Comments by "Evan" (@MrEvanfriend) on "William C. Fox"
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***** You're talking about people who are literally starving, and have zero outside information about how the world works. South Korea has problems integrating defectors who come one at a time, a whole country's worth of them would be a massive undertaking. These are also people who have spent their entire lives being told how horrible South Korea is, who have no idea how to function in a market economy, and don't even understand the concept of political freedom. It would be literally impossible to seamlessly integrate that into South Korea, which is a modern country, with the world's 17th largest economy.
I understand that the people want reunification. That's quite obvious. The point I'm trying to make is that it would be far harder than you're making it out to be - half the peninsula has no infrastructure to speak of to the point where they don't get electricity. It isn't so simple as "Ok, we're all one country again".
The issue of political freedom alone presents a massive problem for the South Korean government. South Korea has about 50 million people. North Korea has close to 25 million. Reunification would be adding half again the population overnight. This massive population influx has never been allowed to vote in a free and fair election. They've been so heavily brainwashed that very few probably even understand the concept. That makes them a huge wild card in the political process. And whatever the claims about desiring reunification may be, what politicians want is to hold on to power. No politician is going to want to take that kind of a risk.
Besides the "we have no idea what they'll do with the vote" issue, there's also the issue of adding half again your population of desperately poor, poorly educated people who don't understand the very basis of your economic system. Many if not most North Koreans would be unemployable in a modern economy. It will cost an immense amount of money over a generation to integrate these people and their children into a sane society. This money has to come from somewhere, it won't materialize out of nowhere. This would require enormous additional revenue for the South Korean government, almost none of which will come from the North itself, as North Korea's chief exports are counterfeit US dollars and illicit drugs. Even if, as you say, companies flock North to take advantage of North Korea's mineral wealth, It would take years before they're able to unfuck the current state of North Korea to the point where they can actually turn a profit. This is a project that would literally cost trillions of dollars.
Then there's also the China issue. Like it or not, China is a regional hegemon, and is happier with two Koreas than one, because the status quo, as imperfect as it may be, keeps American troops off their border. China will continue to prop up the North Korean government by any means necessary to prevent reunification. Assuming that nobody wants a Sino-American war, China's view of the situation is vitally important.
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