[BBell]

I have to agree with Jim.

[Cowboy Bob]

It won't happen immediately. Look at how long it took Germany to recover after reunification.

How much infrastructure has to be built in North Korea? (electrification, etc.)

[StoneWall Brigade]

So Jim Rogers who I have a lot of respect for wants that Psychopath Kim_Jong_UN to be the ruler of a United Korea eh?

[BeauBo]

Sounds like he is pandering to a Korean audience in this interview - South and North.

[Lurker]

It’ll take at least a century for Korea to reunite completely.

L

[Cronos]

In the short-term NO. In the long-term MAYBE

In the short-term, a number of "reunification scenarios":

1. Under Kim: then heck no, South korea's GDP plummets to sub-saharan levels and Japan doesn't need to worry about the Korean economy for another century
2. There is reunification under some non-Kim, non-democratic regime - then the united korea is still poor but not as bad as #1 but still poor, probably at the level of Egypt for another century
3. assuming the two Koreas get united in 2020 under a South Korean regime, then we have the example of how long it took Germany to reunite. Remember that East germany was in a far better position economically and socially compared to North Korea. It still took Germany 15 years to recover and arguably it hasn't completely recovered.
   
   in the case of the koreas it would take at least double the time (1 to 2 generations) - I would rather say it would take 40 to 50 years to get back on track.
   
   By then the average age would be slightly older than Japan.

So,. in no scenario does Japan need to be afraid of a reunited Korea in my humble opinion

[Jimmy Valentine]

Koreans and Japanese have hated each other since time immemorial. How do they get round that.

[LumberJack53213]

South Korean appliances are top notch in my book(LG, Samsung), but their cars are horrid, Toyota is still number one for me.

[jdsteel]

The statement that Japan cannot compete with a united Korea because of cheaper labor costs is ludicrous. There are plenty of other countries right now, say Vietnam for example, that have cheaper labor than Japan. Japan’s problems are of Japans making.

[RinaseaofDs]

I wonder if England and France felt the same way about the reunification of Germany?

I do remember that the reunification arguments, the expense, the retardation of the E. Germans, etc - nothing came close to the motivation of families long separated to be brought back together.

I think it will be the same for Korea.

Japan has to sort itself first. It’s not. Abe’s trying.

[Gay State Conservative]

Germany still hasn’t completely recovered from unification and East Germany was 50 times as prosperous as North Korea is today.A united Korea might be an economic powerhouse in 25 years but until then they’ll rue the day that unification began.

[BeauBo]

Maybe Jim Rogers is there (Korea - North and South) in coordination with the Trump Administration, fleshing out details.