Could the PRC and DPRK have joined COMECON?

I'm thinking about writing a timeline, and one of the key points would be China and North Korea cooperating more closely with the Soviet bloc. I'd like to have an explanation beyond a handwave for this level of cooperation, and one of the ways I figured this could be achieved would consist in those two countries joining COMECON a bit before the Korean War. If there are reasons why this can't be done, tell me now so I can either figure some other reason out or try a different TL.
 
I'm thinking about writing a timeline, and one of the key points would be China and North Korea cooperating more closely with the Soviet bloc. I'd like to have an explanation beyond a handwave for this level of cooperation, and one of the ways I figured this could be achieved would consist in those two countries joining COMECON a bit before the Korean War. If there are reasons why this can't be done, tell me now so I can either figure some other reason out or try a different TL.
I can offer some perspective on China.

There was always a lot of bad blood between Mao and Stalin. This goes all the way back to the 20s and 30s. Stalin had favored the Koumintang rather than the Chinese Communist Party, and most of the Soviet aid had originally went to the Koumintang. Stalin wished to bring China into the Soviet orbit this way, going so far as to use the Comintern to mandate the dissolution of the CCP into the Koumintang, and continue to support Chiang during the Chinese Civil War.

This mistrust continued when Mao came into power, and Stalin still was less than helpful to the Chinese. The real breaking point came in the Korean War, when Stalin refused to support Chinese action in the war beyond a tiny token level. Mao saw the Korean War as the beginning of a global revolutionary war against capitalism, and Stalin would entertain none of this.
 
Perhaps China could join COMECON in the hopes of playing a larger role in the communist bloc and establishing a foothold for becoming a second pole to counterbalance the Soviet Union?

This might also be a preferable idea for the sake of downplaying the big brother/little brother relationship brought about by Soviet aid and advisors. China would still be playing second fiddle, but inclusion in a wider and supposedly equal community might be a bit kinder to China's self-image.

Or you could just kill off Mao and install Wang Ming. :D
 

MacCaulay

Banned
I don't know about COMECON, but it'd be fucking sweet if the DPRK sent some representatives to COMICON.
 
For the DPRK to be in COMECON ,you would have to have Kim Il Sung and his bunch purged in 1956-58 and be replaced by a more moderate and pragmatic pro-Soviet faction. The result would be something like an Asian version of the GDR (the NK citizens also get to see ROK and/or Japanese tv broadcasts that way!). Perhaps this could even pave the way for Korean reunification along with the German one in the Nineties.
 
This mistrust continued when Mao came into power, and Stalin still was less than helpful to the Chinese. The real breaking point came in the Korean War, when Stalin refused to support Chinese action in the war beyond a tiny token level. Mao saw the Korean War as the beginning of a global revolutionary war against capitalism, and Stalin would entertain none of this.

For your last point, which idea is Stalin not entertaining - the idea of a global revolutionary war against capitalism, or the idea of the Korean War specifically being the beginning of one?

For the DPRK to be in COMECON ,you would have to have Kim Il Sung and his bunch purged in 1956-58 and be replaced by a more moderate and pragmatic pro-Soviet faction.

Well, I'm aware of diplomatic exchanges and meetings between Kim and Stalin in 1949-1950, so I was hoping to have it happen in either 1949 or the first half of 1950. If Stalin gave more explicit approval of the North Korean plan to invade the South, could it be done?
 
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