I know there’s a load of threads about NK, but I want to look at it from a different angle - namely, what if Kim Jong-un had a Heel Face Turn and turned from the path of tyranny and wanted to genuinely improve the lives of North Koreans?
Supremely unlikely, but I want to conduct the thought experiment to see how much Lil’ Kim could personally change and how much of that totalitarian craphole is ‘ingrained’, if you will. So I’ve built a Freaky Friday Flip device to swap your minds. We’ll put your body in a chemical coma to prevent a North Korean tyrant playing havoc with your life and *generously *compensate you for the inconvenience - just name your price, the Pentagon’s Black Budget will cover it. While in the body of the Supreme Ruler, you’ll retain his ability to speak, read and generally understand Korean but lack his other memories - top men will fully brief you on his contacts and mannerisms. Top. Men. To swap back, either click your heels together three times *Wizard of Oz *style or die. You’ll return to your body and wake up and Kim’s genuine conciousness will either swap back or be obliterated along with his material form.
So, what do you do now that you’re the Supreme Leader to improve the lot of North Koreans? Or would you feed yourself the old buckshot sandwich straight away?
Eww, I really would not want to be swapped into that obnoxious twit, so it would take at least 10 million $US untaxed to get me to do it.
Hm, first thing I would probably do is have the military high command taken out and shot. Then I would have an attitude adjustment conference with the rest of the upper levels of the oligarcy. I would immediately open negotiations for basic foodstuffs to be distributed to the populations, and arrange some sort of contracts to get modern farming equipment in, and fuel for the equipment and get the economy back on its feet. Then I would negotiate some sort of peace treaty and merger with South Korea and announce my retirement to a monastic type lifestyle with my wife and kids with a generous but limited allowance.
I would flip back into my body after 1 year, figuring that is how much time it would take to arrange everything.
Considering that young women break into hysterical tears when he’s around, I think I can quickly make a list of the first 100 (hot little) things I’d do. The 101st thing I’d do is throw open the gulag doors and fire all the guards.
I would try to get China to agree to defend North Korea against any unprovoked aggression by any country.
Then I would stop my nuke program and stop spending so much on my military. I wouldn’t need it if I have the (regional) top dog protecting me. I would agree to dismantle a certain number of artillery pieces pointed at Seoul per year in exchange for food aid from America. With no nukes, and a clear reduction of my military i’m sure America would jump at the chance.
I would take all the money I used to spend on the military and spend it on agriculture and education. Maybe in a few generations my citizens will be educated and fed well enough that unifying the Koreas will be feasible.
Are you saying who would stop China from annexing my NK? Hopefully they wouldn’t want my illiterate starving peasants, and would be glad to maintain the status quo in a more stable fashion. They would continue using me as a buffer to SK and the USA. Also as China’s economy improves, NK would be a great source of cheap labor to them.
Or are you saying why do I think China can protect me? Since NK is on China’s border I assume they can project force into that country rather well. Besides, the USA is not going to want to disrupt their trade by going to war with China.
I’m sure the USA would love to encourage me to beat my swords into plowshares.
I suspect as soon as I started giving orders, the military elite would just roll their eyes and wonder how I came to believe that I was actually in charge of anything.
Let’s say you’re a genuinely independent regime that’s in control of your country. You can do whatever you want, including telling the Chinese garrison to leave.
Why on Earth would China want to leave your regime in power? You might turn around and do something they don’t like. As long as you given them the opportunity by letting them in, they’re going to use it to replace your regime with a safe puppet regime that they control.
Why on earth would China want to forcefully dispose me? I would be willing to play ball in every way possible with China. I already enjoy a god-like cult of personality there, so if they dispose me, then they would have the entire population of NK enraged, then have to deal with that problem. A fully compliant, puppet Kim leader that the people will obey and listen to is China’s dream solution. A quiet NK that wants to trade its military capabilities for agricultural and education capabilities is Americas dream solution. Everyone wins.
Seems easier to hand over the reigns to China and let me remain as a figurehead. This thread is all about how I would improve the lives of the NK citizens. I feel that the Kim legacy has already dug the country into a huge hole and there are no easy solutions to this.
So your solution to the problem of being replaced by a puppet is to volunteer to become a puppet yourself? I agree that might work (assuming the Chinese feel you can be trusted) but what’s in it for you? The Kims have presumably gotten used to having power and I don’t see why the current Kim would want to break the family tradition and surrender power to somebody else.
Now if the issue is what’s best for the North Korean people, why surrender your country to the Chinese? Why not let South Korea move in and reunify the country under their rule? Conditions are much better in South Korea than they are in China and the South Korean people are more likely to feel some attachment to the interests of fellow Koreans than the Chinese are.
Nothing in it for me. I was thinking of the best way to improve quality of life for the citizens in this hypothetical. One big point is, I don’t think ANY county wants reunification. The NK citizens are starving and uneducated, no country wants that burden.
I would choose China over SK because we are already allies and they will have more power in the Asian region over time than the USA. I think a traditional ally will defend me more than a traditional enemy. The biggest problem is how do I scale down the military without my generals trying to take over in a coup? Maybe not fire anyone but lower the number of new recruits by a certain percentage each year in exchange for food aide from the UN countries. Maybe for every tank I disable SK sends one teacher or agricultural advisor.
In summary I would try to use china for defense and get the US to pay me to disarm. However, didn’t someone once say revolutions don’t happen when things are at their worst, they happen when things start to get a little better. Once my citizens see how much they’ve been lied to they will be furious.
I have seen more than one reputable site referring to a South Korean “Department for Reunification” (don’t remember exact name, real govt agency).
See “Korean Sunshine Policy” and (I’m close to remembering this one’s name) - a joint effort business just north of the DMZ with N Korean workers (who make 1/4 of what a Chinese laborer is paid - Wal-Mart is drooling) and S Korean managers. It is still operational - since the military phone line was cut, the logistics for getting the SK workers through the DMZ without getting shot is being done by a patched-together system using the independent phone line in the business.
It produces the North about $90M/year in hard money.
Too bad the Chinese really are implementing the new UN sanctions - no more yachts or Porsches coming in by land or sea. They may have to (gasp!) spend the money on rice for its people.
Yeah, I wonder too how much independent power Kim really has. He certainly depends a lot on the top military leaders for support. Would they tolerate reform? If not, could he single-handedly institute a Stalinesque Great Purge in which the top ranks were replaced by new people open to reform?
I wouldn’t underestimate his authority. I made that mistake back in 1994 when I assumed that Kim Jong-il wouldn’t be able to rule the way Kim Il-sung had.
This is North Korea. Absolute obedience to the Leader has been institutionalized for decades. The generals in charge of the North Korean military were literally born into this system. They’ve spent their entire lives, as well as their entire careers, being trained to obey somebody named Kim not think independently.
You mentioned Stalin’s Great Purge. Imagine those Purges had gone on for sixty years. The people who are left aren’t going to have a lot of initiative.
Apparently not. The South Korean intelligence bureau reported an assassination attempt on Kim Jong-Eun’s life. Not for any of the bluster or potential to go to war but because a particularly high up general lost a valued position.
The NK regime supports the Kim family only because most of them see the value in it. Likewise, the Kims have to repay their followers in kind - giving them important political positions, luxury gifts, and the like.
The generals in this system have been raised by their parents and grandparents to expect bribes and power or to switch allegiances as appropriate to get more.
Develop a strong hold on the secret police and the military. When that is done engage in purges removing the old line loyalists and the ones who have the most to lose via reform. Tell the rest that we are going to start opening up to the world. Engage in a de-Stalinization type effort to bring to light the crimes and inform the public of how bad things are.
The problem is Jong Il had 20 years before he took over to solidify his grip on power and build his reputation. Jong Un seems to have no credibility. So how long it would take him to build up that kind of power, I have no idea. Years and years likely.
I’ve heard his brother in law is the true power behind the throne.