Causes and Consequences of the Korean Division.

I liked your paper a lot and can find very little fault in it. Very informative and interesting.

In answer to Kier's question.

I am very glad that I didn't have to address the issue of the future in this essay because I think that such a thing is very difficult to speculate on.


In any case I take a fairly optomistic view of the situation.


I think that in the case of the North Korean regime collapsing the two countries may very well reunite.


I don't feel that this decision will be guided too strongly by economic factors. We can see from the strong government policies surrounding reunification that it really is an important matter to the Korean people. I also remember reading an article suggesting that if the two halves of the country were to reunite that this would give them various economic benefits that would enable them to compete with Japan more effectively. (Sorry I am a bit vague on this point) This has something to do with the importation of raw materials and the different type of economy existing in the North and South.


In regards to the military, I do not think the two sides of the country will go to war in order to achieve reunification. I'm also not sure that it has been conclusively proven that North Korea is developing or actually has nuclear weapons.


As for loathing the capitalist system, I can't imagine that such a thing would last very long once these "brain washed" people ecounter the more successful South.


Nevertheless, if the division continues for too long I think the Korean may very well forget about reunification and begin to think of themselves as two people.



....it's a difficult question which my professor was loathed to answer.

I liked this paper a lot informative and interesting.

Sorry I couldn't tell you why you got a negative rating... ?

I do suspect that the South which would face a plummeting standard of living for its citizens (compared to the North increasing theirs by 10X) would deter them, for the very same reason the South of Ireland is in no rush to take on the economically deprived North. No one wants to follow Germany's example!

(By the way, don't know why my last comment was rated down compared to others...)

Tried sending a comment but each time rejected, so will try one more time... You provided a brilliant analysis of causes and consequences of the division. Think about the future. Do you think that realistically be a reunification of the peninsula? I heard that unification would cost South Korea 5-6 times its GDP. Seeing what happened to Germany's economy after its own attempt, would South Korea see it as a price worth paying especially with all the other questions...

Where they will have to deal with one of the largest standing armies in the world to decommission, a nuclear weapons arsenal that would probably end up anywhere in the world; little modern infrastructure to set up in one of the most brain-washed areas which will have to adapt to doing things for themselves in a capitalist system that they have been brought up to loathe.