TIME: Almanac 1995

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<text id=93CT1748> <link 90TT3147> <title> Korea, North--History </title> <history> Compact ALMANAC--CIA Factbook East Asia North Korea </history> <article> <source>CIA World Factbook</source> <hdr> History </hdr> <body> According to legend, the god-king Tangun founded the Korean nation in 2333 B.C., after which his descendants reigned over a peaceful Kingdom for more than a millennium. By the first century A.D., the Korean Peninsula, known as Chosun ("morning calm"), was divided into the kingdoms of Silla, Koguryo, and Paekche. In A.D. 668, the Silla kingdom unified the peninsula. The Koryo dynasty (from which derived the Western name "Korea") succeeded the Silla kingdom in 918. The Yi dynasty, which supplanted Koryo in 1392, lasted until the Japanese annexed Korea in 1910. Throughout most of its history, Korea has been invaded, influenced, and fought over by larger neighbors. Korea was under Mongolian occupation from 1231 until the early 14th century and was devastated by a large number of Chinese rebel armies in 1359 and 1361; Hideyoshi launched major Japanese invasions in 1592 and 1597. To protect themselves from such frequent buffeting, the Yi kings finally adopted a closed-door policy, earning Korea the title of "Hermit Kingdom." Although the Yi dynasty paid nominal fealty to the Chinese throne, Korea was, in fact, independent until the late 19th century. At that time, Japanese, Chinese, and Russian competition in Northeast Asia led to armed conflict. Having defeated its two competitors, Japan established dominance in Korea. The Japanese colonial era was characterized by tight control by Tokyo and by ruthless efforts to replace the Korean language and culture with those of the colonial power. Japan formally annexed Korea in 1910. At the April 1945 Yalta Conference, the United States and the Soviet Union agreed to establish a joint trusteeship for Korea. The trusteeship was intended as a temporary administrative measure, pending democratic elections of a Korean Government. To effect the Japanese surrender after the war the United States proposed--and the Soviet Union agreed--that Japanese forces surrender to U.S. forces south of the 38th parallel and to Soviet forces north of that line. In the North, the Soviets initially transferred the administrative powers of the former Japanese colonial government to "people's committees," and later to a five-province administrative bureau, under the nationalist, Cho Man-Sik. Cho was later purged for opposing the decision of allied foreign ministers at the Moscow Conference for a 5-year trusteeship, during which a Korean provincial government would prepare for full independence. The joint Soviet-American commission provided for by the Moscow Conference met intermittently in Seoul but deadlocked over the issue of free consultations with representatives of all Korean political groups for establishment of a national government. In September 1947, the United States submitted the Korean question to the UN General Assembly. Korean Conflict The Soviet Union and the Korean authorities in the North refused to comply with the UN General Assembly resolution of November 1947, which called for UN-supervised elections throughout Korea. Elections, nonetheless, were carried out under UN observations in the south, and on August 15, 1948, the Soviet Union established the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in the north under Kim Il Sung, a former guerrilla who, after fighting against the Japanese in Manchuria during the 1930s, served with the Soviet Army in the Far east during World War II. Although Kim claimed authority over the entire peninsula, the UN General Assembly, on December 12, 1948, declared the Republic of Korea the only lawful government in Korea. Sporadic guerrilla fighting between South and North Korea intensified during the spring of 1948. After the United States withdrew its military forces from Korea in the spring of 1949, border clashes commenced. On June 25, 1950, North Korean forces invaded South Korea. In response, the United Nations, in accordance with the terms of its Charter, engaged in its first collection action, establishing the UN Command (UNC), to which 167 member nations sent troops and assistance. At the request of the UN Secretary General, the United States, which contributed the largest contingent, led this international effort. UN forces initially fell back to the Pusan perimeter but, after a successful surprise landing at Inchon, rapidly advanced up the peninsula. As the main UN force approached the Yalu, large numbers of Chinese"people's volunteers" intervened, forcing UN troops to withdraw south of Seoul. The battle line fluctuated back and forth until the late spring of 1951, when a successful UNC offensive was halted to enhance ceasefire negotiation prospects. The battle line thereafter stabilized north of Seoul near the 38th parallel. Armistice negotiations began in July 1951, but hostilities continued until July 27, 1953. On that date, at Panmunjom, the military commanders of the North Korean People's Army, the Chinese people's volunteers, and the UNC signed an armistice agreement. Neither the United States nor South Korea is a signatory of the armistice per se, although both adhere to it through the UNC. No comprehensive peace agreements has replaced the 1953 armistice pact, which remains in force. Thus a condition of belligerency still exists on the divided peninsula. A Military Armistice Commission composed of 10 members, five appointed by each side, supervises implementation of the armistice. The armistice called for an international conference to find a political solution to the problem of Korean's division. This conference met at Geneva in April 1954 but, after 7 weeks of futile debate, ended without agreement or progress. Reunification Policy North Korea has pursued its goal of reunification by regular and irregular military measures, by terrorism, and by negotiations. Military Measures. North Korea took no military action during the political turmoil in the South in the early 1960s, but subsequently perpetrated a number of violent acts directed both at U.S. and South Korean forces and South Korean Government officials. These efforts included the 1968 infiltration into Seoul by a 31-agent team, which attempted to assassinate President Park Chung Hee; the seizure 2 days later of the U.S.S. Pueblo in international waters and the subsequent imprisonment and torture of its crew; and the shooting down in 1969 of an unarmed U.S. EC-121 reconnaissance aircraft in international airspace. In 1976, North Korean troops wielding axes wrested from an UNC work party, killed two U.S. Army officers in the DMZ. In the early 1970s, as the North scaled back its sabotage and infiltration efforts against the South, it began a major long-term conventional military buildup. The extent of this buildup went undetected until the late 1970s. The disparity between the North and South Korean forces, which resulted from this military expansion, led the U.S. Government in mid-1970 to cancel further planned withdrawals of U.S. ground combat forces from South Korea. The comparative military balance continues to favor the North. The North has more than 1 million armed personnel, compared to about 630,000 in the South. North Korean forces are well equipped and have a substantial advantage (approximately 2 or 3 to 1) in several key categories of offensive weapons--tanks, long-range artillery, and armored personnel carriers. The North has perhaps the world's second (after the Soviet Union) largest commando force (55,000) designed for insertion behind the lines in wartime. North Korea now has the fifth largest army in the world. It also has more than twice as many combat aircraft as the South, although South Korean-U.S. forces have a slight qualitative edge. North Korean exercises suggest an impressive sophistication in terms of joint and combined forces operations. In addition to their size and capabilities, factors of time and distance compound the challenge posed by North Korean forces. The North (and the South) deploys the bulk of its forces well forward, along the DMZ. Over the last several years, North Korea has moved even more of its rear echelon troops to hardened bunkers closer to the DMZ. Given the proximity of Seoul to the DMZ (some 25 miles), South Korean and U.S. forces are likely to have little warning of any attack. Consequently, a high state of readiness is required at all times. The United States and R.O.K. continue to believe that the U.S. troop presence remains an important deterrent against North Korean aggression. Recent North Korean infiltration efforts include construction of several military tunnels under the DMZ. This tunneling effort continues. Terrorism. North Korea also is believed to have dispatched the assassin who, while attempting to kill President Park in 1974, killed Mrs. Park. In October 1983, North Korean Army officers set off a bomb in Rangoon, Burma, killing 17 members of an official South Korean delegation and four Burmese. Although former President Chun Doo Hwan escaped harm, four South Korean cabinet ministers and several senior advisers were among those slain. Most recently, on November 29, 1987, two North Korean agents sabotaged a Korean airliner (KA-858) causing the death of all 115 persons on board. Negotiating efforts. Throughout the postwar period, both Korean Governments have repeatedly affirmed their desire to reunify the Korean Peninsula, but until 1971 the two governments had no direct, official communications or other contact. In August 1971, North and South Korea agreed to hold talks through their respective Red Cross societies with the aim of reuniting the many Korean families separated following the division of Korea and the Korean war. Following a series of secret meetings, both sides announced, on July 4, 1972, an agreement to work toward peaceful reunification and an end to the hostile atmosphere prevailing on the peninsula. Officials exchanged visits, and regular communications were established through a North-South Coordinating Committee and the Red Cross; however,the two sides made no substantive progress. These initial contacts broke down and ended on August 13, 1973. The breakdown reflected basic differences in approach, with Pyongyang insisting on immediate steps toward reunification before discussing specific concrete issues and Seoul maintaining that, given the long history of mutual distrust, reunification must be a gradual, step-by-step process. South Korea maintains that a meaningful dialogue should be basedon de facto recognition of each other's existing political, social, and economic systems. South Korea supports the recognition of both Koreas by the major powers in the region (United States, U.S.S.R., P.R.C., and Japan) and the admission of both Koreas to the United Nations, pending peaceful reunification. North Korea rejects these ideas, although it applied for UN membership in 1949 (following the lead of the R.O.K.) and supported a Soviet Union draft in 1957, resubmitted in 1958, which called for "simultaneous UN admission." The North now argues that this proposal would perpetuate the peninsula's division. Tension between North and South Korea increased dramatically in the aftermath of the October 9, 1983 Rangoon bombing. North-South sports talks the following spring broke down in acrimony over Rangoon; Pyongyang ultimately boycotted the Los Angeles Olympics in a show of support for the Soviet Union. South Korea's suspicions of the North's motives were undiminished by Pyongyang's proposal for "tripartite" talks on the future of the Korean Peninsula. This initiative, made public on January 10, 1984, called for negotiations with the United States, in which "South Korean authorities" would be permitted to participate. The North's tripartite agenda would include replacing the armistice agreement with a peace treaty, providing for withdrawal of all U.S. troops, and drafting a declaration of non-aggression between North and South. North Korea's offer to provide relief goods to victims of severe flooding in South Korea in September 1984, and South Korean acceptance, led to revived dialogue on several fronts--Red Cross talks to address the plight of separated families, economic and trade talks, and parliamentary talks. In January 1986, the North unilaterally suspended all talks, arguing the annual R.O.K./U.S. Team Spirit military exercise was inconsistent with dialogue. The North also announced a unilateral moratorium on large-scale military exercises and called upon the United States and R.O.K. to do the same, which responded by reiterating their longstanding offer to allow D.P.R.K. officials to observe Team Spirit and by proposing prenotification of military exercises. These proposals were rejected by the North, and, in 1987, the North resumed large-scale exercises. In a major new initiative on July 7, 1988, South Korean President Roh Tae Woo called for new efforts to promote South-North exchanges, family reunification, inter-Korean trade, and contact in international forums. He also said South Korea was willing to cooperate with the North to promote relations with the United States and Japan and that the South would seek better relations with the U.S.S.R. and China. North Korea initially responded negatively, calling it a "splitist" proposal designed to legalize a two-Koreas policy. President Roh's initiative provided renewed momentum to South-North dialogue. Later in July 1988, the National Assemblies of each side exchanged letters over the South's request to discuss participation in the 1988 Summer Olympics. (North Korea, which had demanded to cohost the games and had rejected Seoul's offer to host five events, declined to participate and asked fellow socialist countries to join a boycott. Only seven obliged.) Small parliamentary delegations met at Panmunjom several times from August to December in an inconclusive attempt to arrange a joint meeting of the two assemblies, to which each had agreed in principle. The North insisted the assemblies adopt a mutual nonaggression declaration; the South argued that this was properly the role of the executive branch. At year's end, when the two sides were nearing agreement on an agenda and arrangements for a joint session, the North introduced a new demand to discuss the annual U.S.-R.O.K. Team Spirit military exercise. In early February 1989, North Korea refused to attend further preparatory meetings until Team Spirit ended. The Roh and Chun administrations have repeatedly suggested a summit meeting with President Kim to discuss any and all proposals, an agreement to normalize inter-Korean relations as a step toward reunification, and other specific measures to reduce tensions and promote humanitarian and cultural exchanges. President Roh, in a speech to the UN General Assembly in October 1988, offered to go to Pyongyang at any time to discuss any issue, including North Korea's call for a mutual declaration of nonaggression. In turn, Kim Il Sung has periodically reiterated proposals for a North-South confederation, first proposed in 1960. In his September 9, 1988 National Day address, Kim Il Sung repeated that a summit must first take up the confederation plan and withdrawal of U.S. Forces. In his 1989 New Year's address, Kim suggested that Roh come to Pyongyang as a party head in a group with southern opposition and dissident leaders. In early 1989, as other dialogue proposals made little progress, both sides expressed hopes for high-level talks headed by the respective prime ministers. Two preliminary meetings to discuss arrangements were held in February. In other forums, the two National Olympic Committees met to discuss forming a joint team for the 1990 Asian Games in Beijing. But in April, North Korea suspended both sets of talks, blaming South Korea's arrest of a dissident clergyman who visited North Korea without government approval. Following the R.O.K. Government's 1988 decision to allow trade with the D.P.R.K., South Korean firms have begun to import North Korean goods, all via third-country contracts. The D.P.R.K. has denounced and denied this trade. By contrast, the North Publicized a late January 1989 visit by Hyundai founder Chong Chu Young as well as the protocol he signed to develop tourism and other projects in the North. In April 1989, these projects were put on hold amidst the acrimony following the dissident clergyman's visit. Source: U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Public Affairs, July 1989. </body> </article> </text>