Korea, North and South

Some of the most enduring international tensions in East Asia have been focused on the Korean Peninsula. As we have seen, after centuries of unity under one government, the peninsula was divided in 1953. The two resulting countries are dramatically different. Communist, poor, and inward-looking North Korea does not participate in the global economy, while more cosmopolitan, populous, newly democratic, and affluent South Korea has pursued a model of state-aided capitalist development.

Physically, Korea juts out from the Asian continent like a downturned thumb (Figure 9.44). Two rivers, the Yalu (Amnok in Korean) and the Tumen, separate the peninsula from the Chinese mainland and a small area of Russian Siberia. Low-lying mountains cover much of North Korea and stretch along the eastern side of the peninsula into South Korea, covering nearly 70 percent of the peninsula. There is little level land for settlement in this mountainous zone. The rugged terrain disrupts ground communications from valley to valley. Along the western side of Korea, floodplains slope toward the Yellow Sea, and most people live on these western slopes and plains. Although the peninsula is surrounded by water on three sides, its climate is essentially continental because it lies so close to the huge Asian landmass. The same cyclical monsoons that “inhale” and “exhale” over the Asian continent bring hot, wet summers and cold, dry winters.

FIGURE 9.44 The Korea subregion. (A) The largest shipbuilding facility in the world, Hyundai’s Ulsan Shipyard. South Korea, using advanced shipbuilding technologies and highly efficient shipyard management, was for years the leading shipbuilding country in the world. But Chinese production surged, and since 2011, Chinese shipyards have built more ships than those in South Korea. Courtesy SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg/Getty Images

The Korean Peninsula was a unified country as early as 668 c.e. Scholars believe that present-day Koreans are descended primarily from people who migrated from the Altai Mountains in western Mongolia because the Korean language appears to be most closely related to languages from that region. Other groups—Chinese, Manchurians, Japanese, and Mongols—invaded the peninsula, sometimes as settlers, other times as conquerors. The Buddhist and Chinese Confucian values brought by some of these groups have influenced Korea’s educational, political, and legal systems. Korea is noted for its early advances in mathematics, medicine, and printing.

Contrasting Political Systems

Although an armistice ended the Korean War in 1953, North Korea and South Korea each assumed a strong nationalist stance, which has resulted in more than 50 years of hostile competition between the two. Both governments adopted the Korean concept of juche, which means “self-reliance” or “the right to govern yourself in your own way.” In North Korea, juche was interpreted as unquestioned loyalty to the Great Leader, Kim Il Sung, and later to his son, Kim Jong Il, and since December 2011, his grandson Kim Jong Un, who is now president (Figure 9.45A). There is little pretense of political freedom, and the government remains a military dictatorship. Extraordinarily large amounts of money fund national defense, which is a very powerful institution in the country. North Korea limits its trade and other involvement with its continental neighbors, China and Russia. Its restrictive internal and external economic policies make it one of the poorest nations in the world, with a GDP per capita similar to some of the poorest African countries (see Figure 9.45B). Despite its apparent desire for isolation, North Korea has occasionally threatened South Korea and nearby Japan.

FIGURE 9.45 Life in North Korea. 9.45a Courtesy Ayse Topbas/Flickr Vision/Getty Images, 9.45b Courtesy David Hume Kennerly/Photonica World/Getty Images

In 2002, North Korea provoked global concern when it announced its intent to produce enriched plutonium, forced UN monitors to leave the country, and then withdrew from the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. Most intelligence assessments confirm that North Korea tested its first nuclear device in 2006. Other nuclear tests have followed, often as ploys to negotiate aid from the West (substantial aid has been granted repeatedly since the mid-1990s). North Korea says it must prepare for an attack by the United States or Japan. It is generally agreed that the presence of nuclear arms in North Korea is cause for concern worldwide. Whether or not the new leader, Kim Jong Un, will pursue the militaristic path of his predecessors remains to be seen, but no policy changes are evident so far.

The nuclear issue has diverted attention from massive mismanagement of the country’s resources, especially food. Such mismanagement has resulted in very serious human rights abuses in North Korea. There are vast prisons for those who have deviated from the Communist Party line, engaged in entrepreneurialism (trading), or even just wandered the countryside looking for food. Eyewitness escapees have told the outside world of beatings, torture, and executions.

In South Korea, by contrast, juche has come to mean vigorous individualism, coupled with pride in and loyalty to one’s own people and nation. Social criticism and even aggressive protests by labor unions and other social movements are allowed, with the understanding that one’s ultimate loyalty is still to South Korea. Shortly after World War II, South Korea allied itself politically with the United States, Japan, and Europe, and sought economic growth through foreign aid and capitalist development. But despite its economic success, South Korea was governed by a series of military dictatorships until 1997, when democratic elections were held. South Korea even elected its first female president in 2013.

Contrasting Economies

The two Koreas differ dramatically in their economic resources. North Korea (with a population of 25 million) has better physical resources for industrial development, including forests and deposits of coal and iron ore. The many rivers descending from its mountains have considerable potential to generate hydroelectric power. South Korea (with a population of 49 million) has better resources for agriculture because its flatter terrain and slightly warmer climate make it possible to grow two crops of rice and millet per year. In recent decades, South Korea has surpassed North Korea in agricultural production many times over, and its electronic, automotive, chemical, and shipbuilding industries successfully compete with those in the Americas, Europe, and Japan (see Figure 9.44A). North Korea’s industry is barely developed.

A major reason for South Korea’s economic success has been the formation of huge corporations known as chaebol. These conglomerates—companies that are involved in a wide variety of economic sectors—include such internationally known companies as Samsung and Hyundai. South Korea’s government has assisted the chaebol by making credit easily available to them and by helping them purchase foreign patents so that Koreans can focus on product quality and marketing rather than on inventing. Nevertheless, the chaebol have come under increasing criticism in recent years because their close connections with the government have led to corruption and mismanagement.

Despite these problems, the South Korean economic system has worked well enough so that South Koreans, who were extremely poor at the end of the Korean War, can now afford the products they formerly only exported. For example, the GDP per capita is now similar to the European Union average. The use of advanced telecommunication technologies and modern urban landscapes, especially in the capital Seoul, testify to South Korea’s success in the global economy (see Figure 9.17B).

North Koreans have benefited from some communist social policies, particularly access to basic health care and education. In general, however, as the economy has deteriorated, these services have also declined. North Korea’s industries are inefficient and its workers poorly motivated. Furthermore, through the demise of the Soviet Union, the country lost markets and access to raw materials, fuel, and technical training. Poor harvests on collective farms and recurrent cycles of floods and droughts have brought recurrent food shortages and even the extensive famines that happened from 1995 through 2001. Although the government has been unwilling to release information, as many as 2 million people may have died of hunger over that 6-year period. Life expectancy has declined, and the infant mortality rate in 2012 was 28 per 1000 in North Korea, compared to just 3 per 1000 in South Korea. The government has responded to these dire situations by diverting the public’s attention with grand synchronized dance and music extravaganzas that feature 100,000 performers (see Figure 9.45A). Attendance is required.