Universidad Tecmilenio

Cultura global I

North Korea v. South Korea

Ana Cecilia Durán Melo 3096579

Diego Barreto Ortega

November 21st, 2023

Precedents 3

● Korean Peninsula Establishment. 4

● Japanese Invasion. 4

● World War II. 5

● The Forgotten War. 6

Korean War 7

● Socialism influence in North Korea. 8

● Capitalism influence in South Korea. 8

● Korean War development. 8

● Armistice between both Korean territories. 9

Nowadays 10

● Demilitarized zones. 11

● Negotiations between North Korea and South Korea. 11

References 13

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PRECEDENTS

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Korean Peninsula establishment.

For understanding the Korean War, like most other armed conflicts, we need to dig
deeper into how precedents affected and gave such an enormous influence.

In the 5th century Three Kingdoms were established; they were Goguryeo, Silla and
Baekje (The Three Han States). In 372, Goguryeo promulgated that Buddhism as a
code law around the kingdom and also a Confucian educational system was
introduced.

Later in the 11th century, Han States became officially unified in 936 under the name
‘Goryeo’. Something remarkable during this dynasty was that the name “Korea” has
its roots in this period.

Finally, in the 15th century, because of internal power problems, the Goryeo period
went on to be known as ‘Joseon’. During this period, King Sejong, in 1443, created
‘Hangul’ (Korean Alphabet); science and technology developed fastly and ceramic
was on top in handcraft skill development.

Japanese Invasion.

During the 14th and 15th Japan and Joseon maintained good political relationships,
but, in the 16th century, Japan requested Joseon to have a longer shared bilateral
trade; nevertheless, Joseon rejected this. In consequence, in 1592, Japan invaded
Joseon using around 200,000 troops. Japan, even after having a war within Joseon
for about seven years (‘Imjin War’), ruled the almost fully vanished Joseon dynasty.

The Japanese, in 1875, forced Joseon to keep their commercial doors open for the
western-side trades, and to reach this, they bombed Ganghwado and Yeongjongdo
islands. But, in 1897, Joseon changed its name to ‘Korean Empire’ and tried to push
away Japanese reforms and the door-opened treads.

Nevertheless, the Japanese Empire became a strong power in all Northern Asia
territory and made Joseon’s last emperor, Sunjong, to sign a treaty which gave the
country’s power to them leading, in 1910, the Korean Empire being annexed, as a
colony, to the Japanese Empire.

In the middle of this reign, Japanese banned the use of Hangul, destroyed many
Joseon dynasty books, obligated Koreans to change their personal names into
Japanese style surnames, put them into the work force and send many of them, as
their uniformed soldiers, to the Pacific War.

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Japanese colonial ideology was based on three big top channels: production, brute
force and economic. Basically, Japan made Korea their capitalist and production
machine, and argued that Korea was below them, in evolutionary social terms.

Only during the first year of the annexation, they captured, tortured and imprisoned
700 Korean opponents to the new country rule. But this does not block Koreans from
imagining and put in track many independence plans and ideologies.

In the 20’s, all the imposed economic policies and brute force worked together to
maintain Japan dominance. By the time, two Korean social groups were formed and
surged class tension: on one side ‘Korean landlords’ (nacionalist cause) and on the
other ‘Korean tenants’ (radical socialists).

World War II.

The Japanese Empire obligated many Korean men to enlist as japanese soldiers
who died unfairly and defending a country that oppressed them. In the same way, a
lot of Korean young women were misled and the Japanese army took and became
them ‘comfort women’ (sexual labor women). As it was common, many women,
during war times, stayed at home and needed to find work to sustain their family to
prevent poverty, and lots of fake industrial work vacants were made to attract these
women.

The past three big top channels on Japanese reign commented, saw their finale
during World War II, when production and economy failed causing that brute force
would no longer be able to control and silence Korean independence aspirations.

When World War II ended in 1945, on August 6th the United States bombed
Hiroshima, and one day later the Soviet Union, with the United States, declared war
to Japan because they wanted to end its influence. It wasn't enough and on August
9th, the United States bombed Japan again, but this time in Nagasaki city.

With the bombs in the Japanese cities and the pressure from the Soviet Union and
the United States, Korea regained freedom.

Late September 8th, the Soviet Union invaded the northern part of Korea as a war
strategy to deploy the Japanese troops away from the Korean Empire territory and
end Japan's influence. Even a small group of volunteer young Korean men was
established, in Chungqing, to fight against the Japanese army, known as ‘Korea
Liberation Army’.

As the United States didn’t agree with the Soviets about taking control of half Korean
territory, between nations, each one decided to keep half of the land and established
a 38th parallel; Socialists with the north part and Capitalists with the south part.

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Korean Independence Day was celebrated on September, 15th, when 198
congressmen at the UN declared the constitution.

The Forgotten War.

As they previously established the parallel between territories, both North and South
decided to elect a president. On May 10th, 1948, under UN’s supervision, South
Korea had elected Rhee Syung-man as President and Yi Si-yeong as Vice
President. It was formally created the ‘Republic of Korea’ regulated by a liberal
democracy, and the UN recognised it as the only legitimate government of the
Korean Peninsula.

On September 9th, 1948, as North Korea had Soviet influence, this territory
proclaimed itself communist under the name of ‘Democratic People’s Republic of
Korea’ in which Kim Il Sung was put as the country's first leader.

Later, the Soviet government began to build up military strength on their side, while
proposing that all foreign military forces should be withdrawn by early 1948. The US
didn’t withdraw until 1949, leaving the South Korean army with only 500 military
advisors.

In the meantime, both territories troops dug in on the 38th parallel, in order that they
could trade shots. However, on June 25 the North Korean army crossed the parallel,
pushing back any resistance from their counterpart.

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KOREAN WAR

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Socialism influence in North Korea.

With Kim II-Sung in power, he began to eliminate those south-korean communist

Later, the dictatorship implemented a caste system which led a massive purge of the
country resulting in a social classification, when the authorities began to search and
differentiate citizens in ‘friends or foe’.

They started to regulate state media and the internal security agencies came up
around the northern part.

The US Navy provided assistance to land operations. They gave support to air
combat operations to interrupt supplies from the Socialist army. As they also
provided platforms for coastal operations, leading later to the Incheon invasion.

Capitalism influence in South Korea.

As North Korea had been influenced by the Soviet Union, South Korea has been by
its side the United States. From them, they took their capitalism ideology and started
to implement it in the newly formed country.

However, in the very early years, South Korea became one of the poorest countries
around the world, but the devastating circumstances did not make South Koreans
lose their aspirational freedom.

In 1960, President Rhee Syung-man forced his authoritarian rule and many young
students protested on the streets resulting in the April 19th revolution where many
South Koreans were murdered by the police. After that event, Rhee Syung-man left
the country and a cabinet system within a bicameral National Assembly was
introduced into the country and it set up a liberal democracy.

During the next years, economic plans achieved an increment in the commercial
growth by using exportation policies. This was called the ‘Miracle on the Hangang
River’. Transforming South Korea into a potential new economical power.

Korean War development.

Kim Il Sung wanted to unify both Koreas into one.

As North Korean forces pushed South Koreans to the Pusan Peninsula. The
Socialists invaded their capital, Seoul, after Syung-man escaped to Busan. The

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Americans, in order to break out, sent General Douglas MacArthur, a commander in
Chief of the UN.

McArthur conceived a plan to encircle North Koreans by making an invasion at

The South Korean army led their troops to invade almost the whole North part.
However, after Incheon invasion, Mao Tse Tung, Chinese leader, joined the war on
the socialists side. Allowing their forces to strike back South Korea.

A year later, in January, the Chinese and North Korea forces alliance pushed the UN
forces back below the parallel. The war had offensive and counter offensive, as the
Chinese wanted to destroy the allied army. But then, Mao Tse Tung abandoned
forces as they weren’t enough to attack.

Both Korean territories attempted to make peace negotiations but then broke off.

Armistice between both Korean territories.

It took more than two years to negotiate, because of three main issues, such as the
communists interest in the withdrawal of foreign forces form the Korean peninsula,
the line division establishment and the repartition of war prisoners.

As a fact, the third issue was the most difficult to solve because North Korea kept
around 5,300 prisoners. Both sides agreed to funnel them through a Neutral Nations
Commission for Repatriation. Which let each prisoner decide where they wanted to
go.

Finally, North and South Korea agreed in July, 1953. They signed the armistice at the
“Peace tent” located in Panmunjom.

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NOWADAYS

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Demilitarized Zone

It was created by pulling back both military forces 1.2 miles along each side of the
line. It runs across the peninsula for about 150 miles, from Han River to Kǒsong.

Over the years, there have been incidents, such as an American patrol ambush in
November, 1966 near the DMZ, or the assassination of Park Chung-Hee attempt
from North Korean 31-man commando.

Talking about this incident, days later, a North Korean patrol captured the USS
Pueblo (US Navy intelligence ship). The US and South Korea responded by
increasing contraguerrilla patrols along the DMZ; South Korea built an anti-infiltration
fence that ran the length of the demilitarized zone.

Tensions escalated again in August 1976, due to a poplar tree that obstructed the
view between a UN observation post and a UN guard house (Checkpoint 3) at the
Bridge of No Return making it easy for North Korean troops to kidnap UN and South
Korean ones. In order to guarantee safety for UN forces, they launched Operation
Paul Bunyan and the poplar tree was trimmed.

The demilitarized zone contains many ecosystems, such as forests, wetlands and
estuaries usually visited by migratory birds. It serves as a sanctuary for endangered
species.

During 2007, the limited freight-train service was operated across the zone, but a
year after, it was suspended because a South Korean tourist was shot and killed by
North Korean border guards.

Negotiations between North and South Korea

Negotiations between both Koreas started in the 80’s.

On February 25th, 1988, South Korean President Roh Tae-woo established

Later in the 2000’s, during the administration of South Korean President Kim
Young-sam, both leaders of the two countries reunited in North Korea capital,
Pyongyang, and agreed the ‘Sunshine Policy’ in which they reunited families; the
connection of the Gyeongi and Donghae railroads and an economic growth.

On October 4th, 2007, again each leader of both Koreas and The United States had
a reunion in Pyongyang.

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One year later, President Lee Myung-bak, with North Korea’s leader, set up a global
South-North Economic Community.

Finally, in 2017, President Moon Jae-in talked about a unified Korean Peninsula
where authoritarian culture would be eradicated and a well-formed democracy for
future generations.

However, in recent years, North Korea has been experimenting with nuclear
technology and attempting to have its own spy satellites over the South Korea air
territory.

Both countries are in an actual war that keeps going for around 73 years; each one
has their military and weapons that are being renovated constantly. There are
reports that South Korea lately has been doing citizen drills if at any time North
Korea launched a bomb under Seoul.

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References.

Remembering the Forgotten War: Korea. (s. f.). Naval History and Heritage Command. Recuperado 20 de noviembre de

2023, de

https://www.history.navy.mil/our-collections/art/travelling-exhibits/remembering-the-forgotten-war-korea-1950-19

53.html

Yi Wei. (2019). Japanese Colonial Ideology in Korea (1905-1945). The Yale Review of International Studies. Recuperado

20 de noviembre de 2023, de http://.yira.org/essays/3523

THE BEGINNING OF THE COUNTRY'S HISTORY. (s.f.). Korean Cultural Center NY. Recuperado 20 de noviembre de

2023, de https://www.koreanculture.org/korea-information-history

BBC News. (2015, 9 octubre). The strange history of North Korea’s communists. BBC News. Recuperado 20 de noviembre

de 2023, de https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-34472080

Liry Onni. (2020, 26 junio).¿Por qué COREA está DIVIDIDA? La VERDADERA historia de la GUERRA de COREA

[Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dag0cSbiEp8&t=1s

Millett, A. R. (2023, 19 noviembre). Korean War | Combatants, Summary, Years, Map, Casualties, & Facts. Encyclopedia

Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/event/Korean-War

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