South Korea Floats Reunification

With reports swirling about the worsening health of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, President Lee Myung-bak of South Korea has once again broached the sensitive subject of reunification. All previous South Korean leaders have brought it up in the past, but Lee has set himself apart by proposing a special tax to cover the enormous cost of rejoining its neighbor to the north; bringing impoverished North Korea up to speed with South Korea’s thriving economy could cost up to $1 trillion. “Reunification will definitely come,” said Lee. “I believe that the time has come to start discussing realistic policies to prepare for that day, such as a reunification tax.” North Korea has yet to respond, but analysts heavily doubt that it will react with anything but anger. “North Korea will take a unification tax as the expression of a South Korean attempt to prepare for a sudden collapse of the North Korean government,” one expert said.