preview

Professor Myoung-Korean Jointment

Better Essays

After Japanese surrender in 1945 that ended WWII, the Allies agreed to temporarily divide Korea into Republic of Korea (ROK) and Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) with the right of ROK occupation given to the U.S. and DPRK to the Soviet Union. The two great power had significant political influence on the countries they occupied. In August 1948, ROK’s leader Syngman Rhee and DPRK’s leader Kim Il Sung proclaimed to each have its own sole government. DPRK invaded ROK in 1950 starting the Korean war that lasted from for 3 years. Despite U.S.’s aid to ROK and China and Soviet Union’s aid to DPRK, none of the two countries won. Korea eventually got divided at the 38th parallel line with the armistice agreement in 1953. (Leitich, Keith …show more content…

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

Get Access