Will China 'Absorb' North Korea?

July 2006 | Political Risk Analysis

Beneath the headlines of North Korea's missile tests lies the issue of the long-term future of the communist state. Conventional wisdom holds that if the North Korean regime of Kim Jong Il were to collapse, then the country would quickly be absorbed by the South. However, in recent months Seoul has come to fear another possibility: that China will effectively absorb the North, thereby delaying indefinitely reunification. If the South alienates the North in response to the July 4-5 missile tests, it risks driving the latter further under Chinese

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