Facultés des Lettres, Arts et Sciences Humaines

Topic
:
North & South Korea: The Origin
L 3 – LVE Department / Linguistics

Presented by:
FOUNA TOUTOU Eli Carel.

MABOUILA MOUKALA Michelle Aïda

MBOSSA – ITOUA Franck Ruben.

Followed by

Dr. MBERY NGAKALA Robson

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Korean is a piece of land full of events. In fact, it is located in the Eastern Asia. It is
a peninsula that is divided into two (02) countries: North Korea (Democratic People’s
Republic of Korea) and South Korean (Republic of Korea). The Korea Strait separates
the peninsula from Japan to the East, and it is also bordered by Russian to the
Northeast and China to the Northwest. This piece of land has an official language,
the Hangul, spoken in both parts by 48 million of South Korean and 25 million of
North Korean. In the following lines, we will be talking about the process that led to
the creation of two countries from one piece of land.

The Invaders
In the late 16th century, 200 years of peace ended with Japanese invasions.
Korea’s Choson and China’s Ming rulers eventually defeated the Japanese, but neither
regained its former prosperity. In 1644, Manchurians invaders overthrew the Ming
Dynasty and established a new dynasty, the Qing. The Qing demanded and received
Korean allegiance as a tributary state.
In 1876, Japan forced Korea to sign the Kanghwa Treaty, giving it trading rights. Soon
other imperialist powers also imposed treaties on Korea.
By the late 1800’s, Japan was expanding its military power in Asia. After the Sino-
Japanese War (1894-5) and the Russo-Japanese war (1904-5), Japan gained a free hand
to expand into the Korean peninsula. In 1910. It ended the Choson Kingdom, annexed
Korea and began a harsh 35-year rule over of the peninsula.
Japanese colonial rule lasted from 1910 to 1945. Japan expanded railroad
transportation so that it could support Japanese military forces fighting China and
Russia. Korean-owned companies were forced to send products like rice to Japan,
causing severe hardships to Koreans. Koreans had to work dangerous jobs under
conditions of forced labor. Culturally, Koreans suffered as well. The Korean language
was forbidden in schools and Koreans had to adopt Japanese names. Thousands of
Korean girls and women were sent to serve as, “comfort women,” or sex slaves for
Japanese soldiers.
During the Japanese colonial period, Koreans struggled at home and abroad to regain
independence. On March 1, 1919, Korean nationalists declared independence, setting
off widespread demonstrations against the Japanese. Koreans refer to these events
as the March 1 Movement. Korean exiles in Shanghai created a provisional
government in China. Koreans in the U.S. raised money to help the independence
movement. Japan responded to nationalist demands with harsh crackdowns, killing
many civilians.

Korea Divided
The division of Korea into the North and South Korea was the result of the allied
victory in the World War II, the cold war, and the conflicting ideologies of communism
and democracy. That is to say, Korea got finally liberated on August 15, 1945, when
Japan surrendered at the end of World War II ended. But the Cold War began, tensions
rose between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. 1945, U.S. policy planners in Washington
D.C. divided the Korean peninsula along the 38th Parallel into two military occupied
zones. U.S. forces would occupy the southern half of the peninsula and Soviet force
the northern half. In that way, the U.S. hoped to prevent Soviets from occupying all
of Korea. The two occupation zones were supposed to be united later on. Instead, the
Cold War deepened the division.
In August 1948, the non-communist Republic of Korea (ROK) in the south was born.
Its first president was Dr. Syngman Rhee. In September 1948, the communist

UMNG / FLASH L3 – LVE Department/ Linguistics

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Democratic People’s Republic of Korea was proclaimed. Its first leader was Kim Il-
sung.
Cold War tensions over Korea erupted into war in 1950 when North Korean forces
invaded South Korea. Aided by the Soviet Union and China, North Korean forces
pushed deep into South Korea. United Nations and U.S. forces commanded by General
Douglas MacArthur helped South Korea drive back the invaders. The Korean War
dragged on until 1953 when an armistice was signed. The fighting cost the lives of 3
million Koreans, about 900,000 Chinese communist and 54,000 American soldiers.
The Korean people had fought the war primarily to reunify their divided country.
However, the war left Korea divided. Two rival regimes in North Korea and South
Korea became heavily armed states and Korea remains a divided land today.

Modern Times
Since 1948, North Korea and South Korea have developed along very different lines.
Communist North Korea became a socialist state ruled by a totalitarian dictator, Kim
Il-sung. In the 1960’s and 1970’s, it achieved steady economic growth. However, this
growth then stagnated due partly to Kim Il-sung’s strict policy of juche, or self-
sufficiency. Under this policy, North Korea rejected foreign assistance, preferring
instead to create a generally isolated itself from the world. North Koreans were not
allowed to travel abroad and received little or no information about the world except
what the government chose to give.
Since the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union in the early 1990’s and Kim Il-
sung’s death in 1994, North Korea has experienced many setbacks. Since the mid-
1990’s, it has suffered from floods and droughts that have caused one of the worst
famines in this century. Because North Korea is a closed society, no one knows how
many millions of people have died from starvation and disease. International relief
agencies have been allowed to provide some aid, but their access has been limited.
South Korea has offered help, but North Korea has been reluctant to accept it. Today,
North Korea remains a closed country with an economy on the edge of collapse and
struggling to survive.

South Korea, too, has faced a sometimes rocky path since 1948. In general, it
backed the principles of democracy, open diplomacy and free enterprise capitalism.
At times, however, it was ruled by military dictators. During the 1960’s, under the
military dictator Park Chung Hee, South Korea achieved what has been called the
miracle on the Han River. The country transformed its war-ravaged agricultural
economy into an industrial giant. By the 1980’s and 1990’s, its automobile and
electronics exports were known around the world.
The Republic of Korea successfully hosted the 24th Summer Olympic Games in Seoul
in 1988. In 1992, South Korea celebrated a return to civilian democracy when it
conducted free elections. Kim Young Sam became the first civilian president in 32
years. Today, the ROK has diplomatic relations with about 150 countries, including
Russia and China. With a 90 percent literacy rate, South Koreans enjoy the highest
level of education in the world. About 20 percent of South Koreans hold college
degrees.
South Korea supports the arts and intellectual pursuits. Its strong commitment to
preserving traditional arts and crafts has resulted in renewed interest in maedup
(knot-making), traditional music and paper crafts. it has worked to preserve historic
landmarks, including royal burial mounds, palaces, fortresses, Buddhist temples,
academies and traditional villages with artisans and their crafts.
Modern art is also thriving. Corporations support artists with gallery spaces and
exhibitions. Women writers have experienced commercial and critical success and
they are a significant presence in the modern art scene. Pak Kyong-ri’s The Land is
UMNG / FLASH L3 – LVE Department/ Linguistics
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considered one of the most important Korean novels in this century. The Land is a
historical chronicle about a traditional land-owning family before, during and after
the Japanese occupation. It deals with cultural conflict between the values of old
Korea and those of the modern world.
South Korea’s economy experienced a severe setback in 1997. The spreading Asian
financial crisis caused many South Korean banks and businesses to collapse. These
economic setbacks are seen as temporary. The government undertook major reforms.
Amid the economic turmoil, a new president with an impressive pro-democracy
record, Kim Dae-jung, was elected. Appealing for national unity, President Kim
brought together representatives of labor, business and government to discuss the
economic situation and to plan for the future. His goals are to reestablish South
Korea’s economic stability and continue dialogue with North Korea.
The reunification of South Korea and North Korea has remained the ultimate goal of
all the Korean people since 1945, when the country was divided against its will by
foreign powers.

To some, Korea has known deferent periods of conflict that led to the creation
of two distinct countries: North Korea and South Korea. It’s obvious that the major
part of conflict raised in this piece of land aims at the reunification of the form
unified country.

UMNG / FLASH L3 – LVE Department/ Linguistics