How Would the North Korean Middle Class Fare In A Unified Korean Peninsula?

A ROK Drop favorite Dr. Andrei Lankov has an article published that explains why the middle class in North Korea will have a harder time transitioning to a unified Korean peninsula compared to their Eastern European counterparts:

In the last days of the communist system, people in most former-communist countries widely believed that the transition to democracy and collapse of the Leninist economy would in no time lead to material bounty, as well as the revival of the liberties once lost to communism.

This was the case at the end of the day – though not everywhere. And even where it was, the transition was far bumpier than the revolutionary enthusiasts had thought it would be. Many an Eastern European engineer, technician or accountant in the early 1990s suddenly discovered that their skills were hopelessly outdated and of little use in the new, emerging capitalist economy. In the former Soviet Union the transition was particularly harsh, and middle class enthusiasm quickly transitioned to disappointment and even desperation. In due time, it was a major reason behind Putin’s rise to power in Russia.

However, generally speaking, over the long run things turned out well for the Eastern European urban middle class, or at least a majority of them. After the first turbulent years, industry began to grow again, while engineers and technicians managed to update their skills, eventually learning how to fix and design modern equipment. Doctors, schoolteachers and functionaries also had time to acquire new skills and learn new rules. It helped that they had little internal competition: In any given country there was only one set of white-collar, skilled workforce; no significant group of outsiders could directly challenge their status. In a unified Korea, by contrast, things are liable to be rather different.  [NK News]

You can read the rest at the link, but this is why I have always believed that if the Kim regime was to collapse the South Koreans would be wise to prevent people from South of the border from buying property or taking up jobs in North Korea.  It is better that the North Koreans do things for themselves poorly than to have South Koreans move in and do things for them better.  This will over the long term create a culture of dependency and eventually resentment in North Korea.

The best people in the South to help North Koreans with the transition would be North Korean defectors.  That is also why I have believed that the ROK government should offer scholarships to defectors for skills that will be needed in a post-Kim regime North Korea.  In return for the free education the defectors would agree to return to North Korea to help re-train their fellow countrymen when the country is reunified.