Most successful DPRK?

I have some ideas about this myself, but I want to throw this out to the gallery to get a gauge on some of the opinions. And thus I present a challenge.

With a PoD after September 9, 1948; create the most prosperous and successful Democratic People's Republic of Korea as possible without unifying the peninsula (as of October, 2010). The emphasis is on maximizing standard of living: freedom is optional.
 
That's pretty easy:

1. No Korean War... This has the triple butterfly of allowing NK to avoid being an aggressor and possibly allowing relations between the US and China to remain decent if Mao and Truman/Ike play their diplomacy cards well... The third butterfly if China / US stay on speaking terms is that Vietnam doesn't happen either because the domino theory will be borderline discredited since 'the Chicoms are different'

2. Kim Il Sung dies / is deposed early on (part in parcel with no Korean War) and is replaced with someone who at least cares a whit about the people of NK...

3. Eventual reunification with SK...
 
Well getting rid of the chirup aspect (complete self-sufficiency and cutting themselve off from international trade) of their juche national philosophy would be a major start. With that gone there's noting stopping them developing like any other communist country at a minimum, and whilst that's still not great when you look at how some of the eastern bloc did but it's light years ahead of where they are now. And that's not even counting their possibly following China's lead with their economic reforms.
 
If the DPRK becomes more like Vietnam, which was honestly the only "normal" Communist nation in Asia, it could do pretty well if it had the right leaders and stayed out of war. I heard that for a long time the the North (until the 80s presumably) was doing better than the South economically, perhaps had there been no war it would stay that way?
 
If the DPRK becomes more like Vietnam, which was honestly the only "normal" Communist nation in Asia, it could do pretty well if it had the right leaders and stayed out of war. I heard that for a long time the the North (until the 80s presumably) was doing better than the South economically, perhaps had there been no war it would stay that way?

They were doing better than China and the RoK... but it has nothing to do with the war. The DPRK economy did fantastically up till the 70s, then it stagnated.
 
Mini TL: The easiest way to do this is to kill off Kim Il-Sung some time between 1950 and 1960 when Kim Jong-Il is still way too young to succeed him.

Let's say this happens around 1956-'57 after Khrushchev's secret speech and denouncement of Stalinism. This very strongly shakes the power base and credibility of the hardcore Stalinists in North Korea since the leading communist power is no longer Stalinist. They also no longer have their great leader to keep the party together. A moderate non-Stalinist faction wins the ensuing power struggle and they follow a policy similar to Khrushchev's de-Stalinization.

After the Sino-Soviet split this alternate leadership decides to stay neutral although by the early 80s fractures in their economic framework are visible. They copy Deng Xiaoping's reforms and so a moderate socialist dictatorship remains in charge until today and on the local level there are even some experiments with democracy while everything from regional administrations upwards remains in the hands of the KWP.

By 2010, there are talks about reunification although they still have a long way to go since the communists are unwilling to relinquish power. The farthest the DPRK is willing to is a supranational organization like a mini EU.

Their population is currently 29 million people and the country has a per capita GDP that lies between those of Romania and Turkey which roughly equals $12.000-$12.500. The total GDP for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea is roughly similar to Venezuela's.
 
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