PC: DDR and DPRK switch fates?

With a POD no earlier than early 1989, create a situation where the DPRK rapidly and (mostly) peacefully reunites into a single Korea, while at the same time the GDR retrenches from the outside world, occasionally engaging in blackmail to extort aid needed to prop up the system.

Also assume the Tiananmen Square protests result in a period of transition in China, while at least Poland and Hungary also reform.
 

Sumeragi

Banned
The Korean part is easy: Have Kim Il Sung not have that fatal heart attack, and carry through the reunification process.
 
Well, without a POD which closes off DDR in early '60s this is not going to happen. And if USSR desintegrate as in OTL, who is going to sponsor DDR in its bid to remain independent. The thing making it difficult, nay, impossible is the fact that nobody would ignore such an unstable element near its border. Especially if EU forms as per OTL. Korea basically borders only two countries directly, and until recently was not a significant threat to anyone else except Japan. And (a big difference) had a sponsor next door.
 
The Korean part is easy: Have Kim Il Sung not have that fatal heart attack, and carry through the reunification process.

Things were going downhill long before then.

The PoD's required for this, essentially butterfly WW2 as we know it.
 
Well in theory if you prevent China from going communist then when the USSR collapses so goes DPRK.

But keeping DDR communist is unlikely once the USSR pulls out.

But post 1989 is tough
 
Bordering on ASB here, but for the DDR I have a possibility (for those of you reading my thread, this will not be happening there):

After Honecker resigns and Krenz takes the reins, he rebuffs suggestions to give quarter to the protestors and instead opts for the "Chinese solution" that (according to some) he favored. Gorbi stays true to his word that the Soviets won't help the NVA oppress people, but a quick lockdown of the borders and a few public acts of repression make the Soviet presence essentially unnecessary. When Hungary and Poland get their waves of reformation in 1990, Krenz uses them (and the resultant economic and social upheavals) to illustrate what might have been had he not acted. East Germany is considered an unstable element in the heart of Europe to this day, but because of still warm (though not necessarily USSR-level) relations with Russia its allowed to continue existing as-is. The UN hasn't the heart for another European war, much less one that could trample on the Bear a bit.

For DPRK: Songun never happens. As a result, everyone gets fed (mostly) adequate amounts and the North's economy keeps running at at least a subsistence level. Kim il-Sung and later Kim Jong-il, taking cues from Chinese leadership, start making baby steps toward opening the Hermit Kingdom to (mostly Chinese) foreign investment, improving the economic situation a bit. With a more pragmatic foreign policy centered on keeping hard currency flowing, the touchy issues like DPRK nukes and random acts of provocation don't happen, or at least not nearly as much. While their economies remain rather disparate, the Koreas agree to unification in steps, contingent upon political liberalization in North Korea and achieving near-parity economically with IMF help.
 
The DDR was the strongest nation economically, possibly, and technically, certainly, in the whole Warsaw Pact, and thoroughly integrated into the Soviet Empire.

North Korea was a backwards, stagnant society. And more to the point, isolated. Sure they did a little trade with China and the USSR, but the "Hermit Kingdom" is a reasonable description.


So, no, not really. Except for the surface swap that the Koreas could have united, and the Germanies not. But that would be the only way the situation could swap, really. IMO.
 
Apparenlty Margaret Thatcher opposed Germany re-unification. And re-unification required the "Two-Plus Four" treaty officially ending World War II and the de jure if not de facto four power occupation of Berlin.

I've read anectodes that Mitterand and Kohl came to a private agreement that France would not oppose re-unification if Germany backed a common currency for the European community.

So give Thatcher more influence and somehow get France opposed? I think you need a POD earlier than 1989 though.

Same with Korea, and OP does not allow for a violent re-unification of Korea.
 
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