HISTORY
According to legend, the god-king
Tangun founded the Korean nation in BC 2333. By the first century
AD, the Korean Peninsula was divided into the kingdoms of Silla,
Koguryo, and Paekche. In 668 AD, the Silla kingdom unified the
peninsula. The Koryo Dynasty (from which Portuguese missionaries
in the 16th century derived the Western name "Korea") succeeded
the Silla kingdom in 935. The Choson Dynasty (ruled by members
of the Yi clan) supplanted Koryo in 1392 and lasted until the
Japanese annexed Korea in 1910. Throughout most of its history,
Korea has been invaded, influenced, and fought over by its larger
neighbors. Korea was under Mongolian occupation from 1231 until
the early 14th century and was plundered by Japanese pirates in
1359 and 1361. The unifier of Japan, Hideyoshi, launched major
invasions of Korea in 1592 and 1597. When Western powers focused
"gunboat" diplomacy on Korea in the mid-19th century, Korea's
rulers adopted a closed-door policy, earning Korea the title of
"Hermit Kingdom."
Though the Choson dynasty
paid fealty to the Chinese court and recognized China's hegemony
in East Asia, Korea was in fact independent until the late 19th
century. At that time, China sought to block growing Japanese
influence on the Korean Peninsula and Russian pressure for commercial
gains there. This competition produced the Sino-Japanese War of
1894-1895 and the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905. Japan emerged
victorious from both wars and in 1910 annexed Korea into the growing
Japanese empire.
Japanese colonial administration
was characterized by tight control from Tokyo and ruthless efforts
to supplant Korean language and culture. Organized Korean resistance
during the Colonial Era--such as the March 1, 1919 Independence
Movement--was unsuccessful and Japan remained firmly in control
until the end of World War II.
At Japan's surrender in August
1945, Korea was liberated from Japan, but its fate was left to
the two big victors of the war, the U.S. and the Soviet Union.
First, at Cairo, they agreed that Korea would be free "in due
course" and then, at Yalta, it was agreed to establish a four-power
trusteeship over Korea. However, the unexpected early surrender
of Japan led to the division of Korea into two occupation zones,
with the U.S. administering the southern half of the Korean Peninsula
and the USSR taking over the area to the north of the 38th parallel.
The division was intended
to be temporary to facilitate the Japanese surrender and until
the U.S., UK, Soviet Union, and China could organize a trusteeship
administration arrangement. In December 1945 the Moscow Conference
convened to discuss the future handling of Korea. A five-year
trusteeship for Korea was discussed and a Joint Soviet-American
Commission was established. The commission met intermittently
in Seoul but deadlocked over the issue of establishing a national
government and in September 1947, with no solution in sight, the
United States submitted the Korean question to the UN General
Assembly.
The initial hopes for Korean
independence quickly evaporated as the politics of the Cold War
and domestic opposition to the trusteeship plan resulted in two
separate nations with diametrically opposed political, economic,
and social systems.
Korean Conflict
The Soviet Union and Korean
authorities in the north refused to comply with the UN General
Assembly's November 1947 resolution on elections and blocked entry
of the United Nations Temporary Commission on Korea (UNTCOK) into
the north. Despite this refusal, elections were held in the south
under UN observation, and on August 15, 1948, the Republic of
Korea was established in the south. Syngman Rhee, a Korean nationalist
leader, became the Republic's first president. On September 9,
1948, the north established the Democratic People's Republic of
Korea headed by then-Premier Kim Il Sung, known for his anti-Japanese
guerrilla activities in Manchuria during the 1930s. Both administrations
claimed to be the only legitimate government on the peninsula.
After the establishment of
the two states, South Korea experienced several violent uprisings
by indigenous, pro-North Korean leftist guerrillas. As Soviet
troops left in late 1948 and the U.S. troops in the spring of
1949, border clashes along the 38th parallel intensified.
North Korean forces invaded
South Korea on June 25, 1950. The United Nations, in accordance
with the terms of its Charter, engaged in its first collective
action, and established the UN Command (UNC), to which 16 member
nations sent troops and assistance. Next to the Republic of Korea
forces, the United States contributed the largest contingent to
this international effort. The battle line fluctuated back and
forth from south to north and after large numbers of Chinese "people's
volunteers" intervened to assist the north, the battle line stabilized
north of Seoul near the 38th parallel.
Armistice negotiations began
in July 1951, but hostilities continued until July 27, 1953. On
that date, at Panmunjom, the military commanders of the North
Korean People's Army, the Chinese People's Volunteers, and the
UNC signed an armistice agreement. Neither the United States nor
South Korea is a signatory to the armistice per se, although both
adhere to it through the UNC.
The armistice called for
an international conference to find a political solution to the
problem of Korea's division. This conference met at Geneva in
April 1954 but, after seven weeks of futile debate, ended without
agreement or progress. No comprehensive peace agreement has replaced
the 1953 armistice pact; thus, a condition of belligerency still
exists on the peninsula.
The Military Armistice Commission
(MAC) was created in 1953 to oversee and enforce the terms of
the armistice. The Neutral Nation Supervisory Committee (NNSC)--originally
made up of delegations from Poland and Czechoslovakia on the DPRK/Chinese
People's Volunteers side and Sweden and Switzerland on the UN
side--monitors the activities of the MAC. In recent years, North
Korea has sought to dismantle the MAC in its push for a new "peace
mechanism" on the peninsula. In April 1994 it declared the MAC
void and withdrew its representatives. Prior to this it had forced
the Czechs out of the NNSC by refusing to accept the Czech Republic
as the successor state of Czechoslovakia, an original member of
the NNSC. In September 1994, at the DPRK's urging, China "recalled"
the Chinese People's Volunteers representatives to the MAC, and
in early 1995 North Korea forced Poland to remove its representatives
to the NNSC from the North Korean side of the DMZ.
Military
North Korea now has the fourth
largest army in the world. The North has an estimated 1.2 million
armed personnel, compared to about 650,000 in the South. North
Korean forces have a substantial numerical advantage (approximately
2 or 3 to 1) in several key categories of offensive weapons--tanks,
long-range artillery, and armored personnel carriers. The North
has perhaps the world's second largest special operations force
(55,000) designed for insertion behind the lines in wartime. While
the North has a relatively impressive fleet of submarines, its
surface fleet has a very limited capability. Its aging air force
has twice the number of aircraft, but except for a few advanced
fighters, the North's air force is obsolete. The North (and the
South) deploys the bulk of its forces well forward, along the
DMZ. Several military tunnels under the DMZ discovered in the
1970s.
Over the last several years,
North Korea has moved even more of its rear echelon troops to
hardened bunkers closer to the DMZ. Given the proximity of Seoul
to the DMZ (some 25 miles), South Korean and U.S. forces are likely
to have little warning of any attack. The United States and ROK
continue to believe that the U.S. troop presence remains an effective
deterrent against North Korean aggression.
Terrorism
The DPRK is not known to
have sponsored any terrorist acts since 1987, when a KAL airliner
was bombed in flight. The DPRK has made several statements condemning
terrorism, most recently a May 1994 Foreign Ministry spokesman
statement "opposing any act encouraging and supporting terrorism."
The DPRK and ROK pledged in their 1991 reconciliation agreement
to "refrain from all acts destroying and overthrowing the other
side" and not use arms against one another. North Korea appears
to be respecting a promise to the Philippine Government to suspend
its support for the Communist New People's Army (NPA).
Normalization talks with
Japan have been complicated by North Korea's refusal to respond
to questions concerning the status of a Korean resident of Japan
allegedly kidnapped by North Koreans to teach Japanese to DPRK
agents. Pyongyang continues to provide sanctuary to members of
the Japanese Communist League-Red Army Faction who participated
in the hijacking of a Japanese airlines flight to North Korea
in 1970.
Reunification Policy
Throughout the postwar period,
both Korean Governments have repeatedly affirmed their desire
to reunify the Korean Peninsula, but until 1971 the two governments
had no direct, official communications or other contact.
In August 1971, North and
South Korea agreed to hold talks through their respective Red
Cross societies with the aim of reuniting the many Korean families
separated following the division of Korea and the Korean War.
Following a series of secret meetings, both sides announced, on
July 4, 1972, an agreement to work toward peaceful reunification
and an end to the hostile atmosphere prevailing on the peninsula.
Officials exchanged visits, and regular communications were established
through a South- North Coordinating Committee and the Red Cross.
However, these initial contacts broke down and ended one year
later after the kidnapping of Kim Dae Jung from Tokyo by the ROK
intelligence service and there was no other significant contact
between North and South Korea until 1984.
The breakdown of these talks
characterized the start-stop, halting nature of inter-Korean dialogue.
Basic differences in approach-- Pyongyang then insisting on immediate
steps toward reunification before discussing specific, concrete
issues and Seoul maintaining that, given the long history of mutual
distrust, reunification must be a gradual, step-by-step process--made
improved North-South relations an elusive aim.
Dialogue was renewed on several
fronts, in September 1984, when South Korea accepted the North's
offer to provide relief goods to victims of severe flooding in
South Korea. Red Cross talks to address the plight of separated
families resumed, as did talks on economic and trade issues, and
parliamentary-level discussions. However, the North then unilaterally
suspended all talks in January 1986, arguing that the annual ROK/U.S.
Team Spirit military exercise was inconsistent with dialogue.
There was a brief flurry of negotiations on cohosting the 1988
Seoul Olympics that ended in failure--and was followed by the
KAL 858 bombing.
In a major initiative in
July 1988, South Korean President Roh Tae Woo called for new efforts
to promote South-North exchanges, family reunification, inter-Korean
trade, and contact in international fora. Roh followed up this
initiative in a UN General Assembly speech in which Seoul offered
for the first time to discuss security matters with the North.
The first meetings that grew
out of Roh's proposals began in September 1989. In September 1990,
the first of eight Prime Minister-level meetings between the North
Korean and South Korean Prime Ministers took place in Seoul beginning
an especially fruitful period of dialogue. The Prime Ministerial
talks resulted in two major agreements: the Agreement on Reconciliation,
Nonaggression, Exchanges, and Cooperation (the Basic Agreement)
and the Declaration on the Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula
(the Joint Declaration).
The Basic Agreement, signed
on December 13, 1991, called for reconciliation and nonaggression
and established four commissions. The four Joint Commissions--on
South-North Reconciliation, South-North Military Affairs, South-North
Economic Exchanges and Cooperation, and South-North Social and
Cultural Exchange--were to work out the specifics for implementing
the general terms of the Basic Agreement. Subcommittees to examine
specific issues were created and liaison offices were established
in Panmunjom, but in the Autumn of 1992 the process came to a
halt because of rising tension over the nuclear issue.
The Declaration on Denuclearization
of the Korean Peninsula (Joint Declaration), initialed on December
31, 1991, forbade both sides to test, manufacture, produce, receive,
possess, store, deploy or use nuclear weapons, and forbade the
possession of nuclear reprocessing and uranium enrichment facilities.
A procedure for inter-Korean inspection was to be organized and
a South-North Joint Nuclear Control Commission (JNCC) was mandated
with verification of the denuclearization of the peninsula. On
January 30, 1992, the DPRK also signed a nuclear safeguards agreement
with the IAEA as it had pledged to do in 1985 when joining the
nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). This safeguards agreement
allowed IAEA inspections to begin in June 1992. In March 1992,
the JNCC was established in accordance with the Joint Declaration;
but subsequent meetings failed to agree on the main issue of establishing
a bilateral inspection regime.
As the 1990s progressed,
concern over the North's nuclear program became a major issue
in South-North relations and between North Korea and the U.S.
The lack of progress on implementation of the Joint Nuclear Declaration's
provision for an inter-Korean nuclear inspection regime led to
reinstatement of the U.S.-ROK Team Spirit military exercise for
1993. The situation worsened rapidly when North Korea, in January
1993, refused IAEA access to two suspected nuclear waste sites,
and then, announced its intent to withdraw from the NPT in March
1993.
U.S.-DPRK talks on the North's
nuclear program began in June 1993 and resulted in a joint declaration
in which the North suspended its withdrawal from the NPT and laid
the groundwork for continuing U.S.-DPRK talks. The complex negotiations
deadlocked and in the spring of 1994 the DPRK created a crisis
by unloading fuel from its 5 MW reactor. The United States responded
by initiating consultations concerning UN sanctions. Former U.S.
President Jimmy Carter visited the DPRK, and in July a further
round of U.S.-DPRK talks on the nuclear issue was begun. These
talks were recessed with news of the death of Kim Il Sung on July
8, 1994. They resumed in August and proceeded until the conclusion
of the U.S.-DPRK "Agreed Framework" on October 21, 1994. (see
the section on "U.S. Policy Towards North Korea.")
Prospects for Reunification
South and North Korea have
had a difficult and acrimonious relationship in the forty years
that have followed the Korean War. They have yet to have a Presidential-level
summit. During former President Carter's visit, Kim Il Sung agreed
to a first-ever South-North summit. The two sides went ahead with
plans for a meeting in July but had to shelve it because of Kim's
death.
The two Koreas have begun
to develop economic ties. Following the ROK Government's 1988
decision to allow trade with the DPRK, South Korean firms began
to import North Korean goods. Direct trade with the South began
in the fall of 1990 after the unprecedented September 1990 meeting
of the two Korean Prime Ministers. Trade between the two increased
from $18.8 million in 1989 to $174 million in 1992.
During this period, Daewoo's
chairman, Kim Woo Choong, visited the North and an agreement was
created to build a light industrial complex at Nampo. In other
negotiations there were discussions to develop tourism and build
road and rail links in Korea. Economic contacts continued to develop
until the spring of 1993 when North Korea's withdrawal from the
NPT slowed the expansion of North-South economic cooperation.
South Korean President Kim Young Sam prohibited substantial direct
investment in the North until the nuclear issue was resolved,
although inter-Korean trade continued with South Korea becoming
one of the DPRK's largest trading partners. With the signing of
the U.S.-DPRK Agreed Framework on October 21, 1994, President
Kim announced he would again allow discussions for investments.
GOVERNMENT
North Korea has a centralized
government under the rigid control of the communist Korean Worker's
Party (KWP). Kim Il Sung, commonly referred to as "Great Leader",
dominated the government from 1948 until his death in July 1994.
Kim served both as Secretary General of the KWP and as President
of North Korea. A few minor parties are allowed to exist in name
only, presumably to present a facade of representative government
to the outside world.
The 1972 Constitution was
reportedly amended in late 1992, but the North has never publicized
the changes. The DPRK government is led by the president and in
theory a super-cabinet called the Central People's Committee (CPC).
Officially, the legislature, the Supreme People's Assembly (SPA),
is the highest organ of state power. Its members are elected every
four years. Usually only two meetings are held annually, each
lasting a few days. A standing committee elected by the SPA performs
legislative functions when the assembly is not in session. In
reality, the assembly serves only to ratify decisions made by
the ruling KWP. The constitution designates the Central People's
Committee (CPC) as the government's top policymaking body. It
is headed by the President who also nominates the other committee
members. The CPC makes policy decisions and supervises the cabinet
or State Administration Council (SAC). The SAC is headed by a
premier and is the dominant administrative and executive agency.
The judiciary is "accountable" to the SPA and the President. The
SPA's Standing Committee also appoints judges to the highest court
for four-year terms that are concurrent with those of the assembly.
Politically, North Korea
is divided into nine provinces and four provincial-level municipalities--Pyongyang,
Chongjin, Nampo, and Kaesong. It also appears to be divided into
nine military districts.
Little is known about the
actual lines of power and authority in the North Korean Government
despite the formal structure set forth in the constitution. Following
the death of Kim Il Sung, his son, Kim Jong Il, appears to have
inherited supreme power. However, a year after his father's death,
Kim Jong Il has not formally assumed Kim Il Sung's two main titles:
President and Secretary General of the KWP. An inner core of ranking
members of the Korean Workers' Party, including an increasing
number of Kim Jong Il's followers, dominates the political system
and the economy through an elaborate party structure and through
the civilian and military bureaucracies. A pervasive personality
cult has developed around Kim Jong Il, 52, who was groomed for
many years to succeed his father.
