China was not in a position to provide economic help, because it was experimenting with a huge modernization program of its own and having a hard time feeding tens of millions of its own people in the less developed inland provinces. Korea experts say that a disastrous farm program, encouraging deforestation to make room for terraced farming in the name of self-reliance, has depleted hillside soil and caused rivers to overflow their banks, inundating the lowlands. Furthermore, a rigid collectivization program has eliminated incentives for farmers. In the long term, the North has no other alternative than to undertake necessary reforms, namely to correct a defective farm policy so as to increase production, institute land reform to provide incentive to farmers, and open the country to foreign capital and trade. Even if they do, time is definitely not on their side.
History again appears to be repeating itself.
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