Plexyre
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That could be a possibility. It would be unfortunate if any new leader turns out as dictatorial as Park Chung-hee wasA benevolent dictator like Lee Kuan Yew is a rarity. Most Chinese rulers are only in it for himself.
A communist China of 2050 would still be a 3rd world country, Taiwan being prosperous.
A democratic China of 2020 would be a developed country, and Taiwan's KMT may opt for unification and take a part in mainland elections.
You place too much emphasis on democracy, there are a fair amount of democracies that go through decades of slow progress. Whether it is democracy or authoritarianism, it does not matter as long as the country moves in the right direction
That IS the plan.
You're deluding yourself.
You clearly do not understand the ROK's post-Kim administration plan of the North.
The South currently has nothing more than proposals. Some of the more interesting proposals that were floated up were to let the North maintain a separate government and give it several decades to develop so that the South would not be saddled with the costs of building the North's decrepit economy and collapsing infrastructure for them. If that happens you can forget about South Korea becoming one of the Top 10 Richest Countries in 2050.
When the ROK takes over the North, the partition stays. The North Koreans are not allowed to migrate to the South, and the Southerners are not allowed to relocate to North without a justifiable cause and a permission. The North's currency will stay as is, only exchanged to new bills without Kim family's faces. All the hints of past Kim regime will be removed, and those on the ROK's persecution list will be arrested and tried for crimes against humanity.
North Koreans could always migrate elsewhere, such as the the west...or to China, and be expelled back to the South Korean government, if you know what I mean. The current Kim regime can't stop refugees from fleeing the country, what makes you think the South can?
Some things do change immediately, such as freeing of all political prisoners, a freedom of speech and demonstration, and the flooding of food in North Korean market system.
You can't govern North Koreans apartheid-style while giving them the freedoms associated with the progressive South. When they see how energetic and passionate their Southern compatriots protest all the time, they too will start protesting en masse. Except unlike the South, the North will have many real and serious problems to protest about, and is where they will focus their energy. South Korea has backed off against much less pressure, such as when a relatively conservative South Korean administration scuttled the intelligence sharing agreement with Japan. When the Kim regime collapses, expect the dynamics of South Korean politics to do a 180 degrees. South Korean conservative parties will lose their main selling point, of taking a tough line against North Korea, and progressive parties will take power.
The North Korea under the ROK administration becomes an extremely attractive place for Southern and foreign investment, because it is covered by the FTA with the US and EU, and possibly with China(In the process of negotiation).
The China-South Korea FTA will likely be passed very soon unless in the unlikely scenario that protectionist South Korean farmers get their way.
Accordingly you can expect a tsunami of companies trying to exit from China and relocate to North Korea, the only place on earth with 3rd world wages, but covered by FTAs with all major economies and a 1st world legal system(North Korean legal system will be run by the ROK). This is how the ROK plans to reconstruct the North Korean economy, not with aid, but a tsunami of companies relocating from China into North Korea.
Let's not kid ourselves and assume that the world economy is not deeply intertwined today. To claim that every foreign company would leave China to relocate to the North is nothing short of a fantastical wet dream
The ROK's problem then becomes figuring out how to keep Chinese companies(considered undesirable) out, not how to attract companies into North Korea.
It hasn't been much of a problem in the west so I don't see what you're getting at. Besides, Chinese companies have a huge global reach today (even counting western sanctions), and will only increase as it continues with its economic, institutional, and management reforms and transitions to rule under a better government.
This is exactly the reason for the sealing of NK borders. North Koreans do not need to migrate to South to seek jobs; jobs will come to them.
With such a rapidly aging population the South will have no choice but to hire even more foreign guest workers into their country than at present if no North Korean migrant workers are allowed to go to the South, and once that ball gets rolling it can't be stopped.