Eh, east germany regularly reappears as a unrelenting prussian reencarnation every election. That cultural divide is realkly deep.

The generation with family ties to the North is dead or dying. The younger generation cares only because their parents did. The newest kids won't even give a fuck. North Korean and South Korean is like a Mexican speaking with a Spaniard. You say you laugh at 'North Korea' in the west, but I would probably argue the closest to the West you have come is Vladivostok