Ellsworth

North Korea would likely have a far more difficult time reunifying with South Korea, than East Germany did reunifying with West Germany.

Here's the tale of the tape:

North Korean man: 5 ft 5 in
North Korean woman: 5 ft 1 in

South Korean man: 5 ft 9 in
South Korean woman: 5 ft 4 in

East German man: 5 feet 10 inches*
East German woman: 5 feet 5.43 inches*

West German man: 5' 10.98"**
West German woman: 5 feet 5.43"**

In West Germany, it would have been hard to spot an East German by height.
In South Korea it would be easy to spot a North Korean by height.

In regards to average life expectancy:
North Korea versus South Korea: Approx a 8-10 year difference
East Germany versus West Germany: Approx a 2-3 year difference.

Those extra years matter a lot. Both the height difference and life expectancy difference is an expression of resource availability, health care access, quality of life, childhood / adult trauma, social stability / instability, et cetera.

That's the tale of the tape.
And it has some major implications on ease of reunification. Boil it down and most likely... the larger the differences in height and lifespan, the harder the reunification.

This post is meant to pair with my other blog post, An Environmental Justification for Isolationism.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Averag...ght_by_country
" Social status and adult heights in the two Germanies"
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12573080/
https://www.researchgate.net/publica..._two_Germanies

*Google auto suggest answer / generative AI. Difficult data to find.
**1990, Google auto suggest answer / generative AI.

This was difficult data to find, when I searched today. When I researched the topic years ago I did not have to rely on generative AI, it was much easier find some sources. East and West Germany... it's particularly hard to find a straight answer. Narrowing the search to 1990 helped (immediately after the fall of the wall). Finding data on East German military recruits seemed easiest, but that seemed to be data for males only, and that is a narrow cohort.