VERSION|0.5.1|NAME|HarryR|DATE|1357220148|CONTENT|@Edwin

[blockquote]Easy for Korea to reunite, present elite in North Korea resign and abdicate with opening the border[/blockquote]

Yes that would work. Beautifully simple. So what stops it happening other than the self interest of the feudal elite of the North? 

N Korea survives because of Chinese support. China has access to Korean resources such as timber and cheap, compliant labour and political support from N Korea which also acts as a buffer to keep the whizz bang South at arms length and a way of exerting pressure on US, Japan, S Korea by rockets, bombs, infiltrations, with a degree of plausible deniability. 

OTOH China is increasingly worried about mass migration of starving and desperate millions destabilising the border region when the North does eventually collapse and would presumably prefer the South to deal with such people.

People in The South want to be reunited with distant relatives so politically the South will support and fund reunification when it is possible but it will cost far more than German reunification if only due to the difference in level of development between DDR and N Korea. Think the politicos and ideologues of N Korean will not so easily be absorbed into united Korea as their peers of the DDR were into BRD|IP-ADDRESS|109.170.228.10|MODERATIONFLAG|