North Korea History

Once a unified country with an independent monarchy, Korea came under strong Japanese influence in the latter part of the 19th century (see Republic of Korea section for more details of pre-1945 history). Japanese forces occupied the country in 1905 and formally annexed it five years later, deposing the emperor in the process. Korea remained under Japanese control until the end of World War II when the Japanese were driven out by Soviet and US forces. In a manner similar to post-war Germany, Korea was divided into military occupation zones along the 38th parallel (line of latitude). The former Soviet Union withdrew from the North in 1948, having overseen the creation of a Democratic People’s Republic and ensured the pre-eminence of the communist Korean Workers’ Party (KWP) in the country’s political life.

The North aspired to reunify Korea under communist rule and, in 1950, supported by the Chinese communists who had taken power the previous year, invaded the South. US and other allied forces joined the South to repel the invasion. After three years of bitter fighting, the existing North-South division was restored and an armistice signed between the two Koreas. A demilitarised zone was created, across which the two sides – with backing from their respective superpower supporters – have traded little more than insults ever since. The DPRK was ruled from 1948 until his death in 1994 by Kim Il-Sung, known publicly as ‘The Great Leader’, as the head of the ruling KWP.
Under his rule, North Korea was regimented to an extraordinary degree and all but hermetically sealed from the outside world. The country was governed according to the tenets of juche, Kim Il-Sung’s idiosyncratic philosophical cocktail of Stalinist orthodoxy, ultra-nationalism and quasi-religious mysticism. The death of the Great Leader in July 1994 brought to power his son, Kim Jong-Il, who carries the moniker ‘The Dear Leader’. Under the new regime, the North Koreans have slowly opened up to the world. As well as a natural desire for a rapprochement with the South, northern attitudes have been driven by the economic crisis – manifested by serious food shortages – which followed the collapse of trade with the former Soviet Union at the beginning of the 1990s. Aggravated by crop failures, the crisis has meant that since 1995, several parts of the country have suffered from persistent serious food shortages. Tens of thousands of North Koreans have died of starvation or sought refugee status over the Chinese border.

The gradual, often imperceptibly slow thaw in North-South relations can be traced back to 1970 when Kim Il-Sung formally decreed reunification as an objective. Unfortunately, the truculent and often belligerent behavior of the North Korean government has not helped. Moreover, the attitudes of old allies in Beijing and Moscow, who saw more to gain by developing their relations with the rest of East Asia, has not worked to the North’s advantage. Most importantly, the North’s determined pursuit of its nuclear and ballistic missile programs created much international suspicion and hostility, especially in the USA. In 1994, Pyongyang agreed to cease nuclear activities but suspicions remained that they continued in secret. In 2002, President George W. Bush described North Korea as a part of the so-called ‘axis of evil’ whose posture and activities are considered a threat to the new world order. Later in the year the North Koreans admitted that they had broken their earlier promise. Yet the American reaction was relatively mild, especially when compared to the pressure applied to Iraq over the same issue.

Part of the reason for US moderation concerns the attitude of the South, which is driven, in part, by the wish of many thousands of families to be reunited after the post-war division of the peninsula. Several isolated initiatives had been undertaken since the 1970s, but the issue was near the top of the agenda when Kim Jong-Il and the South Korean leader Kim Dae-Jung met in Pyongyang in June 2000. This historic summit was deemed a considerable success, although the task of reconciling – let alone reuniting – these two former antagonists remains a formidable one.

Since then, North Korea has come blinking into the light of international diplomacy, holding a flurry of meetings in the nine months from October 2000 with the USA, the EU and others. The USA is the key, however, as North Korea is desperate for aid from the international financial community, and needs US acquiescence.

Government
The country is ruled by the Korean Workers’ Party. The popularly elected Supreme People’s Assembly is constitutionally the highest organ of the state, but real power lies with the Standing Committee of the Party Central Committee Politburo.

Economy
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has a Soviet-style command economy based on heavy industry. The country has rich mineral deposits, including most of the major base metals, as well as gold, silver and tungsten. Since the main industrial infrastructure was developed in the 1950s, development resources have gradually shifted to light industry and latterly concentrated on automation and modernization.

A serious loss of trade with the former Soviet Union precipitated Korea (Dem Rep)’s economic decline during the 1990s. Estimated at 4% per annum, this contraction was compounded by a series of serious floods. Although most evidence is anecdotal (in the absence of detailed official information) it is clear that the North Korean people have recently suffered severe shortages and, in some areas, starvation.

The North Koreans have yet to adopt political or economic reforms on the scale seen in China, the Russian Federation and Eastern Europe. China is the most likely model, but so far Korea (Dem Rep) has gone no further than devaluing the Won (a largely artificial measure since the Won is not convertible) and cutting the subsidies on some basic goods.

Pyongyang has pinned its hopes on an improvement of relations with the South. There is US$300 million of trade between the two countries, conducted at present through intermediaries. In August 2003, an economic and trade agreement was signed under which South Korean companies manufacture products in the North (where labor costs are much lower). The major obstacle is political: Washington is still hostile to Korea (Dem Rep)’s nuclear ambitions.


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