Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Summer Wine]

This is maybe controversial considering the location, but.

who believes they will reunite? I have seen documentaries showing how much influence China has and how much investment they have. Plus with the renaming of korean territory in China going on. Is it realistic to expect the two sides to become one?

I know that its a Korean dream, but every factual piece of information I can see shows me that if South Korea doesn't get its act together soon and either bribe, buy or kill their way to control of N.K., they will wake up to a larger piece of China on thier border or at best a vassal state.

I can't see any other option considering today's information (though that is todays). Please express how you see it?

[Summer Wine]

Oh, consider the innner mongolia argument if you will.

[YoshaMazov]

Of course the two eventually will become united again. Korea (as we've all been told numerous times) has a 6,000-year history, and the vast, vast majority of that was spent as a single country. North and South Koreans are inherently the same people with no significant language or cultural divide. After WWII very few people would have guessed that Germany would become one again within 40 years (or, for that matter, the fall of the Iron Curtain). Vietnam was a divided country for decades, now it is not (of course I realize it's technically a communist country today, but it can hardly be compared to NK). Reunification most likely won't happen in the immediate future, but sooner or later the 38th parallel will be a thing of the past.

[Ilsanman]

Actually less than half of that, they spent as one country.

[enns]

I agree that eventually it may happen, but I can't imagine a full reunification happening in our lifetime, mainly for economic reasons. South Korea's GDP is something like 18 times that of the North, and this gap is widening(in comparison, the West-East Germany gap was 3-1 when they unified, and that still appears to have been too big of an obstacle for relative parity to be achieved). The two cannot become one until they are on an equal footing, the South will not stand for any less.

NK's infrastructure is so weak that it will all have to be rebuilt. Not to mention that most North Koreans don't possess some of the even basic skills that Southerners have. It will take a whole other generation raised in a global environment to be able to successfully integrate both peoples.

Secondly, the North will have to abandon its communist ideals and rid itself of its pseudo-history. I guess we'll see what happens when the Kim Jong Ill era is over.

[Guri Guy]

Just to make things clear, Korea has a recorded history of just over 2000 years. If you include the myth of Dangun having sex with a bear after decending from heaven we can extend that to 4300 years. That must have been one sexy bear.

As far as reunification, it would destroy their standard of living and taxes would skyrocket. I think many South Koreans want reunification down the road but not right now.

Good point of view here:

Why South Korea is Soft on the North

One of the most vexing problems with the North Korean issue is that the two parties with the most influence over North Korea - China and South Korea - are very soft on the North. There�s a good reason for this: Both fear the consequences of a regime collapse in North Korea.

North Korea is one of the most backward, isolated places in the world. When North Korean defectors arrive in the hyper-competitive, hyper-modern South, they go to school for two months to learn such skills as driving a car and using an ATM. Despite the schooling, they are virtually unemployable in the South Korean job market.

The South�s government gives them a lump-sum stipend of about $9,000 each and offers to pay half their wages for the first two years, in an attempt to get employers to hire them. Still, unemployment among North Koreans is very high, and the South Koreans see them as dumb hicks.

If North Korea were to collapse, it would cost the South an estimated $600 billion to reunify the two Koreas. For a small country like South Korea, that�s a scary prospect.

So Kim Jong-Il can expect South Korea to do whatever little it can to ensure a stable regime in North Korea. South Koreans will continue to enjoy 80 percent broadband Internet penetration, and starving North Koreans will continue to believe that Kim is the �Sun of the 21st Century.�

http://polipundit.com/wp-comments-popup.php?p=15471&c=1

[mithridates]

I hope they don't reunite. Austria used to be in favour of unification with Germany too. As long as the two countries don't fight and people can go back and forth between the two there's no reason to unite.

[Hollywoodaction]

[YoshaMazov]

[safeblad]

i too cant see reunification in my lifetime. The problem is that the population of the north has been forcefully mentally retarded by the Kims. Ignoring the pyeongyang elite, a whole generation, maybe even two will need to be born and educated to a decent standard before the north can approach par with the south. There just arent enough gas stations and gs25's in the south.

[jinju]

Forget Korean reunification, I wonder if Guru Guy is hoping for Japan to reunify with Korea...of the good old days of colonialism eh GG?

[cbclark4]

I would first suggest a peace treaty.

The Confederacy agreement, two states one nation.

A declaration of Unity and Intent founded upon the Confederacy.

The Northern State consisting of Provinces Yada yada yada.
The Southern State consisting of Provinces so forth and so on.

(I use state not as an equivalency of province)

Movement towards Federalization should take some time.

The Confederacy should consist of an equal number of emissaries from each State, the selection of which to be determined by the legislature of each State.

cbc

[jvalmer]

I think it will happen, and when it happens it will be sudden and at a time when people aren't expecting it. Unfortunatly, South Korean plans are based on a nice slow eventual process. But, as history shows over and over again, world events don't happen in the most ideal way. It will be chaotic.

[EFLtrainer]

Actually, I agree with th OP. China is making unequivocal claims on North Korean space as their own, all the way down to the Han valley, i.e. the current border.

I don't think China wants to take it over outright for quite some time. A nice little vassal state they can rape and pillage for resources - including labor - and more ports will do just fine, thank you. That way they can point to the NK "govenment" and say, "What are you on about, homie? We don't run NK!" But, eventually, NK will be swallowed whole. The only way to prevent this is for SK to take a more direct role with NK and push for unification as early as possible.

Oh, and if they get their hands on NK, SK will be added to the list.

[mcgeezer]

There would be nothing more emotionally touching then one day watching the two Koreas break no-mans land and embrace each other for the first time!!!
Unfortunately, however this will never happen...
Not because of economic, or social reasons either. The biggest problem will be with the superpowers...
If Korea unites, they will have one of the largest and most modern standing armies IN THE WORLD...
You can't just send all the troops home and say, 'get a job' either.....The military is deeply entrenched in the life of North and South Koreans alike....All young men must serve two years here...In the North, if youre not in the army (which the majority of combat-aged men and women are)then your a peasant farmer working directly for the state.
As long as the big powers, U.S.A, China, Japan, and Russia have anything to say about it, it won't happen in the next ohhhhh 100 years