GlobalConflict

AssignmentBy Alexander Bruce

Since the Korean Peninsula was divided into two verysimilar countries in 1945, North and South Korea, how

have the differences that occur today developed?

The Korean Peninsula

Since the Korean Peninsula wasdivided into two very similarcountries in 1945, North and South Korea, how have the

differences that occur today developed?

In 1945 at the conclusion of World War II (WWII),the Korean Peninsula was taken from the control of the Japanese (who had ruled there from 1910) by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR)and the United States of America (USA). It was agreed upon in Egypt during the Cairo Conference from the 22nd to the 26th of November 1943 to divide the Korean Peninsula in two, at the 38th Parallel. The North would be controlled by the USSR and the South would be controlled by the USAuntil such a time where the two areas could form a provincial government and this arrangement wentinto effect on the 15th of August 1945. From this point onward, the two Koreas were formed, North Korea and South Korea.

In 70 years, how have these two, near identical countries, created the differences we see today? There are many reasons for these differences, including their spheres of influence, support content and intention, their leaders’ ideology and objectives, North Korea’s continuous

The North KoreanFlag

The South KoreanFlag

excessive military expenditure, the two countries’ constitutional make up linked with thefactors effecting their development and North Korea’s political dominance in society.

Firstly, the spheres of influence that North Korea (officially the Democratic Peoples Republicof Korea or DPRK) and South Korea (officially theRepublic of Korea or RK) were placed under at theconclusion of WWII, had an immense influence on the course they took, which in turn, helped create the differences we see today. During the period when North Korea and South Korea were in their infancy, the Cold War, the great ideological battle between Capitalism and Communism, was just beginning. Post WWII tensionswere at a high with the dissolution and distribution of the German, Italian and Japanese territory on the discussion table of the USA, USSR and other allied forces.

As mentioned earlier, North Korea was under the control of the USSR and South Korea was under thecontrol of the USA. It was inevitable that the USSR would put a pro-communist leader in place inNorth Korea, Kim Il-Sung, and it was also inevitable that the USA would put a pro-capitalist leader in place in South Korea, Syngman Rhee. Both these leaders were under the close observation and support of their

controlling superpower, meaning they were forced to stick to the ideology of that superpower, withthe discontinuance of their support a constant threat. South Korea was forced into Capitalism and North Korea was forced into Communism.

The support given by the USSR and USA differed heavily in both content and intention, which affected the early development of North Korea andSouth Korea. We can see the kind of support thesecountries would’ve received by observing the USSR’s and the USA’s actions in previous international situations.

During the Spanish Civil War from 1936 to 1939, the USSR supported the Republicans, the Communistside in the war. The USSR only gave its military support in exchange for gold so when the Republicans ran out of gold, Joseph Stalin recalled his troops and theNationalists, the Fascist side in thewar, won. This is an example of howlittle Stalin and the USSR cared aboutother Communist countries. Stalin andhis successors just wanted to exploitSpain and other Communist countries forresources in order to sustain the USSR,and they did the same thing with NorthKorea.

At the conclusion of WWII, the USA funded many countries that had been affected by the War (now known as the Marshall Plan), including Belgium, France, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Funds were even given to countries the USA had been fighting for the 6 years prior, including

A poster promotingthe Marshall Plan.

Austria, West Germany (now capitalist, under the USA’s control) and particularly Italy. Even Communist countries were offered the money, however the USSR made them decline. The USA gave US$17 billion (approximately US$160 billion in the modern day) in aid to support and rebuild European countries whose infrastructure and economy had been damaged during WWII.

Obviously, something was expected in return, mainly support in the Cold War, howeverthe aspect of the USA to be seenhere is the amount of money theyhad and how strong their economywas. President Harry Truman (in power from 1945 to 1953) made a speech in 1947 (now known as theTruman Doctrine) wherein he convinced the Congress to give US$400 million to prevent Greece

and Turkey from falling into Communist rule. This spread of Communism became known as the Domino Theory wherein if one state in a region came underthe influence of communism, then the surrounding countries would follow.

These are two examples of firstly, the wealth of the USA and secondly, the extent they would go toin order to prevent the spread of Communism. Truman and his successors wanted Greece, Turkey and other Capitalist countries to prosper and actas support during the Cold War to prevent the spread of Communism and they did the same thing with South Korea. Upon comparing the support given by the USSR and USA in previous

The Domino Theory.North Korea is

depicted as one of the

international situations, we can observe how heavily they differed in both content and intention, which affected the early development of North Korea and South Korea.

Secondly, the ideology and objectivesof both Kim Il-Sung and Syngman Rhee,greatly affected the course theircountries took, which in turn, createdsome of the differences we see today.Two of these such differences are theCorruption Index Ranking (CIR) and thePress Freedom Index (PFI), which willbe explained later. When the KoreanPeninsula was divided, both countries were very unstable in the power struggle occurring. As a result of this, both Kim Il-Sung and Syngman Rheewere placed in control with authoritarian rule.

Syngman Rhee had a nationalistic ideal and intention and when the country was stable enough, he introduced a democratic system wherein the people elected their leader. Kim Il-Sung had an elitist ideal and intention and progressivelysuppressed the people in order to create a small ruling elite. This elitist ideal has led to the suppression and exploitation of the

Syngman Rhee

people of North Korea, which explains two vast differences in the countries statistics.

The first of these is the Corruption Index Ranking (CIR). South Korea is ranked 45th where asNorth Korea is ranked 175th, joint worst with Somalia and Afghanistan. The second is the PressFreedom Index (PFI). South Korea has a score of 50 where as North Korea has a score of 178. The corrupt North Korean government is using the press as a means of propaganda, to sustain the elitist system initiated by Kim Il-Sung. These extraordinary statistical differences can be attributed to the ideology and intentions of North and South Korea’s leaders. Syngman Rhee andKim Il-Sung chose the course their country would take and their decisions have assisted in the creation of the vast differences we see today.

Kim Il-Sung also had one incredibly big impact onsome specific statistics we see today. South Korea’s population (approximately 49 million) is nearly double that of North Korea (approximately 25 million). Despite this,North Korea’s active military(approximately 1.19 million)is nearly double that of SouthKorea’s (approximately 655000). This statistic is almostunbelievable. North Korea hasthe 4th largest active military inthe world, yet it has apopulation size not much bigger then Australia’s.The amount of people per 1000 capita in the army in North Korea is 312.7 in contrast to South Korea’s 103.1. Nearly ⅓ of people in North Korea

Kim Il-Sung

The North KoreanArmy

are in the army. The reason for the North Korean unique emphasis on military personnel can be attributed to Kim Il-Sung.

When Kim Il-Sung took control of North Korea, it was only 5 years later when he invaded the South,starting the Korean War (1950 to 1953), the firstmilitary conflict of the Cold War. In those 5 years, he had put an immense focus on the military in order to build it up and invade the South. This was not without the encouragement of the USSR, who were wanting to expand Communism inorder to have more trading options for both importation and exportation. When his invasion attempt failed, Kim Il-Sung continued building upthe army. This was mainly to enforce his suppression of the people of North Korea, the military being a means to do so. It can be safelyassumed that he intended to invade South Korea again at some point, but perhaps he also enjoyed showing off to the world North Korea’s military might. This is an excellent example of how the ideology, intentions and even ego of Kim Il-Sung,differing to Syngman Rhee, has led to an immense difference between North and South Korea in the modern day.

Thirdly, North Korea’s continuous excessive military expenditure has led to the formation of some specific statistics that we see today. This risible percentage of North Koreas GDP being allocated to military (22.3%, in comparison to South Korea’s 2.8%) has led to the repeated extraction of funds from the healthcare system.

This has had a huge effect on the health of the North Korean people in contrast to the South Korean people. The average South Korean (79.3 years) can expect to live 10 years longer than the average North Korean (69.2 years). The InfantMortality Rate per 1000 live births in North Korea is 26.21, nearly 6 times that of South Korea (4.08). These statistics of North Korea areanalogous to that of a third world country and the reason for them can be attributed to poor, inadequate healthcare systems as a result of lackof funding. Until the government starts spending less on military and more on healthcare, the North Korean people will continue to suffer and their statistics will continue to, not only not improve, but continue to regress and decline.

Furthermore, the factors that affect both North and South Korea’s development differ as a result of their constitutional make up. As the 1900’s saw the transition from colonialism to globalization, so too did the way in which countries develop transition. During the colonialera, a country’s development was dictated by the nature of the relationship between that country and others.

However, as the world progressed from the colonial era to the globalization era, the factors that dictated a country’s development were altered. Not only did a county’s relationship with other countries dictate the development within (akin of the colonial era),

but other external influences started to affect its development as well. These external influences include international governmental organisations such as the United Nations (U.N), the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (N.A.T.O) and the World Trade Organisation (W.T.O), International Economic Entities such as Transnational Corporations (T.N.C), the World Bond Market and other finance markets, Trade Blocs and Global Civil Society.

The political system used inNorth Korea is the Juchesystem or Kimilsungism. Jucheliterally translates to ‘Self-reliance’ and is a subset ofCommunism. The Juche systemwas formed by Kim Il-sung,hence, egotistically,Kimilsungism and itincorporated Joseph Stalin’s‘Socialism in One Country’ andthe traditional Korean and Japanese emphasis on ancestor worship.The Juche system shares much more of a resemblance to the colonial era rather than the globalization era when concerned with the aspectsaffecting development. It prevents all the external influences having an effect on the development of the country and limits it to the nature of the relationship with other countries, hence North Koreas label, the Hermit Kingdom. Thesystem is designed to prevent globalization dictating a country’s development.

The Juche Tower inPyongyang, the capitol,one of the few things lit

Kim Il-Sung’s heir and son, Kim Jong-Il, transformed the idea of Juche or Kimilsungism into a social movement in 1974 by, again egotistically, launching the ‘Kimilsungism-ization of the Whole Society’ campaign and announcing this as the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea’s (DPRK) foremost ideological line. This campaign aimed to make all the people ‘Kimilsungists’ who would be eternally and endlessly loyal to the ‘Great Leader’ (Kim Il-Sung’s title).

Since North Korea has become a Juche society, it has prevented all the external influences having an impact on its development and has limited it to the nature of the relationship with other countries. During and after the Cold War, Communist countries could only trade with other Communist countries, meaning the only thing left dictating North Korea’s development was restricted to two countries, the USSR and the People’s Republic of China (PRC). When the USSR collapsed in 1991, this limited North Korea to only trade with China, leaving it very isolated, however in recent times, they have started trading with South Korea. By not trading with therest of the world, North Korea is preventing itself from using a valuable source of income. The country has many exportable natural resourcessuch as coal, lead, tungsten, zinc, graphite, magnesite, iron ore, copper, gold, pyrites, salt,fluorspar and hydropower. North Korea has many more exportable natural resources then South Korea yet, if we compare the amount of money the two countries receive from these exports we see how little the North is taking advantage of them.

South Korea receives $557.3 billion where as North Korea receives only $3.954 billion.

This limitation on trade has also prevented the proper importation of adequate food, necessary for population growth. Countries have a limited amount of agricultural land and North Korea is already quite a small country already (approximately 122 762 square kilometers), with only 19.08% of its land being arable (in contrastto South Korea’s 14.93%). It is vital that a countries government imports food to sustain its population and, more importantly, its population growth. North Korea has its trade restricted to the PRC and South Korea, meaning the amount of food able to be imported is limited. This explains North Korea’s Global Hunger Index (GHI) score of 19 in comparison to South Korea, which doesn’t have a GHI score as it is classed as an 'Industrialized Country'. This also explains why 35% of North Koreas labor force is in the agricultural sector, in contrast to South Korea’s6.9%, with such a heavy need to produce food for their isolated nation-state.

The final reason why the two countries differ so heavily is North Korea’s political dominance in society. Nation-States can be divided into three aspects. These are the political, economic and social. For effective development and function asa society, it is vital that these three aspects cooperate and work in collaboration in order for a country to develop.

In South Korea, these three aspects do cooperate and work in collaboration, however in North

Korea, this is not the case. The elitist system in place prevents the cooperation of the three aspects. The political aspect uses the military and law to dominate and condition the social and economic aspects.

The Juche system in effect has done two things todisrupt the three aspects of society cooperating.Firstly, it has, like all Communist systems, banned the practice of religion. Religion is a vital part of society and provides a very basic freedom, a freedom the North Korean people do nothave or enjoy. Secondly, the Juche system, like all Communist systems, ensures all money goes to the state. A famous quote from a fully employed worker in the USSR is ‘We pretend to work and thegovernment pretends to pay us.’ Public ownership of the means of production removes the incentive for workers to try and succeed. Promotions mean nothing, as wages are not increased.

We can see the effect this has when we observe the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita. South Korea has $32000 where as NorthKorea has $1800. TheJuche system ensuringall money goes to thepossession of thestate removes theincentive for theNorth Korean people towork, which in turn,leads to economic

recession. South Korea, however, implemented market reforms early on and its economy and output per person then started consistently rising. After years of market-based growth, we see the highly developed South Korea we know today.

In 70 years, North Korea and South Korea went from being near identical countries, to having created the vast differences that we see in the modern day. Many reasons assisted the creation ofthese differences including their spheres of influence, support content and intention, their leaders’ ideology and objectives, North Korea’s continuous excessive military expenditure, the two countries’ constitutional make up linked withthe factors effecting their development and NorthKorea’s political dominance in society. Upon observing these factors, we can see how the differences between North and South Korea we see today have developed.

By Alexander Bruce.

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Dear Leader by Jang Jin-Sung

Special thanks to Mr Bernard Harris and Mr Marco Scali who assisted me with their Geographical andHistorical knowledge on the subject and their accessibility to primary sources, articles and other useful resources. Thank you very much.

By Alexander Bruce.