Quote:
Originally Posted by Cowperson
The night the Berlin Wall fell, stunned, rag-tag, East Germans staggered unbelieving through the glittering, neon-strewn and flush retail districts of West Berlin, past endless stores aglitter and stuffed with jewellry, clothing and technology . . . . . .
. . . . . and then they got angry as it started to occur to them how much they had been led down the proverbial garden path . . . .
A decade later, the Germans were still paying the bill of trying to normalize the East into a modern economy and Germany was called "the sick man of Europe." More than 20 years later, that's obviously started to change and Germany is the strong man of Europe again . . . .
The economic burden on South Korea should the North actually die a natural death would be something staggering as well.
The night the Berlin Wall was breached:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/...660190,00.html
Cowperson |
Great point! Pretty sure the economic toll would be far far greater in the case of Korea... East Germany was fairly modernized in terms of infrastructure, food production and basic necessities. East Germany even had a thriving industry in terms of engineering and electronics, optics, automotive and clock/watch production. What does NK have? They don't really have any exports to speak of, most their arable land (they almost completely rely on food aid) has been destroyed due to flooding caused by poor dam production, their buildings are falling apart and outside of Pyongyang no one even has electricity. It'll be like stepping out of a time machine for the North Koreans and I really wonder if the vast majority of them will be able to cope with such a steep transition when it actually happens.