Wikistrat post: Fareed Zakaria's GPS blog at CNN World

China eyes North Korea's minerals; what's next?

Editor’s Note: The following piece, exclusive to GPS, comes from Wikistrat, the world's first massively multiplayer online consultancy.  It leverages a global network of subject-matter experts via a patent pending crowd-sourcing methodology to provide unique insights.

Reuters reported that North Korea’s government will shift – for now – to rule by committee instead of by an all-powerful leader.  Most likely, a factional truce was worked out in advance of Kim Jong-il’s death.

Read the entire post at Fareed Zakaria's GPS blog at CNN's Global Public Square.

Here's the voting totals (by readers) as of 1506EST Tuesday:

 

 

Comments

[David Emery]

What if South Korea tried to bid against China for some of those resources?

[Volpone]

I have just discovered this Blog! Where have you been hiding? Great reading. Am I wrong to think that N. Korea is going to be more of the same, whether ruled by committee or by fearless leader, even one who was a child genius in the writing of symphonies?

[Ralf Ostner]

What is missing in this analysis is the geostrategic importance of Northkorea as a buffer state for China.Korea in history was the entrance gate for foreign invaders,especially Japan.
This explains why the Chinese invaded during the Korean war in Korea against the USA. China also doesn´t want to see a unified Korea at ist door gate as military base for the USA. It´s not just the minerals which are on the top priority list, but also the geostratgic military interest of the PLA in Northkorea.Therefore I think it is unlikely that China will leave Northkorea as a burned-out canvass after it exploited all the minerals (this can last longer--do you have any numbers on the potential mineral desposits and a date when they are exploited and exhausted).