North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, has called for a change to the constitution to identify South Korea as the “number one hostile state”, ending the regime’s commitment to unifying the Korean peninsula.
In a speech to the supreme people’s assembly – North Korea’s rubber-stamp parliament – Kim said he no longer believed unification was possible and accused the South of attempting to foment regime change and promote unification by stealth.
In another sign of quickly deteriorating ties between the two Koreas, which ended their 1950-53 war with a truce but not a peace treaty – Kim said: “We don’t want war, but we have no intention of avoiding it.”
Unification would be an economic disaster for South Korea. This is far worse than east and west Germany, North Koreans would need absurd levels of aid. Food, infrastructure, and education have been lacking for decades, it would take generations to repair and integrate the north into modern society.
Is south Korea a democracy? East Germany has never completely recovered, and is now one of the neo-nazi hotspots in Germany. I wonder what would happen if all the north Koreans would suddenly be allowed to vote in whole Korea. Would they tear all the progress down that the south has made so far?
Yes, it’s a democracy, although that’s only been true for a relatively short period of time.
FTFY. The need you describe already exists, whether it is filled today, or 50 years from now.
While true. The aid they would need for integration is far more overarching than just to continue to exist.