[Elysian]

I hope any reunification is done in a very slow and deliberate fashion, given how more than a few economic historians have noted that combining SK and NK's economies will catapult SK back by as much 40-50 years.
 
I've spoken with more than a few older West Germans (highly educated professionals) who were unhappy with how coupling East Germany to West Germany drastically crippled the West German economy.  NK will be far worse for SK.  It's pretty sobering if you look at at NK on this NASA light map (left-click to zoom it out).
 

 
Anyway, you'll get nationalism everywhere you go.  If someone from China is annoying you, just tell them that Taiwan should be independent as Taiwan has earned it

 

[bcasey25raptor]

Quote:

I hope any reunification is done in a very slow and deliberate fashion, given how more than a few economic historians have noted that combining SK and NK's economies will catapult SK back by as much 40-50 years.
 
I've spoken with more than a few older West Germans (highly educated professionals) who were unhappy with how coupling East Germany to West Germany drastically crippled the West German economy.  NK will be far worse for SK.  It's pretty sobering if you look at at NK on this NASA light map (left-click to zoom it out).
 

 
Anyway, you'll get nationalism everywhere you go.  If someone from China is annoying you, just tell them that Taiwan should be independent as Taiwan has earned it

Do you really want to see everywhere lit up? There isn't enough power to power the entire world. According to that map most of the industrialized world is eastern north america and western europe with japan in the east.

 

[Head Injury]

Quote:

Do you really want to see everywhere lit up? There isn't enough power to power the entire world. According to that map most of the industrialized world is eastern north america and western europe with japan in the east.

I think his point was to contrast North and South Korea. South Korea almost looks like an island in that map.

 

[bcasey25raptor]

Quote:

I think his point was to contrast North and South Korea. South Korea almost looks like an island in that map.

Yes that is true. North korea is practically living in the dark ages. I don't think it would be a good idea to fuse the 2 countries however. It would lead to to many issues.

 

[Elysian]

Quote:

I think his point was to contrast North and South Korea. South Korea almost looks like an island in that map.

Yup, that was my point exactly.
 
NK's GDP is less than 3% of SK's in nominal terms, yet NK has half the population of SK.  SK already faced quite bit of economic turmoil since the global recession, and the last thing SK needs is to absorb all of NK's people and structural issues on top of everything that's already going on.
 
Not only that, the majority of NK's economy is black market goods (including huge amounts of money counterfeiting) and letting China access its natural resources (mining, fishing), so I'm not even sure where SK could even build on within NK, given that the entirety of NK is an economic failure.  To make things even worse, the military controls the significant businesses, resources, and money, and we've all seen what happens when military enterprises own significant amounts of economic capital.

 

[TehJam]

Well, you have to hope for the best of the people. It would be nice for some of them to understand what life should be like. Heard something funny on the news today "As usual, during a power shift  in North Korea, Nuclear weapons are being tested" Something like that....
 
 
Also, that rap battle was one of the funniest things I have ever seen.

 

[Astrozombie]

Quote:

I have a few friends who actually stood guard at the North-South Korean border. Yep they stare at each another without saying a word all day. I can't imagine how someone would come up with a comedy skit for that, though...
 


 

Would have to be SK, get a guard to show up with one of those big wigs British guards wear, play some funky music in the background, take your post in a chicken/furry costume? Sit down and read a newspaper? While listening to their ipod? Just to mess with the NK guys, it probably would be frowned upon though.....plus people won't want to antagonize NK as they are already threatening the world. I just want to see if they can laugh or stay stoic for fear of punishment.
 

 

[songmic]

You guys are right, although we South Koreans learn in our textbooks that North and South Korea should be unified as one someday, many South Koreans are actually against reunification because it will surely cripple our economy. For those who're comparing it to the unification of Germany, at least East Germany of twenty years ago was far, far better off economically than today's North Korea. South Korea is currently the world's 12~13th richest country, but North Korea's GDP is less than 3% of ours, with a population nearly half that of South Korea. Although "combining SK and NK's economies will catapult SK back by as much as 40~50 years" sounds like an overstatement, we'll have a situation where statistically, two South Koreans are forced to feed one North Korean. Call me a soulless dick if you will, but I don't want to give up 1/3 of my earnings to feed a group of formerly brainwashed Commies.
 
That's not the only reason many South Koreans are against reunification, however. Another very important reason is this: most North Koreans have been brainwashed throughout their whole lives that the United States is their greatest enemy, that communism is the best economic system in the world, that capitalism is evil, that a country should be ruled by one man and his sons and grandsons... and that a if a man commits a crime then his family/friends must be punished too, and so on... so how the earth are we going to integrate these people with seemingly warped minds and ideologies into South Korea's peaceful, sound-minded, rational-thinking society? Not only would we have to give away our money and labor to feed these incompetent people, but we would also have to put up with their demands and tantrums to change society in unacceptable ways! Since they have lived their whole lives in a communistic society where wealth is supposed to be divided equally, well at least in theory (of course, that did not happen), how are they going to think when they merge with our country and see all these South Koreans living in luxury? Our country would be engulfed in riots, crimes, possibly even acts of terrorism, caused by angry mobs of ex-North Koreans against ex-South Koreans. Biting the hand that feeds them.
 
I do believe, however, that reunification may be necessary for the greater good of the Korean peninsula in the long run (and by long run, I mean about a hundred years later). But now's not the time.

 

[sulkoudai]

songmic, i don't know because I've never been to school in Korea, are kids taught that Kim Jong Il is the enemy?? or just as a bad leader??

 

[bcasey25raptor]

 

[songmic]

Check out post #11 of this thread. We are taught that North Korea and its leader Kim Jong-il is our greatest enemy. That's because he, like his father before him, has committed countless atrocities against South Korea as well as his own people (if he had been a evil dictator in his own country but left South Korea alone, we would've just called him a bad leader but not necessarily an enemy). Of course, we're more used to saying that "North Korea as a whole is our greatest enemy," rather than "Kim Jong-il alone is our greatest enemy." Because if Kim dies, North Korea will probably find another evil dictator to replace him.
 
Quote:

songmic, i don't know because I've never been to school in Korea, are kids taught that Kim Jong Il is the enemy?? or just as a bad leader??

 

 

[KimChee]

Hmm, where to start. I agree with most of what has been said on this thread, I was born in Seoul, now living in the US and have been a US citizen for a very long time, I share most of the worries here.  First the transition to power, there's always the chance succession won't take place and the military will never allow this to happen.  This seems like the worst case scenario to me, in which US, China, NK, and SK will be involved in sorting things out..huge headache.  
 
Kim Jong-il is comparable in my mind to what the US views as Sadam and maybe Hitler.  Countless atrocities against SK and it's people, though I'm pretty certain most people in America could care less imho.  Yes, NK has nukes, while they'd certainly lose a war this is terrifying.  
 
Not everyone wants reunification for reasons listed previously, this would also be a nightmare.
 
Ugh, just ugh, I'm glad I'm over in the good old US of A for all this.
 
 

 

[bcasey25raptor]

Quote:

Hmm, where to start. I agree with most of what has been said on this thread, I was born in Seoul, now living in the US and have been a US citizen for a very long time, I share most of the worries here.  First the transition to power, there's always the chance succession won't take place and the military will never allow this to happen.  This seems like the worst case scenario to me, in which US, China, NK, and SK will be involved in sorting things out..huge headache.  
 
Kim Jong-il is comparable in my mind to what the US views as Sadam and maybe Hitler.  Countless atrocities against SK and it's people, though I'm pretty certain most people in America could care less imho.  Yes, NK has nukes, while they'd certainly lose a war this is terrifying.  
 
Not everyone wants reunification for reasons listed previously, this would also be a nightmare.
 
Ugh, just ugh, I'm glad I'm over in the good old US of A for all this.
 
 

I feel even safer in canada.
 

 

[Elysian]

There's been a lot of talk that the NK generals are being bought off by China, and that China will start moving its forces in to start creating bases in NK.  This would put China in a much better military position against the United States.  The only thing previously stopping this was Kim Jong Il, but now that he's gone, some policy experts are saying that it's unlikely the NK military leadership will obey his son and regents.
 
Do people in South Korea think China's encroachment in NK is a likely scenario?
 
Reuters is already reporting that Kim Jong-un is already ceding equal(?) power to the military... this isn't looking good:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/21/us-korea-north-exclusive-idUSTRE7BK0FX20111221

 

[sulkoudai]

Quote:

I feel even safer in canada.
 

i feel safer in Australia