South Korea: Reunification Drawing Near
Urges China to Prepare North Korea
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak has reiterated his belief that the reunification of North and South Korea, which in the context of his comments means the absorption of North Korean territory under South Korea’s control, is “drawing near.”
Lee urged the Chinese government to prepare North Korea for this eventual reunification by pressing them to open their economy and embrace a Chinese-style economic system. He provided no timetable for the reunification.
South Korea’s president has broached the subject of reunification in the past but those comments seem to be picking up speed in the wake of a WikiLeaks cable release citing a South Korean official claiming China was resigned to the eventual collapse of North Korea and had no serious problem with South Korea annexing it.
The comments however do seem to be riling up North Korea, which has responded by saying that it feels vindicated in its attempts to increase the size of its nuclear weapon arsenal to fend off the possibility of an attempt at regime change.
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Dale
December 11th, 2010 at 9:17 am
President Lee's comment is worth a penny to discuss about it, because he has been a lackey and puppet to the "Chaebol" (S Korean financial institution like Samsung, Hyundai etc) and the US imperial endeavor.__The Wikileak's claim that S Korean official's comment about the China's resignation in the N Korea eventual demise also means nothing, since these S Korean officials are immensely ignorant about the inner strength of political and social institution in N Korean regime.__The N. Korea has been stockpiling the A-Bombs and enhancing its delivery system, simply because they do not want to be a fall guy like Saddam Hussein.__In other words, you'd have imagined that their capital city, Pyongyang, would have engulfed with napalm, cluster bombs, cruise missiles attacks by the mighty imperial air forces of the US, if the N. Korea did not have an A-bomb capability.__The new Defense Minister of S. Korean Government claimed that he would not hesitate an air strike if the North ever lauches the artillery fires again…it's such a infantile BS and every South Korean knows it
Dale
December 11th, 2010 at 9:18 am
In other words, you'd have imagined that their capital city, Pyongyang, would have engulfed with napalm, cluster bombs, cruise missiles attacks by the mighty imperial air forces of the US, if the N. Korea did not have an A-bomb capability.
The new Defense Minister of S. Korean Government claimed that he would not hesitate an air strike if the North ever lauches the artillery fires again…it's such a infantile BS and every South Korean knows it.
andy
December 11th, 2010 at 12:23 pm
What do you want to bet that even with unification, America still won't bring its troops home.
MK_Ultra
December 11th, 2010 at 2:09 pm
Oh, heavens to Betsy! Could this be what the US was so diligently trying to avoid with that bruhahah a few weeks back? Afraid of losing another proxy state and one more piece of escaping from under its imperial grasp. My, my…
Bill
December 11th, 2010 at 8:50 pm
Precisely
Bill
December 11th, 2010 at 8:53 pm
The US will have none of this reunification business. That would remove the need for US troops on Korean soil. Therefore the US will do whatever it takes to prevent peace from breaking out and the 2 Koreas to unite.
I am sure the US miliatary wants to keep those cross border incidents coming!
I. Susanin
December 13th, 2010 at 7:33 am
If Kim Jong-Il ever made a statement like this he would immediately be demonized by Western Media and Governments as a warmonger and threat to peace in Asia. This indicates that South Korean warmongering is viewed as less threatening than North Korean warmongering by some.
It should be understood that any attempts to forcefully unite the 2 Koreas will unavoidably lead to a war that will cause many thousands of casualties(dead and injured) and millions of refugees, it could even lead to the 1st combat use of Nuclear weapons since 1945. I don't see how this could be desired by anyone.
To me it signals that South Korea's leadership may be more unstable than the leadership of the North, if they are so foolish as to think that they can easily win a conflict with a country so militarized as North Korea. With US support and without Chinese support of North Korea the US/South Korea could win in the end, but the cities along the Demilitarized Zone will likely resemble Hiroshima in August 1945.
Derek
December 13th, 2010 at 9:15 am
The U.S. military bases stayed after the unification of Germany. They will stay when Korea become unified. That region is important for access and transportation of resources; including oil. BTW, China has a number of ports along is Yellow Sea coast line. USA will not leave that region.