Wonders about new university life! >.<

in my view taiwan is an example to china of how some sort of market/capitalist economy has worked, along with HK and many of NICs, hence China's major reforms towards some some of market economy in recent times.

however both sides the US [and the EU] do not want to upset China because of its growing economic and trade relations as it is a quite big market. [i beleive the dalai lama paid a visit to the UK a couple of weeks ago, which coincided with the Chinese PM's visit and i beleive blair didnt say "hello" to the dalai lama because of "diary pressures"...ok thats rather cynical] and probably vice versa because of, as already stated China wanting to become more market orientated and also China has nothing really to gain from trying to regain Taiwan by force.

in saying that china's view taiwan is part of china and that they were a bit pissed when the US gave arms to taiwan.

Tbh, dont really know much about it, and these r just my limited opinions.

hmmm all i wanted to do was learn chinese.

ps. as far as i know im the only one from my skool to have been accepted by LSE

China is going to be a huge market, rivalling that of the US within around 35 years time. Obviously, the largest rewards will be for those countries that get in there early. The prospect of trade is always the best way to avoid war, as countries see the economic loss they stand to incur. I think increased trade between the Koreas would help matters greatly.

I havent applied to LSE yet, but I'm going to apply for Economics for admission in 2005. It's just so competitive, I doubt I stand a chance.

The best way for the Koreas to trade would to set up an enterprise zone somewhere near the DMZ. Unfortunatly, as you noted, North Korea is hardly a bastion of stability and entrepreunerial spirirt! However, the North has adopted the euro as it's main currency, having ditched the dollar back in 2002, so there wouldn't be a huge currency problem.
As for LSE, no I won't be taking a gap year, as I'm still in year 12. Is that what you're planning on doing? It's not so much about hard work to be honest, because I'm pretty sure I can get the grades needed for Economics, but even with 5 A's people are rejected year after year.

"time/learning effect to establish comparative adv.and etc are all problems that N. Korea need to solve before she can engage in int'l trade. The path-way,time of transition matters."

i think what n korea needs to sort out first before anything is reform of its authoritarian political, central planned economic and foreign policy. it has remained firmly rooted in its communist ethos and as a consequence relies heavily on food aid and its a very poor economy. only until these reforms are made can it start thinking about enterprise zones, comparative advantages
and trade. as the government atm is reluctant to any reform, any outsiders and thus trade and enterprise zones are a distant policy. maybe with china's economic reforms and the benefits it may experience will show n korea that reform is need.

secondly, there are too many examples of international institutions that have hindered growth because of their intervention and "one size fits all policies" the obvious example is during the east asia crisis. altho i think the absence of rationing of exchange rate is absence because it is usually implemented when countries are in transition and n korea seems far from that.