[ThunderSleeps]

You may be right. What are the parallels with say, the German reunification? I honestly don’t know if East Germany was in as dire straights as NK is. SK has a powerful economy, but rebuilding a trashed NK will take a long time as you say. Covering the basics, no problem. Equalizing across the peninsula? Yeah, long-term project.

[GeronL]

They do not have to be totally equalized of course. I can imagine the north would have a bit lower wages and that will help bring in private sector employment. I say it'd be at least a decade before the border can be totally erased. Meanwhile the government would make sure that nobody in the north is starving to death. Did you know there is little to no recognition of the homeless? They are non-persons in the north. .... Kotjebi or kotchebi (꽃제비) is a Korean term denoting North Korean homeless children. The term literally means "fluttering swallows", given because of the kotjebi's constant search for food and shelter.[1] The kotjebi are not officially recog...nized in North Korea, with any mention of the term being prohibited in state publications and documents. The kotjebi are constantly forced to seek food and thus gather in groups to beg and pickpocket.[2] Most of the kotjebi eat only once a day. The diet of the kotjebi, along with the food they obtain from begging, consists mainly of grass soup, wild vegetable porridge, and grass roots."

[GeronL]

They do not have to be totally equalized of course. I can imagine the north would have a bit lower wages and that will help bring in private sector employment. I say it'd be at least a decade before the border can be totally erased. Meanwhile the government would make sure that nobody in the north is starving to death. Did you know there is little to no recognition of the homeless? They are non-persons in the north. .... Kotjebi or kotchebi (꽃제비) is a Korean term denoting North Korean homeless children. The term literally means "fluttering swallows", given because of the kotjebi's constant search for food and shelter.[1] The kotjebi are not officially recog...nized in North Korea, with any mention of the term being prohibited in state publications and documents. The kotjebi are constantly forced to seek food and thus gather in groups to beg and pickpocket.[2] Most of the kotjebi eat only once a day. The diet of the kotjebi, along with the food they obtain from begging, consists mainly of grass soup, wild vegetable porridge, and grass roots."