Feeding the wolf so he doesn't eat the sheep.

Kind of but not really.
The chances of North Korea actually winning a war against the South is pretty darn slim at this point.
The problem arises when North Korea LOSES. South Korea needs to rebuild North Korea which will strain the economy like crazy. South Korea can't afford to rebuild North Korea and still maintain its economic growth. So in other words, South Korea's government doesn't want reunification. That's why we're stopping them from collapsing. Reunification, and even perhaps a short war, will be too expensive.

Is it worse than the hit that West Germany took when they reunified?

I don't know the details but I would imagine that it could be worse.
If we have a war before unification, then we would have a situation FAR worse than Germany had.
Even without it, we don't have an economy the size of Germany's and I can't see North Korea's current state any better than East Germany was back when they got unified. Right now what we have in North Korea is a humanitarian catastrophe.
Yeah, I'd say it's going to be far worse.

I don't get why China is 4th and India is 2nd? China's military buildup is all over the news. Its military budget for 2007, jumped 17.8%. And its been climbing for 18 consecutive years. US Department of defense estimates China's real military budget is 90 billion US dollars and climbing.

This is what Donald Rumsfeld had to say in 2005
http://video.msn.com/v/us/msnbc.htm?.../8091198/ET&fg=

Originally Posted by Red_Army

I don't get why China is 4th and India is 2nd?

I'd be willing to venture its based on a couple things.

1) Quality of equipment being bought rather than quantity

2) Quality of troops and their training

Originally Posted by bulldogg

I'd be willing to venture its based on a couple things.

1) Quality of equipment being bought rather than quantity

2) Quality of troops and their training

But China's defense spending is 3X as high as India's. How do you know China's equipment is not better than India's?

First hand knowledge mate.