I read the following in a recent CNBC article:
“South Korean leaders have supported unification of the peninsula but have been ineffective — the North has strongly been against it.” (http://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/26/north-korean-elites-increasingly-think-kim-jong-un-is-a-weak-leader-new-study-says.html)
This is interesting because many would say that efforts towards reintegration and deescalation between the two Koreas was progressing relatively well until the George W. Bush administration took a sudden and unilateral aggressive posture against North Korea. Here’s a blast from the past discussing this issue: http://progressive.org/op-eds/bush-s-policies-set-back-relations-north-korea/
The path forward for Korea had been a slow economic liberalization through Chinese style “Special Economic Zones”, and a deescalation of military tension, leading eventually to Korean led reunification.
After a quick internet search, I see articles like this one: https://www.rand.org/news/press/2017/04/27.html. Here again is the suggestion that reunification is good, but it’s North Korea who opposes it. The stakes have become clear.
I would guess that US policy now seems to be leaning towards a US proctored and policed, South Korea administrated “reunification” (otherwise known as conquest) of North Korea.
As always, we have the narrative that the US is completely well-intentioned and innocent, while some “crazy madman” can’t help himself but be unreasonable in every possible way. Of course, as always, the US is acting with unilateral aggression and its inability to compromise on its hegemonic prerogatives is leading headfirst into brutal war.
