>this also raises the question why dictators in the north were not able to do the same Because communism doesn't scale, doesn't really work past the stage of m

>this also raises the question why dictators in the north were not able to do the same Because communism doesn't scale, doesn't really work past the stage of moving farmers into factories, and can only be implemented via punishing human rights violations that keep people from asserting their basic rights of property, prosperity, petitioning the government, changing leadership, etc. A South Korean "strongman" is pretty weak sauce compared to a communist strongman. Chung-hee held back democratic reforms and was an autocrat. The Jong-un dynasty has sent tens of millions of people to starvation, labor, and death camps, including children, mostly for political reasons. These things are not remotely comparable.