[imText1]On the 19th, Ahn Byung Jik, Chairman for the New Right Foundation said, “Following unification, North Korea must pursue a path of reform and attempt to ensure that its markets become independent in order to induce rapid development.”
At a seminar organized by the Network for North Korean Democracy and Human Rights for North Korea democracy activists and experts Mr. Ahn asserted, “Impulsive reform will not only create a estranged situation for the North Korean people in a new environment but further, South and North Koreans alike will experience economic stagnation as unification expenses reach an astronomical high.”
Further Mr. Ahn said, “The merger of South and North Korea’s markets will cause friction and clashes between production and other labor issues such as wages. In the end, the market with labor forces and low productivity will experience economic stagnation and mass unemployment.”
He added, “Costs and disturbances that will arise from immediate unification stems from the differences in everyday lifestyle by both citizens and their sudden integration and reciprocal difficulties” and maintained, “Even if North Korea does collapse, independent economic systems must be maintained.”
Further, he said, “Not only are North Korean wages extremely low, but North Korea has sustained a planned economy and heterogenic lifestyle completely opposite to that of South Korean people” and urged, “Not only is it impossible for North Korean citizens to assimilate to South Korean lifestyle in a short period of time, it is extremely harsh to expect them to survive in one free market competition.”
“As experienced by the German unification, rushed unification will only make North Koreans lose their home with a high possibility of them becoming slaves to South Korean people” he said and added, “At least for the protection of human rights and property rights of North Korean people, independent political economic systems must be upheld.”
He said, “North Korean people may be discontent as gradual reform would mean retaining their backward society” yet claimed, “Assimilating gradually in a new environment while sustaining and improving the standard of living for North Korea is a wiser choice from the perspective of gradual reform.”
North Korea must inevitably collapse
Further regarding the continuing starvation and prolonging foreign aid he asserted that the stage to reduce reproduction had been reached where reproduction could not simply be achieved which meant that collapse was inevitable.
He said, “At present, there is little possibility of North Korea to regenerate with its own strength” and suggested, “North Korea’s only prospect of redevelopment is by enforcing reform through international aid, however, reform is inevitable that will be accompanied by regime change.”
Further, he said, “The reason North Korea has been able to resist ruin is indebted to its one and only political ideological system and through the aid from China and South Korea” and prospected, “If sudden changes occur in this kind of political ideological system or international relations, it is only a matter of time before North Korea collapses.”
As evidence to North Korea’s collapse, Mr. Ahn suggested several signs including ▲ collapse of a planned economy such as the termination of rations and starvation ▲ the loss of national supervisory systems for investigations on the use of national expenses, ▲ unstable population control resulting from a lack of daily needs ▲ immobilization of infrastructure such as ports, rails, electricity and ▲ low productivity and factory operations.
He said, “North Korea is controlled by Kim Jong Il and a small number of military departments. Though there is a cabinet for form’s sake, in reality they are no different to puppet of Kim Jong Il” and stressed, “The financial system in North Korea and further the governmental system and the bureaucracy to support the nation collapsed completely.”
