation to any US first-strike. China's increasingly ruled by technocrats at this point, not the stodgy Communists from the days of yore. the calculation of having millions of refugees streaming across the border due to Kim Jong Il's idiocy is far greater than having a unified Korea in its place.

If it came to that, there would be no China left either. Now that's cold war thinking for you.

 

[.la1n]

This is truly laughable and reeks of a publicity stunt in my opinion.

Agreed, let's call them and make sure they know we are opposed to any form of unification and insist that NK remain sanctioned off and starving.


Wait, wat?

 

[xTOOLx]

Isn't this how the story in the game Homefront started?

 

[enzo_gt]

Unification with a lost cause is still a lost cause. North Korea has far bigger issues, namely societal ones.

 

[Zyzyxxz]

Heh. So the US won't stage a ground invasion, but that doesn't discount the possibility of another type of invasion. China is definitely to blame for this mess, but I would spread the blame to the States and bloody MacArthur as well. China will cock block until it feels the States isn't a threat.

Holy fuck where do you get your shit? This is totally wrong, they can't control Pyongyang anymore. It had potential to gain when it gave nukes to NK to sell to anti-American terrorist but now that economies are linked so much China nor the USA will start shut because their economies depend on each other. These days the North has been acting like an embarassment but China won't denounce them in fear of the North using a nuke on the continent and destabilizing the entire Asian economy.

 

[Cmagus]

maybe one day NK can see the rest of the world

 

[Zoramon089]

So they're giving Kim $50 billion to aim his tanks in some other direction for a while

 

[scorcho]

If it came to that, there would be no China left either. Now that's cold war thinking for you.

true, but the Cold War thinking would presuppose that this is even possible. it isn't anymore, especially with the symbiotic economic relationship between the two.

 

[Clydefrog]

I hope they reunite sooner than later; this is a good start.

 

[Akuun]

It's a good start with good intentions, but it'll be really, really hard to even reason with Best Korea.

 

[Rikyfree]

This will end well.

 

[ty_hot]

South Korea will be getting cheap workforce. Simple

 

[Dyno]

There may be challenges and growing pains but a united Korea will make for a very powerful country.

 

[Szu]

Who's going to be best Korea then?

It won't be the best, but it will be the only Korea.

 

[Ark]

It would be nice to see this in my own lifetime

Best of luck to South Korea.

 

[thetechkid]

I thought the North hates their guts, or is that Best Korea just playing it cool?

 

[ROBOKITTYZILLA]

The ultimate trojan horse. I hope this works out.

 

[Salmonax]

This is a good idea, but that paltry amount makes it seem like posturing.

 

[Xcellere]

They are told and believe that the South is occupied by the US and is held hostage by the US's nuclear arsenal. This shouldn't be too hard to disprove I think.
Also, yeah, the food and cars and electricity and stuff might be compelling.

To you and I it might not be hard to disprove, but to a population as stridently indoctrinated into their belief system as the North Koreans are, undoing a lifetime's worth of false information is astonishingly difficult.

While material sustenance will go a long way in bringing NK's population into the fold, it won't do much to reverse the fear that North Koreans hold for the South and the US. This is assuming that Kim Jung Il's son would relinquish 3/4 of a century's stranglehold on his people, which is an unknown.

 

[FreeMufasa]

We haven't recieved a threat from Kim saying they were going to blow up the US in a while. When was the last?

 

[Phantast2k]

It's still laudable that they're at least thinking about it and are planning ahead. It's not going to happen tomorrow (or the day after tomorrow..), but it will definitely happen at some point.

the minimum cost of unification estimated by external researchers, assuming it takes place within the next 20 years and is a peaceful transition

I'm kind of interested in the estimations they talk about since I almost decided to write my thesis about the Korean reunification.

It'd be probably best to keep NK intact and not open the borders right away (even though that would be morally questionable). And the try to prop NK as a semi-sovereign country until both can be merged.
In a nutshell, what killed the East German economy was the fact that EGermans were immediately payed in Deutsche Mark (DM), which eroded the competitiveness of the EGerman production (the quality couldn't keep either, obviously).
EGermans as well as WGermans consumed Western products. Also the whole Eastern Bloc fell apart and disappeared as a customer. Only a small number of EGerman "companies" survived. Cash (which EGermans had in abundance since they couldn't spend it in the supply constrained EGermany) was exchanged 1:1 into DM, pensions were adjusted 1:1 even though EGermans never payed for. Social security (1:1), health care and so forth.
Monstrous amounts were spent on idiotic projects. Like airports in the middle of nowhere.

So yeah, there's a lot to learn for Koreans from the German experience. Even though, at the same time, the whole situation differs so much.

 

[zerokoolpsx]

I don't see how the South needs the North? South is better off. How would the government work if they reunite? South is capitalist while North is a dictatorship. Compromise won't work here.

 

[Captain Tuttle]

Calling $50B a lowball estimate is an unerstatement

Seriously. They'll burn through that in a month or 2.

 

[TacticalFox88]

50 billion? That's a fucking lol if I ever seen one. 2 trillion dollars at least or this thing isn't happening at all.

 

[-COOLIO-]

50 billion? That's a fucking lol if I ever seen one. 2 trillion dollars at least or this thing isn't happening at all.

pssh, im a korea reunification money expert, theyll need 2.820951 trillion to be precise

 

[Harry Dresden]

Find North Korea.

 

[DonasaurusRex]

Why? Isn't South Korea already way better on it's own without needing North?

..maybe because thats their family, and if they didnt, on any given day the north could say "fuck it" and maul most of the major cities of south korea before the inevitable response.

 

[DKehoe]

Good on them for at least starting to plan for this. I'm not even going to try and guess what would be a reasonable figure to set. One of the main problems in a unification would be that South Korea would be financially set back by having to bring the North up to their level. By starting a fund now it would make that a lot easier.

 

[makingmusic476]

Unification has seemed like a financially and socially unfeasible idea to me for awhile now, and I really appreciate the South Koreans' committal to reunification despite that.

It shows they really care about their people up North. =')

 

[DiscoJer]

The North invaded the South, if MacArthur had his way, there would be a unified Korea.

Are you spinning your pro-China stuff again?

Maybe he just watched a lot of MASH? That pretty much consistently preached the North Koreans were the "good" guys.

Then again, look at Viet Nam. After about 10 years of communism, the rulers quietly ditched it in favor of something akin to China's system.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doi_Moi

 

[sfedai0]

Best Korea will soon be One Korea.

 

[number47]

so...they are going to buy north korea?

 

[thezerofire]

So wait is North Korea ok with this?

 

[Niks]

one has the worlds fastest internet, the other doesn't know what the internet is.
crazy.

 

[Deku]

Maybe he just watched a lot of MASH? That pretty much consistently preached the North Koreans were the "good" guys.

Then again, look at Viet Nam. After about 10 years of communism, the rulers quietly ditched it in favor of something akin to China's system.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doi_Moi

He has a history for just taking the Chinese side. Why MacArthur is even brought up is mind boggling.

One one hand I do understand the warped logic of blaming the Americans. The Soviet backed invasion by the North had tacit support from the Chinese and they had an interest, when the Americans intervened, to keep the North's territorial integrity. and they did warn MacArthur not to cross into the North.

But that calculation pretty much condemened half of Korea into a life worse than poverty. I'm not sure what the Americans had to the situation NK is in other than abject capitulation to Chinese terms. Yeah, when they give up on Taiwan maybe.

As with many Cold War pawns, NK is what is it because a few people decided it was not in their interest to change the status quo, it just so happens MacArthur's vision of a united Korea is really inline with what Koreans want and what is good for the state. He's certainly not to blame here.

 

[Walshicus]

So they're giving Kim $50 billion to aim his tanks in some other direction for a while

No? RTFP...

 

[Guerrillas in the Mist]

How much did it cost West Germany to reunite with East Germany? I can imagine it would take multiple times that amount to reunite North and South Korea.

By multiple, more like in the 10s at the very least. And the reunification had some major effects on Germany. Imagine that but a hundred times more intense...

So wait is North Korea ok with this?

It's not like they can trump it.

 

[Kinyou]

it's called 'the right thing to do'

see germany for an example. A lot of people from the west said 'awww shit' the day the wall came down. Now they are the largest economy in Europe.

There is still a bit discrimination of people who were born in east germany. If Korea should ever reunite, the northern people would have to go through some tough shit.

 

[thezerofire]

It's not like they can trump it.

I mean, can South Korea just declare them reunited? Does it work like that?

 

[Piecake]

think theyre going to need a lot more than 50 billion

 

[elrechazado]

They've got nothing in common.

lolwut