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The North Korean Conflict First Draft
The North Korean Conflict First Draft
Zayra Mojica
Abstract
With recently opening up to the world, the knowledge and ongoing history of North
Korea has been kept secretive for decades. The knowledge of its society, economy, government,
and current situation overall has been unknown to the general public. Their conflict with the US
has always been known of, but their reasonings and struggles have been unknown to everyone
around the world. Many believe North Koreas only ally is China, and why that maybe true, no
one knows the exact reasoning for it other than their both communist countries. The purpose of
this literary review is to define the situation inside of North Korea, with focusing on its
relationships with China and the US, its influences to its economy and society, to understand and
North Korea has been seen as a secretive communist country by everyone around the
world. After the Korean War ended on August 10th, 1945, it caused Korea to split into two, the
North and South Korea we know today. Up until the last few decades North Korea has been in
isolation, this unfamiliarity with the country has caused the entire world to view it with
uneasiness.
Economically, the country heavily depends on Chinese imports to survive (Wolf, 2005).
The country is known to be one of the strictest dictatorships of this time. In the more recent years
North Korea has been enforcing their advancement on nuclear technology. By having nuclear
weaponry as on option for their defense, theyve become a bigger threat to the entire world. With
the recent US presidency of Donald Trump, the relationship of both countries has seemed to
escalate beyond proportion. The purpose of this literary review is to define the situation inside of
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North Korea, by focusing on it economically, on its allies and enemies in order to comprehend its
actual intentions. For these reasons debate continues over how big of a threat South Korea
actually is, it deserves serious consideration through the review of these three questions:
3. What are some differences an Underdeveloped country like North Korea, may have when
These questions will narrow the purpose of this literature review by using background
information the intentions, involvement of its allies and enemies, and the cause and effect of this
After Korea was split into two, North Korea has always seen the United States of
America as a threat. The way the USA brought down socialism in the former Soviet Union,
Eastern Union, and as speculated sooner or later North Koreas own Government (Park, 2000,
pg. 534). North Korea has only viewed the US as its only threat, in fact because of this it has
been normalized in North Korean society. In their eyes as a society, the USA can attack its
country at any given point in time. Because of this North Korea heavily bases its economy,
politics, and strategies around its military force for their own protection.
North Korea is known to be one of the most intensely organized societies in the world
and in history. People live simple, hardworking lives; in fact a Korean defector had come out to
say we were closer to our work colleagues than to our own husbands. (Soh, 2017, Pg. 232). In
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this society based around working, even households are limited to how much food they consume
a day.
Because North Korea is still living with the same technology from the 1940s, they lack
the knowledge and ability to take care of their own society. Depending on the amount of people
living in a household, and everyones position in that household it determines the amount of food
they get. Office workers get 700 grams of grain, Manual workers get 800 grams of grain, and
Children only get 300 grams of grain. (Soh, 2017, pg. 233). This amount gives the entire society
enough to stay alive but overall malnourished. For that reason North Korea depends on other
countries for edible and non-edible resources to survive. Countries like China, Russia, South
Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, Canada, France, and Germany all give aid to North Korea in one
way or another.
China is known to be North Koreas biggest ally, while it supports North Korea, it still
makes a lot of business working for other countries like the USA, Taiwan, Switzerland,
Australia, Brazil and South Korea. With China being North Koreas largest trading partner and
donor of aid, they end up losing a lot of money trying to support North Korea. North Korea only
pays back about a little more than half of the amount they are given (Wolf, 2005, pg. 13). They
make their money by exporting military products, electrical power machine building, chemicals,
and mining.
After the Border trade was revived in 1982, it caused the submergence of Chinese good
all across North Korea (Soh, 2017, pg 234). Goods from China spread illegally by underground
trading that routed from the borders of North Korea all the way into the centers of the country.
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On Figure 1, there is a chart that shows the Import, Export, and Trade deficits of North Korea.
The amount of Exports greatly surpasses the amount of Import, meaning that North Korea is not
making as much money selling their goods, as the amount they are spending to pay other
Source: Wolf, C., & Akramov, K. (2005). Size, Growth, and Structure of the North Korean
Unification(pp. 9-20). Santa Monica, CA; Arlington, VA; Pittsburgh, PA: RAND Corporation.
With the submergence of more Chinese groups in North Korea, North Koreans have
become more knowledgeable on what happens in the outside world. Because of this more North
Koreans have planned to escape to China. When North Korean defectors are caught theyre
either deported back to North Korea or are forced to become slaves, whether it involves being
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forced into manual labor, or even being sold off to sex trafficking and even marriage (North
Korean Defectors, 2016). Many North Korean women are often kidnapped and sold to Chinese
men, as sex slaves or even brides. With the over population of men China has, they lack the
Another reason China supplies North Korea is because its the only other communist
country that is around its border. If North Korea was taken over and turned into a socialist
country, China would be only surrounded by socialist countries. China would rather have a
violent and questionable ally near them, then to be completely surrounded by enemies (Albert,
2017). Ever since the Korean War happened, and the US has been fighting communism, China
and North Korea have been allies. Korean troops helped Chinese troops fight against American
troops. The struggle North Korea, and China faced against the US, has kept both communist
What are some differences an Underdeveloped country like North Korea, may have
The country of North Korea has been isolated for the last 50 years. It is believed to say
that during this time it has not advanced from the technology that they had in the 1940s. While a
developing country like the US, has been in the leading league for technology. The difference of
50 years of isolation has made a giant gap between these two countries.
The societies of both countries are centered on different things. North Koreas society is
based around having a strict, organized, military based society. The North Korean public is
trained and tested to always be ready for a war to break out. As for the society of the US, it is
based on many different things, like the integration of different cultures, technology, education,
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entertainmentetc (Gomez, 2017). North Korean citizens dont have the same freedom US
citizens have.
Another factor that differentiates both countries is the concept of communism and
capitalism. North Korea is a strictly communist country, while the US follows a more
independent, democratic concept as a country. North Korea leader, Kim Jong-Un uses his
authoritarian power to limit the knowledge of his country about the outside world (Cuellar,
2017). With the lack of ability to learn about the world, North Koreans are involuntarily only
able to believe the things they are told about. Because of this Kim Jong-Un influences the
opinions of his citizens with propaganda. While in the US, Americans have the technology and
ability to learn about all the different countries around the world. Americans, in a way are able to
The work force of both countries varies a lot in comparison. North Koreas economy is
known to be divided into three sectors. The primary sector is made up of agricultural, mining,
and factory work, the defense sector is based on the military work, and the court economy, that
consists of providing goods and services for North Koreas elites and economy (Wolf, 2005, pg.
12). As for the US, it has a mixed economy, which focuses on a free enterprise system. It
focuses on the concept of public ownership, and because of this it is hard to break the system
Conclusion
In conclusion, this literary review has analyzed and answered many questions concerning
the current situation of North Korea, and the reason it has turned into the country it is today. As
time goes on the situation of North Korea changes by the way it interacts with other countries
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like China, and the US. Will China ever stop supporting North Korea? Will North Korea ever
attack the US and vice versa? As of now, these questions will remain unanswered. As more time
and research is needed to keep up with its ever changing conflict. North Korea is the perfect
example of what a communist, dictated country, thats on the verge of ceasing to exist. North
Korea is more than just a communist country, waiting to start a war any chance it gets, but a poor
nation, being led by the wrong person that is keeping it from expanding into its full potential.
References:
Albert, E. (2017, September 27). Understanding the China-North Korea Relationship. Retrieved
Bong, Y. (2017). Continuity Amidst Change: The Korea United States Alliance. In WESLEY
M. (Ed.), Global Allies: Comparing US Alliances in the 21st Century (pp. 45-58).
www.jstor.org.lib.utep.edu/stable/j.ctt1sq5twz.7
Cuellar, N. (2017, October 21) Q & A: The North Korean Conflict. (El Paso Community
Gomez, J. (2017, October 19) Q & A: The North Korean Conflict (University of Texas at El
Goo, Y., & Lee, S. (2014). Military Alliances and Reality of Regional Integration: Japan, South
Korea, the US vs. China, North Korea. Journal of Economic Integration, 29(2), 329-342.
Kim, J., Gershenson, C., Jeong, J., & Smith, T. (2008). Trends: How Americans Think about
North Korea: 2000-2007. The Public Opinion Quarterly, 72(4), 804-821. Retrieved from
http://0-www.jstor.org.lib.utep.edu/stable/25167667
North Korean defectors sold as brides in China want to get their children back. (2016, September
korean-defectors-sold-as-brides-in-china-want-kids-back/
Park, K. (2000). North Korea's Defensive Power and U.S.-North Korea Relations. Pacific
& SOH E. (Eds.), New Worlds from Below: Informal life politics and grassroots action in
twenty-first-century Northeast Asia (pp. 227-248). Acton ACT, Australia: ANU Press.
Wolf, C., & Akramov, K. (2005). Size, Growth, and Structure of the North Korean Economy.
Unification(pp. 9-20). Santa Monica, CA; Arlington, VA; Pittsburgh, PA: RAND
www.jstor.org.lib.utep.edu/stable/10.7249/mg333osd.11