Both societies have more women than men, a legacy of the war and wartime migration south. Whether today s young South Korean generation, with diminishing ties to the North and focused on economic self-interest, will willingly pay for unification remains to be seen. The Asian financial crisis only deepened South Korea s concern that unification will impose an almost unbearable economic burden on a united Korea. Such costs could slow Korea s economy and make it uncompetitive with Japan, China and east Asian neighbours. Without doubt, North Korea s infrastructure has languished.
Recent reports are even more troubling.
Pyongyang is said to be cannibalising industrial facilities for working spare parts or selling factory equipment, and economic growth capacity is being permanently lost. Massive re-investment will be required in the North, particularly if Northern labourers are to be enticed to remain where they are. Tremendous individual and regional economic and political diversity exists in North and South Korea. Whether Northern labourers will be content to live on less salary than those in the South, and whether labourers North and South might together pose unprecedented management-labour challenges for Seoul s chaebols remains to be seen. Korean unification can only exacerbate Seoul s current challenge to raise the workers living standard within broadening democratisation while remaining globally competitive.