The tragedy of Korea is that no one really wishes to change the status quo: China wants to keep North Korea as a buffer state, and fears millions of refugees in the event of a North Korean collapse; the South Koreans could never afford to absorb North Korea in the way that West Germany absorbed the broken German Democratic Republic; and neither Japan nor the US would relish paying to clean up after a North Korean implosion, either.
朝鲜的悲剧在于，没人真的希望改变现状：中国希望朝鲜继续充当缓冲国，也担心朝鲜一旦崩溃会有数百万难民涌入；韩国绝不可能像西德吸收崩溃的民主德国那样吸收朝鲜，它负担不起；而日本和美国也不愿意掏钱收拾朝鲜崩溃留下的残局。