War with North Korea blocked by South Korea

[IMPress Polly]

Peter wrote:
How would the current North Korean country unite with the South?

Let's assume the North gives up its crazy ideology. The South would have to spend hundreds of billions, or more to rehabilitate the North. And it would take a generation or longer to un-brainwash the citizens of the North.

There actually was an agreed-upon general framework for reunification established between the two Koreas back in 2000 for which their leaders at the time were both awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The basic idea was that Korea would be reunified as a loose confederation with both the North and the South retaining their existing governments and, to a lesser degree, their economies, but wherein the two militaries would be merged into one and the U.S. military would leave, and the DMZ would accordingly disappear and people would hence be free to travel across the peninsula as Koreans. In the first part of the 2000s, some of these things began to be implemented in stages. There was a special economic zone established between the two Koreas, for example, and train service was established that allowed people to cross the DMZ in 2002. They also participated in the 2006 Olympics under the same banner like they're doing this year. It all fell apart over the nuclear issue though when South Korea elected a conservative government in 2008. But that conservative government is no longer there and the nuclear issue does not appear to be hampering negotiations between the two Koreas anymore.

To be frank, reunification is only possible if the nuclear issue is set aside. Just let the North have their program. As long as the two Koreas continue to behave as they presently are around that, reunification can happen. That's where I hold out hope.

[Peter1469]

There actually was an agreed-upon general framework for reunification established between the two Koreas back in 2000 for which their leaders at the time were both awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The basic idea was that Korea would be reunified as a loose confederation with both the North and the South retaining their existing governments and, to a lesser degree, their economies, but wherein the two militaries would be merged into one and the U.S. military would leave, and the DMZ would accordingly disappear and people would hence be free to travel across the peninsula as Koreans. In the first part of the 2000s, some of these things began to be implemented in stages. There was a special economic zone established between the two Koreas, for example, and train service was established that allowed people to cross the DMZ in 2002. They also participated in the 2006 Olympics under the same banner like they're doing this year. It all fell apart over the nuclear issue though when South Korea elected a conservative government in 2008. But that conservative government is no longer there and the nuclear issue does not appear to be hampering negotiations between the two Koreas anymore.

To be frank, reunification is only possible if the nuclear issue is set aside. Just let the North have their program. As long as the two Koreas continue to behave as they presently are around that, reunification can happen. That's where I hold out hope.

Well it is interesting. I served there twice. 1989-90 and 2000-02. The first time I did two tours on the DMZ- which was awesome.