Make the World a better place - Episode 1: North Korea

Angel Heart

Banned
Or a DPRK "wank"-thread if you like. Your challenge is to turn North Korea into a more prosperous and modern state. I know there is somewhere a thread with a DPRK tune-up but first I am more specific and second, I don't like hijacking threads. :/

Your earliest POD is 1953 after the Korean War. I realized that your best bet is to get rid of the "Kim-Dynasty". According to this site we had four factions in the North: The Soviet Koreans, the Yanan faction, the Domestic faction and the Guerilla faction which Kim Il-sung was part of. Naturally we have to get rid of the guerillas. So my questions are:

1. Which faction would be the perfect candidate to take over North Korea? How will this affect the DPRKs relation with her neightbours during the Cold War?

2. With a more reasonable leadership and a much higher standard, would we be today more steps closer to the Korean reunification?

3. How might the relations be today? Would the North still be so paranoid and try to compensate with their nukes?

4. Would this "über"-North Korea today have a higher population? Let 's say over 30 million instead of OTL's 23 million?

If you really want to, you can still try with Kim Il-sung leading the nation, but an improvement under Kim Jong-il is out of question. Your ultimate goal is to have a more wealthier and a more stable DPRK.

Rules:

1. This ATL DPRK doesn't have to be super rich like the ROK since it can be like Yugoslavia or the GDR in the 80s, but you'll get extra points if major North Korean cities look like this.

2. No Kim Jong-il! As said we can't expect improvement under him. Also as said, you can turn Kim Il-sung into a genius, but I would prefere if another of the four faction takes over in the 50s since it would be much more interesting.

3. This ATL North Korea should still have over one million active troopers. With a better economy it won't be much of a challenge to modernize the army, but it still may have outdated stuff and a poor power projection. (Have them at least the T-72 as their standard tank and the MiG-29 Fulcrum as their standard jet).

4. More a challenge than a rule. You'll get lots of extra points if you manage to have a militaristic society which is much more open to the outside world. More or less like the Soviet society in the late 80s. Let 's say, although they are trapped in their country, they still have (more or less) acces to South Korean and American pop culture.

5. Emigration should be like in the GDR. Not totally impossible but extremly difficult.

I would'nt be mad at you if you violate one or two rules to make North Korea a better place. Have fun! :)
 
POD might be, that in 1956, pro-soviet members of the Korean labour party purge Kim's family (Including Kim Yong-il). Thus, removing all personal cult of Kim Il-sung, and getting closer to the USSR. With closer relations to the Soviets, North Korea is more likely to get economical aid (Including Soviet television and radio sets, thus the North Koreans have easier access to the TV broadcasts of the south). Since OTL North Korea had a good economy until the 1970's, with soviet aid, the economy might have been even better way into the 70's.

Also, with a closer relationship to the USSR, there could have also been political reforms. So the people have a few more freedoms, pretty much like the USSR. Also, with a better economy than OTL South Korea, it might be likely that people from the south flee to the north (Especially since South Korea wasn't also a democracy, and also economically unstable). Although this wouldn't be masses that flee.

A pro-soviet DPRK wouldn't be naturally isolationistic, but still not that hostile towards ROK, Japan or the USA. Maybe the DPRK would eventually join the warsaw pact.

But still, North Korea would still suffer from the downfall the communist bloc suffered in the 1980's. But with a more "sane" government, I can see North Korea follow Glasnost and Perestroika. In the best case, the economy is successfully reformed, and Democracy arrives slowly, but steady in North Korea (BTW, simultanously with the south), so there might be elections in the early 90's.

With a de facto democratic (and capitalistic) North Korea, the economy is booming, with several skycrapers being built in big cities (Especially Pyongyang), and foreign company settling. By 2000, a Confederation of both Koreas seems realistic. It's not a total reunification, more like a European Union, but closer.
 

Angel Heart

Banned
So you're putting your bets on the Soviet Koreans. Sounds sensible. I might be wrong, but aren't the North Koreans first nationalists and then commies? Weren't the Soviet Koreans regarded as Russians by the younger members? Also the Yanan faction could be regarded as "Chinese lapdogs". I don't know if either of both would get enough (public) support from their fellow Koreans.
 
So you're putting your bets on the Soviet Koreans. Sounds sensible. I might be wrong, but aren't the North Koreans first nationalists and then commies? Weren't the Soviet Koreans regarded as Russians by the younger members? Also the Yanan faction could be regarded as "Chinese lapdogs". I don't know if either of both would get enough (public) support from their fellow Koreans.

Propaganda could form it that way, that the Soviets are friends of the Korean people. So the Koreans could stay nationalistic, but also close to the USSR.
 

Angel Heart

Banned
I got two more questions:

1. Lets assume that the Soviet Koreans take over in the 50s. How would the situation be during the Sino-Soviet split? Would the Soviet Koreans be replaced by the pro-Chinese Yanan Faction or would the DPRK stay pro-Soviet?

(IMHO they would survive the collapse of the socialist market more easily if they side with China.)

2. How do you think might modern day ATL North Korean pop culture look like? Might we see some pop groups and rock or metal bands from North Korea? And is there a way that we could se a NK-SK cultural cooperation whitch would bring both closer together?

(Now that would be awesome if the avarage North Korean has instead of a portrait of the Kims posters from Iron Maiden, Kiss or Billy Idol. :D)
 
It was the faliure in the Korean War, which made North Korea think that a new war was close, and they feared that they would either be conquered by America or made a chinese satelited, this made Kim Il-Sung more popular with newer party members, and kept the Stalinist system intact.
This can also be seen in Albania and partialy in Romania where a nationalist streak made the Stalinist system endure.

If North Korea managed to win the Korean on it's own powers, North Korea would feel less besieged, and safe from Chinese influence, and thus you may have march on more Soviet-aligned ideology.
 
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