No, North Korea is actually the richest and most prosperous country in the world (help me my family is being held hostage)

@Thebreakdownshow1

Жыл бұрын

I see what you did there lol.

@CasualScholar

Жыл бұрын

I feel like I'm in danger now for making this video. Kimmy please don't hurt me!

@nirui.o

Жыл бұрын

Lie! North Korea is the most free and just nation in the world. Help me too I'm the guy on the second floor.

@earthscomapnion23

Жыл бұрын

Yes....Kim is the world handsome man....and North Korea is more educated than USA and South Korea as north Korea is the most educated country in thrbworld

@johnnyringo6161

Жыл бұрын

@@CasualScholar 😂😂😂

My favorite part of this story is that North Korean self-reliance means relying on Communist states for your food, oil, etc.

@CasualScholar

Жыл бұрын

I couldnt believe the logic while researching for this video haha

@adamloverin231

Жыл бұрын

*pirate voice* That’s what ya call ironic.

@shauncameron8390

Жыл бұрын

This is why socialism/communism is an oxymoron.

@CytotoxinK

Жыл бұрын

@@CasualScholar As BR Myers, an excellent researcher of NK, has argued, _"All militarist states of limited means have to impose austerity on their subjects, and they usually do so under the more inspiring banner of autarchy or self-reliance. North Korea is a typical case."_ Basically, whenever a regime starts promoting "self-reliance," it's usually a propaganda ploy to mentally prepare and acclimate their citizens to the economic deprivation and hardship that comes in wartime. Putin started pumping self-reliance with his talk of a "sanctions-proof economy" _before_ he started the war in Ukraine. Hitler and Mussolini pumped up the ideas of self-reliance _before (as they were planning)_ World War 2. It's an extremely bad sign when a country starts promoting self-reliance; it means that country's government is planning to do something that they _know_ will get them cut off from the global economy.

@ladymacbethofmtensk896

Жыл бұрын

@@CytotoxinK Just remember two things: 1. Self-reliance is not a bad thing. 2. Self reliance does not occur with a planned economy.

My father worked for a humanitarian organization in NK in the 00s. They attempted to solve the famine problem through food processing. The two staple foods were rice and sweet potatoes. Supposedly there should have been enough but the sweet potatoes would freeze and spoil during the harsh winters, leading to huge waste. So the plan was this: Build processing machines that would turn the potatoes into starch which then can be stored and will not spoil easily. Foreigners who had spent some time in the country warned the organization this plan wouldn't work because there is no electricity to run the machines. All the electricity goes to the rice threshing machines during harvest season. The North Korean officals assured everyone that *of course* there will be electricity and then plan went ahead. My father was the head engineer for that project and with the help of the organization and local workers they started build these machines. It was a logistical nightmare because literally *everything* you needed right down to the tiniest screw had to be imported from China. You couldn't buy a thing locally. The North Korean government put no effort into helping the project but instead spied on anyone and everyone involved. Against all odds, the project was completed, all machines installed and hooked up to the electrical grid. They were never used. You see, there was no electricity to run them... This isn't just a story about communist mismanagement, but also of humanitarian aid mismanagement and the waste of kind-hearted people's money.

@HaramXL

10 ай бұрын

Thanks for sharing

@MyFaceTime

8 ай бұрын

북조선은 간첩을 돕지 않을 것이다

@Brandon-ct8vo

8 ай бұрын

​@@Nic_howitzerSo just... don't comment, then?

@jarrodheley7879

8 ай бұрын

​@@Nic_howitzerImagine thinking poor literacy is boastworthy.

@Jaketalks272

8 ай бұрын

@@jarrodheley7879 What did he say? Im really intrested but youtube has a stupid glitch

It's actually incredible and fascinating how North and South Korea basically switched places in terms of wealth and economic prowess. Nowadays South Korea is one of the richest and most technologically advanced countries in the world (and widely known as such), while North Korea is known for its extremely poor and primitive living conditions. Hard to believe that 50 years ago it was pretty much the reverse.

@tjroelsma

10 ай бұрын

It isn't that hard to believe when you do away with common sense and fully embrace a cult of personality, which is exactly what North Korea has done.

@grillygrilly

10 ай бұрын

I love how you rephrased the same sentence 3 times.

@karlheinzvonkroemann2217

9 ай бұрын

Not incredible at all. After 1992 it was inevitable.

@slvxyz

9 ай бұрын

South Korea has one of world's lowest birth rates. That is a sign of moral degeneracy. That is nothing to be proud of. You need to include human possibility among your values. I presume, Mr WarpRulez4, that you are still young and far from achieving maturity. Never mind, there is still plenty of time to think about these matters.

@liucijusuberkindas112

9 ай бұрын

NK is russian product, SK is USA product. So which country is better? :)

So basically, NK was the adopted child of USSR and China. During the divorce, the parents fought to keep their son, while spoiling him to maintain their trust at the cost of the parent's withering relationship. At this point NK was so spoiled that he has a hard time of taking care of himself needing mommy China to conitue to support him.

@Mighty-Man

Жыл бұрын

It more looks like an "adopted child" of two gay brothers, the elder was USSR and the smaller was China. There are only two air flight companies are flying to North Korea. One is Russian and the other one is Chinese. It is just the same shit as was pro-Russian DDR in Germany.

@saturn6563

Жыл бұрын

LMAO

@franciszekdo

Жыл бұрын

The USSR are hardly involved in the development of the KWP, The US however was heavily involved in installing Rhee, the fascist mass murder that ran the south.🤔🤔

@Mighty-Man

Жыл бұрын

@@franciszekdo The first Dictator of the North Korea was a Captain of the Soviet Army. USSR is still hardly involved?

@franciszekdo

Жыл бұрын

​@@Mighty-Man yes, compared to the south especially. Kim il sung bravely fought off japanese imperialism for a decade before being part of the Red army to defeat japan. Ignorant people as though the Communist movement that existed throughout all of Korea was externally imposed. Soviets during their brief occupation allowed the Korean people to organize themselves politically. In comparison , in the south US helped rig the election for a fascist dictator collaborated in mass murder.

As a south Korean, I am overwhelmed with sadness every time I think of North Korea. We are one people, and yet the north suffers so greatly.

@robi6317

Жыл бұрын

they should revolt

@zahnpastacremetube

Жыл бұрын

I completely understand your feelings 😢

@vibovitold

Жыл бұрын

i'm not a Korean, so i may miss some intricacies of the situation, but based on what i know on the subject, i can't imagine reunification though. it would be orders of magnitude harder (and more costly) than reunification of Germany. the regime is so much tighter than East Germany, the mentality must be completely incompatible by now. (from what i've read, don't know how true this is: even the language itself has diverged substantially - this never happened in Germany). North Koreans wouldn't really be able to function in a market-run society. not to mention where would you fit all those that thrived on serving the regime, and actively persecuted their compatriots? will they just live next door to their victims? do they get to vote? and you can't really imprison thousands and thousands of people. this was a problem in every post-communist country (like my native Poland), but given the rather extreme nature of North Korea, it could become outright terrible. i think the most feasible scenario is that in a few decades the regime begins to thaw, heading towards something similar to the Chinese model (authoritarian, but not orthodox, with a form of state-controlled capitalism), and "reluctanctly neutral" rather than hostile towards South Korea. i wonder what you think about this as a Korean

@vibovitold

Жыл бұрын

@@robi6317 your "advice" seems completely detached from reality to me.

@Wasserbienchen

Жыл бұрын

@@vibovitold You are correct, reunification as it is now would come with some harsh consequences. I don't know the solution, and definitely don't claim to know a lot about the intricacies of the politics. (I don't live in South Korea, for one). The people who escaped from North Korea are often incapable of functioning properly in the south, and need months of training to be able to do basic things. Not to mention the economic differences and the burden on the south by just adding an entire population of what is essentially dead weight to a modern economy, and the burden on having to build that up. There's many south koreans who do not want this. Unifying under North Korea (the NK propaganda units claim to want this) would not be possible at all because the people of the south would obviously not cooperate. I wish there was some sort of way to unify, but if so, it would have to be after NK has 'cooled down' and become much more normal, even if it's in a weird chinese way. That being said, I am scared that China wants to 'claim' NK - if the regieme falls, it isn't unlikely for China to want to annex it like Tibet or Mongolia or any of the countless times that Korea in general has been under Chinese rule. Us Koreans have been subject to Chinese and Japanese conquest many times, and I would hate to see that happen again. But, honestly, it's all speculation. I am not sure where the future will go, and I'm not sure where it should go. All I really know is that the common people are victims, and I wish there was some way to help.

Nothing says "self reliance" more, than relying on your neighbors to supply you with everything.

@thedarkerarchery3553

3 күн бұрын

Nothing says oppressor like invading and sanctioning a country that did absolutely nothing to you just because you want to be a White man and rule nonwhite peoplike a batshit crazy psychopath for centuries now...👀🤦🏾‍♂️

Ever feel useless? Remember North Korea has elections.

Kim Il Sung's entire strategy for his countries economy was playing Soviet and Chinese governments off of each other. He lucked out dying right after the Soviet Union fell so he never had to lead North Korea without the massive support nets propping it up.

@davidjacobs8558

Жыл бұрын

There is this misconception that North Korea was rich in 1960, but they were NOT rich. North Korea was doing slightly better in 1960, compare to South Korea, but both of them were piss poor compare to other countries. Even with China and Soviet Russia's aid, North Korea was bottom tier economy.

@redyellow4699

Жыл бұрын

@@davidjacobs8558 NorthEast of China and N Korea was the richest place around WW2 in Asia. they have very good industries and sell industrial products to be rich. it is easy to be poor, after collapse of Soviet Union, nobody will help N Korea. With the sanction from the West, nobody will buy their products, and they used to exchange food with industrial products. Also with collapse of Soviet Union, Japan is not that important any more, it is time for the US to surpress Japan, thus suffering lost decades for Japan. After WW2, Mac Athur wanted to make Japan a poor country relying on agriculture, and he wanted to destroy all industries in Japan. But after Korea war, Americans realised that they need to help Japan to be an advanced industrial country, rich enough to mess up with Communist countries. For small countries, their fate is not in their hands but in other superpowers' hands. they can be either rich or poor immediately by the manipulation of superpowers.

@davidjacobs8558

Жыл бұрын

@@redyellow4699 Manchuria was NOT rich, North Korea under Japanese rule was NOT rich. and North Korea was NEVER rich from 1945 onward. North Korea was doing slightly better than South Korea back in the 50's and 60's. However, both Korea were still piss poor Countries compare to the rest of the world.

@redyellow4699

Жыл бұрын

@@davidjacobs8558 Manchuria had the highest GDP per capital in Asia 70 years ago, N Korea was also industrial area. I have no idea why you consider Manchuria as not being rich. Also how is it possible for S Korea doing slight worse than N Korea while North Korea was industrial area that can produce industrial products and South was agriculture region. Industrialization needs huge market, for small country like either N or S korea. as long as there is a superpower wanna help it or surpress it by sanction, it will rise or fall immediately. North Korea and Machuria at that time had iron minerals and coals which are the most important resources for industrialization, thus becoming industrial area. North Korea can be poor because of sanction that they can not exchange food and goods with their industrial products. in 10 years, when e-car become popular, Japan will lose its car market to China as China pioneer in e-car, Japan will lose most of its GDP, and become a poor country. countries relying on industrialization, without demostric huge population, they have to rely on the world market to be rich. if there is sanction or their products are not competitive, they become poor immediately. back in 2010, Japan's GDP per capital was 10 times than China, now it is only more than 2 times than China. It is because China has made huge progress on electronics, cars, and take the market from Japan. Japan becomes poor because of the collapse of soviet union that the US needed to surpress its development, also because of the rise of China that it takes market from Japan.

@redyellow4699

Жыл бұрын

@@davidjacobs8558 for N Korea, it is very easy to be rich, its population is very small, it can be good at just one industry to be rich. Taiwan is good at semiconductor, and it simply gets rich by semiconductor. For big country China, it is harder to be rich, it needs to be good at almost everything to be rich. it needs to take market from all other countries. from computer, car, to big plane. but it is also hard to surpress a big country as it has complete supply chain. Also, to surpress a small country is easy, a little sanction, forbidding other countries to import their products, the small country gets fucked up immediately as it does not have complete supply chain that has to rely on cooperation with other countries.

What is extremely sad about North Korea, is that this country actually has a huge potential in many aspects, one being tourism: the place is beautiful and could bring so many foreigners. But it is also a perfect example of how incompetence can ruin a place. Really sad for the people there.

@davidjacobs8558

Жыл бұрын

are you high? North Korea is not beautiful. There is NOTHING special about North Korea's nature. what you can see in North Korea, you can see in most other countries of temperate climate. So, why would anybody pay money to see something that you can pretty much see any where on earth?

@MrThatguy333

Жыл бұрын

I haven't watched the video but do they talk about how America dropped more bombs on north Korea than all of the Pacific theater during WW2? Or the fire bombing campaigns that targeted civilians? Don't get me wrong north Korea is bad, monarchies are inherently evil, but it isn't surprising that they aren't super developed.

@davidjacobs8558

Жыл бұрын

@@MrThatguy333 I saw a Korean War documentary, where they interviewed a US bomber pilot. He said, on their first mission, they bombed any big buildings. the next mission, they searched for targets, but there weren't anything remaining that's worth bombing. Korea was piss poor country.

@bradley8575

Жыл бұрын

Basically to sum it all up when the Soviet Union collapsed North Korea’s main economic and political ally was gone and things went very downhill from there

@Kitty-oy5nj

Жыл бұрын

@@bradley8575 now its Russias turn to experience North Korea 2.0

13:58 The fact that North Korea benefited economically from the competition between USSR and China is ironic...

Absolutely fascinating history, I had no idea it was this complex, even though I should have imagined so, it just didn't cross my mind. Thanks for a great video!

I remember my late Dad talking about the NK workers in Iraq during the late 70s early 80s. They would work hard, and long hours, without holidays. I believe their salaries and overtime were all probably collected and remitted to NK, while these guys would be given just basic sustenance- food, clothing and shelter. They all wore similar work apparel or uniform, and walked from their accommodations to site in a formation, which other workers found unique. They never mixed with others and kept to themselves.

@datadavis

Жыл бұрын

Poor slaves

@jotr.9786

Жыл бұрын

that's communism for you

@callmeandoru2627

Жыл бұрын

@@jotr.9786 I don't think communism is the problem here

@jotr.9786

Жыл бұрын

@@callmeandoru2627 it definitely is, that like almost step for step what happened in ex communist block romania, during the communism regime

@Antimonium

Жыл бұрын

in my country (italy) the situation is very similar with chinese immigrants, they don't walk in formation or anything that extreme but they work their asses off only to probably have part of their earnings taken and they very rarely mix or engage with the locals

It's so funny how time changes things. I have a great friend that I worked with for several years who was originally from the People's Republic of China. He and I were born only a couple months apart from one another. It turned out that his Dad was a 'Chinese volunteer' in the Korean War, while my Dad was drafted into the U.S. Army during the Korean War. Here we were, friends while our Fathers were both enemies so long ago.

@nimbusshadow-wings

Жыл бұрын

I like how you use the offical title instead of china, as if we didnt know what china was

@ayochill9716

Жыл бұрын

Goes to show you we’re all capable of being friends, until we’re trained to be divided from one another.

@manfredschmalbach9023

Жыл бұрын

@@ayochill9716 You can resist being trained as an enemy, can't You? There's no excuse for not thinking and not deciding for Your own. They can maybe kill You, and then they would have Your body, but not Your dignity and willpower.

@sadhu7191

Жыл бұрын

That's why they fought so the future could live in peace

@michaeldy3157

Жыл бұрын

Chona issufcering under xi ping pong

Never give everything to government. This is how it ends .

I'm always just so fascinated by North Korea. It's just captivatingly tragic to me that a place like that exists today

You forgot to mention the "Sunshine Policy" of the 90s. South Korea did try and help North Korea during their famine, and it eased tensions between the two side considerably. South Korea's President Dae-jung Kim won the Nobel Peace Prize for this policy and was hailed as the Nelson Mandela of the East.

@jins8144

Жыл бұрын

Yup. Entire sunshine policy accelerated developing Kim dynasty’s nuclear weapon warfare. South Korea’s biggest mistake.

@raypurchase801

Жыл бұрын

If socialists understood economics, they wouldn't be socialists.

@Josep_Hernandez_Lujan

Жыл бұрын

@@jins8144 America destroying Iraq and Libya when they got rid of their wmds accelerated that

@SamBrickell

Жыл бұрын

The taxpayers who actually paid for the food should have all won the Nobel Peace prize instead.

@SamBrickell

Жыл бұрын

@@bkm1104 If that's your understanding, you should feel bad. They propped up a tyrannical state with food which allows them to focus on developing weapons to suppress the population and hold onto power. So yeah, rice turned into nuclear weapons (if that's really your level of understanding).

Every single dictatorship seems to involve people making decisions who have absolutely no clue on the subject just pure confidence.

@magicmaker15

Жыл бұрын

Silence! If Dad says we're not lost... then we're not lost... Don't make him turn his car around.

@odizzido

Жыл бұрын

This is a problem with all government, it's just harder to say no to a murderous dictator. I wish there were some political parties made up of scientists and engineers.

@brians7181

Жыл бұрын

@@odizzido The Nazis had a lot of scientists and engineers.

@odizzido

Жыл бұрын

@@brians7181 Okay? Are you trying to say if a party made up of engineers existed they would be nazis? Or is this a non-sequitur just for interests sake?

@brians7181

Жыл бұрын

@@odizzido No, what I'm saying is, if a party is made up of scientists and engineers, that is no guarantee it will have a good outcome. However, if a party is made up of occultists or atheists, that is almost a guarantee for a bad outcome.

Makes me so sad and angry that those people have to grow up and live in a place like that.

@456t23

Ай бұрын

Cope

@zoanth4

28 күн бұрын

Socialism has consequences.

North Korea basically has become the very sort of dystopian existence that writers, like George Orwell, warned about in novels like "1984" and "Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury.

For me, as a South Korean, it's so sad that ethnically entirely same people in NK are the poorest on Earth. Because of Division of Korean peninsula, the dream of Korean co-prosperity had been ruined. Korean peninsula is small, and even it's divided...

@Jem_Apple

Жыл бұрын

That should very clearly illustrate the complete insanity that is racism & Xenophobia in South Korea. If people ethnically similar to you are so different, how can you explain your attitudes towards black people & generally any non-white or Korean people without sounding like a hypocrite…

@OC-CPA

Жыл бұрын

And you have China to thank. I'm ethnically Han Chinese myself, but China's government is pure evil. China would still be like North Korea if Deng Xiaoping hadn't realized the folly of Mao's ways and begun to embrace capitalism.

@warrioroflight6872

Жыл бұрын

That's really sad. I'm honestly ashamed of my country for allowing yours to be split in half and giving the North to the Soviets. As much as I tell other people that they don't have to apologize for their countries' faults, I find myself doing exactly that to you, because the fact is, America sold out millions of innocent people in Korea and in Eastern Europe to our Communist enemies just so we could be at peace. I'm sorry.

@briangasser973

Жыл бұрын

53000 Americans died in the Korean War. It is not like the US and the West we not invested.

@busyhoneybee4517

Жыл бұрын

@@briangasser973 , Please let me correct the figures of USA soldiers died 36,574 in Korean War. Injured 103,000 soldiers. DPAA archive. (However, the death figures are slightly different which carved as 36,595 in Memorial Wall in National Mall and Memorial Parks in Washington DC. Maybe 21 added later but not sure, only my guess) SKorea hugely owes its democracy and freedom, prosperity to America and Americans. Thanks for USA always. Then when USA asked SKorea to join Vietnam War to defend free SVietnam in 1960's~mid 1970's, SKorea joined and fight together with USA side by side against communist North Vietcong. 5,000 SKorea soldiers died in Vietnam War and many more had injured. SKorea has remained blood ally with USA and want to Go Together with America. God bless America.

North Korea managed to do so well for a couple of decades specifically because it was receiving tons of aid from China and the USSR, on top of sitting on plenty of valuable natural resources and existing heavy industry. Once that aid dried up, North Korea promptly fell into ruin, because any state can be prosperous when being propped up by enormous amounts of continuous foreign aid.

@nope7389

Жыл бұрын

Literally the story of South Korea, they are only prosperous because of the western world. North Korea wasn’t being given any aid, just the know-how and trading.

@brendanzhang7488

Жыл бұрын

@@nope7389 south korea barely receives any western funding now. North korea is a example of how foreign aid can fail,while south korea shows how foreign aid is beneficial

@cisco8257

Жыл бұрын

@@brendanzhang7488 Still if the US stopped openly supporting and stopped considering South Korea as a ally they’d collapse

@davidjacobs8558

Жыл бұрын

North Korea was NEVER RICH. There is this misconception that North Korea was rich in 1960, but they were NOT rich. North Korea was doing slightly better in 1960, compare to South Korea, but both of them were piss poor compare to other countries.

@Kitty-oy5nj

Жыл бұрын

so north korea was just like a bad dot com startup , that made no profits and relied on VC funding until dieing

What an amazing well-done video! I really enjoyed watching all 27 minutes of it!

Having read a good many of the comments here, I must say, that, as a Westerner, I have learned a great deal about the area. Thank you every commentator.

It's strange that North Korea and North VietNam were in the exact same situation in 1960 but they turn out very differently now. Dictatorship can really ruin a country

@voss0749

Жыл бұрын

Vietnam became much more open for foreign investment in the 90s. There are western hotels all over Vietnam.

@alexxu3004

Жыл бұрын

the only difference is vietnam united their country, and NK because of the states, was not able to

@alwillk

Жыл бұрын

Vietnam is still a single party state. Their economy, however is more of a mixed economy.

@voss0749

Жыл бұрын

@@alexxu3004 no the difference is Vietnam was not isolationist nor did their leadership have a cult of personality. The Kim family in Korea was very much in the Stalin model. While the leadership in Vietnam reflects the lessons learned from the horrors of the cultural revolution

@alexxu3004

Жыл бұрын

@@voss0749 look, if your nation is seperated in two by soviet and usa, and still not unified in 21st century, you will end up in the same never ending cold war and no chance of developing.

So what I gather from this is that a unified Korea would be a force to be reconned with, given the raw material wealth of the north, the technological know how and farm land of the south. Overall, Korea was an incredible-balanced country with one half being able to feed the other, while the other could produce all the materials the other needed to build stuff, and they got seriously fucked over by the Cold War and split. I really hope they can unify when the north collapses.

@MrWhangdoodles

Жыл бұрын

I fear what will happen when the North collapses, because the Kim dynasty heirs might be so demented that they'd nuke their own people, the South and the Japanese, out of spite. Half of my family lives in Seoul and that's still in range of North Korean artillery. One of the main reasons that poor excuse of a nation still exists is because they could and would wipe out more than 100 000 people within the first hour of combat. I see no way for the North to collapse without a massive popular uprising and that will never happen.

@maclain728

Жыл бұрын

At this point I highly doubt the South would be interested in reunification like Germany, and if so it would be a decades long very slow process The economic difference between the north and the south is far greater than that of west and east Germany, and they’ve been separated a lot longer. Beyond the south being astronomically wealthier, it’s also better educated, better fed, far healthier, far more liberal, and far more industrialized. This creates the issue of the south essentially facing economic collapse trying to quickly raise the norther standard of living, while being faced with a wave of millions of North Koreans flooding into the south as soon as the border is no longer militarized. And even then you’re looking at a century or longer until the North is even as close to as prosperous as the south (east Germany is still significantly poorer 30 years later). I think at this point it would be better to turn North Korea into a democracy and try to build it up as it’s own nation rather than unify with the south

@ebonymaw8457

Жыл бұрын

It has been concluded in some studies that if Korea stayed unified it could have had the 3rd largest economy of today, surpassing Japan and only falling behind China and the USA. But history did these Koreans dirty.

@zomfgroflmao1337

Жыл бұрын

@@maclain728 Yes and No, Germany seems like a good example at first, but if you look closer there are some key differences. East Germany is still lagging behind the West, because it had nothing going for it. The only companies that work there are some that like the cheaper workforce and workspaces, but apart from some coal, there is no reason for any company to actually set up shop in the East. From what I gathered in the video, the opposite is true for North Korea, they actually have rare materials, but lack the know how to use those, but that know how is existent in the South, so if they unified and one would do it carefully the North could get lifted up far easier than East Germany. Basically, the materials in the area are reversed, while West Germany had both, the democratic system and the material wealth, while the East was rather blank, in Korea the opposite is true. Unification is obviously always a fickle process, but if done right and the end of the North happens under optimal conditions (like Kim decides he is just tired and wants to unify, as an example) it could work quite well I imagine.

@matthewdavid6134

Жыл бұрын

One day when South Korea rules the whole peninsula, United Korea is going to be a great power

Very enlightening and educational. I didn't know why North Korea attacked South Korea in 1950. Now, I know. Great overview of Korea history!!

This is one of the most informative videos that I've ever seen on KZread. I had no idea about any of this information I would love to see a documentary made about this and call it.... A Look At A United Korea Under Democracy Post 1953. This united country could have been a powerhouse.

Man when Stalin of all people is worried you're not producing enough food for your people you've got serious problems

@generalbigjohn2199

9 ай бұрын

RIGHT?! 🤣🤣

There is a tragic irony that NKs ideal of self reliance caused them to miss their one chance at it. As the soviet union waned and south korea grew, this was the perfect tine to pivot towards normalizing relationships and reunification. The resulting unified korea would have the balanced economy needed for independence, and the transition could probably have been achieved without a revolution. Kim may even have been seen positively by history, as a leader who did what was needed to weather a turbulent time. But instead, pride went before a fall, and NK lost everything.

@alexlee9180

Жыл бұрын

As someone who grew up in South Korea in the 80s, I agree with you. When East and West Germany reunited, I thought Korea would be next. Sadly, well, you know how that turned out...

@coreyham3753

Жыл бұрын

@@alexlee9180 Maybe it will happen some day.

@joedennehy386

Жыл бұрын

You clearly don't understand the mind of a despot. It's all about him

@Outwardpd

Жыл бұрын

The US and China wouldn't have let him do that anyways. Plus it would've required him either abdicating or becoming competent overnight.

@CytotoxinK

Жыл бұрын

"Instead, pride came before the fall, and NK lost everything." By "NK" I assume you meant the Kim Regime and North Korean government/state. They did not lose everything; they retained their power. Had they agreed to reunify with SK, every single NK elite would have been driven out of power by their SK counterparts. Countless North Korean citizens would then start asking a lot of uncomfortable questions about their former regime's history and eventually discover the crimes of their former rulers. The North Korean people would then start to demand justice, and their former leaders would be hunted down and hauled before a judge. The entire Kim family, and all of their cronies/collaborators, would likely be put on trial for crimes against humanity; those that didn't would probably have to spend the rest of their lives on the run, in hiding or in exile. If you don't believe me, look at _South_ Korea. SK _also_ used to be a poor, isolated, corrupt military dictatorship (and also had a secret and illegal nuclear weapons program). But the SK military junta voluntarily dissolved and allowed democracy to take hold in the 1980s. They _still_ were put on trial and put into prison. If it can happen to SK, why not NK?

This sounds an awful lot like the situation with my country and our neighbors. Down to our allies, political tensions, economies and their investments in the military to the point where they can’t afford food. We’re kinda going through a cold war right now but it’s heating up so rapidly. If they don’t attack us now, we’ll have way too much influence to be stopped (we’re allied with every country in the west and we’re expanding to Asian allies). Their population is extremely brainwashed, to the point where they think that every imagery of our country is fake because we can’t possibly be more developed than them. I feel like if a war starts, they will definitely fall into a totalitarian dictatorship.

@lifeofabronovich7792

9 ай бұрын

Lemme guess, you’re from Taiwan?

@Unknown-sw9pu

9 ай бұрын

@@lifeofabronovich7792 No. I’m not from Asia but I’d like to refrain myself from saying where specifically in public because I’d 100% get bombarded by insults from them (for instance, someone from that country just raided our chatroom to call us slurs)

@lifeofabronovich7792

9 ай бұрын

@@Unknown-sw9pu That’s fair enough. Take care man… hopefully things don’t get too out of hand between your country and your neighbor.

@gagnepower

8 ай бұрын

@@lifeofabronovich7792might be Bangladesh

@lifeofabronovich7792

8 ай бұрын

@@gagnepower he said he’s not from Asia so probably not

Hi 👋 Really nice piece for those of us who stopped listening at the end of the civil war in Korea and just wanted a simple update to today. 👍

FunFact, during the big leap forward in China many Chinese migrated to North Korea mainly because that way they were able to feed themself and their familys, even so later many left North Korea again as Chinas economy hit the gas and got its economical wonder

@mr.ocelotguy8995

Жыл бұрын

similar to what happened with colombia and venezuela

@Ianchia860

Жыл бұрын

They were able to leave North Korea?

@felixsubakti6907

Жыл бұрын

@@Ianchia860 there's this thing called BOATS

@madensmith7014

Жыл бұрын

@@Ianchia860 China is still technically a communist ally

@theren2486

Жыл бұрын

@@felixsubakti6907 nope. They just crossed the border or simply left the country by plane. Chinese living in North Korea usually had/have more freedom.

As most of my fellow South Koreans do, I support the reunification of the Koreas, no matter the financial cost. Not only have we grown from one of the poorest countries in the world to a prospering state in just a few decades, we soldiered through an economic crisis that almost bankrupted the country in '97; I like to believe that our resolve for a common cause will continue to hold solid in the face of another economic hardship. We will suffer in short-term, but prevail in the long run just like the case of Germany. It is also important to note that countless families had been torn apart against their will during the war; mothers separated from children, fathers from wives, brothers and sisters from their siblings. Displaced from their hometowns amidst the war, now unreachable. It is only right to grant the families the way overdue reunions and put an end to this tragedy. Although, I do not have high hopes that a reunification will actually happen in the foreseeable future. North Korea has been acting pretty much as a buffer state between the two ideologies, and China will never want to share direct borders with the US-backed South; much like how Russia could not bear Ukraine leaning towards the West. In the event of the collapse of the Kim regime, China will most likely find an excuse to intervene, send "peacekeeping" troops across the border, and fortify their positions way before any other actor could respond. It'll probably end up as de facto Chinese territory. The South and the US would probably refrain from taking action so as to avoid military conflict with China. Not to mention Japan would probably not whole-heartedly endorse the unification, since it would mean the emergence of a formidable rival, now rich with underground resources and manpower. It'd also mean that many of the Right Wing's claims and justifications for rearmament would be undermined. Japan would prefer the status quo over a reunified Korea. But yeah, no harm in dreaming.

@mxn1948

Жыл бұрын

china does not minds a border with SK, its those US bases that come with SK that is the problem for china.

@MrBoliao98

Жыл бұрын

I think its to South Korea's benefit. Instead of cheap fabric being made in Bangladesh, it should be made in N. Korea.

@apexhunter935

Жыл бұрын

Might want to consider china's perspective in this. Its not just a case of ideological conflict but also the fact that if the north fell, there would be a large refugee crisis as many from the north flee into the chinese province of manchuria.

@MinecraftMasterNo1

Жыл бұрын

Polls disagree. Support for unification is only around like 55% or so if I remember correctly. Still a majority but I wouldn't say most.

@goekhanbag

Жыл бұрын

@@MinecraftMasterNo1 Most literally means a majority.

What a well put together educational video. Thank you.

There is no wealth so great that 50 years of bad governing can't drive it to ruin. -A passing S. Korean

The goat thing sounds similar to how the Chinese Government had the masses killing sparrows not realizing those pesky sparrows that eat a small percentage of the seeds also killed tons of locust which wipe out huge swathes of farm land, causing a massive famine that killed millions.

@grimm00002

Жыл бұрын

There's really something about authoritarians fucking it up with ecological disasters. Imelda Marcos, then first lady of dictator Ferdinand Marcos, introduced apple snails to our country as source of protein to fight malnutrition. Thing was the poor still had their human decency and did not touch said snails. Now those snails are the most pervasive pests Philippine rice farmers contend with.

@gejamugamlatsoomanam7716

Жыл бұрын

And the fact that sparrow nests are extremely valuable

@benmmbk765

Жыл бұрын

They (the communists) were MORE than the Gods they denied.

@jayspeidell

Жыл бұрын

Another case study of man's arrogance in believing he has control over nature.

@Robutube1

Жыл бұрын

@@gejamugamlatsoomanam7716 If you're thinking of bird's nest soup, then I'm pretty sure they're from a kind of swift; certainly not sparrow nests.

Sounds to me like a perfect example of wanting "short term large gain with later huge loses" instead of "longtime low but stable gain"

A very detailed and structured presentation. Good work!

Thank you for this. I found it very interesting

I grew up in ROK, so I'm very familiar with the two Korea situation, I have to say this is well researched, well done

North Korea: voted 'Best Korea' by North Korean Magazine for 69 consecutive years

All that destruction and level of death and that was just 600,000 tons of bombs that the US dropped in Korea. It is therefore unfathomable that the US dropped 6 MILLION tons on Vietnam and Laos a little over 10 years later.

Very informative, Brilliant, Thanks.

I asked a US soldier who had been stationed in South Korea if there was any way to tell a South Korean from a disguised North Korean. He told me that overall North Koreans are 6" shorter than South Koreans because of malnutrition. North Korea spends about 30% of their national wealth on their military, a higher percentage than any country on earth.

@soviet_union1936

Жыл бұрын

Ever heard of the United States and the west

@justinroyse4271

Жыл бұрын

I don’t think you read what he said, your so focused on defending dogmatic beliefs about communism. The United States spends 10 percent of its overhaul economy on military. He’s not talking about entire blocs or spheres, he’s talking about individual nations states.

@practicaliching2311

Жыл бұрын

@@soviet_union1936 US Defense spending in 2021 was only 3.3% of GDP. An all time low. $742B total.

@robert3302

Жыл бұрын

I think any country that had literally every city in the country bombed to dust and 4 million of their people killed would be concerned with national defense.

@gwarlow

Жыл бұрын

@John Amabile How many North Koreans would a U.S. soldier stationed in South Korea ever see? 6 inches shorter? Please!

Just a little more detail on the Korean War. American bombing sorties didn't just destroy North Korea's industrial capabilities, it pretty much sent them back to the stone age. We leveled virtually every building bigger than a shack in that nation. The level of destruction was unparalleled: 16 of the 20 largest cities in NK were leveled beyond 50%. The only reason we stopped bombing Pyongyang was because there were no acceptable targets left. William F Dean reported the cities of the north were nothing but snow-covered wastelands which had been scraped clean of buildings. Dean Rusk reported that they had bombed "everything that moved in North Korea, every brick standing on top of another". Fire bombing campaigns were also used indsicrimnately against civilian centers. As USAF General LeMay said: "We went over there and fought the war and eventually burned down every town in North Korea anyway, some way or another, and some in South Korea, too......Over a period of three years or so we killed off, what, 20 percent of the population of Korea, as direct casualties of war or from starvation and exposure?"

@garfieldandfriends1

11 ай бұрын

That sounds oddly similar to America fire bombing in Dresden & Tokyo during WWII.

@cbir4830

11 ай бұрын

@@garfieldandfriends1 Although two tragedies can never truly be compared due to the nature of them, I would say that the Korean War was a beast of its own category. It was the meticulously horrifying removal of every single structure in the North. They bent the UN rules severely by classifying pretty much every building in the region as a military installation because most of the time they had no idea where the North Korean and Chinese troops were, so they chose instead to scrape every house, shack, and structure off the face of the Earth.

@yds6268

11 ай бұрын

​@@cbir4830 "bent the UN rules" - some times it feels like those rules are made from rubber

@reathyork

11 ай бұрын

@@yds6268 Well in the regard of total socialist dictatorship, the UN rules can easily be bent in the sense of every building is owned by the same military power as there is not exactly personal property. Which sucks in many ways... Every nationality has frustrations in their past, as an American, I will say this is equally true for me. Also as an American, I would also like to say that although my government and the people running it are capable of making bad decisions, I wish only the best for everyone and I love you all.

@cbir4830

11 ай бұрын

@@reathyork It would be cruel for us to justify war crimes based solely on whether or not they were executed against a "dictatorship". Civilians are civilians, and the destruction of their homes, farms, and their own lives is never justifiable. At this time, North Korea was more technologically advanced, better fed, and stronger economically than the poorer south. Beyond this, if we're going to argue who was more "dictator-ey" keep in mind that at this time the South Korean government under Syngman Rhee had summarily executed over 200,000 civilians.

I think this shows how doing things the quick and easy way only gets you so far

Great job on this Documentary!!

This taught me a lot about Korea the original nation, and the painful split that occurred afterward 😢

@trickydickie1988

Жыл бұрын

Pain, you'll go a lot farther in life if you just worry about your pain. Fuck them

@podulox

Жыл бұрын

@@trickydickie1988 I can't leave this video without leaving a comment - Now I feel no need to... Thank you for cutting right to the jugular - Your comment sounds harsh, but it's what I would be thinking if I thought it all the way through... Now I can go back to watching kitten-vids (and cars and engineering and other stuff), safe in the knowledge that I'm not the only one thinking fuck them... (It's not their fault but there's no option but 'fuck them'). I think I will watch the rest of the Vid first.

@davidjacobs8558

Жыл бұрын

split wasn't painful, it was Communist North Korea which made the situation extremely bad. there are plenty of countries in the world which were split, but doing fine.

The story behind the Ryogyong Hotel in Pyongyang is DARK. Squandering a starving nation's gross domestic product (GDP) on a vanity project hotel apparently lead to mass cannibalism inside the capital. Many people moved from rural areas into the city in an effort to find work opportunities and food supplies; naturally many people ended up sleeping rough and, so the rumours go, families would abduct destitute people and well, you know, cannibalism would ensue. Meanwhile Kim Jong Il (who was arguably the most evil, ruthless, and simply too indulged in his life of luxury to manage a country) was throwing parties and having world-class chefs flown in from all over the world. Driving your citizens to cannibalistic levels of desperation for the sake of a poxy hotel that STILL hasn't been finished is next level evil.

@galvanizedgnome

Жыл бұрын

A Beta voiced propoganda piece.

@stuartberesford3585

Жыл бұрын

@@galvanizedgnome please elaborate?

@ragglefraggle9111

Жыл бұрын

Spreading bullshit stories like this only hurts the legitimacy of North Korean defectors.

@hangover89

8 ай бұрын

Source?

@gabrielesolletico6542

Ай бұрын

@@stuartberesford3585 In North Korea, people don't decide where to live. Like we were in Covid time, they need a written permit form the Government even to move to the nearby village, to visit their dying parents. So, NO FREE MOVEMENT inside the Nation. ESPECIALLY THE CAPITAL CITY, which is EXCLUVELY inhabitated by the top elite class. There were NEVER "many people moving from the countryside to the Capital City" in North Korea, simply because it's strictly forbidden. All the tourist who went to North Korea said, and documented, that there were soldiers, barriers and even tank in all the streets who lead people in the Capital City; they're highly guarded; any "poor people from the countryside" who would TRY to come in the Capital City would be shoot down. So your story is not believable, sorry.

Great educational video! I gotta say, i don't care about what others think, i think that the Ryugyong Hotel looks absolutely amazing as it is today. 5/5 design!

An extremely wise person tells us all, “You reap what you sow.” I cannot imagine a more relevant text ever to be written!

This is one of the best accounts of recent Korean history I have ever watched. Extremely well researched and excellently presented.

@CasualScholar

Жыл бұрын

Thank you :) glad you enjoyed!

@PsilocybinCocktail

Жыл бұрын

I second this comment. I had absolutely no idea about the background of North Korea, and now I do.

@ColonelMarcellus

Жыл бұрын

Exvept for the accursed commercials

Such an interesting and informative video to watch, I am looking forward to more like this :D

@CasualScholar

Жыл бұрын

Really glad you enjoyed :) and thank you!!

@KainYusanagi

Жыл бұрын

Go back and watch his older videos too!

@hungVN2610

Жыл бұрын

@@KainYusanagi i watched all of them lol

I wasn't expecting to see my home town in a video on North Korea. Those buildings at 21:38 are the old grain silos in Cork, Ireland. Small world.

Great video, very informative! I subscribed ❤️

Thank you for making this documentary, it explains a lot. A very thorough work!

Its a treat every time I see you upload! This again was another amazing video! Thank you soo much, continue spending a good amout of time making quality over quantitiy videos. I have watched soo many videos on N. Korea but there were still soo many new things I learned in a video fun and easy to follow along. Well well well done!!!

North Koreans: please, we have no food or medicine! Kim family: you will make up for these shortcomings by doubling your steel output this week and every week forward

World class documentary. Well done.

Excellent documentary! The pace is perfect, at least for me. It is so clear, crisp and concise that I watched it three times in a row! An outstanding video!

North Korea and South Korea really look like two different universes.

My heart goes out to all the peoples of Korea. To those in the North suffering from poverty, those in the South with the generational trauma of occupation and war, and those who are being discriminated against in countries their ancestors fled to like Japan. Despite all this, the Koreans I've met love to have fun and eat good food. What incredibly resilient and inspiring people.

@cl8804

5 ай бұрын

BLACK PEOPLES

@user-zz5ki7ko9p

5 ай бұрын

People get the government they deserve

Great video! I do love that you mispronounced “pronunciation” during the ad read though that was great

I'm starting to see a pattern of rulers in the 30s-50s overprioritizing heavy industries over anything else. Maybe a result of the ideas of late Victorian era those people most likely grew with that pinned down the success of the European colonial power in industrialization exclusively.

@user-cx9nc4pj8w

Жыл бұрын

Heavy Industry was the backbone of the economy at that time though, and it was essential to win any military conflict. If the USSR hadn't managed to get it's factories past the Urals in ww2 they wouldn't have been able to beat the germans superior weapons with increased quantity. But after the 50's heavy industry become much less important, and whilst heavy industry might have been the backbone of the economy, if there's no food, there's no food.

@georgeousthegorgeous

Жыл бұрын

In 1930 Stalin said in one of his speeches that "If we don't build heavy industry in 10 years then others will crush us". If USSR tried developing civilian economy this early we would all live under 3rd reich.

@lunarcultist6214

Жыл бұрын

As the previous commenters said, heavy industries were the result of communist nations generally being surrounded by hostile powers; the real problem was the post-WW2 arms race, which played a massive role in bankrupting them. North Korea wasn't really an exception, living in a state of a perpetual shaky ceasefire with the South. I'd guess that's why the nuke is so important to them to day - securing a deterrent also carries with it the opportunity to ease off a little bit on conventional weapon costs, allocating more money and resources to revitalizing the civilian economy.

@stephenjenkins7971

Жыл бұрын

@@georgeousthegorgeous Unlikely. The 3rd Reich was powerful but nowhere near the economic engine of the likes of the US alone and guerilla warfare was rampant across the Nazi occupied zones. More to the point, without a hyper militaristic USSR to deal with, it's unlikely so many nations west of the USSR would have aligned against them by using Nazi Germany. Instead the Germans would have been seen as the great threat to align against. Basically; we have no idea. Don't act like the thousands that died due to mass industrialization was some Godsend for the world.

@natebox4550

Жыл бұрын

@@stephenjenkins7971 not only that, the us was still working on the atom bomb, Germany was barley doing that, as they saw it as a Jewish tech, which to be honest they ain’t entirely wrong considering so many of the people working on the bomb were German Jews. So in the end Berlin and Germany as a whole would of been nukes to death, and even if they weren’t, they would of died due to instability anyways. Especially considering how fucked they would be when Hitler died(which would be soon due to his shit health)the power struggle would likely lead to civil war.

Commenting for the algorithm because this channel deserves wayyy more subs. Thank you for the quality content

What greediness! You already have sponsorship, and this video is loaded still with tons of ads! Good job!

Now this is a subscription worthy to have.

Thank you for telling the story of North Korea so objectively and concisely. I feel like it’s so hard to truly understand the entire context of this enigma sometimes

@SimpleAmadeus

Жыл бұрын

Although, as far as I can tell, the story in this video is true, it is not told objectively. The anti-North-Korean bias of the author is made very clear.

@jek__

Жыл бұрын

@@SimpleAmadeus To be fair its pretty hard to get a decent north korean perspective as a westerner, theyre not too keen on honestly sharing with the west in general

@MrMarinus18

Жыл бұрын

The army of North-Korea is the largest in the world by far. It's over twice the size of China's army. Which is still really weird to consider. Of course over 70% of that is light infantry that are more so glorified police officers.

@robertmanfredthurrigl9424

Жыл бұрын

Lets just be greateful for living in the western hemisphere

@user-fz7nq1ef4y

11 ай бұрын

The only reason is that NK was blocked and sanctioned by the Western world since the Korean War. There is no global trade or investment for them. The US and many European countries do not recognize NK until now. The Western world did this to China, Cuba, and Iran as well. The US will be poor if it was blocked by the world.

Great work on the video! Their Military definitely eats up a lot of the economy, especially the nuclear weapon maintenance, for a country with no impressive exports.

@CasualScholar

Жыл бұрын

Which is crazy given how resource rich they are! Thanks for the kind compliment :)

@saikatbag3961

Жыл бұрын

@@CasualScholar you can't do business with so many restrictions. People would be terrified to do anything.

@KainYusanagi

Жыл бұрын

to be fair, they have so many injunctions and restrictions against them both internally and externally that it makes sense, sadly.

@KainYusanagi

Жыл бұрын

@@MutualistSoc To be fair, a lot of those sanctions are their own fault (I mean, they are technically still at war with the USA, after all, and refuse peace talks, for the most part). It's all because of the ego of the Kims.

@userequaltoNull

Жыл бұрын

@@MutualistSoc no, the U.S. would be much better off than North Korea. We have the population and natural resources required to sustain an industrial society. We were rich and industrialized long before the current era of containerized global trade. Would we have *everything* ? No. But we would have an economy far better than North Korea.

This was really educational. ❤

There you have it, another example of planned economy being able to make wonders short-term but also being utterly unsustainable

This was absolutely fascinating. Thank you so much for the hard work and research putting this together. I feel I learned a great deal about N.Korea and the region.

@user-fz7nq1ef4y

11 ай бұрын

The only reason is that NK was blocked and sanctioned by the Western world since the Korean War. There is no global trade or investment for them. The US and many European countries do not recognize NK until now. The Western world did this to China, Cuba, and Iran as well. The US will be poor if it was blocked by the world.

@CallMeByMyMatingName

5 ай бұрын

That's awesome! Congrats!

I wonder which countries that are succeeding for the moment will be featured in videos like this 20 years from now.

@yourhandsomestep-dad2669

Жыл бұрын

All nations that are resource based economies, China (maybe), Russia…

@bigheadrhino

Жыл бұрын

@@yourhandsomestep-dad2669 the idea of China turning into an enormous North Korea is pretty terrifying

@yinyang2971

Жыл бұрын

Sri lanka is already heading there

@hughgray158

Жыл бұрын

Saudi Arabia when oil market is gone

@j.c.denton2060

Жыл бұрын

@@yourhandsomestep-dad2669 Aren't all countries resource-based? I mean I know you mean they export resources and nothing else but the resources for more complex economies have to come from somewhere.

Very well presented!

The fact that north korea still stands is suprising

@PianoFish

10 ай бұрын

Part of the problem is that nobody wants to deal with the massive economic and humanitarian costs of reunification. All North Koreans are constitutionally citizens of South Korea so they would essentially have to absorb 26 million refugees overnight; rich Western nations like the US, Canada and the UK know they'd be asked to chip in to the reunification effort with money and resources; China and Russia worry about the political ramifications of a unified Korea - and that's before considering what might happen at the breaking point. While the exact capabilities of the North Korean military and nuclear arsenal are hard to ascertain, it wouldn't take much to flatten Seoul even with non-nuclear weapons if Kim Jong-un saw the end was nigh and decided to take as many as possible down with him (since losing power by any means will almost certainly result in his death).

"The secret of freedom lies in educating people, whereas the secret of tyranny is in keeping them ignorant." - Maximilien de Robespierre... I hope I would see N. Korea liberated in my lifetime...

@themeerofkats8908

11 ай бұрын

By ''liberated'', I know you mean turning Korea into a smoking crater like what Amerikkkan bombers did during their invasion of Korea.

Great video. I'd only like to add one point about the dangers of reform for North Korea (which you mentioned at the end) which actually relates to what you said about the lack of experienced/educated leadership that Korea suffered after liberation from Japan (which you mentioned in the beginning). North Korea, similarly, suffers from a lack of leadership which is educated and experienced in modern economics (how to manage trade imbalances, attract investment, build positive and mutually beneficial relations with foreign trade partners, etc.) If North Korea is to prosper, it NEEDS to allow foreign experts, investors and executives in to guide and manage these efforts. No one is going to invest their own money if the North Koreans are in charge of it. Unfortunately for North Korea, these foreign experts are most likely to be _South_ Korean (since they would be the ones who are most familiar with the region, language and culture). 1) North Korea considers South Korea to be their ultimate enemy; North Korea has never accepted the division of the Korean Peninsula nor recognized South Korea's right to exist as a sovereign and independent state. To allow the "False Koreans" in to rebuild their entire economy would be considered the ultimate capitulation and humiliation. 2) Ordinary North Koreans would soon start to ask themselves _"If we're going to work FOR South Koreans... then shouldn't we have the same rights AS South Koreans?"_ Or even more dangerously, _"If we're going to work FOR South Koreans... then why don't we just BECOME South Koreans?"_ If North Korea reforms and opens up, then Samsung, Hyundai, Daewoo, LG and all the South Korean _chaebol_ megacorporations would rush in an buy up everything, and North Korea will simply become the "northern provinces" of South Korea soon afterward. They will not do this.

@Kharmatos13

Жыл бұрын

Well, when you've achieved final stage communism and have to eat people to survive, i'm pretty sure you'd be fine with dumping what you've got for all the thing going on in the south. If you listen to NK defectors like Yeonmi Park they know their lives suck and it's because of the Kim. They'd change it if they could, but they can't. I really don't think reunifying Korea would be as big of a deal as people make it out to be.

@soviet_union1936

Жыл бұрын

China will prop up north Korea as a sovereign state or take over the place

@grimm00002

Жыл бұрын

At the end of the day, it is not the ordinary citizens of North Korea who have to be ashamed of themselves. they didn't have the power. Heck, they can't even get their hands on enough food. At the end, the video does say something about dictators: Reforms will lead to their deaths. Once the people realize they had been suffering needlessly because of the whims of those in power... well, we all know how Ghaddafi met his fate.

@alfredkwaak

Жыл бұрын

They know "modern economy" quite well, they teach it at university, attracting foreign investments is not what they choose to do, opening up to foreigners would either be like giving the economy for free or making trade agreements that would bind their own hands and slowly transform north also to capitalist economy. Joint ventures and special economic zones are what they can do.

@CytotoxinK

Жыл бұрын

@@alfredkwaak _"Joint ventures and special economic zones are what they can do."_ That's been tried before. The Kaesong Industrial Zone (KIZ) was an industrial park and SEZ that South Korea had established in North Korea as an experiment in peaceful economic cooperation in the early 2000s. In practice, the Kaesong Industrial Zone was everything EXCEPT a venue for peaceful economic cooperation. More often than not, the KIZ was just another major fault line and flashpoint in the Inter Korean Conflict; just something else for the 2 sides to fight over. Every time NK had a dispute with SK, the North Korean authorities would barge in, shut down operations, seize all of the property of the South Korean firms operating there and sometimes even detain the South Korean workers (essentially holding them hostage until SK gave in to NK's demands). The KIZ never even became profitable, despite the enormous cost savings from dirt-cheap NK resources and labor. The frequent harassment, seizures and detentions by the NK authorities were so disruptive and costly that it often completely erased the earnings of the companies operating there. The only thing that kept the KIZ open as long as it was were subsidies and frequent bailouts by the South Korean government. The South Koreans shut down the Kaesong Industrial Zone themselves in 2015. North Korea was demanding an ever-higher cut for the "privilege" of setting up shop on their territory, and SK was tired of having their stuff/people frequently being held hostage by them. On top of that, the UN sanctions were starting to get so strict that they even targeted third-party countries that did business with NK, so South Korea actually started to face the risk of getting sanctioned themselves if they kept the KIZ open. You'll be extremely hard-pressed to find someone who would be as generous and patient with North Korea as South Korea was with the Kaesong Industrial Zone.

I'm not sure who had the bright idea of making a giant hotel in a place with virtually no tourists 😂 The economic decisions they made are 😂😂😂

the narrative is so mechanical, with flat intonation, I fell into sleep in less than 5min after listen to this video.

One of the few channels I enable notifications for. Not disappointed either!

In Socialist Romania, the dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu applied many things that he saw in his visit to North Korea in 1971. I remember how he decided to industrialize the country by forcing the farmers to work in the industry, and so agriculture was left for the children in school, the army and the workers in the factories, who were taken to the fields in their free day, the Sunday. I knew kids who lived in the country and only went to school Dec. 1st to Feb 28th (with a 3 weeks winter holidays), because they'd spend the rest of the school year working in the fields.

@cesenu19

11 ай бұрын

I've heard that Romani people gave good testes when it comes to how to treat dictators:p

@rustyshackleford234

2 ай бұрын

Wasn’t socialist Romania the only violent democratic uprising in the iron curtain? I guess these reforms didn’t do so well after all 😂

Awesome piece of content. Keep up great work. :)

Imagine being north korea, having literally everything going in your favor, having a giant jump start and still losing compared to your neighbor who literally had nothing. Only communism and socialism could fail in that.

@Ember_Trans_Cat

Ай бұрын

a coalition of 22 UN member states typically helps too

Extremely high quality content, very well constructed, great job. Thanks for sharing.

@CasualScholar

Жыл бұрын

Thank you! Glad you enjoyed :)

That was actually a really interesting mini-documentary, thanks for all the insights

How dare you upload this last year a day before my b-day 😂

1:16 Just a shoutout to that bus driver, just cutting off the whole traffic there on the merge...

Very well done video. The comment section has some actual scholarly debates infused with the normal pissing matches also, fun to read

North Korea: we are a self reliant country! Also North Korea: Pls China give us food, we are hungry

I am Canadian and I have lots of freedom I can choose my religion, I can travel to many countries, and I imagine what it’s like in North Korea with no freedoms at all

*Nah* It's not hopeful now. The irony is that many of the younger generations born in just 20 years no longer yearn for reunification. This is because, by their standards, the armistice period with North Korea has already passed 70 years, and there has not been any positive progress like the situation in Germany. They don't show support, and they don't open the door at all. That's the reality. This is because unless the dictator class and warlords are eliminated, this will continue to be inherited, and we have faced the reality that there is no reason to expect unification unless they disappear. And more realistically, these generations have enough economic gap even in South Korea now, and too many obligations (when they become adults, they have to serve in the military, and no one encourages it, and even serve in the reserve army for 8 years after being discharged) have not been properly improved at all, and as a result, a cynical and individualistic atmosphere has been formed. For reunification to be safe, these 20 million poor compatriots must have the conditions to help them rise in the economic class. In today's Korea, to be honest, it will ironically collapse. I saw many videos encouraging South Korea to reunify, focusing only on North Korea. After all, it is only South Korea that actually has to take responsibility for it. China or Russia, the disruptors who created the division line, will not care. I don't want to see my country, my family, collapse again for no reason, money turned into scraps in the IMF crash of 1997, so I feel that's not hopeful for now.

This seems well researched, I appreciate the depth of the video while still being well paced. like a professional documentary.

That is very well made - thank you. I knew before there was that switch between North being better off to South being so but this certainly explained it much better in my mind.

The government tells them how to live, what to eat, what job to have, and what to think....but Self Reliance is their national motto.

70 times! 70 _times_ the economic output!! I thought it was 70 _percent._ and THAT would've been quite something. 70 times. man. whatever the number for North Korea's annual economy is, you take that number and multiply it _70 times_ to reach South Korea's annual economy. that's enormous. has there ever been such a discrepancy in such a tiny geographical and cultural distance??

@at2t

10 ай бұрын

Mexico and the US, Algeria and Niger, Romania and Serbia, Russia and Kazakhstan, China and India, it happens more than you think

@YOCOSMINMAX16

5 күн бұрын

​@@at2tdo you have the exact number between Romania and Serbia?

Thanks for the history lesson. This fills some gaps in my knowledge.

This video was super well made, and very informative, thank you for making it.

I'm fascinated! The web knocks me out every day.

Here's a simple analogy. Imagine the DMV totally in charge of every aspect of a nation, from every person down to every single kernel of grain. That is North Korea in a nutshell.