MoF 25: TO SALTED EARTH, THROUGH BURNING SKY
- Thread starter Krall
- Start date
In this world, Kim Jong Il felt his position as the heir apparent was stronger in OTL, and decided to open up slightly to the West and modern capitalism as urged by China. This culminated in a somewhat successful joint hosting of the 1988 Olympics by Seoul and Pyongyang. Relations became positive enough that North Korea was even removed from US nuclear targets in an effort.
Things were going swimmingly. Until, a hardline coup in the crumbling Soviet Union went spiralling out of control and a largely accidental nuclear war resulted. Though South Korea, China, Japan and the Soviet Union were all heavily hit, North Korea managed to sit the war through without any direct strikes. When the dust cleared, Pyongyang was the last standing government in East Asia.
The North Korean population, after being given a taste of the consumer goods and freedom of the West and then watching as it was all blown to hell became restive in the aftermath. Desperate to maintain control, Kim Jong Il took a sharp hardline shift back to the traditional Juche policies of isolation and self-sufficiency. That said, North Korea's economic policy of "just manage to survive while putting maximum resources into military and security forces" worked much better as a recipe for surviving a post-apocalyptic war world than it had in winning the Cold War.
All things told, the DPRK has been modest with its territorial expansion. The South was occupied relatively rapidly, as it's government had been for the most part decapitated by spiteful Soviet nuclear strikes and it's military severely demoralized. Gains made against China (which was a complete mess) were mostly of regions populated by ethnic Koreans and were later acknowledged by the ex-PLA warlords who rose in Manchuria.
Japan was a different story. Even though it had been largely laid waste by Chinese and Soviet nuclear strikes, Kim remained cautious of Japanese reorganization. Keeping Japan in separate pieces was seen as prudent. The JDPR is mostly run by locals with some oversight, while the horribly artificial state of Guju is run by ethnic-Koreans born in Japan and, through forced migration and re-education, is in the middle of a project to make the mostly Japanese population into Korean citizens. Saguk is officially on a 199 year lease from the JDPR, and sees DPRK security forces lording over a population of agricultural slaves.
The "Slav Trade and Settlement Zone" predates DPRK recognition of the Far East Republic ruling from Magadan, and was originally part of a project to create a Korean-dominated Russian state along the lines of Guju. This was quickly abandoned for racial reasons, and instead became a dumping ground for Caucasians living in former South Korean, Japanese and Chinese territories. This odd mix of Russian refugees from Vladivostok, American soldiers, English teachers and assorted oddballs exists under the malign neglect of DPRK security forces.
It is 2020, and Kim Jong Il's death saw the rise of his first son, Kim Jong Nam, to supreme power (with Tokyo Disneyland destroyed, he avoided embarrassing Pyongyang with his foreign trips and big mouth ITTL). This map was produced by a group of foreign DPRK supporters, and still depicts those regions still considered dangerous to enter due to radioactivity.
EDIT: A couple of spelling mistakes fixed
Things were going swimmingly. Until, a hardline coup in the crumbling Soviet Union went spiralling out of control and a largely accidental nuclear war resulted. Though South Korea, China, Japan and the Soviet Union were all heavily hit, North Korea managed to sit the war through without any direct strikes. When the dust cleared, Pyongyang was the last standing government in East Asia.
The North Korean population, after being given a taste of the consumer goods and freedom of the West and then watching as it was all blown to hell became restive in the aftermath. Desperate to maintain control, Kim Jong Il took a sharp hardline shift back to the traditional Juche policies of isolation and self-sufficiency. That said, North Korea's economic policy of "just manage to survive while putting maximum resources into military and security forces" worked much better as a recipe for surviving a post-apocalyptic war world than it had in winning the Cold War.
All things told, the DPRK has been modest with its territorial expansion. The South was occupied relatively rapidly, as it's government had been for the most part decapitated by spiteful Soviet nuclear strikes and it's military severely demoralized. Gains made against China (which was a complete mess) were mostly of regions populated by ethnic Koreans and were later acknowledged by the ex-PLA warlords who rose in Manchuria.
Japan was a different story. Even though it had been largely laid waste by Chinese and Soviet nuclear strikes, Kim remained cautious of Japanese reorganization. Keeping Japan in separate pieces was seen as prudent. The JDPR is mostly run by locals with some oversight, while the horribly artificial state of Guju is run by ethnic-Koreans born in Japan and, through forced migration and re-education, is in the middle of a project to make the mostly Japanese population into Korean citizens. Saguk is officially on a 199 year lease from the JDPR, and sees DPRK security forces lording over a population of agricultural slaves.
The "Slav Trade and Settlement Zone" predates DPRK recognition of the Far East Republic ruling from Magadan, and was originally part of a project to create a Korean-dominated Russian state along the lines of Guju. This was quickly abandoned for racial reasons, and instead became a dumping ground for Caucasians living in former South Korean, Japanese and Chinese territories. This odd mix of Russian refugees from Vladivostok, American soldiers, English teachers and assorted oddballs exists under the malign neglect of DPRK security forces.
It is 2020, and Kim Jong Il's death saw the rise of his first son, Kim Jong Nam, to supreme power (with Tokyo Disneyland destroyed, he avoided embarrassing Pyongyang with his foreign trips and big mouth ITTL). This map was produced by a group of foreign DPRK supporters, and still depicts those regions still considered dangerous to enter due to radioactivity.
EDIT: A couple of spelling mistakes fixed
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