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Comment by tooltalk | Hacker News Reader

unification with the North, which has higher birth rate (1.9) than the South (1.1)?

Why does the north have such a low birth rate? I thought this was a phenomena exhibited by women's rights/education and increase in wealth. All of which the north lacks.

Don't women have equal rights in the North? Almost all other Communist states did this right, despite their many other flaws.

On paper (in law) and in national policy, women's rights advanced a lot faster than South Korea (for example, in inheritance and marriage/divorce laws.) In practice, although it is hard to know extensively because of the secrecy of the nation, it's studied that there are still some economical/cultural inequalities (although North Korea's human rights for both sexes isn't isn't really a thing to show off overall...)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_North_Korea

Well, I wouldn't be completely surprised. In dictatorships there's the official doctrine and there's "do whatever the dictator tells us to do".

Many of the recent advances in human rights are from people protesting, convincing other people that their plight is real, and slowly turning the tide.

In dictatorships this doesn't happen for obvious reasons so social progress can be frozen by 1 person or maybe a 1 group for decade after decade.

Similar story from Romania, where I'm from. Not necessarily with women's rights, but with other kinds of human rights.

How would that work? The South isn't going to submit to Kim Jong-un, and he isn't going to give up power.

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