Many countries include ‘Democratic’ or ‘People’s’ in their names, even though they are not democratic and do not serve their people. Examples: Democratic People’s Republic of Korea Lao People’s Democratic Republic People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria Democratic Republic of the Congo And German Democratic Republic (East Side) in 1949–1990. None of these states are democratic, power and wealth are concentrated in the hands of a small ruling elite. Who are they fooling with these names?

  • hirihit640@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    13·
    3 days ago

    And I’m simply sharing what I’ve learned from my research on the subject. Not entirely a direct response to your comment, sure, but relevant enough that I felt like sharing, not just to you but other readers.

    you’d want the war to end, the US to leave and lift all sanctions, and for there to be an internationally mediated peace negotiation that would decide what peaceful future between North and South Korea might look like.

    Or Kim could give up power and reform the government to a more western style of democracy. That would naturally end the war as well, and probably improve relations with South Korea considerably.

    If pressure on North Korea is released, there’s no telling if the authoritarian government would change their ways at all. In fact that pressure might be necessary to push them to change.

    • darthelmet@lemmy.world
      3·
      2 days ago

      Ah yes, just like all the other countries that democratically voted for their own people’s interests. Those were all totally left alone by the US.

    • Simon_Shitewood@lemmy.ml
      2·
      2 days ago

      Or Kim could give up power and reform the government to a more western style of democracy.

      You mean like America, which invaded and destroyed 80% of Korean infrastructure and killed over 3 million civilians? That kind of western democracy? You are the exact same type of chauvinist that caused the Korean war in the first place.

    • SpookyBogMonster@lemmy.mlEnglish
      1·
      2 days ago

      Or Kim could give up power and reform the government to a more western style of democracy. That would naturally end the war as well, and probably improve relations with South Korea considerably.

      This misunderstands International Relations. You can’t negotiate a settlement like this by going to one of the parties and telling them to give up everything. That’s simply a non starter. Part of negotiating a peace like this, requires guarantees that each side will get to retain a degree of sovereignty in the peace (in this case, their political and economic systems), and that concessions made by either side will be beneficial for both parties in the long term (in my previous example, this might be something like giving up border controls between the two countries to facilitate trade, travel, etc, in a Shengen-style arrangement. Or unifying under a single currency).

      Further, why would that “naturally end the war” South Korea isn’t at war with North Korea because the north is a dictatorship or something. South Korea has been a dictatorship for much of its post war history. Then continuation of the Korean war has more to do with US interests in the region, than anything else at this point. Eliminating the US presence is the keystone to any meaningful peace mediation.

      If pressure on North Korea is released, there’s no telling if the authoritarian government would change their ways at all. In fact that pressure might be necessary to push them to change

      That pressure has been on them for 76 years. It clearly isn’t going to change anything.

      If they’re opened up to the world, they’re actually incentivized to engage on the global market. We have a very clear cut case study here:

      If we compare the DPRK to Vietnam, the former is a country chopped in half, diplomaticlly isolated, sanctioned to hell and back, and locked in a forever war. Of course it looks the way that it does.

      But compared to Vietnam, a country which was also chopped in half by the US, under similar circumstances and eventually unified, it didn’t develop the same kinds of power centralization as the DPRK. Vietnam today is a modern, cosmopolitan, Socialist country that’s highly integrated into the world system.