The Korean Peninsula: A Fifty-Year Struggle for Peace and Reconciliation

The Conflict

The Korean Peninsula has been divided for fifty years by political conflict, with the tensions occasionally resulting in military action. In 2000, North Korea and South Korea met for a legendary summit. The meeting of the leaders was followed by limited and temporary reunification of families separated by fifty years of war and political animosity.

Political

• At the end of World War II, the victorious Allies (the United States, the Soviet Union, France, and England), decided to temporarily divide and occupy Korea, formerly occupied by Japan. The United States occupied the south and the Soviet Union the north. As Cold War animosities between the West and the Soviet Union solidified, both South Korea and North Korea established their own governments, claiming the right to the entire Korean Peninsula.
• Cold War divisions between communist North Korea (supported by the Soviet Union and China) and Western-supported South Korea led to military actions, espionage, and the separation of families.
• North Korea, for several years in the midst of economic collapse and famine, needs to find a way to open itself to international trade and aid.

In 2000, the announcement and subsequent inter-Korean summit between the South Korean president Kim Dae Jung and the North Korean leader Kim Jong Il in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang was historic: This was the first face-to-face meeting between leaders of the North and South, almost fifty years after the onset of the Korean War. The leaders bore the weight of all Koreans yearning for security, national reconciliation, and a peaceful resolution to the Korean War. The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (also known as North Korea) and the Republic of Korea (also known as South Korea) are still technically at war, since representatives of the United States and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (but not the Republic of Korea) signed the Armistice Agreement that ended the fighting in 1953.

Historical Background

Legacy of the Cold War

The origins of the inter-Korean summit lay in the political endgame of World War II. The division of the Korean Peninsula was an afterthought at the Cairo Conference of 1943. At the conference, China, Great Britain, and the United States agreed that Korea should become free and independent as soon as possible. The issue was further discussed at the Yalta Conference in February 1945 and the following Potsdam Conference and an agreement in principle was reached at the Moscow Conference in December 1945, in which it was tacitly agreed that the Korean Peninsula would be divided along the thirty-eighth parallel and that a four-power trusteeship of Korea would be established for a period of five years. The trusteeship would be followed by the formation of a Soviet-U.S. Joint Commission that would be charged with the establishment of a provisional Korean government.

Following Japan's surrender and subsequent withdrawal from the Korean Peninsula on August 15, 1945, Korea north of the thirty-eighth parallel was occupied by Soviet forces, while south of the thirty-eighth parallel was occupied by U.S. forces. (The parallel indicates latitude and divides the country roughly in half.) The division of Korea emerged and became more pronounced since, immediately following the cessation of fighting, the Soviets and Americans went about establishing governmental and bureaucratic structures in their respective occupation zones. However, first each had to deal with the newly formed Korean People's Republic (KPR); an indigenous Korean movement that replaced the now disposed and disgraced Japanese colonial administration.

The Americans chose Syngman Rhee, a U.S.-educated expatriate, as the leader of South Korea, while the Soviets chose the veteran anti-Japanese guerrilla leader Kim Il Sung. In the North, the colonial bureaucratic and social structures were upset and collaborators were either imprisoned or driven off their land. Land reform was introduced; land was taken from landlords and redistributed to peasants. Key industries were nationalized. In the South, the American occupation forces set up the United States Army Military Government in Korea (USAMGK) resurrecting the old Japanese colonial administrative structures, and dismissing the fledgling KPR.

No one had envisioned a divided Korean Peninsula but Soviet and American occupation policies all but ensured the polarization of politics in Korea and the emergence of ideologically opposed regimes. In February 1946, Kim Il Sung formed the Interim People's Council, while in the South, at about the same time, Syngman Rhee founded the Representative Council, the forerunner to the South Korean Interim Legislative Assembly. Ideological conflict between the North and the South continued when the United States submitted the Korea Question to the newly established United Nations in August 1947. As a result, the United Nations Temporary Commission for Korea (UNTCOK) was established. Resentments deepened on each side of the thirty-eighth parallel as preparation for separate elections progressed in each occupation zone. In the South, United Nations-sponsored elections proceeded in May 1948, and on August 15, 1948, Syngman Rhee declared the Republic of Korea (ROK) and claimed to be the sole legitimate government of Korea. The North countered by holding elections of its own and proclaimed the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in the following September. Korea now had two governments, each asserting its right to the whole of the Korean peninsula. Following the elections in the North and South, both the Soviets and Americans withdrew from their occupation zones, setting the stage for the Korean War.

Periodic confrontations ensued, each regime testing the military resolve of the other. Rhee began launching campaigns to suppress dissent within South Korea and increasingly called for the reunification of the Korean Peninsula. Beginning in the summer of 1949, the South launched raids across the border. In the fall of 1949 Northern forces responded with cross-border raids, initiating clashes against Southern troops. Sporadic cross-border attacks remained the norm; so much so that the U.N. secretary-general requested observers be placed along the thirty-eighth parallel to monitor the escalating tension between North and South.

The War Begins

There are conflicting reports as to which side initiated the Korean War, but it is generally acknowledged that the Korean War officially began on the morning of June 25, 1950, when North Korean troops poured over the thirty-eighth parallel. Within three days, Seoul, the South's capital, had fallen and the Rhee government fled in the face of the onslaught. South Korean troops were in full retreat. By the end of August 1950, the North's advance stalled along the so-called "Pusan Perimeter" as the North's supply lines became susceptible to United States air offensives as well as the gradual build-up of United States/United Nations military personnel. The North's occupation of the South lasted for about two months until the United States and other Western nations; under the aegis of the United Nations mandate; intervened in support of South Korean forces. In September General Douglas MacArthur, commanding a combined U.N.-ROK force, staged a dramatic amphibious assault on the port of Inch'on, successfully landing troops behind the North's lines, cutting North Korean troops in two as well as cutting off supply lines. MacArthur quickly took Seoul from heavily outnumbered Northern defenders. Following the capture of Inch'on and Seoul, on October 7, 1950, MacArthur launched a counter-offensive, pursuing the disorganized North Korean army across the thirty-eighth parallel. Two hundred thousand U.S., ROK and U.N. troops quickly moved across the thirty-eighth parallel and drove toward the Yalu River, the North's border with the People's Republic of China. The war shifted again when, in November 1950, hundreds of thousands of Chinese troops crossed the Yalu River and launched a major offensive, driving U.S.-led forces back to the thirty-eighth parallel. A stalemate ensued, with fighting settling around the thirty-eighth parallel.

Armistice

Three years of fighting brought the sides no closer to resolving the political and military stalemate. Eventually, on July 27, 1953, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and the United States signed the Armistice Agreement at Panmunjom. The cost of the Korean War was staggering, the North's economic and transportation infrastructure having been completely destroyed, while in the South much of the industrial capacity was destroyed. Although precise figures are not available, it has been estimated that a combined three million people were either killed or wounded.

In the aftermath of the Korean War, North and South Korea became heavily militarized—with political leadership becoming dependent on the military to ensure regime stability. An additional consequence of the Korean War was the hardening of ideological and political attitudes between the North and South. The artificial and arbitrary division led to the separation of families as well as spurring political, ideological, economic, military, and diplomatic competition between the two Koreas that exists to this day. In the intervening years, antipathy developed between the rival regimes as each searched for advantage and supremacy over the other. Coupled with the antipathy was the fact that North and South Korean regimes were based on diametrically opposed principals and supported by Cold War adversaries.

During the 1950s and 1960s lip service was paid to reunification dialogue as each regime claimed to be the sole legitimate political entity speaking for the whole of the Korean Peninsula. To that end, each regime sought to assert independent political recognition, fiercely attacking the other through diplomatic channels, searching for advantage.

Rapprochement

Rapprochement (establishment of friendly relations) with the South came on August 6, 1971, when Kim Il Sung issued a surprise announcement indicating his willingness to establish contact with officials from South Korea, thereby reversing North Korea's long-standing position as the sole legitimate political entity on the Korean Peninsula. Soon thereafter, the South responded by proposing a meeting in the context of Red Cross emissaries—a proposal the North found acceptable, and on August 21, 1971, eighteen years after the armistice that ended the Korean War, representatives of their respective Red Cross societies met in Panmunjom for exploratory talks. Following months of stalled talks, South Korea proposed secretive and exclusive high-level talks. North Korea accepted the proposal and after months of negotiations, North and South Korea surprised the world by issuing a joint statement on July 4, 1972, providing a three-point declaration on the peaceful unification of the Korean Peninsula. Kim Jong Il had hoped to use the North-South dialogue as a means of politically and militarily isolating South Korea from its American and Japanese allies, as well as bringing about the withdrawal of the American troops stationed in Korea. The North Korean rapprochement failed when the North Korean delegation that visited Seoul miscalculated public opinion, offending a majority of the South Korean populace with inflammatory political rhetoric aimed at President Park Chun Hee and his American sponsors.

After this failed diplomatic foray, talks were suspended. Subsequent meetings during the late 1970s and early 1980s yielded few results. Rapprochement with the South continued on a piecemeal basis with the North sending the South flood relief supplies in 1984, the reunion of families separated by the Korean War in 1985, and the establishment of economic ties in 1990.

International Influences

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union and China's embrace of capitalism "with Chinese characteristics," North Korea has lost its two major sponsors. In an attempt to integrate itself with the world system, North Korea and South Korea compromised and on September 18, 1991, both North and South Korea were admitted to the United Nations. North and South resumed negotiations and on a trip to North Korea in June 1994 former U.S. president Jimmy Carter visited North Korea and proposed a summit with South Korean president Kim Young-sam. Before the proposed North-South summit could commence, North Korean leader Kim Il Sung died of a heart attack. All plans for the summit were postponed when Kim Jong Il declared a three-year period of mourning. North Korea became increasingly diplomatically isolated when, in 1998, it test-fired a missile that flew over the Japanese island of Honshu. Japan suspended foreign aid and halted diplomatic contacts with Pyongyang for two years. The United States followed suit.

During the latter half of the 1990s, North Korea remained both politically and diplomatically isolated, as economic conditions continued to worsen with successive crop failures. The U.N. World Food Program issued an alert on the conditions in North Korea, warning that food stocks were critically low and that the public distribution system was coming under strain. In June 1996 the United Nations launched an international appeal to help relieve the food shortages, and Japan, South Korea, and the United States all contributed. In addition, North Korea also leveraged the food shortage into an agreement with the United States to receive $2 million in return for the remains of 162 U.S. soldiers killed in the Korean War. North Korea continued to launch military incursions into the DMZ (de-militarized zone), and accidentally grounded a North Korean submarine off the coastal city of Kangnung in Kangwon Province. Since 1998 North Korea has continued to suffer widespread famine after five years of failed crops, as well as diplomatic isolation as a result of its nascent nuclear program.

Major Figures

The primary figures of the landmark inter-Korean summit are the South Korean president Kim Dae Jung and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. Kim Dae Jung can be considered the architect of the inter-Korean summit. Long an outspoken advocate of reunification of the Korean Peninsula, Kim Dae Jung reversed the longstanding policy of nonengagement from previous administrations and consequently will be the first South Korean president to set foot in the North. Kim Dae Jung has called on the United States to lift economic sanctions and has played a major role in convincing former U.S. defense secretary William Perry to recommend that the United States engage North Korea diplomatically. Thus, the summit can be seen as a vindication for Kim Dae Jung and his "Sun-shine Policy" with the North.

In the North, Kim Jong Il symbolizes the North Korean state. Since the 1970s, Kim Jong Il increasingly assumed a larger role in North Korean affairs of state. In 1984 his father, Kim Il Sung designated the younger Kim as his successor and was given the name "Dear Leader." Upon Kim Il Sung's death in 1994 and the following three-year mourning period, Kim Jong Il assumed control of the North Korean state apparatus. Traveling outside of Korea for the first time since his father's death, Kim Jong Il has recently initiated bold diplomatic moves, visiting Beijing, China, to reaffirm the relationship between the two communist countries that fought together against the American and Southern troops in the Korean War. Some critics have argued that the summit is an attempt by Kim Jong Il to end North Korea's diplomatic isolation as well as ease the deteriorating economic conditions.

Although Kim Dae Jung and Kim Jong Il are largely responsible for the landmark summit, their allies—who are eager for peace, but want to see their interests protected—have supported both leaders.

Recent History and the Future

Buffer States and Borders

Reunification of the Korean Peninsula is of concern to China, Japan, and Russia, as well as the United States. As such, each has a vested interest in the outcome of the inter-Korean summit, stability of the Korean Peninsula, and avoiding problems of reunification. The political, economic, and social dislocation that will accompany reunification will possibly have destabilizing effects. Although the prospect of a conflict comparable to the Korean War is unlikely, the possibility of regime collapse or political instability in the North is of concern. Political instability would undoubtedly create internal upheaval as well as the potential for mass migration southward, destabilizing the South's social and economic infrastructure. Another concern is that of the North's growing arsenal of weapons of mass destruction. The United States, South Korea and Japan would like to see an end to North Korea's suspected nuclear weapons program, as well as an end to the development of weapons of mass destruction. China is concerned that instability in the North would create the increased need for economic support and an outward migration of refugees from Northern Korean provinces. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia has become marginalized in the intra-Korean affairs, but is still concerned about longer-term regional security and in the context of the unification process. For all powers, the prospect of reunification is filled with latent dangers and risks.

Bibliography

Acheson, Dean. The Korean War. New York: Norton, 1971.

Cumings, Bruce. The Origins of the Korean War: Liberation and the Emergence of Separate Regimes 1945-47. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1981.

Gills, Barry. "North Korea and the Crisis of Socialism: The Historical Ironies of National Division." Third World Quarterly 13 (1992): 107-130.

Heller, Francis. The Korean War: A 25-Year Perspective. Lawrence, Kans.: Regents Press of Kansas, 1977.

Koh, Byung Chul. The Foreign Policy Systems of North and South Korea. Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, 1984.

Oberdorfer, Don. The Two Koreas: A Contemporary History. Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1997.

Pollack, Jonathan D. and Lee, Chung Min. Preparing for Korean Unification: Scenarios and Implications. Santa Monica, Calif.: Rand, 1999.

Williams, Phil, Donald Goldstein, and Henry Andrews.Security in Korea: War, Stalemate and Negotiation. Boulder, Colo.: Westview, 1994.

Yang, Chul Yang. The North and South Korean Political Systems: A Comparative Analysis. Boulder, Colo.: West-view, 1994.

Keith A.Leitich

Chronology

August 15, 1945 The Korean Peninsula is divided into communist North Korea and the U.S.-backed South Korea following the end of Japanese colonial rule.

June 25, 1950 Seventy thousand North Korean troops cross the thirty-eighth parallel.

July 27, 1953 The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) and the United States sign the Armistice Agreement at Panmunjom. South Korean president Syngman Rhee refuses to sign the Armistice Agreement, threatening the entire accord.

April 26, 1954 The Geneva Conference on the reunification of the Korean Peninsula and other Asian matters opens.

January 21, 1968 A North Korean commando unit manages to infiltrate South Korea in an attempt to kill then-president Park Chun-hee. All but one of the commandos is killed before they can reach the Blue House.

July 4, 1972 North and South Korea issue a joint communiqué agreeing to achieve peaceful reunification of the Korean Peninsula.

September 4, 1980 The prime ministers of North and South Korea hold talks for the first time.

September 18, 1991 North and South Korea are admitted to the United Nations.

June 1994 Former U.S. president Jimmy Carter visits North Korea and proposes a summit with South Korean president Kim Young-sam.

July 8, 1994 North Korean leader Kim Il-Sung dies of a heart attack just before the North-South Korean summit.

April 1996 Washington and Seoul propose four-party inter-Korean Peninsula talks with Pyongyang and Beijing.

February 25, 1998 South Korean President Kim Dae-Jung proposes an inter-Korean summit in his inauguration speech. North Korea does not respond to this offer.

April 18, 1999 In Beijing, a meeting between representatives of the two Koreas collapses as North Korea refuses to discuss the reunion of families separated by the Korean War.

March 10, 2000 Kim Dae-Jung announces in Berlin that South Korea is willing to aid North Korea in rebuilding its moribund economy.

March 17, 2000 North and South Korea enter into secret talks in Beijing on an inter-Korean summit.

April 10, 2000 North and South Korea announce an agreement on a meeting between South Korean president Kim Dae Jung and North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il.

June 13, 2000 Kim Dae Jung arrives in Pyongyang to begin the historic inter-Korean summit.

Kim Dae Jung

1925- Kim Dae Jung, president of South Korea, was the first opposition leader elected to the office. His "Sunshine Policy," liberalizing relations between North and South Korea, has allowed many Korean families to reunite after separation by years of war, and encouraged South Korean investment in North Korea.

Kim was born December 3, 1925, on a farm in Mokp'o, in what is now South Korea. After graduating from Mokp'o School of Commerce in 1943, he worked for a Japanese-owned company. In 1945 he took over the company, which prospered. Captured by the Communists during the Korean war, he was sentenced to death, but escaped to South Korea.

Kim became a pro-democracy advocate, denouncing the military government of South Korea. In 1961 he was elected to the National Assembly, and became renown as an orator, although many of his speeches were censored. As leader of the Korean Democratic Party, he unsuccessfully ran for president in 1971.

Throughout the next ten years, Kim was repeatedly kidnapped and arrested by the South Korean CIA. He was sentenced to death, although he was exiled to the United States instead. Allowed to return home in 1985, he continued to lead the democracy movement, and after several attempts, was elected president in 1997.

Kim Jong Il

1942- Kim Jong Il, the Supreme Leader of North Korea, is the son of the former head of state, Kim Il Sung. Although "Dear Leader," as Kim Jong Il is called in North Korea, was once dismissed as incompetent, the 2000 summit of both Koreas' leaders, which he hosted, considerably changed his image.

Kim Jong Il (also spelled Kim Chong-il) was born in Siberia in the Soviet Union, on February 15, 1942, although his official biography claims he was born in North Korea. As a child, Kim frequently moved, and spent time in China as a Korean War refugee. While attending Kim Il Sung University, where he earned a political science degree in 1964, he began working for the Communist Party.

In 1969 he was named to the Politburo, and shortly thereafter became party secretary of propaganda. In 1974 Kim was officially designated to succeed his father and was groomed for the presidency. In 1980 he was named to the central committee, and in 1991 appointed supreme commander of the North Korean armed forces.

Upon the death of Kim Il Sung in 1994, Kim Jong Il became Supreme Leader; however, four vice-presidents functioned as heads-of-state until he was officially installed as president on September 5, 1998.