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CK_John

(10,005 posts)
Thu Aug 23, 2012, 12:35 AM Aug 2012

By next summer, the new "in place" will be North Korea.

The new leader has decided China is doing it right and he will go for the money and the hell with dogma.

Europe is all a twitter for this vast unspoiled place to exploit.

In the US nothing, I wonder if it is our technically at War problem.

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bhikkhu

(10,708 posts)
1. I certainly hope so!
Thu Aug 23, 2012, 01:06 AM
Aug 2012

Reunification has been the hope there for so many years, and its hard to imagine a people that has lived through so much deprivation. I haven't heard much myself, but it would be wonderful to see it happen finally!

 

slackmaster

(60,567 posts)
11. Reunification as defined by North Korean doctrine means assimilating South Korea into its system
Thu Aug 23, 2012, 03:48 AM
Aug 2012

North Korean people are taught to believe that is a goal of the the DPRK, but it's not going to happen, ever.

CK_John

(10,005 posts)
14. I don't think it will lead to reunification until the North thinks it is equal
Thu Aug 23, 2012, 12:03 PM
Aug 2012

economical and socially. More of a reconstruction of the society.

Ikonoklast

(23,973 posts)
7. Except this time, the slaves might actually get paid.
Thu Aug 23, 2012, 02:22 AM
Aug 2012

If you think there isn't any slave labor right now in North Korea, and by that I mean actual, real slave labor I have a bridge for sale you might like.

Hugabear

(10,340 posts)
8. So paying them even less than Chinese workers is perfectly ok?
Thu Aug 23, 2012, 02:25 AM
Aug 2012

I'm well aware of the slave labor going on in NK.

But to say "well they were getting paid nothing, so getting paid ANYTHING is an improvement" doesn't seem very nice either.

Ikonoklast

(23,973 posts)
12. Straw Man, but you know that.
Thu Aug 23, 2012, 11:54 AM
Aug 2012

When you are forced to either work or starve, having employment that pays wages is a huge step up.

There is a reason that the peasantry in China flocks to the manufacturers, even if we see their wages as pitiful; it is a huge step up for them, and they do so willingly.

China is slowly building a middle class based on those wage earners.

North Korea willl eventually do the same.

Hugabear

(10,340 posts)
16. No, it is still taking advantage of people who are desperate for anything
Thu Aug 23, 2012, 03:16 PM
Aug 2012

Even if it's more than what they were getting - it is still taking advantage of them. The companies that are exploiting them are making BILLIONS of dollars, why can't they share that wealth with the workers? Is there any reason why North Koreans shouldn't have the same standard of living as their brethren to the south? Same for Chinese workers - if you saw the conditions that many of them are forced to live in, it still seems pretty far from what one might consider middle class.

Sorry, I don't buy into the argument of slowly building up to a middle class - something that might take decades to happen. When you have companies making such obscene profits off extremely cheap labor, there's something wrong with that picture.

Ikonoklast

(23,973 posts)
18. Why should anyone just give them any business to begin with?
Thu Aug 23, 2012, 05:33 PM
Aug 2012

If all your economy has going for it is a plentiful supply of unskilled, poorly educated citizens, their cheap labor is the only commodity you can offer to outside investors, by default.

 

hifiguy

(33,688 posts)
15. Food and wages of any sort would be a big step up for
Thu Aug 23, 2012, 12:04 PM
Aug 2012

the average North Korean. I am as left as anyone, economically speaking, but the misery that those people have had to endure is absolutely horrifying and far beyond anything that the Chinese have had to tolerate in the post-Deng Xiaoping era.

joshcryer

(62,265 posts)
5. The culture shock would be enormous.
Thu Aug 23, 2012, 02:05 AM
Aug 2012

But it does look like the last few communist states are moderating back to a privatization style scheme. See Cuba for an example.

DonCoquixote

(13,615 posts)
9. No unification can or should happen
Thu Aug 23, 2012, 03:40 AM
Aug 2012

until the day comes when a Kim can win a south korean election, until then, few people in the South would want to deal with the level of control Kim has. Keep in mind, the Kims are NOT normal communists, but a throwback to Stalin.

 

hifiguy

(33,688 posts)
13. I certainly hope so.
Thu Aug 23, 2012, 12:01 PM
Aug 2012

The Vietnamese government wised up to this decades ago.

It is truly miraculous that the Kims I and II have manage to keep a country peopled with more than 20 million Koreans in abject poverty for sixty years. One need only to look at the South to see what the Korean people are capable of accomplishing.

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