if the Japanese would bet anything that life was better for most Koreans in North Korea when they were ruled by us Japanese, they’d win the bet.
And as for re-unification, the Koreans I know are work-a-day, business-as-usual capitalists who saw the economic cost West Germany paid during that re-uni and aren’t interested in burning thru their won (and dollars) the way the West Germans plowed their marks into rescueing the Ossi’s.
The Koreans were brutalised by the Japanese occupation. Involuntary conscription into workgangs, relocation out of Korea, confiscation, burning houses with people still in them, and so on.
Things would have to be pretty fracking bad in North Korea to be as bad as the days of the Japanese Occupation. However - they might just be that bad. I don’t know.
This isn't really true. I'd say the biggest cost seems to be the uncertainty of unification. That's why I believe South Koreans view unification with trepidation.
Germany saw vast inflows of foreign capital during this time that helped finance their unification.
Moreover, I would think that another twenty million consumers and cheap laborers and an entire half country to rebuild would be very profitable and much more useful than, let's say, speculating on whether land prices in Seoul will rise or not. Of course, then there's also the work that has been outsourced to countries like China can be brought back. There's actually studies that have shown that average South Korean incomes would continue to grow yearly (on average) after (peaceful) unification except that it just wouldn't grow as fast? That as a justification to "unification is too expensive" seems downright outrageous (In the meantime, the wealth gap between North and South grows unabated).