South Korea 's Impact On North Korea

North Korea, formally known as the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a relic of the Cold War and the world’s last remaining totalitarian Stalinist dictatorship. Arguably the most secretive state in the world, North Korea poses a unique set of challenges to the world, especially to its democratic and capitalist neighbor, South Korea, formally known as the Republic of Korea (ROK). As one of the last remnants of the Cold War era, North Korea remains an anomaly of the international system due to its unpredictable nature and disregard for international norms. With the recent bombardment of the South Korean Island of Yeongpyong and the sinking of the warship Cheonan, tensions between the two Koreas are at the lowest point since

After all accusations that North Korea made against the South Korea, the U.S Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has backed South Korea’s call for North Korea “to come forward with the facts about this act of aggression and above all, stop its belligerence and threatening behaviour.” U.S President Barack Obama made a decision according to South Korea concern adopting a newly aggressive military attitude towards its neighbour; he had directed military commanders to work with South Korean troops to make sure readiness and to deter future aggression from North Korea.

The U.S. helped to divide the Korean peninsula at the end of World War II, and then waged war against North Korea in the 1950s. Although the U.S. signed a peace agreement rather than a peace treaty with North Korea after the war, its policy toward the country changed. Instead of trying to overthrow the North Korea government, the U.S. government adopted a policy of containing communism. During the 1980’s, associations between North Korea and the U.S. start to take on a new diplomatic form. North Korea’s nuclear weapons program had become a pressing international issue

The country of Korea has been in turmoil for centuries and was founded on its turmoil of being unified and separated. Several objects stand in the way of them being unified once more the DPRK prefers communism while the ROK prefers Democracy both sides want to be united but can’t due to different morals, beliefs, and political views. And the history of Korea hasn’t always been pleasant due to wars and the attempted colonization of Korea by the Japanese.

In the northern regions of Korea post World War II, the majority of the politicians and people were supporters of communism and of course the Soviet Union being the most dominant communist nation in the world, supported the ideals of the north. The southern regions however were completely anti-communism and thus supported by the United States (Robinson p 74). The majority of the problem stemmed from outside of the country itself with Russia declaring war on Japan while using Korea as the battlefield. However, this internal conflict was actually the fuel to the fire originally because it gave Russia and Japan something to fight over; the region that they were fighting for happened to share the same politic views. Until the end of World War II, Japan occupied the entire Korean peninsula. Immediately after the war was over, Russia declared war on a

Getting China to pressure North Korea to change its behavior is the only logical strategy for the United States and its allies. Unfortunately, through its strategic incoherence, general incompetence, poor decisions and dangerous bombast, the Trump administration has weakened most of America's alliances, undermined US credibility, and significantly empowered its adversaries. In spite of the recent UN sanctions, the Trump

Korea a land of mystery due to its isolation. Though it has been an isolated country and is slowly opening up to the world. Though isolation has shrouded much of Korea and what goes on, what is known was that it’s history impacting Korea such as the Korean War has ultimately lead it into a divided peninsula. Korea has divided itself into north and south. Though North and South Korea are so close to each other and once one in the same, history has forged several differences from the two countries over the years of its existence. The conflict of Korea has resulted in them both being in an uneasy peace watching the borderline between the two.

On August 4th, 2015, two South Korean soldiers were injured by a North Korean landmine, prompting the South for the first time in eleven years to resume anti-North propaganda broadcast via loudspeakers across the border. These conflicts provoked cross-border fire and heated rhetoric, however China and the United States are usually at the ready to ease friction between the North and South. For the past 60 years the flames of the North and South Korean conflict have kept burning ever since the spark of the Korean War. Although a majority of the fire has been extinguished with the 1953 armistice ending the Korean War, the flames of the Korean conflict still live, causing occasional burns and damage between nations. The political influences of the United States significantly affected the conflict between North and South Korea during the Korean War and have continued to affect this conflict for the past 60 years by means of military involvement, oppression of communism, and conflicting interests with other nations.

In 2000, South Korean president Kim Dae Jung and the North Korean leader Kim Jong Il met for inter- Korean summit. (Jung, Kim Dae) “7.4 Jointment Statement” of 1972 pledged that Korea would work for peaceful reunification. (Korean unification: a new kind of peacebuilding project: Professor Myoung-Kyu Park is the current director of the Institute for Peace and Unification Studies at Seoul National University) Such peaceful reunification would have to follow North Korea’s collapse and its absorption to South Korea. It is difficult to predict when North Korea would collapse, but economic and social problems arising within North Korea provides reasons that collapse is a possible scenario. (Bennett, Bruce W) North Korea is collapsing economically due to crop failures. According to the U.N. Food program, North Korean food stocks are critically low and distribution system is malfunctioning. (Leitich, Keith A) Historically, North Korea has been more industrialized than the South. However, in the 1970s, South Korea’s GDP increased and in 2011, ROK’s GDP grew up to about $31,700, while North Korea’s was about $1,800. As the economy is malfunctioning, North Koreans’ strong belief of Kim family and the government is also collapsing. Despite of North Korea’s effort to prevent citizens from outside informations, people are being exposed to the informations through North Korean defectors and smuggled South Korean dvds. More people are willing to escape from the country as North Korean defectors to South in 2016 increased by 10.9% compared to the previous year. Moreover, as food is in short supply in N. Korea, military is also weakening making it less likely for N. Korea to be able to start a war. (Bennett, Bruce

It is important to understand the history of the Korean War and the leadership of the country to understand how little has changed in the leadership and growth within North Korea since the Korean War, there have been only two Presidents since Kim Jong IL, his son and grandson. Their main goal, after the consolidation of total power has been to build their military strength and somehow become a nuclear power. In 1962 the North Korean leadership committee launched what was called “all fortressization” which called for defending the country by any means (Clemens). They then reached out to the Soviet Union and then to China

It’s hard to image countries struggling to find peace but sometimes this peace is much more than just agreeing. North and South Korea have had a feud for decades more than expected. Now the demilitarized zone, watchtowers, razor wire, land mines divides North and South Korea, tank traps, and extremely heavy weaponry secure the DMZ. North Korea is faced with a tough challenge as being ranked 178th rated country in the world, where as the south is ranked 31st and is more self- sufficient. With the cold war in the hand of the country’s leader the civilian’s lives is dependent on the next move. As peace begins to settle a treaty has still not been signed since the North and South cannot agree on the control of power.

Kim Jong-un, North Korea’s leader, is currently testing weapons of mass destruction and threatening to aim them at the United States. The Democratic Republic of Korea is a communist dictatorship with Kim Jong-un declaring himself the Supreme Leader. The Republic of Korea, otherwise known as South Korea, is a non-communist state with Moon Jae-in as its president. It is a democratic republic with three branches of government. North Korea and South Korea were once one nation under Japan. They are now bitter enemies and have no plan to reunify due to a long history of violence between the two states starting with the end of World War II. The Cold War caused the Korean War and negatively impacted Korea’s development because of the opposing

Moreover, DPRK’s foreign policy since the 1970s focused on forceful unification of Korean Peninsula and spreading communist revolution in the South. It has to be remembered that an official doctrine till the end of the 1970s ideologically and practically postulated communization of the south on the basis of military intervention . Since that time North Korea placed its spies in the East Asia and started sheltering revolutionists and terrorists from all over the world, among others nine members of radical left-wing group called the Japanese Fraction of the Red Army who skyjacked a Japanese airplane to Pyongyang in March 1970 . Furthermore, North Korea has been for many years developing its nuclear program and numerously threatening to use it what obviously attracts attention of the whole world .

     At the beginning, our response to North Korea’s HEU and plutonium programs was very hostile and involved condemning them. Eventually, we took little baby steps to ease the tension. We also agreed to talk to them, but limited the things we could talk about with them. At the very time all of this chaos is happening, our relationship with the South Korea is reaching an all time low.

By choosing this topic, I wanted everyone to be aware of the situation in South Korea. South Korea is a country with many social issues, also one of the countries where the most bullying happens. South Korea struggles to get back on its feet due to some major root problems.