Reunification of Korea

[Exarch]

will it happen one day?
both sides appear to be partial to the idea, but since both are backed by 2 rival superpowers, just how much autonomy would such a new nation state of 'korea' be?
and what will be the nuclear arms policy for this new state of korea?

[Kiljan Arslan]

At the moment its a extremely bad idea, just look at how long it took Germany to recover from its reunification because of the economic disparity. Now compare the economic disparities of North and South Korea. If they reunified now it would be a disaster.

[Senno]

will it happen one day?
both sides appear to be partial to the idea, but since both are backed by 2 rival superpowers, just how much autonomy would such a new nation state of 'korea' be?
and what will be the nuclear arms policy for this new state of korea?

They are technically still in a state of war. It's been a long, bumpy, but fortunately successful ceasefire.

First things first. Need a peace treaty. Then loosen up visits so families can see each other easier, and ease into more and more trade.

Some day, possibly. That's worth working for.

Nuclear policy....My brain hurts sorting the implications. Can we work on peace treaty first? LoL.

[Farnan]

They are technically still in a state of war. It's been a long, bumpy, but fortunately successful ceasefire.

First things first. Need a peace treaty. Then loosen up visits so families can see each other easier, and ease into more and more trade.

Some day, possibly. That's worth working for.

Nuclear policy....My brain hurts sorting the implications. Can we work on peace treaty first? LoL.

Well not entirely successful, there is still shooting going on every so often.

I think after Kim Jong dies reunification is very possible. China and the US would both want it. It would help China because Korea is an important trading partner with them. Also, Korea and China have historically been very very close. The US wants them to unite in order to achieve victory.

[NakedBarbarian2]

The only way that the DPRK and the ROK will ever unify is if North Korea collapsed and total control is lost, and that would be a disaster for both North Asia and the global economy; immediately you would have 24million refugees trying to enter both China and South Korea. Im pretty sure China wouldn't want to take any immigrants seeing as they have a population issue of their own(unless they were settled in either Tibet or Uighurstan) and financially there is absolutely no way that South Koreans could handle caring for that many people either.

Having said all of this I wouldn't give it much time before the Koreans acquired nuclear weapons given they're sandwiched between powerful states, and then there is also the historical side of things; Korea has been subjugated by Japan for a century, and before that the Chinese.

[Captain Blackadder]

Well firstly we need a leadership change and the new leader needs to be a dramatic reformer someone along the lines of Alexander Dubček. Then after some dramatic reforms and free elections we start giving massive amounts of aid to restore the north Korean economy and once it gets to a decent level reunite the country just how long that takes is another question the only thing I know is the longer we wait the harder the task becomes.

[christof139]

Durrutti, the 1930's Spanish Anarchist would be a good choice. Chris

[Pontifex Maximus]

I don't think it's feasible because of the stark political and economic differences between the two countries right now.

[Exarch]

I don't think it's feasible because of the stark political and economic differences between the two countries right now.

a lot of my korean mates would like to reunify; the problem is not so much economic as strategic: where the US has leverage over south korea, china exerts power over north korea.
between these 2 giants, korea won reunify for a very long time...

[Kiljan Arslan]

Just because the peolpe want to reunify dose not mean its a good idea economically Exarch just look at what happened to Germany!

[Exarch]

Just because the peolpe want to reunify dose not mean its a good idea economically Exarch just look at what happened to Germany!

a refugee crisis wouldnt necessarily be bad for the economy. at worst, it'd be a short glitch, and remember that a lot of south koreans have family in the north, so they could 'sponsor' most of these refugees.
indeed, look at germany today, a major world economic power and a lot of clout in the EU.

[Kiljan Arslan]

DO you even know what your talking about?

[Exarch]

DO you even know what your talking about?

erm yes
if you think i'm wrong, then feel free to point out where i'm wrong and be so kind as to correct me.

[Kiljan Arslan]

Hmmm let see here a refugee crisis would create large numbers of homless and jobless people there fore increasing unemployment, also they would likley do work for less then the former south Koreans meaning more jobs go to them driving down quality of life and wages in general.

[Exarch]

Hmmm let see here a refugee crisis would create large numbers of homless and jobless people there fore increasing unemployment, also they would likley do work for less then the former south Koreans meaning more jobs go to them driving down quality of life and wages in general.

and after that?
what's happened to germany now?

[Kiljan Arslan]

Also it would be worse then germany considering the fact that disparaties between the two countries is to say extreme.

[Exarch]

so what would be the political ramifications of a united korean state?
would it be sympathetic to washingon or beijing?
or (if it has its own nuclear arsenal), would it become another 'rogue state'?

[Fabolous]

so what would be the political ramifications of a united korean state?
would it be sympathetic to washingon or beijing?
or (if it has its own nuclear arsenal), would it become another 'rogue state'?

It would all depend on the nature of the creation of the united state. If it was because the North just feel apart, the new state would basically be a continuation of the South Korean state simply with alot more work to do. So in your question, I would suppose sympathetic to Washington, but lets not underplay the impresive gains made in relations with China that have been made by South Korea over the last decade and a half. Trade and diplomacy between the two nations is alive and growing.

The current South Korean state would have suffer a great fall to be anywhere near a "rouge state."




Unification is pretty far off, so far off by purely political methods it is virtually impossible. As long as the North Korean nuclear tests countinue the relations between the two nations will continue to get worse. But the North Koreans are not going to stop. Even if they stop the move towards a full, lasting peace is a long one. And then after a full peace treaty is agreed to, there would need to be steps towards allowing families to visit each other, which would mean relaxing border controls, which the North is generally unwilling to do due to the dramatic differences in quality of life between the two nations, and because of the breakdown that would cause in the North's stranglehold on information to the masses. And even if that got going, it would then take numerous trade agreements to bring the economies close together. Only at that stage (which, again, just isn't going to happen) could real talk of unifying the nations begin.


So it would have to come because of a North Korean collapse. Now, that would be a great strain on South Korea's goverenment and economy. However, there would be much less forced military spending with the new united state and also there would be also be less money having to be spent on various diplomatic and other actions against the current North Korean state. And there is very likely to be a huge outpouring of funds and help towards a unified Korean state, both by international organization as well as by certain governments, the US and China foremost amoung them.

[Kiljan Arslan]

YOu do know Rogue state classification is meant for nations that really don't care if their causing destabilization for the rest of the world?

[Exarch]

YOu do know Rogue state classification is meant for nations that really don't care if their causing destabilization for the rest of the world?

yes, like the Bush administration, and israel