rossmnz:SaltyNZ: Why do you think that a war would result in things getting better for ordinary NK citizens? If there's one thing that the past 10 years should have taught you, it's that a war to effect the end of a government doesn't work, especially when the people concerned don't *want* their government ended.
Id imagine the difference in this scenario is that there is a perfectly functioning, rational Korean government already.
Logically the end of north korea would mean re-unification under southern governance.
Two things wrong with these statements. First, South Korea has a new President, Park Geun-hye, who is struggling to establish her leadership. The political situation in the south is far from perfectly functioning. It's not even certain that its stable.
Secondly, reunification under southern governance would mean absorption of a country that provides a buffer between China and a westernised US ally. There is strategic advantage to China in keeping North Korea as is. North and South Korea were under Japanese control until Japan surrendered in WWII. The split of the Korean peninsula happened because of an agreement between the then USSR and the USA. North Korea is communist & ideology doesn't change overnight. The potential for both China and Russia to take exception to any risk of North Korea falling is very high. IMO, the only logical outcome of the end of North Korea is likely to be war between the world's superpowers. China intervened when the UN went into North Korea in the 1950's and this brought about the armistice. Nobody won that war. Yet.
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