North Korea isn't that bad.

Jul 2, 7:44 PM

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Dec 2022

2810

traed said:
South Korea got a leg up in development when it was under Japanese rule

I have to correct this error. During the Japanese colonialism, today's area of South Korea was treated as a "rice colony" for the Japanese population. From the colonialism from 1910 to 1945, there wasn't any meaningful industrialization there. Actually today's area of North Korea was the main area for manufacturing (particularly military armament) due to easier access to coal and iron ores, plus easier access to manufacturing facilities in today's Shenyang (AKA the old Detroit of China/Manchukuo) via railways until the end of WWII.

Right after the Korean War, North Korea was industrialized first mostly due to the political stability and easier access to Soviet relief packages to fix the remaining semi-damaged factories. But South Korea at that time? Mired in political instability right after the Korean War while taxpayers' money and resources (like gasoline) stolen by bureaucrats. Kinda like Afghanistan in 2002-2022.

Actually Japan started its economic growth from 1950 to early 1960s mostly due to the US military treating Japan as a main supply base during the Korean War.... There is a historical truth that Japan's economic miracle was created mostly due to the murdered North/South Korean soliders and civilians. Hence today's Japanese lawmaker, Tarō Asō, has his typial electoral slogan: "the next Korean War is right around the corner, so there will be a Japanese economic recovery".

South Korea's economic miracle was mostly started in the mid-1960s due to South Korea joining the Vietnam War with military personnels for the American side, America's informal diplomatic pressure against Japan to reindustrialize a tiny portion of South Korea (only to facilitate operations by US military troops in South Korea), and French, West German, along with Dutch financial investments.

then when the US took over installing a puppet leader who killed off opponents

If you're talking about Syngman Rhee who was also South Korea's first president, he was a American puppet who got too greedy for power and was exiled to Hawai'i with his Austrian-American wife.

And this South Korea's first president wanted to declare South Korea as a confessional republic ruled by Christian pastors as bureaucrats.

On the other hand, people often forget that South Korea was a hotbed for Marxist-inspired social movements among pro-American countries until the 1980s. There is literally a single pro-North Korean lawmaker in South Korea's legislature, the National Assembly, today.

If you're an American citizen who wants to experience something like the light version of communism, yeah.... better visit South Korea.

Jul 2, 7:49 PM

#52

MalchikRepaid

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Dec 2022

2810

You know what's ironic is that between the early 1990s and until the early 2010s, your average Japanese citizen was more knowledgeabe about North Korea than your average South Korean citizen.

This is quite interesting from me, a person who is a half-Chinese who gets easier access to information about North Korea.

Jul 2, 7:51 PM

#53

traed

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Mar 2008

47790

@MalchikRepaid
I thought there was some improvement in infrastructure? Maybe the images ive seen were misleading.

Yes I meant Syngman Rhee

Jul 2, 8:12 PM

#54

MalchikRepaid

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Dec 2022

2810

traed said:
@MalchikRepaid
I thought there was some improvement in infrastructure? Maybe the images ive seen were misleading.

Even if there would be an improvement in infrastructure which was so miniscular, the Korean War pretty much destroyed almost every foundation of it except for areas around Busan.

Anyways, I do want to visit Busan one day.

Yesterday, 1:05 AM

#55

Zarutaku

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Sep 2016

5062

traed said:
Out of 83 countries South Korea is only in at 38th in that index.
https://www.numbeo.com/quality-of-life/rankings_by_country.jsp

Yes, but the rest of the ~112 countries couldn't even be evaluated and almost all of these are most certainly worse off than South Korea, so it's actually around 40th of 195 countries and the same applies to the happiness index.

This dance is the pinnacle of human achievement.

Yesterday, 2:19 AM

#56

GinIonSui

Offline

Feb 2024

284

Char doesn't know where is North Korea.

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North Korea isn't that bad.

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