“[I]f Kim Il Sung had won the war, Korea today would not look like North Korea. I think it would still be a much less free and prosperous place than the South is now, but it would resemble China and Vietnam more than the North now does. Its system has been shaped by the need to distinguish itself, to seal itself off from the rival state, and to pursue nuclear armament.”

— Brian Reynolds Myers

On why the North Korean regime is so oppressive
2010s, North Korea's Unification Drive (December 2017)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "[I]f Kim Il Sung had won the war, Korea today would not look like North Korea. I think it would still be a much less fr…" by Brian Reynolds Myers?

Brian Reynolds Myers 149

American professor of international studies 1963

Related quotes

“In North Korea, I lived as Kim Il-sung's robot. In South Korea, I got to live a new life.”

Kim Hyon-hui (1962) former North Korean agent

"She killed 115 people before the last Korean Olympics. Now she wonders: ‘Can my sins be pardoned?’" in The Washington Post https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:cC9NX5WV1gkJ:https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/olympics/she-killed-115-people-before-the-last-korean-olympics-now-she-wonders-can-my-sins-be-pardoned/2018/02/05/ae51588c-0a31-11e8-8890-372e2047c935_story.html+&cd=18&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us (25 February 2018)

“As dangerous as a nuclear-armed North Korea is, it pales in comparison to the danger of a nuclear-armed Iran. A nuclear-armed Iran in the Middle East wouldn't be another North Korea. It would be another 50 North Koreas.”

Benjamín Netanyahu (1949) Israeli prime minister

Address to the United Nations General Assembly https://archive.is/hZjh9#selection-723.6-723.114 (1 October 2013).
2010s, 2013

“For most North Koreans the state equals the race, equals the country. This is where the North has been so much more successful than what I call the "Unloved Republic" of South Korea.”

Brian Reynolds Myers (1963) American professor of international studies

There, as in Weimar Germany, the state is seen as having betrayed the race. When Moon Jae-in looks back on the history of the ROK he holds up only the anti-state riots and protests as high points.
2010s, Interview with Joshua Stanton (August 2017)

“Seoul doesn't have the will to "De-Kim Il Sungify" North Korea.”

Brian Reynolds Myers (1963) American professor of international studies

As quoted in "The Uses and Misuses of Ideology" https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.dailynk.com/english/read.php?cataId=nk00100&num=8158 (8 September 2011), by Chris Green, The Daily NK
2010s

“North Korea is looking more and more like a poor man's version of South Korea.”

Brian Reynolds Myers (1963) American professor of international studies

2010s, Interview with Colin Marshall (February 2015)

“North Korea cannot survive forever on the public perception of state legitimacy alone. The more it loses its economic distinctiveness vis-à-vis the rival state, the more the Kim regime must compensate with triumphs on the military and nuclear fronts. Another act of aggression against the Republic of Korea may well take place in the months ahead, not only to divert North Korean public attention from the failures of the consumer-oriented 'Strong and Prosperous Country' campaign, but also to strengthen the appeasement-minded South Korean opposition in the run-up to the presidential election in 2012.”

Brian Reynolds Myers (1963) American professor of international studies

2010s, North Korea's State Loyalty Advantage (December 2011)

“We are entering a world of rapidly multiplying nuclear stand-offs like this. India vs Pakistan. Iran vs Israel. America vs. China. Within decades, North Korea vs Japan and South Korea. Not one Cold War, but many — and the risk is doubled each time.”

Johann Hari (1979) British journalist

How the world's hot-spots are turning into Cold Wars..., JohannHari.com, July 27, 2006, 2007-01-26 http://www.johannhari.com/archive/article.php?id=645,

“If Iran's work on advanced centrifuges, faster and faster centrifuges, is not stopped, that break-out time could still be shorter, a lot shorter. True, certain restrictions would be imposed on Iran's nuclear program and Iran's adherence to those restrictions would be supervised by international inspectors. But here's the problem. You see, inspectors document violations; they don't stop them. Inspectors knew when North Korea broke to the bomb, but that didn't stop anything. North Korea turned off the cameras, kicked out the inspectors. Within a few years, it got the bomb. Now, we're warned that within five years North Korea could have an arsenal of 100 nuclear bombs. Like North Korea, Iran, too, has defied international inspectors. It's done that on at least three separate occasions; 2005, 2006, 2010. Like North Korea, Iran broke the locks, shut off the cameras.”

Benjamín Netanyahu (1949) Israeli prime minister

2010s, 2015, Address to the United States Congress (March 2015)

“[I]n a confederation the South must accept the ultra-nationalist Kim Il Sung cult, whereas the North must acknowledge only the South’s superior prosperity and technology — and one of the main goals of confederation is to eliminate that gap as rapidly as possible. (It will be as much a matter of pulling the South down as the North up.)”

Brian Reynolds Myers (1963) American professor of international studies

2010s, "Heaven is Helping Us": More from the Nationalist Left (August 2018)

“The great famine of 1994-98 was to a large extent the inviolable result of the policies that Kim Il Sung had pursued for decades. The famine was brought about by Kim Il Sung’s fanatical belief in a hyper-centralized, state-managed agriculture, as well as an excessive reliance on (unacknowledged) foreign aid, not to mention militarization run amok. However, if the mine was planted (unintentionally, of course) by Kim Il Sung, it went off under the rule of his son. Hence, most North Koreans blame Kim Jong Il, rather than his father, for the economic disasters of the 1990s.”

Andrei Lankov (1963) Russian academic

Kim Jong Un's Popularity, Explained (September 2015)

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Brian Reynolds Myers 149

Related quotes

Related topics