“The DPRK successfully weathered the Arduous March in the 90s.”
This is arguably the most insane sentence in your post. Estimates range from 600,000 to 3 million deaths during that famine. A state that cannot feed its people to the point where 5-10% of the population starves to death has not “successfully weathered” anything; it has failed its most basic function. Framing mass starvation as “resilience” against US imperialism is incredibly disrespectful to the victims of that regime’s mismanagement.
“The North is seeing real growth and an optimistic mood… They are building a resilience that the South… completely lacks.”
Where is this data coming from?
South Korea GDP: ~$1.7 Trillion (13th in the world)
North Korea GDP: ~$25 Billion (roughly the size of Vermont’s economy)
Even with “growth” from selling artillery shells to Russia, the average North Korean lives on a fraction of the income of a South Korean. You talk about the “dirt spoon” class in the South—the poorest South Korean still has access to modern medicine, the internet, and a caloric intake that the average North Korean does not.
You are correctly identifying the symptoms of late-stage capitalism in the South (inequality, demographic collapse), but your proposed cure is worse than the disease. Pointing out that the South is a stressful “rat race” doesn’t change the fact that the North is an impoverished authoritarian state.
There is a reason 34,000 people have defected from North to South, and basically zero have gone the other way. People vote with their feet.
The down votes are because you didn’t engage with the content and posted a reddit tier bot comment
Haha sure, OK I’ll bite:
“The DPRK successfully weathered the Arduous March in the 90s.”
This is arguably the most insane sentence in your post. Estimates range from 600,000 to 3 million deaths during that famine. A state that cannot feed its people to the point where 5-10% of the population starves to death has not “successfully weathered” anything; it has failed its most basic function. Framing mass starvation as “resilience” against US imperialism is incredibly disrespectful to the victims of that regime’s mismanagement.
“The North is seeing real growth and an optimistic mood… They are building a resilience that the South… completely lacks.”
Where is this data coming from?
South Korea GDP: ~$1.7 Trillion (13th in the world)
North Korea GDP: ~$25 Billion (roughly the size of Vermont’s economy)
Even with “growth” from selling artillery shells to Russia, the average North Korean lives on a fraction of the income of a South Korean. You talk about the “dirt spoon” class in the South—the poorest South Korean still has access to modern medicine, the internet, and a caloric intake that the average North Korean does not.
You are correctly identifying the symptoms of late-stage capitalism in the South (inequality, demographic collapse), but your proposed cure is worse than the disease. Pointing out that the South is a stressful “rat race” doesn’t change the fact that the North is an impoverished authoritarian state.
There is a reason 34,000 people have defected from North to South, and basically zero have gone the other way. People vote with their feet.