What would a united Communist Korea look like?

In a scenario where the North Koreans won the Korean War, what would a Korea united under their leadership look like? Would a DPRK which encompasses the entire Korean Peninsula still be the totalitarian nightmare which it is IOTL? Or would it mellow out over time? What becomes of Kim il-Sung in such a scenario? Does he remain the leader of this Korea until he dies?
 
In a scenario where the North Koreans won the Korean War, what would a Korea united under their leadership look like? Would a DPRK which encompasses the entire Korean Peninsula still be the totalitarian nightmare which it is IOTL? Or would it mellow out over time?

I really doubt it. North Korea was for much of the early postwar history more prosperous than South Korea, which itself was under a military dictatorship, and the lack of a southern foe in my opinion would serve as a fundamental difference that would obviate the need for the DPRK to ever develop in the fanatically militarist position it's come to be in. Japan is across the sea, yes, but the fortress mentality will unquestionably be weaker with two allied neighbours and no southern border.

My first guess is that it ends up something like Vietnam after reunification—all else being equal it is likely to follow along Dengist/marketization lines and more closely resemble the government of modern China or Vietnam than the modern DPRK.
 
I really doubt it. North Korea was for much of the early postwar history more prosperous than South Korea, which itself was under a military dictatorship, and the lack of a southern foe in my opinion would serve as a fundamental difference that would obviate the need for the DPRK to ever develop in the fanatically militarist position it's come to be in. Japan is across the sea, yes, but the fortress mentality will unquestionably be weaker with two allied neighbours and no southern border.

My first guess is that it ends up something like Vietnam after reunification—all else being equal it is likely to follow along Dengist/marketization lines and more closely resemble the government of modern China or Vietnam than the modern DPRK.
Second. No massive US military encampment in the south and divided peninsula means no immediate threat, no immediate threat means no necessity to invest disproportionately in the armed forces, no necessity to invest disproportionately in the armed forces means no Songun policy, no Songun policy means no nuclear weapons program, and no nuclear weapons program means no international sanctions. Thus you'd have a DPRK that's not a pariah in the world stage and connected to the international economy. You'd probably still have a totalitarian regime with severe human rights abuses and a strong police state, but I think the lack of a national security threat would make it a lot more muted than it is IOTL.
 
If NK won the Korean War it probably would have caused the US to allow the Japanese to arm themselves much earlier which would have an impact on Korean militarization.
 
The good news for the Koreans would be that the south was the major food producing area so that the odds of horrific famines are reduced. The emphasis on the military is likely diminished, however given the "Japanese threat" the military and missile and nuclear programs will proceed. The country will still be run by the brutal Kim family, and while conditions in the united Korea would probably be better than those in the north OTL, they would be substantially worse than they are in the south now.
 
Pious, Disciplined and strong under the guidance of the Wise Father, Eternal Leader Kim Jong Un. No room for western imperialist lies about "starvation, "famine" or "soldiers being in poor enough health to be ridden with parasites".
 
Best case: China and/or the USSR removes the Kims, or they are remove from an coup from the inside (Which almost happened.) and Korea becomes a normal, average, boring Communist State.

At the very least, without the South, there be more room and willing to experiment and reform, China-style reforms. (Even sooner then China in OTL.)
 
Pious, Disciplined and strong under the guidance of the Wise Father, Eternal Leader Kim Jong Un. No room for western imperialist lies about "starvation, "famine" or "soldiers being in poor enough health to be ridden with parasites".
Nah, this DPRK would probably develop into a colder version of OTL Vietnam.
 
I’m highly doubtful that the Juche faction will achieve supremacy in a successful Korean War which unites DPRK.

If the US Air Force hasn’t deindustrialised northern Korea this gives a spectrum of possibilities across the DDR, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Yugoslavia situations.
 
A fully unified Korea without need for soviet/chinese help if the kims rule probably goes juche/drops communism in the 1960s instead of 1990s. This doesn't mean a less awful north korea, just one shitty in different ways. Maybe it'd look like the Republic of Greater East Asia/japan from Battle Royale, perhaps-- "successful fascism", battle royale fights between classmates, little exports but exporting cheap military hardware, attempts to rewrite history 1984-style*, etc.

* They'd probably try claiming Kim Jong Un was the 300th of the house of kim and not the third.
 
Kim Il-Sung's ethnic nationalism would still be in play, so this Korea would basically become a larger version of Enver Hoxha's Albania. There will be a thin veneer of Marxist-Leninist rhetoric and anti-imperialist talking points stretched over Korean nationalism, with a similar focus on self-sufficiency and the military (the best guarantee of the country's independence and the regime's survival).

Foreign policy depends on how long or destructive the Korean war is. If it's only a few months and the Busan pocket doesn't hold out for long, then the North won't have a close relationship with China like after OTL's Korean war. It would be advantageous for Korea to try to stay neutral during the Sino-Soviet split and play off both sides for economic aid and advisors.

North Korea's elite justifies its rule on the basis of ethnic purity, isolationism, and independence rather than material wealth (like a conventional capitalist or socialist regime), so it would probably just be a water down version of today's Korea. I'm skeptical that it would reform or experiment with market mechanisms the way China and Vietnam have.
 
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