Not sure if we deal with stuff like this here, but let's say that, in this scenario, the entirety of present-day Korea, along with all its infrastructure and the people residing there, gets ISOTed back in time to the same day in 1940. What would happen next- how would the ISOTed Koreans (and any other foreign nationals, incl. the 28,500 American soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines stationed in South Korea, and the unknown number of PRC troops stationed in North Korea) react to the situation, how would the respective 'downtimers' react to their arrival from the distant future (particularly the Imperial Japanese, the Soviet Union and the various Chinese leaders, incl. Chiang Kai-shek, Mao Zedong and Wang Jingwei), and how radically differently would you envision WW2 progressing ITTL?
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WI: Present-day Korea (South and North) ISOTed back to 1940?
- Thread starter SinghSong
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Yossarian
a man whose allegiance is ruled by expedience
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Well, North Korea is now the world's sole nuclear-armed nation, so that'll go about as well as you'd expect. A not-inconsiderable chance of Tokyo receiving a bucket of instant sunshine in short order, particularly if they do something stupid once they realise they've lost their main colonial holding (stupidity seems distressingly likely under the Taisei Yokusankai, which probably makes the Kims look level-headed and reasonable). Expect the Kwantung Army to get some unpleasant surprises in its backyard.
The Kim-Stalin interactions will be interesting, as will those between Kim Jong-Un and the young Kim Il-Sung (who is, after all, still Eternal President; there's a fun question of order of precedence for you).
Assuming the Norks don't try anything with South Korea (on the one hand, they've got a use-it-or-lose-it nuclear advantage; on the other, between the South, the uptime Americans, and downtime Japan and the US, it'd be suicide in the medium-term [1]), there's going to be an interesting exchange between the uptime and downtime Americans. US Forces Korea doesn't have nukes based in the Peninsula, but there's probably sufficient technical knowledge between USFK and the South to give the Manhattan Project a kick in the pants.
The real geopolitical question mark, beyond the consequences Japan going ballistic over the loss of the Peninsula, is going to be how this squares with the Neutrality Acts and the general lack of appetite for war. Assuming USFK recognises the downtime US government as the lawful source of authority, their hands are probably tied unless the North does aforementioned Very Silly Things.
[1] Open question of whether the North, who by all accounts aren't doing well with the closure of black market food sources IOTL 2020-21, bargain a truce with the South to focus on feeding themselves. If they were too clever by half, they could still maintain their long-term security by putting the rest of the world in the position it had been subject to uptime, re: "be good and don't get the Bomb, or we'll use ours on you".
The Kim-Stalin interactions will be interesting, as will those between Kim Jong-Un and the young Kim Il-Sung (who is, after all, still Eternal President; there's a fun question of order of precedence for you).
Assuming the Norks don't try anything with South Korea (on the one hand, they've got a use-it-or-lose-it nuclear advantage; on the other, between the South, the uptime Americans, and downtime Japan and the US, it'd be suicide in the medium-term [1]), there's going to be an interesting exchange between the uptime and downtime Americans. US Forces Korea doesn't have nukes based in the Peninsula, but there's probably sufficient technical knowledge between USFK and the South to give the Manhattan Project a kick in the pants.
The real geopolitical question mark, beyond the consequences Japan going ballistic over the loss of the Peninsula, is going to be how this squares with the Neutrality Acts and the general lack of appetite for war. Assuming USFK recognises the downtime US government as the lawful source of authority, their hands are probably tied unless the North does aforementioned Very Silly Things.
[1] Open question of whether the North, who by all accounts aren't doing well with the closure of black market food sources IOTL 2020-21, bargain a truce with the South to focus on feeding themselves. If they were too clever by half, they could still maintain their long-term security by putting the rest of the world in the position it had been subject to uptime, re: "be good and don't get the Bomb, or we'll use ours on you".
South Korea doesn't have Nuclear Weapons, but it does have its own Ballistic Missile program. How much orbital infrastructure is being ISOTed along with the Koreas? Many PGMs will be impossible to use without GPS.
[1] Open question of whether the North, who by all accounts aren't doing well with the closure of black market food sources IOTL 2020-21, bargain a truce with the South to focus on feeding themselves. If they were too clever by half, they could still maintain their long-term security by putting the rest of the world in the position it had been subject to uptime, re: "be good and don't get the Bomb, or we'll use ours on you".
They can also get the soviets to send them shit in exchange for the bomb, which should help.
Stalin is probably going to be willing to sell half the country for the ability to nuke the Nazi.
Yossarian
a man whose allegiance is ruled by expedience
- Location
- surrounded by Treasury Brians
- Pronouns
- He/him/his
Said exchange presumably coming with a lot of strings attached; the KPA would need to accompany and deploy the warhead(s) in question, and good luck getting them to share details of how it works. This also presupposes that a) NK uses the bomb (either against uptime SK or downtime Japan), b) that's enough to one-hit-kill the power that historically considered slogging on after two nuclear attacks, and c) that the same kind of existential horror results and a nuclear taboo develops. Expect things to go very sideways if the downtimers adapt to the Bomb as merely another weapon for use in war.They can also get the soviets to send them shit in exchange for the bomb, which should help.
Stalin is probably going to be willing to sell half the country for the ability to nuke the Nazi.
Also worth noting that this is still 1940, the Soviets are getting themselves together after the Purges, and Stalin isn't a gambler unless the odds are well in his favour. Ivan won't be climbing the Reichstag for at least a couple of years.
Depending what day in 2020/1940 we're looking at, and whether USFK or the South Koreans are willing to perform a targeted assassination on Literally Hitler, Europe could go any number of ways.
A quid pro quo to keep yourself from starving is one thing, but the fraternal brotherhood of nations doesn't count for much against the juicy prospect of being the world's sole nuclear state. Considering how happy Pyongyang has been to hold NE Asia hostage in exchange for concessions, why not extend the scope a little?
Said exchange presumably coming with a lot of strings attached; the KPA would need to accompany and deploy the warhead(s) in question, and good luck getting them to share details of how it works. This also presupposes that a) NK uses the bomb (either against uptime SK or downtime Japan), b) that's enough to one-hit-kill the power that historically considered slogging on after two nuclear attacks, and c) that the same kind of existential horror results and a nuclear taboo develops. Expect things to go very sideways if the downtimers adapt to the Bomb as merely another weapon for use in war.
Also worth noting that this is still 1940, the Soviets are getting themselves together after the Purges, and Stalin isn't a gambler unless the odds are well in his favour. Ivan won't be climbing the Reichstag for at least a couple of years.
Depending what day in 2020/1940 we're looking at, and whether USFK or the South Koreans are willing to perform a targeted assassination on Literally Hitler, Europe could go any number of ways.
A quid pro quo to keep yourself from starving is one thing, but the fraternal brotherhood of nations doesn't count for much against the juicy prospect of being the world's sole nuclear state. Considering how happy Pyongyang has been to hold NE Asia hostage in exchange for concessions, why not extend the scope a little?
Oh they'd probably deploy it for whoever build it rather than let them build their own, of course.
Yossarian
a man whose allegiance is ruled by expedience
- Location
- surrounded by Treasury Brians
- Pronouns
- He/him/his
Really, I'd imagine that North Korea- or South Korea, for that matter- could get a nice whack of material support from Moscow just for the information they'd be able to provide on German military capabilities. Hell, most uptime bookshops will have material freely available for civilians on things the downtime OKW would probably rather nobody knew.Oh they'd probably deploy it for whoever build it rather than let them build their own, of course.
Come to think of it, the downtime espionage game will get very interesting very fast once certain details are made known.