Why does the DPRK (rightfully) hate America and refuse to cooperate with them after being massively bombed, but Vietnam, who was also massively bombed, now have a fairly decent relationship with them?

jack, 4 months ago

Vietnam liberated itself from occupation and reunified under a single Marxist-Leninist government. It has a population of 100 million people. It decisively defeated the US militarily. All of this gives it a very strong position to engage with the global economy. Korea remains divided and under occupation, the DPRK has a population of only about 26 million, far less than half of the peninsula’s, and remains in a state of frozen conflict with the US and its proxies. It has no power to leverage on the global stage.

SeventyTwoTrillion, 4 months ago

So if North Vietnam and South Vietnam were still separate countries, do we reckon that North Vietnam would be a lot like the DPRK right now?

jack, 4 months ago

The other thing is not that the DRPK refuses to cooperate with the US, but that the US refuses to cooperate with the DRPK. It the US was willing to lift the sanctions and open democratic channels, the DPRK would not refuse. If they could get the deal Vietnam or China has, they’d take it.

JohnBrownsBussy2, 4 months ago

If the US dropped the sanctions regime against the DPRK, I am sure that they would also compromise with western capital to facilitate investment/modernization like China and Vietnam did. Just like with Cuba, it is US intransigence and maintenance of war footing (the illegal blockade for Cuba, and the US military occupation of south Korea against the DPRK) that prevents cooperation.

supafuzz, 4 months ago

realpolitik due to tensions with China, is my understanding