Quote Originally Posted by Kraco View Post
South Korea is a rich nation. It would surely tax them for years, but at the same time it would bring them lots of work as well. China would probably help a bunch as well, being right next to North Korea and having more money than they can imagine use for (since they can't imagine using it for the benefit of their own people). Above all, North Koreans are still Koreans. It's not like they would be getting millions of foreigners suddenly in, like could be the case if North Korea had been occupied by some third country all these years.

Still, it would take a miracle for North Korea to open. It's not up to the leader alone; there's a whole power structure including the military brass that is very opposed to losing their privileges.
Ideally reunification would be a good thing, but there is also the issue that most North Koreans (compared to the rest of the world) are likely unskilled, have no idea of the technological advances of the last 60 years, have a vastly cloistered culture, and likely the mindstate that goes with that, and like I said, would be very taxing on the country it would reunify with; to the tune of a welfare program for 20 million people. I am sure there are ways it could be done, but I don't think it will happen soon.

I mean, look at Germany. Their PM (who was an East German herself) says that the (cultural) unification is still incomplete even 20 years later. Also, East Germany, while culturally, politically, and economically different, shared a lot of commonalities along with a strong desire from its people to reunify (don't forget Die Wende). I think the government in NK is sadly smart enough to (literally and figuratively) keep people in the dark there so that they don't know the truth of the outside world. If people were ever able (which is a big IF) to access the internet or gain lines of communication, that would be the start of a revolution. Sadly, even that would be a very expensive undertaking and people would likely not believe it. This is, in a nutshell, what the world would have to, well, (re)habilitate.

South Korea basically would be bringing in a bunch of foreigners. Yes, they are Korean, but those are not the same cultures anymore.