The first proposition is that palpable, locally-experienced improvements in living conditions resulting from a doubling of North Korea’s GDP are more likely to affect the actions and behavior of North Korea’s population than the more remote and impalpable level of living and income prevailing in the South. The second proposition is that the
ingrained and conditioned insularity of the North’s population may predispose it to avoid the risks of migrating to the South and instead to prefer remaining in the North provided that conditions continue to improve there along with a more liberalized and open social and political environment