Korea, between the devil and the deep sea

he Korean people are probably one of the most unfortunate people on earth. Today the US -a country half a world away from the Korean peninsula- and a so-called ally of South Korea is threatening a nuclear attack and the total destruction of North Korea and its people because the American President says his country feels threatened by a few nuclear weapons held by the North Korean regime.

For over a century the peninsula has been the battleground of imperial powers.  However, it was in the twentieth century Korea faced its darkest period.  Under Japanese imperialist rule (1910 to 1945) -in the aftermath of Japan’s defeat of Russia for control of the peninsula. As Hitler attempted to wipe out the Jews and their culture during the Nazi era in Germany, from 1937 and into World War II, Japan attempted to exterminate Korea as a nation.  

Participation in Korean cultural activities became illegal. Worship at Japanese Shinto shrines was made compulsory for Koreans. School curriculums were modified to eliminate the teaching of the Korean language and history.  The Korean language was banned, Koreans were forced to adopt Japanese names, and newspapers were prohibited from publishing in Korean.

Korean cultural artefacts were destroyed or taken to Japan.  Imperial Japan looked on Koreans as less than human forcing its women into positions of sex slaves to gratify the imperial army’s sexual appetites.  But as Hitler failed in his attempt to exterminate the Jews, imperial Japan too failed in its evil designs.  

However, even its military defeat and the nuclear bombing of Japan by the Americans failed to alter Japanese attitudes toward the Korean people. Even as late as during the mid-nineteen-seventies planeloads of Japanese men would fly to Korea on what was then referred to as ‘sex tours’. 

When the Japanese Empire was dismantled at the end of World War II, Korea fell victim to the wiles of the Cold War antagonists -the US and the then USSR.  The country was divided at the 38th parallel into two spheres of influence - Americans controlling the south formed the Republic of Korea and the USSR installing a communist regime under Kim Il-Sung in the North.  

Both regimes claimed sovereignty over the whole peninsula.  In 1950 Kim Il-Sung attempted to unify Korea under communist rule. He launched an invasion of South Korea and captured most of the south.  The United Nations intervened at the behest of the US, authorising a US-led force to intervene in the conflict.  While UN intervention was conceived as a means of restoring the border at the 38th parallel, US General Douglas MacArthur Commander in Chief of the UN forces said he intended to unify Korea not just drive the North Korean forces back behind the border.  

As the North Korean forces were driven from the south, South Korean and the US forces crossed the 38th parallel on 1 October. Other UN forces followed a week later.  This drew China, which had warned US forces against crossing the 38 parallel into the conflict.   As US-led forces pushed into North Korea, China unleashed a counter-attack which drove the US and its allies back into the south.  

The Korean Armistice Agreement was signed after three years of war. A 4-km-wide buffer zone between the states, known as the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) was set up.   By the time an armistice was signed in July 1953, around 2.5 million persons had died. It is estimated over a one million were Koreans.  Since the armistice, the US set up a permanent garrison in South Korea.  

The entry of foreign forces into what was basically a Korean problem, the resultant civilian deaths caused by the US bombing of North Korea during the ‘Korea War’ led to North Korea seek a deterrent to prevent any future US-led invasions of Korea.  Thus began North Korea’s nuclear programme.  Today North and South Korea are in independent negotiations to unite the peninsula.  May the Trump’s and Abe’s of this world keep their fingers out of the Korean pie.