ABSTRACT
Everyone knows that as a state as well as a former model of self-reliant development North Korea is already doomed. Any direct confrontation with South Korean economic and political challenges would inevitably result in a sudden collapse and demise of both North Korea's political and social systems - the economy obviously already is in agony, the people are starving.( 1 ) The latter facts can be seen by those who have visited the country. The author had the opportunity to visit North Korea in 1989 as a member of a German business delegation, and even then the general impression of daily life was rather depressing although the food situation was much better than today. Also, the author had various opportunities to talk to North Korean functionaries since the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) has kept open her former embassy in the now defunct GDR, East Berlin. It has been transformed into the Bureau for the Protection of the Interests of the DPRK under the umbrella of the embassy of the People's Republic of China, while Germany has a representative in Pyongyang operating under the protective power of the embassy of Sweden. Members of the North Korean bureau visit rather regularly the Hamburg Institute of Asian Affairs which is loosely connected with the German Foreign Ministry (and of which the author is a fellow) to have informal talks, mostly on economic relations; the last high-ranking visitor in March 1997 has been the deputy foreign minister of the DPRK.
