I lived in (West) Germany in 1981 as a high school exchange student. At that time, the only ones, who truly believed in a German reunification were either those old enough to remember a time before the division and those, who lost assets in the east. I visited the country repeatedly throughout the 1980's: 1984, 1985, 1987 and 1989. In January 1989 I could feel "something different" in the air. At that time I worked for Lufthansa, the German airline. In late 1988, its leadership and that of Interflug, the East German airline met secretly in Dresden, and, agreed to various forms of cooperation, including year-round flights from Leipzig to various West German cities.
I would like to see Korea reunited, but I think, even if the formal reunification happened today, it would take at least about half a century to become truly one nation. In Germany the differences between East and West are still very present, even though Germany is now reunited for over 30 years and the differences were by far not as big as they are in Korea.
as a south korean i dont. this would be disaster. if we ever become unified, there will be huge war which involves China, US, Korea, possible Japan, Taiwan, Russia would take sides as well.
One correction: the compulsory draft wil most definitely go on, probably for decades or a century, even after unification. If the United Korea's military became voluntary, the military will be dominated by Northern Koreans, as becoming a soldier would be the easiest and fastest way of gaining wealth and economic stability for the average Northern Korean. This would be a very dangerous trend, as the national identity of Northern and Souther Koreans are very different and most likely continue to be even after a couple generations, and be a potential threat.
The problem is that most North and South Koreans might not want to be drafted. Conscription is not popular. After all, conscription in Germany was eventually suspended because they could fill the (smaller) German armed forces with volunteers. Ways to address the issue might be to limit the size of the united Korean forces, forbid them from having any biological, chemcial or nuclear weapons and leave a small force of US forces (no more than 20,000, say) in southern Korea until their presence was no longer required.
I think the draft will also go on, but for different reasons: if they are intended to be neutral between the USA/Japan and China/Russia, they can't rely too much on military support of one against the other. They will share their only land borders with China and Russia, two incredibly militarily powerful states. I don't think they would make any overt moves like (further) militarizing their northern border, but not eliminating the draft would be subtle and effective enough to at least keep up some of their military strength as a small safety measure.
@@ruffgook that by default means you think a united korea will not be neutral. since according to you, it views russia/china as a threat but not japan/us. as such a united korea will not come into being in the first place.
The social reunification is truly the greatest challenge. I was born after the fall of the Berlin wall and have a parent from either side. Germany was divided for 40 years and even now 34 years many older people still think in East-West-Dynamics. My father once said that when he was my age he thought it would take the same time they were split to grow back together. Now we have nearly reached this time and I honestly think it will be another one to two generations. And unlike North Koreans, most East Germans had a way to access West German TV etc. There was always a form of contact and a way to get information from the outside. If North and South Korea ever reunificate, they will face all these challenges by a thousand fold.
I talked about that with some korean friends and some of them don't seems to be interrest about an unification, they just see the North as "poor and uneducated" people but also because they will have to spend a ton of money to modernize infractructures, educations, industries,.. After that they will probably have to build camp for the most "fanatic" communist who don't want to be part of a capitalist Korea
It's the attitude towards the people that count the most. West and East Germans felt equal to each other, likewise South and North Vietnam, which made it easier to unify. It's just that about 50 years have passed since the division and generations have come and go. Most North Koreans remain humble, while most South Koreans as they grew to be rich, they became more arrogant towards other asians. If Unification happened, current generation of North Koreans will suffer the most to discrimination and slavery-like treatment by the society and Chaebols. It will take decades after unification to have a semblance of unity in Korea.
@@profile1172 They have a difference but not a nearly as big one as North and South Korea. Especially because family contacts in the East and West still were allowed. As well as the exchange of goods and information. People in the east knew that they lived much worse lives, that's one of the reasons they started to pressure the government for change. And the People in the whole of modern Germany still felt as one people. It simply isn't the same. We make jokes about the east being underdeveloped and that nobody wants to go there while the East makes their jokes as well but which idiot really still feels as if this is true? Almost no one. If you want to move to the east then just go, you'd probably catch more shit from your friends if you as a person from Munich would want to move to Berlin lmao. Or if anyone from beautiful cities would say they'd move to Frankfurt. But even then who would actually care, it's all just jokes and slight biases, which exist in countries which weren't even split as well
@@profile1172yeah the East Germans are actually somewhat annoyed by the fact that it was not so much a unification of east and west but more the West annexing the east, removing everything the east did regardless of if it was good or bad. (Yeah the East was an authoritarian regime, but there were positive aspects of it as well) Note most probably don't care but some do, that's what I mean not that every east German feels angry just that there is a population who does care.
I feel so bad for Korea as a whole country throughout history. They seem like they just wanted to do their own thing but kept getting colonized. Then, BOOM just as the world was about to become more progressive and peaceful they are forever spilt in two due to issues caused by those taking advantage of them and can’t reach their full potential now.
i dont feel bad at all especially when i see many south korean arrogancy and insult toward our ethnicity and nationality (chinese). they should divided forever.
u dont know mongolia. it has even more sh,itty history. split into 3 parts , 2 economically viable lands going to russia , 1 populous land going to china while mongolia exist underpopulated barren wasteland solely existing as buffer state while china f,ucks up their economy. @@------------------_
@------------------_ definitely not true. Korea has 2 things going for it. Long lasting eras of peace (400 years for Goryeo) (500 for Joseon) *but* it was wayyyy too peaceful causing corruption and a slow descent into poordoom. You can kinda see it in the US right now. Its so peaceful and people are essentially just fighting each other. Its second thing is no matter what those damn koreans WILL survive like cockroaches (in a good way). Getting overrun by the Yan? How about coming back in multiples of Three. Getting nearly conquered by the Tang? How about realizing you hate the Tang more than each other and repelling them. The Mongols? Only ever succeeded in vassalization and that was after 8 whole invasions. 80 years later guess who pulled away? Japan? Got beat up by one guy. Oh they came back... oh... now its divided into 2 and one of them is notorious for its hermitness and the other has a lot of money. To be honest Korea actually has had a relatively peaceful history and IMO the worst enemy of the Koreans weren't the Chinese or the Japanese... but each other. (Being split apart over and over, rampant corruption)
1945-1950 A period that saw rise of many countries divided and problems persist to this day . South Korea - North Korea India- Pakistan Israel --Palestine
Except for the fact that India and Israel are completely fabricated countries that were created by colonialism No wonder there are splits Heck it's surprising that India did not break up even more than it did only Bangladesh and Pakistan broke away Old inda before colonialism was made up of tons of small kingdoms
Pseudo-unification would be better. A mini-European Union style government where both North and South retain powers within their won region. Slowly open up the boarders for visits, but not permanent relocations aside from the few elderlies with direct family ties. With global trade moving away from China, North Korea can easily snatch up deals with foreign companies to manufacture products with the help of the South. While the two militaries should scale back, it wouldn't be a bad idea to keep a shorten draft period and have service members train and serve together during the service time. There should be a NATO style command integration, but no need to fully unify the militaries. The Kim family can be converted to a dynasty, make them into royalties with symbolic powers which holds the North together while the transition takes place. If the Kim dynasty proof to be culturally and economically viable to keep, they can be turned into something like the British royals and make them into a tourism industry. The sense of a unified culture will grow if it is slowly nurtured over a century, just as how they were split in the past seventy years. Pushing it quickly would only get backlashed in both North and South.
From a South Korean perspective, the Kim dynasty has no historical significance. Rather, they are treated as war criminals who started the Korean War. Anyone who was educated and raised in the South would actively oppose the idea of spending taxpayer money on such a thing.
Unless China or Russia are willing to provide political guarantees to the Kims, reunification will never be complete. At least for now, China, Russia and North Korea have no desire to unify the two Koreas, and Japan does not want that to happen.
It has to be united. Thinking of half Korea has done till nowadays and imagine the United Korea can achieve for this world. Massive change. Technology, culture, art, music, science, construction, etc. Each every countries in the world must support them to be one.
I doubt adding North Korea would add much to what the South can achieve. 25 million half starving peasants with no useful skills that are going to be difficult to integrate won't add much
None of the south korean allies (japan, usa) and none of the north korean allies (china, russia) wants it to happen, and those ‘allies’ happen to be the most powerful countries in the world. If the world suddenly takes a turn and these power mongering countries start taking ethical decisions, unification might become a reality
It's amazing to realize that the oldest generation there may still remember a Korea before they divided. The Korean War happened in 1950. My parents were born in the 1960s. My grandparents were born early enough that they would've been kids during the Korean war. Some who are still alive of my grandparents' generation, if well taken care of, may have even been teenagers at that time. It must have taken some pretty intense brainwashing to convince those og North Koreans that there is nothing for them on the outside. But once those borders closed, whoever was very young children or born after that time wouldn't have known any different.
It might have been easier than you think. After the partition in 1945, both Koreas were dictatorships. However, while the North was a stable Soviet puppet run by a moderately popular dictator who had fought against the Japanese in WWII (Kim Il-Sung), the South was a dumpster fire. The Southern government was riddled with corruption. Most Koreans who served the Japanese in the South kept their jobs. The Southern dictator, I Seung-man, was extremely unpopular. There were tons of uprisings, and hundreds of thousands of Koreans were executed by the I Seung-man government. Most of the anti-Communist independence activists who had fled South ended up being assassinated by I Seung-man to ensure his grip on power. The economy was in the toilet. Closing off the North from the South in the 1940s and 1950s left the original North Koreans with the impression that the South was a corrupt dictatorship with universal poverty and a government that was barely more than a colonial administration for the United States. Until the 1970s, North Korea had a stronger economy. By the time the first dictator, I Seung-man, was overthrown in 1960, and the second dictator, Park Chung-hee, oversaw the South Korean economic miracle, North Korea was already closed off from the world. Although South Korea democratized in the 1980s and is highly developed and successful today, the image of South Korea as one of the worst places on Earth remains in the average North Korean's view of the world. Of course, nowadays this view is obtained via intense brainwashing, but for the original generation, it was more 50/50 brainwashing and reality.
@@TheAlrightyOne well Kim I'll sung doing same with his fellow politicians, many communist thinker who fled to North got purged and in reality many of them fled to south
Too many comments saying ‘the culture is too different between them.’ Seriously? Both are ethnically Korean, both use different words for Korea in their name (NK using Joseon), both speak the same language, and share the same history. It’s like saying Americans in the deep south are too culturally different to not be Americans due to the regional differences in the north. My ROKN grandfather who is now 89 still wants to go to Pyongyang to try the cold noodles there.
I think people are referring to that the culture of North Korea is like a massive cult indoctrinating and isolating you since the day you’re born, in classic socialist fashion erasing tons of traditional Korean culture and is also a weird Time Capsule stuck in the Cold War era that makes South Koreans seem like aliens from the future. NK is FAR more oppressive, totalitarian, isolated, lacking behind technologically and cult like compared to East Germany for example which also got to reunite much quicker and before society reached the modern IT-age - while many people also remembered what life was before the wall was built and thus easier to reconnect. Sparing them from too much cultural differences with West Germany. But even for Germany there has been big cultural and economic divisions between East and West still visible today - so take those problems in Germany and multiply them by a thousand, then you get Korean unification.
IMO the only way it could work, is for the DPRK to level up. it would mean the region has to endure several more decades of the same old sabre rattling BS and threat of nukes and falling space bound vehicle cladding while over flying northern japan. at least if DPRK could level up to the point of 80's china after they opened up, at least we might have a chance... Germany was relatively on parity pre fall anyways, even with the huge burden...
There is an idea that one way to destroy the North Korean regime would be to make the North Korean people prosperous. When the people reach a certain level of development and wealth they will overthrow the dictator because they will realize how terrible the Kim regime is. People who are completely destitute don't have it within their means to revolt. They are too busy trying to find food and not starve to death.
in a perfect world, you could say it could be possible, I mean whether northern or southern, these people are Korean after all. but honestly, I think the north and south are completely different worlds and it’s been like that for over 70 years, reunification is far out of reach for now atleast :(
11:15 Not even "in the 60s“ Up until the late 80s, the people didn’t believe in German reunification. Only when the people of East Germany started to rise up and the East German officials stopped to react, did the West German officials send the so-called "Kohl 10 points plan“ which ultimately paved the way for an economic union between West and East Germany and the German reunification.
I thought about it like this, the South governs the North. It will be one country but two policies, and it will reunite in 30 years. South Koreans can move North, but North Koreans can't move south unless they have a specialized degree. Or to work in factorties or farm labor. South Korea already relies on migrant labor as South Korean youth are not interested is low skill jobs. SK builds up the North, brings them to the 21st century, a lot can be done in 30 years. And finally reunite when the North's economy is advanced and modernized as the South. South Korea when to a third world worn torn country to one of the richest counties in the world in 50 years.
it will be a disaster, should've swallow the pain in the beginning, HK is also a disaster for both end, now big parts of the ppl hate each other (remember in the beginning they dont, N and S Korea are already hate each other), and I bet China is not going to choose this way any more. on the other hand, look how well Germany is doing.
All the logistics of Korea is conducted by planes and ships. In case of United Korea, we could easily import and exports goods by train, which reduces prices drastically, especially foods and resources. I think it will increase price competitiveness of products made by Korea companies, and it will affect positively to Korean economy.
China won't let Korea integrate into their system like that without concessions of removing American military hardware. Not sure if the Korean government would accept that.
I feel the best solution to unification is basically a reversed Hong Kong. Slowly integrating it into the rest of the Republic of Korea as an autonomous area with some international personality; this way some of the worse aspects of unification can be either avoided or at least mitigated somewhat. The biggest problem I see with my solution is it could definitely exacerbate the discrimination Northerns could face in such a scenario. Because, it would require having a different citizenship like Hong-Kongers have in the People's Republic of China. In some ways it's almost colonial, but the point would be to slowly build a democratic society and increase the living standards without directly affecting the rest of the Republic of Korea. I based some aspects of my idea on how the EU primes non-members to be able to join it later down the line. Plus, seeing that even Germany has had difficulty reuniting its east even though East Germany was a LOT more economically viable than North Korea is! Anyway, it'll take decades but the EU expansion has shown good results for the most part. The biggest difference being that the Republic of Korea is a unitary state so eventually the North would lose its autonomous status as it becomes ever more integrated as just another part of the Republic of Korea; unless Seoul decides to allow it keep some autonomy as times goes.🤔🤷♂️
It'll definitely be a gargantuan task no matter how one looks at it! East Germany is probably the best example that South Korea has to their conundrum of trying to unify with North Korea.
The problem is that East Germany basically collapsed overnight once the borders opened in 1989 so any thought of a gradual reunification of Germany (as was envisaged at first) had to be quickly abandoned and I can see that happening in North Korea in that the fall of the North Korean regime could lead to an avalanche of refugees south, not to mention the nightmare of securing North Korea's biological, chemical and nuclear arsenal so that they didn't fall into the wrong hands. East Germany never had any such weapons so that was not a factor in Germany.
but the thing with these unifications is that you can't just sum everything up: sometimes stuff from both countries work great together and stats skyrocket, and other aspects don't do well and the results won't be as impressive as if you just add everything together.
That's more of a product of capitalism, the ones that get a head start often smother the ones behind them. I'm not sure the history why Germany chose capitalism over communism but they must have had a reason.
@@rafflesiaandfriends Communism tried a Revolution in Germany after ww1 and failed. What is that Question, when you mean modern Day Germany? West Germany (BRD) has a social Market Economiy (Rheinisch Capitalism) with a Parlementary Republic as it was the area Ocupited by France, Britain and the USA . East Germany (DDR) was a One Party Dictorship with a Planned Economiy. In 1989 when the Wall fell the BRD (Federal Republic Germany)annexed the DDR(German Democratic Republic). So no new State was formed. You are right the West had head start over the east but only because the East was held fown by Communism and a Dictorship the west prospered under Capitalism. Germany put massive amounts of Money into the East but the absulte Destruction of Culture, Religion, Aechitecture, Wealth and Industrie by the Soviets can't just be repaired
@@rafflesiaandfriends oh yes the typical response and ignoring the real problem that hut East Germany before the wall fell. Communism stagnated the economy. Communism would have fallen in the 1960s if the USA wasn't keeping the USSR alive like giving it grain during their faminies. The irony is Communist nations still exist because Capitalist ones keep doing business with them. Without that extra cash influx and buisness knowhow from Capitalist investors, Communist regimes would have collapsed as quickly as they appeared. The USSR wouldn't have exisited under Lenin if we didn't give them food relief. Which Lenin abused. God damn Commies don't understand economics. But then again your still running with an idea still stuck in the 1800s mindset, of course you wouldn't understand.
I think its far to late for unification. South Korea has advanced so far ahead of the North that unification would be a hindrance more than a benefit. Unlike East and West Germany where the idea for unification never died. I forsee Korea always being two separate countries even if the Kim regime is toppled.
This is really good animation and sound design. I like the work you people (or is it one person? Thatd be impressive) do. Anyway, reunification very very unlikely. Many problems to solve. And reunification expensive. Its one half trying to bring up the other without losing anything.
I think in order for Korea to be united, they'd have to be separated like having a "One Country, Two Systems" like what China and Hong Kong was supposed to be and have two separate federal governments and there would be restrictions in migration (otherwise every North Korean would flock to the South). While they'd share a common defense, foreign policy and internationally be seen as one country.
@@dathunderman4 Actually a lot would change. North and South Korea today have no economic relations with each other and are closed off from each other. If North and South Korea would have a federal government like I mentioned. South Korea would benefit would resources from the North and cheap labor while North Korea would benefit from economic development. Samsung would be able to easily dominate the phone industry with using cheap North Korean labor
It doesn't always work like that. Many Germans in 1989 thought that German reunification would happen over several years, stage by stage, but the collapse of the East German economy once the borders were reopened meant that a rapid reunification became necessary. I could see the North Korean economy imploding like that once the Kim regime was gone.
Or 1 leader, 2 sovereign countries. But this leader would have to be unified to Russia and the U.S. Kim also had his brother assassinated, if I recall. So there shouldn’t be a successor after Kim. It’s going to take an outside force to get rid of him, quite violently without question. Something not even their police force would be able to stop. Which would require a unification between Russia and the U.S.
Even though I have nothing to do with Asia in general, or Korea in particular I feel like this would be one of the best things that can happen in this century! It would make me extremely happy to see one nation united after so many years, thanks to the cold War games of big players!
@metal_fusion Its chinese problem. So its their job to handle that case. China claims that Taiwan is also their territory, but I do not think so. Currently they also have 2 chinese goverments like Korea.
So the demilitarized zone is not around the 38th parallel. The line, as you can see, is not straight because it is the cease fire / military demarcation line that was drawn when the cease fire was announced at the end of Korean War, which is still going technically.
It’s hard to imagine a unified Korea since its already about 75 years since separation. But i would love to see North Korea to open up to the world, to be able to explore, and be free from their borders.
North Korea is open to the world, it's the world that closed itself from North Korea through a series of sanctions. They can lift those sanctions any time, if they want to, the ball isn't in the hands of Koreans.
I have been waiting for the unification of Korea. So I could move my father's grave to his home town where his parents, grand and great parents are in North. I was born in 1948 in a town near Pyoung-Yang and our family came to South when I was about one year old. My mother was born in Pyoung-Yang and went middle and high school in South. During the summer vacation, she enjoyed her time with friends, parents and relatives in Pyoung-Yang. 103 years old when she passed away. Her dream was visiting her parents graves in North. It was sad that her dream never came.
The reunification of Korea Peninsula will eventually happen but it will be North Korea reunifies South Korea, just like North Vietnam reunified with South Vietnam. China and Russia will not accept South Korea to reunify North Korea under South Korean rules. The reason is exactly the same as Ukraine for Russia. US military bases in South Korea are threatening both China and Russia.
Reunification would spark a humanitarian crisis that would pale the reunification of Germany. Millions of starving people racing to the south would overwhelmed the south.
@@youngsong2254 I'm not so sure. The one thing North Korea has is housing and fairly dense cities and a robust heavy industry. They probably will need border control, and other administration.
“IT’S NOT GONNA HAPPEN!” Unless, even if, there’s a coup it still won’t happen. At best, southern colonial ruling. Geopolitically, China and Russia will not let it happen. Financially, it wouldn’t make sense for s.Korea. Culturally, both sides are so far apart in lifestyles. After 70 plus years of going in opposite directions, in every aspect, it would be like putting the Arabs and the Jews together and asking them to live on.
Sad that the people who share the same history, speak the same language and also being the same ethnic have to live in division due to foreign interests 😔
honestly the only real way i could see a reunification happen, is if one day a new ruler who was put in power would decide to care about the people they rule over. but thats not gonna happen, all people from the kim dynasty grow up with the idea that they are the most important person in the country, and nobody else matters. why would they consider giving that up just so their subjects could have a better life
I dont think so , nukes are very expensive to maintain and in case of South build up everything in north (that would be very costly) they simply would have money for nukes
@@tmartin34 noone needs to know whether they are actually maintained in working order. Just that they exist and might be usuable. Look at russia, i doubt most of their nuclear missiles are operational
@@stevens1041 one thing about capitalism is you do what is cheaper and easier. Not better. Having the idea that you own nuclear weapons is better even if they barely function. If nuclear weapons get used, no nations stockpiles truly matter except usa, china, and russia
every day, koreans who remember the time before the war, people who were seperated from their siblings and children and friends, pass away from old age. and will never get to have the chance to see the country reunited again. so heartbreaking.
Honestly, reunification would probably end up taking the form of a "One Country Two Systems" policy. That way the North would be able to build itself up without sucking too many resources away from the south. While also preserving a buffer with China.
The North couldn’t build itself up, though, without investment from the massive economy of the South- in order to build the infrastructure and power grid needed to develop to the South Korean standard I’m thinking most of that money, if not all, would come from private investment by South Korean Chaebol corporations like LG, Daewoo, Hanjin, Samsung, etc
Probably not, most Koreans rejects two system approach. There's Unification ministry within S.Korea, they want gradual unification process but this too probably won't happen as Koreans can easily adopt.
For some scenarios of unification in canny version, Korean government should restrict public access into Northern provinces around 15 to 20 years for stabilizing and building infastructures, and investments to make those regions capable for producing GDP, then slowly merge with southern provinces.
From my Polish perspective, South Koreans are quite fortunate to have such an opportunity. With declining birthrates plaguing developed countries, you possess an entire nation composed entirely of brotherly people, with the same language and culture, that could help you elevate all of Korea and bring prosperity to all via unification. I hope that the current defacto demilitarization of Korea (transfer of both South Korea's and North Korea's stockpiles of munnitions and weapons aborad due to the war in Ukraine) is a solid stepping stone in the right direction. Trzymam za was kciuki.
70years apart in modern history makes our culture very different from the north. The north is most likely to be stuck with old traditions, where in the south with accessable information to the world has changed so much. Heck, even South Korea 10 years ago is about 80% different to the current cultural norms because of the pace of development.
@@eloq7080 My country was partitioned for 123 years by 3 different empires, during which, Polish culture and language were suppressed. However, as you said, perhaps such a unification would be more troublesome in modern times.
Reunification must happen. A United Korea would certainly be a game changer on the world stage. However the uncertainty and what process would lead to a United Korea is a real unknown
Yeah ..not going to happen...Kim will not hand over his kingdom to the Democrats. They got too many hair cut styles and k pop is too sexy to handle....
I think chance of being unified is pretty grim. With the current state of South Korean population going into unprecedented low, S. Korea will no longer have economic power to support one of the poorest country in the world while trying to maintain stuff in South Korea.
One important thing to note is that SK's population being so low means they lack cheap labor. NK will provide that with many young men/women willing to work for minimum wage just like the current foreign nationals in SK. There is a reason why government is drastically increasing the number of visas given to foreigners from poor country and even trying to come up with ways to give them path to citizenship
@@davidyang5187 That is a fair point. I don't deny that they will "eventually" provide south a bricklayer workforce, but that will take many decades before they are fully merge into SK. And SK's current younger generation will provide that bridge. So surely, immigrants can provide some bricklayer works, but they are not permanent. and I don't think SK is mature and sufficient enough to embrace multicultural community yet.
The unification scenarios presented are flawed at best and miss the point. What the video describes is a list of preferred unification scenarios, not the realistic ones. Take for example the idea of Kim dynasty ending abruptly and a power struggle ensuing. The result of a such scenario wouldn't be a collapse of the North but instead a Chinese invasion of the North as CCP will never allow it to fall. A puppet regime will be installed and things will return to status-quo. Take another scenario - current leader or future leader feels that their popularity and support among general populous and general staff is falling dangerously low to the point where coup-d'etat is a possibility. They know from numerous examples, the most recent being Russia, that a war is always the quickest path to restoring once reputation. And with this in mind they declare war on the South and as a result completely occupy the peninsula as Japan lacks both the ability and will to influence the outcome and US is too slow and far away for a rapid response. The video fails to address the possibility of a Northern unification as it is deemed to no be able to - "...competently absorb the South's gigantic economic social and political structure" - missing the fact that the North would prioritize unification over economical gains and any preservation of sociopolitical structures. In the same vein the video fails to take in account and seriously consider actions of the global powers such as China occupying the North or US blocking Southern unification attempts in order to preserve the balance of power in the region.
if the DPRK collepse that way (Power struggle), I think it'd be like the Warsaw pact's self invasion. the USFK will just "stand" at the side dumbfounded, and can't do much. the only thing is the aggressive backchannels to ensure DPRK nuke safety.
There is no way the North would ever have the ability to occupy South Korea South Korea is far, far too advanced militarily and technologically for the North to ever try this again, as they did at the beginning of the Korean War… Even though the US is militarily allied with the South, they would not need us South Korea is every bit as developed as the US or a European country… The population is also way too large and independent-minded for Northern soldiers to ever hope to control The only advantage the North has is pure military manpower numbers, which doesn’t actually mean much in the modern era. And especially not when the troops are malnourished and don’t have any experience fighting an invasive war- North Korean troops are very young
@@weomxd that's just a paper tiger to stem the tide until the real force comes round... ROK army and the USFK might work just enough to push back to prevent takeover of Seoul, DPRK with the rest of the "Beijing Pact" would likely push a lot harder... IMO 60% before the Han River in Seoul might get decimated, and the rest just heavily contested (that's presuming the arty strike is not as much of a wall of fire as they claimed.)
한국사람아니라서 그 이름이 왜 이렇게 집착을 하는지 모르겠음. 동해라는 이름이 그냥 지역위치기준으로 정하는 이름이고 고유명사아닌데… 일본도 중국도 대만도 미국도 다 동해가 있는데 sea of japan 동해라고 바꿔야한다면 전세계 다 동서남북해로 바꿔야 되겠죠? 그게 말이된다고 생각해요? 한국인의 입장으로 생각하지말고 외국인의 입장을 생각해보세요 바다이름은 구분을 하기위해 고유명사 무조건 써야합니다. 그게 일본해 아니더라도 그냥 East Sea는 말이안됩니다… East Korea Sea도 아니고 어디동쪽인지 알 수가 없잖아요
1. As a Korean, we never wanted to be separated. It was the empires nearby (Soviets and now China and the USA) that divided us and keep doing so out of their own interests. 2. People talk like South and North Korea are devoid of people and lack their own will, here on the video and in the comments. I would remind everyone that being reunified or not is up to the Korean people, NOT anybody else, geopolitics aside. We are NOT your pawns, rude foreigners.
I figure a key-difference is that the division of e.g. Germany wasn't self-maintained but was preserved by the Soviets. The government in the GDR/DDR was essentially a puppet-government similar to that in Hungary, Poland, Czechoslovakia, etc. And those governments didn't crack despite internal pressures until the Soviets were weak enough. The citizens wanted sovereignty (and in the German case unification) and tried to achieve it. East Germany had their most famous revolt in 1953, Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968. So I figure a unification isn't likely until North Korea's supports change. Russia might neither be powerful nor interested enough to prop them up but the Chinese are. As for the difference in economics, culture and values. Those can be overcome given time. Countries like South Korea have shown how quickly a country can become wealthy. The important thing is to ensure that some people aren't left behind while others rush forward. It creates resentment, deep economic scares and fertile grounds for anti-democratic movements, like we can see in the eastern part of Germany and in Russia after the Soviet's fall.
The only way Korea ever unites is if the US finally acknowledges the damage it caused as a result of its policies from 1945 to today, ends economic sanctions and leaves the peninsula.
U see, if North Korea is gonna invade the south, what are the north government going to tell their troops who they are invading. Don’t North Koreans think that there is only one Korea. Also imagine being a North Korean soldier marching into a southern city and seeing the incredible technology and lifestyle
Of course they wouldnt call it invading. They would spread false information about how the south or the americans are planning an attack and they must act now to interveine and defend their country.
Any reunification would involve a substantial reduction in military spending and the size of the armed forces - just as Germany went from a combined West-East armed forces of 670,000 personnel down to the maximum allowed of 370,000 for the united Germany (it is currently lower still, about 255,000 personnel) since there would no longer be any need for such levels of forces in a unified Korea.
Ok but what about china? China wouldn't exactly like the idea of a democracy right on it's doorsstep which would mean escalating tensions, would't keeping a large force then make sense?
Not necessarily. If an united Korea (under South Korean rule) happened, then it's possible the US and united Korea could agree compromises with China like the US and West Germany did with the Soviet Union. For example, using German reunification as an example: (a) only Korean forces in what was North Korea (in the same way as only German forces are allowed in the former East Germany); (b) strict limits on the size of the united Korean military (just as the reunified Germany was limited to 370,000 military personnel); (c) the united Korea not to be allowed any biological, chemical or nuclear weapons (like the reunited Germany) and (d) a border treaty to be signed where the united Korea renounces any territorial claims on China (just as the reunited Germany did with Poland). Possibly also add a treaty clause stating that the US is limited to a maximum of say 20,000 troops in southern Korea. China might then prefer a stable, democratic, wealthy united Korea that doesn't test nuclear weapons or spit fire and brimstone like Kim Jong-Un does and which could be a valuable trade partner selling high quality goods to the Chinese market and vice versa. I could see how China's leaders might be glad to get rid of the almost-constant crisis that is North Korea.
@@JeremyIrwin-c8f i don't know I mean look at taiwan, it is a democratic country (that is the last remnants of nationalist China) and there authority isn't really respected. Or how about ukraine it is also a democratic and gave up it's soviet stored nuclear weapons but is in a war with it's neighbour, russia, autocratic regimes usually aren't keen on letting democratic countries exist in fear of either setting an alternative example to their own people (and thus making them revolt) or they have internal problems and want an easy scape goat.
Whilst these are valid comments, I would argue that a key difference is that China views Taiwan as being Chinese and therefore has a territorial claim on Taiwan whereas the Chinese government do not claim Korea (whether North or South) as being part of the national Chinese territory and therefore have no territorial claims on Korea. With Ukraine, Russia is claiming the eastern parts of that country although some Russians are suggesting that Ukraine is properly part of Russia so there is a territorial claim there (totally spurious in my view).
If SK where to simply absorbe NK then the countries will never truly be unified. Germany was only divided for 28 years and the differences between east and west are still there in several aspects. If they want a true unification then for better or worse both the north and south have to get closer and say rather work towards something closer to social democracy rather than fully one or the other. Who knows maybe that'd be beneficial to the population of a highly patriarchal cociety such as SK who struggle with a collapsing birth rate and the demographic issues that follows.
Also east german economy was much better than that of north korea, most people don't realise how bad things are north korea, they are truly a dystopian society and south korea just doesn't have the resources to manage the costs of reunification with North korea, considering that North korean population is about half of entire south korea and you would have a very difficult task of trying to upskill a largely uneducated, agrarian and rural north korean populace to find jobs in south korean society. And honestly how did he come up with the 5 trillion GDP figure is beyond me , just having large population doesn't mean having bigger GDP, Just look at brazil
Problem is ironically just that. You’d have to make it so the former northern populations were unable to vote for a while (which for obvious reasons isn’t a morally good thing) or you risk the much younger on average former North Koreans overwhelmingly the collapsing southern population at the ballot box and potentially just creating the dprk all over again, just bigger.
@@forsociopoliticalstuff2629well you won't have any disagreements from me on that. I just don't think there was any solid research done before they made this video
Can you imagine all the foreign companies jocking to get first dibs in developing north Korea? Electric, plumbing and heating companies? Like a shark tank battle
I think it could happen in a proxy manner by having both North and South join a single trade organization and the North should allow access to foreign content. In my opinion lack of access to foreign media is actually the worst obstacle because North Korean don't even understand how the world functions, to be honest that's actually puts them at a disadvantage in case of war as well, their missiles aren't such a great deterrent as would interactions between people of different countries and the ability to use the global media to promote their narrative be, there is a reason China heavily invests in Global media content production. But to be honest its actually really is America's fault reunification at this moment might not be possible, had they tried a more lenient policy like what they did in Vietnam during the 1990's North Korea might be better integrated into the global economy instead the US tried to starve the country just because they did not get along with the Kim family.
Not true. DRPK starved themselves. They could've feed their own people with the money they borrowed instead they used all on nukes. That's why there were sanctions on them by several countries because they wouldn't pay back what they owe. It was bad business globally.
You are firmly mistaken. The reason there is no foreign media in North Korea is because the Kim family made it illegal, fearing that if their people had access to foreign media, they would expose the contradictions of the fake utopia they have brainwashed their people into. In fact, it is not uncommon for North Koreans to be executed for simply distributing foreign media. Nevertheless, the black market has allowed South Korean dramas and movies to flow through the country's border with China, which is somewhat positive.
Main problem here is that South is against unification as it would cost them a TON of money without any guarantees of back investment. But, on the other hand, when population collapse starts happening due to lack of children I can see the South pushing this forward as the North has bigger percentage of younger population than the South.
If korea adopted the norths system, it would no doubt collapse, and North korea, i don't think, has a bigger percentage as we don't officially know and giving that so many die in NK because of disease,lack of nutriment and torture i doubt it
Radical idea: A unified Korea with constitutional monarchy with the Kim family elevated to royal Head of State and President as Head of Government. Control of the army might be an issue, and a compromise could be that the royal family would have a private army to protect them, while the President is the head of the armed forces. Less radical idea: Form a Korean Union with free movement of people and single currency similar to the European Union, with each Korea staying as its own country. If the Kim regime falls, both Koreas could potentially unite as the same country, but by this time they should be economically and culturally integrated.
I had a Similar Idea The Reason I need the Kim Family there is to prevent Corruption from the South Korean Regime A Constitutional Monarchy can work Kim Family would have power but in name only while the South Korean Government aka Provisional Government Runs the Entire Unified County With a Prime Minister making the decisions also you get rid of Communism entirely which the United States would gladly expect The Kingdom Of Korea
If Korea ever becomes a monarchy I think it should be the relatives of the monarchy before the Japanese took over in 1910, not the Kims. They actually have a legitimate claim to the hypothetical throne
We don't discriminate against North korean refugees. They usually settle down in korea and work hard, but few Chinese immigrants make trouble. North Korea shares the same language as South. We perfectly understand each other. They threatened with missile, but we all know it's bluffing. North needs strong propaganda to control the nation. Which happened to be missile.
The situation of Korea reminds me of only three possible unification: the German way, the Vietnamese way, and the Yemeni way. The German way is the only way to achieve peacefully but it is increasingly distant. Even East Germany was not that bad like North Korea, so while the unification has caused so much problems for Germany, the Germans have since worked to improve the fortune of the east and most Germans accepted the new fate for good. The Vietnamese way risks turning Korea into a destructive peninsula again. As we have seen with Vietnam, the country's communist regime only agreed to turn to capitalist economy in 1986 due to pressure from a dying Soviet Union, yet even then Vietnam remains one of the most corrupt countries, despite massive economic improvements. Plus, the peace Vietnam have today is achieved in a more violent mean, which made it impossible to trust any institution inside the country. The Yemeni way is equal to the Vietnamese way, although it may become even more destructive. Yemen, in fact, was divided for centuries and only unified because of the Ottoman and British rules forcing them to consolidate an identity. Unfortunately, when North and South Yemen finally agreed to unite in 1990, it was run by wrong people and since then we have what's going on in Yemen today. Any scenario today, sadly, risks turning Korea to either the second Vietnam or Yemen.
Part of the reason why the Vietnamese way was so destructive is because of foreign forces include American, Soviet Union and Chinese. Vietnam unified in 1975 against the will of American and China, while Soviet Union was still strong and supporting the unification. Germany was peaceful because there was no other foreign forces opposing its unification. Korea unification will likely to fall into the Vietnamese path if China and US still remains super power. Only when either one fall like Soviet did then Korean can unify like the German.
@@yonggeun4222Sure they can unify but does the North Korea regime want to give up their power? South is a Democracy while the North is an Authoritarian Dictatorship. Have you even bothered to study and look at videos of how North Koreans are treated by their own government?
3:20 Economically the two Koreas did not start at roughly the same place. The north was better off in many economic factors, with the majority of raw materials and industrial base. Without other factors intervening the north should have been the stronger part of the Korean peninsula
Real. It lost it's upper hand after the fall of the USSR and the arduous march famine, made worse because on economical sanctions on oil and food. It's slowly getting better though, thanks to new deals with Russia and China. Living in the north will probably be much better than living in the south in around 10 years.
A unified Korea would be a complex and difficult task because the two parts of the country are very different. The Republic of Korea (South Korea) is a democracy with a capitalist market economy, while the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) is a dictatorship with a socialist planned economy. The political and economic integration of the two countries would be a lengthy process that would require significant investments and resources. A new system of government would have to be created that takes into account the needs and interests of both parts of the population. In addition, a new economic order would have to be developed that connects both systems. In addition, Korean reunification would also bring cultural and social challenges. Both countries have diverged greatly from each other over the past 70 years. The people of North Korea grew up with severely limited access to information and a different way of life than the people of South Korea. Despite the challenges, there are also arguments for Korean reunification. A unified Korea would be a democratic and prosperous country that could make an important contribution to stability and security in the region. It would also give the people of North Korea the opportunity to live freer and more self-determined lives. Here are some possible ways a unified Korea could work: A federal structure: A unified Korea could be divided into several regions, each with a degree of autonomy. This would take into account the different interests and needs of the population. A central government: Alternatively, a unified Korea could have a central government that would be responsible for all areas of public life. This would be a simpler solution, but could also lead to conflicts between the two parts of the country. In reality, a unified Korea will likely be a mix of both models. There could be a federal structure, but the central government would be responsible for some important areas such as defense and foreign policy. The exact shape of a unified Korea depends on many factors, including the political will of the two countries, the support of the international community and the willingness of the population to agree on a common goal. Below are some concrete steps that could be taken to prepare for the reunification of Korea: Normalization of relations between North and South Korea: This would enable cooperation in areas such as economics, trade and culture. Develop a common political and economic system: This would pave the way for complete reunification. Growing a new generation of Koreans who grew up in a unified Korea: This would help overcome the differences between the two parts of the country. The reunification of Korea is an ambitious goal, but one that can be achieved if the two countries and the international community work together.
I am a South Korean. The center of China, the area around Boahi Sea (Beijing, Tianjin, Daren, Qingdao..) is so close to the Korean Peninsula. The strategic depth is so shallow that the CCP feels 'existential threat' already with North Korea as its puppet or vassal. For reunificaiton: 1) China needs to be intimidated so much that it cannot, will not put up a conflict against reunification. 2) The US needs to abandon the strategy of 'stability through divisiion' which it has held since 1945. 3) South Koreans need to hone their will and might to liberate North Koreans from the most wreched totalitarianism. I believe the US and South Koreans are moving (gradually) toward reunification. China is rapidly losing its status. Let us wait and see. This cannot be done unilatrally by sheer force, even though military might is essential to curb China.
In the past, Goldman Sachs predicted that reunification of the two Koreas would overtake China's economic power, and most economic institutions predicted that Reunified Korea would overtake Japan and Germany When reunified, Korea can export to China and Europe by land and use North Korea's labor and resources
Why Japan highly unlikely? You're aware South Korea's micro chip industry on par with Japan? Hyundai and KIA are also excellent car manufacturers. Food-South Korea's influence on the palate is gaining more attention, in the West. This is personal preference; I prefer Korean food to Japanese, Korean's make food with soul! The most important ingredient in making food desirable.@@FOLIPE
@@TimeTraveller010 because japan has more people. korea has some companies and technologies as good as japan but japan simply has more people. and its not like SK has better birth rates or anything, in fact it has worse birth rates than japan. as for china, Korea can forget about it lmao. they would literally have to have the highest GDP per capita in the world to reach what china has for GDP even today, never mind 10 years from now.
I would say it would be very difficult for unification because both countries grew up in opposite ideologies. Instead of reunification it would be best that they are separate but the kim regime has to fail and a new successor should be there who would open the borders to south so that free open trade, tourism, investment would be started between both countries.slowly NK starts to change and surely thrives towards development.
Let’s not kid ourselves and think China and US would allow the Korean reunification to happen. Superpowers need buffer zones so it’s never up to North or South Koreans
We Koreans experienced colonial period in the beginning of 20th century, and succeeding division of the peninsula and fratricidal war is still prevailing every occasion in Korea. It's been almost 70 years since the permanent division of Korea and people in both South and North suffer from it. I hate foreigners talking about Korean reunification as a gossip so badly, for they haven't been caring about Korea's tragedy in 20th century.
The historical parts of this video are highly western-biased. If any of you want to learn about this extremely fascinating history of how this all came to be, and why it persists, listen to the incredibly high-quality and well-cited podcast Blowback, Season 3. The US is exclusively responsible for the fact that they never unified. The USA upheld a corrupt, reckless, violent, and hated regime in South Korea that pre- and post-war was a significantly worse place to live, especially in terms of education, worker's rights, and women's rights. The war was full of atrocities, the worst of which were perpetrated by the US and South Korean governments. Post WWII and pre Korean war elections in the south were completly rigged, unlike the north, which to me was a surprise to learn. The US intelligence themselves reported no meddling of the USSR in elections. The USSR even refused numerous requests for air support and more weapons by the north during and leading up to the Korean war, because they did not want to engage the USA, because the USSR was hoping for an alliance with the USA, not a cold war. The USA was going to have none of that, because they felt communism and socialism was a threat. Post-war, the US has continued to take every non-violent action it can to destroy North Korea. We have had them sanctioned heavily, and we denied repeated requests for food aid during that famine caused by natural disaster. It was not the North Korean government abandoning their people during the famine, it was the rest of the world's governments, spear-headed by the fiercely anti-communist USA and their allies. The USSR falling lost the DPRK any chance at food aid. It was horrible luck. Not to mention it was rough for them to recover from the USA napalm bombing their whole country to the point where the air force leaders there said "there are no more targets". Re-unification attempts have been attempted almost 10 times since the war ended, and the US has done everything in its power to shut them down, each and every time. The US's influence is strong here, it was never a choice between Koreans, because no one will let them. All the nuclear and weapons actions by the North have been in response to agression or threats from the outside. When president Bush put North Korea in his "axis of evil" and proceeded to wreck the countries that didn't have nuclear weapons, the DPRK knew they had to protect themselves, and it's worked. The statements that the nuclear weapons are the reason for the sanctions and military presence are objectively false, it's the DPRK's response to the sanctions and military presence. Simply check when these things happened. The USA was present with a large military presence in the south since the war, and sanctions were present since the war. Nuclear weapons were not available to the DPRK at that time. North Korea is indisputably a horrible place to live at this point, but it's not their fault. After all this disaster, it's no surprise an authoritarian, isolationist regime is in power. They didn't want to cave into the colonizing westerners, they just wanted to try their own way, but the USA made sure they weren't allowed to.
Imagine this scenario, twins got separated at birth into a wealthy loving house and the other into a poor abusive one. They grew up and both made new families, now try making their children be together and form a relationship, what do you think would happen? Just for the twins would be hard enough, their children would not even care to make it work. That's what's going on now with the north and south. The people that truly care about reunification are long gone and each new south generation cares less and less about the north.
Oh, idk about a unified Korea getting rid of compulsory military service, Switzerland, Israel (bad example, I know) and Finland still have compulsory military service.
Sea of Japan & Yellow sea are the naming used by Japan and China. Koreans call east & west sea. These naming conventions frequently caused sovereignty issue among these nations. So please use them carefully, otherwise you are acknowledging very controversial topics.
I don’t think North Korea will ever fall/reunite with the South unless the Chinese Communist Party falls. While North Korea isn’t exactly a puppet state of the Chinese regime, I think the CCP will do whatever it takes to maintain that buffer zone
Whoever leads China will never allow korea to reunite until China surpass US and reconstruct the international order, it's nothing about ideology, but geography, for the national security of China.
I feel like the best possible scenario is that the North gets liberated from the Kim dynasty and becomes a democratic republic (not just by name 💀) and eventually after decades of progress the two countries can potentially reunite.
That would never happen. You can’t take a people who have suffered under centuries of oppression and suddenly give them the ability to vote because they’ll just vote in the first dictator who campaigns. It happened in Hungary, it happened in Turkey and it happened in Russia. All 3 got democracies and all 3 willingly voted in dictators
Unification needs to start in baby steps. How about open up the borders first so people can freely travel back and forth, then sometime later get it where citizens of either country can work in eachothers country Like UK and Ireland does. Next step could be to form an an EU like one economy style system and so on. This all will take years
This video ignores all the important facts regarding North Koreas geopolitical situation. Why would they be honest and tell people that SK was an authoritarian country that imprisoned, killed, and censored it’s people by the tens of thousands from 48-91? Biggest problem today is ignorance and the potency of US propaganda.
I don't think reunification should be all at once. I think South Korea should assimilate little land by land of North Korea in order to accomodate the North Koreans' needs slowly and gradually
I don't see how that works. When Germany reunified, West Germany didn't take in Thuriniga, then Saxony, then Brandenburg and so on. It took in the whole of East Germany at once.
