The Divided Korean Peninsula

In the West, interest about Korea is often limited to its unnatural division and the peculiar regime in the North of the Peninsula. However, its culture is rich, its history a thousand years-old, its land populous, and its economy spectacularly growing. How is it possible that such a country, a key figure in the recent history of Asia would only call to mind advanced technology or nuclear threat? This book is drawn from the personal experiences of the author, who lived in South Korea and experienced it two different times, in 2000 and 2010, and had the possibility of going back in 2017. In all his time there, he tasted all the characteristics, the contradictions, merits and defects of this halved and impenetrable country.

Why was Korea separated? Why have the Koreans been unable to overcome the line of demarcation separating them over the last 60 years? Why did the Korean War break out? Many scholars studying contemporary Korean history have been conducting a detailed analysis of these very subjects. Traditionalists tend to place blame on the Communist Bloc, including Soviet Russia, while revisionists see the responsibility lying with United States anticommunist imperialism. Throughout this controversial process, Korean scholars have been neglectful of a self in dealing with these issues. Basedon historicism, this book considers at its core a series of tragic Korean historical events as civil or internal conflicts and aims to reflect on Koreas own historical mistakes and errors. In this respect, this study can be categorized as being rerevisionist. This book was written with the conviction that the Korean Peninsula was not divided by other, external powers but separated from within.

What history, pop culture, and diaspora can teach us about North and South Korea today. Korea is one of the last divided countries in the world. Twins born of the Cold War, one is vilified as an isolated, impoverished, time-warped state with an abysmal human rights record and a reclusive leader who perennially threatens global security with his clandestine nuclear weapons program. The other is lauded as a thriving democratic and capitalist state with the thirteenth largest economy in the world and a model for developing countries to emulate. In The Koreas, Theodore Jun Yoo provides a compelling gateway to understanding the divergent developments of contemporary North and South Korea. In contrast to standard histories, Yoo examines the unique qualities of the Korean diaspora experience, challenging the master narratives of national culture, homogeneity, belongingness, and identity. This book draws from the latest research to present a decidedly demythologized history, with chapters focusing on feature stories that capture the key issues of the day as they affect popular culture and everyday life. The Koreas will be indispensable to any historian, armchair or otherwise, in need of a discerning and reliable guide to the region.

This book analyzes the cost of division that the four powers must bear as well as the benefits of nification they will acquire. There has been much research on the same topic, but mostly done from the perspective of Korean scholars. However, this book provides perspectives of scholars from each of the four states as well as Asia-Pacific region. This book is part of an ongoing effort by KINU to strengthen South Korea’s unification diplomacy. This book is divided into 10 chapters. Chapter 1-8 analyze the cost of division and the benefits of unification from the security and economic perspective of the United States, Japan, China, and Russia. Chapter 9 and 10 look at the bigger picture by discussing the division cost and benefits of unification from the standpoint of the Asia-Pacific region as a whole. Based on the analyses of the chapters, the conclusion chapter examines the similarities and differences of the division cost that the four powers must bear as well as the benefits they will obtain. Introduction The Costs of Division and the Benefits of Unification for the Four Northeast Asian Powers/ Kook-Shin Kim, Jae-Jeok Park Chapter 1 The Costs of Korean Division and the Benefits of Korean Unification for U.S. National Security/ Kongdan Katy Oh Chapter 2 Economic Implications for the United States of the Divided Korean Peninsula/ William B. Brown Chapter 3 Korean Peninsula Division/Unification and China : From the Security Perspective of China/ Ming Liu Chapter 4 Korean Peninsula Division/Unification and China : From the Economic Perspective of China/ Jiyoung Zheng,Jianzhong Jiang Chapter 5 Korean Peninsula Division/Unification : From the Security Perspective of Japan/ Tomohiko Satake Chapter 6 Costs and Benefits of Korean Unification for Japan : Political and Economic Perspectives/ Sachio Nakato Chapter 7 Korean Peninsula Division/Unification and Russia : From the Security Perspective of Russia/ Leonid Petrov Chapter 8 Korean Peninsula Division/Unification and Russia : From the Economic Perspective of Russia/ Alexander Fedorovskiy Chapter 9 Korean Peninsula Division/Unification and Security Order in the Asia-Pacific Region/ Thomas S. Wilkins Chapter 10 Korean Peninsula Unification : Opportunities and Challenges to Asia-Pacific Economies/ Jeffrey Robertson

Following its liberation from Japanese colonialism, at the end of WWII, Korea was divided into two separate nations. Because the Korean nation enjoyed a long dynastic history, its postwar partition was particularly traumatic. The ensuing Cold War years spawned the Korean War and subsequent decades of strained inter-Korean relations and tensions in the region surrounding the peninsula. This volume provides readers who are unfamiliar with Korea's heritage insight into how Korea became a divided nation engulfed in international geopolitical tensions, providing expert analysis of this rendered nation's background, modern circumstances, and future prospects. The Korean peninsula in Northeast Asia is home to a country that was divided at the end of the Second World War after its liberation from Japanese colonialism. Because the Korean nation enjoyed a long dynastic history, its postwar partition was particularly traumatic. The ensuing Cold War years soon spawned a very hot Korean War and subsequent decades of strained inter-Korean relations and tensions in the region surrounding the peninsula. This volume provides readers who are unfamiliar with Korea's heritage with insight into how Korea became a divided nation engulfed in international geopolitical tensions, providing expert analysis of this rendered nation's background, modern circumstances, and future prospects. After a survey of Korea's geographic setting and historic legacy, Olsen details the circumstances of Korea's liberation and subsequent division. Drawing on that background, he analyzes the evolution of both South Korea and North Korea as separate states, surveying the politics, economics, and foreign policy of each. What are the key issues for each state from an international perspective? What are the prospects for reuniting the two into one nation? What challenges would a united Korea be likely to face? Olsen determines that stability in Korea is essential to future peace in the region. He concludes that a successful move toward unification is the best way to resolve issues connected to North Korea's nuclear agenda.

Though they share a border, a culture, a language, and thousands of years of history, it is hard to imagine two nations more different than North and South Korea. South Korea is a vibrant player in the global economy renowned for its technological and industrial prowess, while North Korea is a police state in which any political opposition to dictator Kim Jong-Un is met with exceptionally brutal punishment. How did the Korean Peninsula, an area smaller than the state of Colorado, come to play such a big role in the world today? The answer lies in the inconclusive Korean War of 1950 to 1953, which divided the Korean Peninsula at the 38th Parallel, and divided Korea into two states: communist and capitalist. The war and its aftermath have sucked in the world's great powers: China supports North Korea while the United States is allied with South Korea. As North Korea works to develop a nuclear weapons program, the question of whether these super powers will come to blows over an unresolved Cold War conflict becomes more demanding each day.

This book provides scholars and students examining Korea's place in modern world politics with an invaluable resource for understanding the causes, course, and consequences of the ongoing crisis on the Korean Peninsula. Why is Korea still divided into two nations? How does the decades-old tension between North Korea and South Korea affect all of Asia as well as influence several of the world's major powers, including Japan, the People's Republic of China, Russia, and the United States? This book provides answers to these questions and more, presenting readers with descriptions of historical developments in Korea's past and supplying the necessary context for understanding why the Korean Peninsula remains split at the 38th parallel. Two comprehensive opening chapters present a broad overview of events in Korea's history from ancient times through the start of World War II. The subsequent chapters cover Korea's role in the Cold War, describing the Soviet-American sponsorship of two Koreas, the Korean War, Soviet and Chinese support for North Korea, the U.S. alliance with South Korea, South Korea's long struggle to achieve democracy, the Kim dynasty in North Korea, and moments of tension and cooperation between North and South Korea. Written in a clear, direct, and accessible style, the book will be valuable to high school, undergraduate, and graduate-level students.

Four kilometers wide and stretching 250 km from the East Sea to the West Sea, the Korean Demilitarized Zone divides the Korean Peninsula roughly in half, with the Republic of Korea to the south and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea to the north. Born of the fratricidal Korean War, it is perhaps the oldest continuous symbol of the Cold War and a tense border separating the two halves of the world's last divided nation, where democracy and communism still glare at one another in mutual animosity. Nowhere is this more evident than at the Joint Security Area (JSA) near the so-called "truce village" of Panmunjeom, where South Korean and North Korean soldiers stand practically face to face, the hostility almost palpable.