Why Do We Still Have a North Korea?

In recent days, the United States and China have been having discussions regarding North Korea. Has North Korea breached the Korean War armistice? Are sanctions in order? I suggest that with the cold war long over, there is no reason for two Koreas to continue to exist. If sanctions are proposed, then they should include the ultimate sanction: a request that a plan be put in place to hold free elections for a government of a unified Korea.

I know, I know. This is a laughingly naïve proposal. Of course dictator Kim Jong II will not voluntarily step down and hold elections. That’s not the point. The point is that is what he should do, and this request will only be the first step to getting him to do what should be done. And it’s a long overdue step.

Times have changed. We no longer have a philosophical battle between the Communism of the Soviet Union and Red China and the capitalism of the western nations. Kim Jong II is clearly a dictator who got his position by being the son of an earlier dictator. All Koreans know this; the whole world knows this. And this is not a benevolent dictator who has made life better for his people. The North Korean economy is a basket case. Jong has absolutely no credible response to a request that he step down and unify with the South.

The separation of Korea into two pieces was an accident of World War II, much like the division of Germany was an offshoot of the war. The intent to reunify the country goes as far back as the post-war 1940s. The Korean War, caused by the cold war antagonisms, ended the drive to reunification in the 1950s. But those days are long over. It appears to me that China has devoted itself to economic competition not military competition. China would welcome a stable, united Korea and the elimination of an unpredictable dictator. Some years ago the political pundits said that the Germanys would never unite, history had moved on. But the German people of course wanted their whole country back and without a doubt, so do the Koreans.

A unified Korea will also serve the interests of the United States. South Korea has a population twice the size of North Korea and an economy many times stronger. South Korea would dominate the unified country and transform the North Korean economy into a successful capitalist economy similar to that of the South. The need for tens of thousands of American troops in Korea would disappear, saving the United States huge amounts of unnecessary military expense.

In recent years, South Korea has been make mild attempts at rapprochement with North Korea and China. These efforts should be encouraged by the United States and intensified. The ultimate goal will be the reunification of a homogeneous group of people who should never have been separated in the first place. There is no reason why the United States, China, and the other members of the United Nations Security Counsel should not now take the lead in formulating a plan for the eventual reunification of Korea.