Why Unifying the Peninsula Won't Be So Bad After All
Given all these advantages, the international community should promote reunification, not postpone it. There may be little that any outsider can do to make Pyongyang change course. But regional powers, notably South Korea and the United States, should stop propping up the Kim dynasty in return for fleeting assurances of better behavior, as they have in the past; Kim Jong Un is no more likely to keep these promises than his father or his grandfather was.
Nor should the West resist the urge to tighten sanctions or retaliate proportionately in response to North Korea’s provocations for fear of destabilizing the country. Even if the North were to implode now, that would be preferable to allowing the state to limp along for decades and waiting for reforms that will never come.
| An interesting piece in Foreign Affairs that challenges the notion that a union between North and South would automatically be a disaster. Recommended. |
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