Although it won’t dissuade neocons, Bradley K. Martin offers an argument in favor of letting Beijing run the DPRK.

There is…the argument that Kim believes he cannot afford to reform the economy because it would let in information and influences that would undermine his family’s rule by letting his isolated subjects learn that the rival South Korean system works much better.

According to Abt [a Swiss involved in North Korean joint ventures in pharmaceutical manufacturing and computer software.], one answer to both concerns could be China, which “will provide all the support necessary to the DPRK party and government to enable economic reforms without regime change.” He used the abbreviation of Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the country’s official name. “The DPRK may expect support from other quarters, for example, the European Union, too,” he said.

“I think the dilemma of the leadership — economic upsurge versus the inflow of ‘subversive’ system-destabilizing information and ideas, particularly regarding the South — can be overcome with the necessary Chinese support,” Abt said. “Though the division of Korea can only be compared with that of Germany before 1990, China’s division — capitalist Hong Kong, capitalist Taiwan — was a sort of challenge to Deng Xiaoping and successors, too, but they learnt to manage that quite well.”

Don’t ask a relative of a victim of Tiannanman Square what s/he thinks of “managing quite well”.

Filed under: Business/Economy, East Asia, Korea Tagged: bradley k martin, china, dprk, north korea, prc