Korean War

In 1945, Korea was freed from the Japanese but the Us troops stayed in Korea until 1946. Korea itself was split in half on the 38th parallel. The north was ruled by Kim Il-Sung and was a communist (it still is) and the southern part of the peninsula was ruled by Synghman Rhee and was and still is a capitalist. The two countries hated each other. Communists came not only in power in Europe but were steadily spreading towards the Far East as China turned communist in 1949. President Truman, who was interested in the Far East, believed that if one country turned communist, others would follow. This is the socalled Domino effect. He was worried that if Korea fell, Japan would take control of it. Truman realised that the US was actually in a race towards world domination with the USSR(Union of Soviet Socialist Republics). He thought that if they would support South Korea, they would be able to fight communism without attacking Russia directly. In 1949, Kim Il-Sung went to visit Stalin and persuaded Stalin that he could conquer South Korea. Stalin thought that the US wouldnt dare to get involved so he agreed to help. This way Stalin could continue the cold war and discomforting the Americans without confronting them directly. Kim Il-Sung also visited the leader of China for extra back-up. In 1950, Synghman Rhee boasted(to speak with pride) that he would attack North Korea; this was a good excuse for North Korea to invade South Korea. The North Koreans attacked on 25 June 1950. They were very successful as the North Korean People's Army (NKPA) easily defeated the Republic of Korea's army (the ROKs).They managed to capture most of South Korea. On 15 September, the American General MacArthur led an UN amphibious landing at Inchon (near Seoul) behind the NKPA . The Americans drove them back and recaptured South Korea and 125,000 NKPA prisoners were taken. MacArthur invaded North Korea on 7 October 1950. He managed to get as far as the Chinese border. On 25 November, 200,000 Chinese troops ('People's Volunteers') attacked MacArthur. They had modern weapons which were supplied by the Russians. Then half a million more Chinese troops entered the war and attacked the Americans on the 31st December. They drove the Americans back (using 'human wave tactics'). They recaptured North Korea, and advanced into South Korea. The Americans landed more troops and used bombers. MacArthur reached the 38th parallel in March 1951. Truman told MacArthur to stop. MacArthur was sacked when he publicly criticised Trumans order. In 1953, Eisenhower became American president. The Americans threatened to use the atomic bomb if China did not stop fighting. The Chinese agreed to a truce (peaceful solution), which was signed on 27 July 1953. The war isnt over yet and there are still troops on each side of the border.

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After the Korean War

Shortly after the armistice was signed, a border was drawn. Neither of the countries gained a lot more land and as the war wasnt ended yet they both guarded the border by stationing troops. The border, called the Military Demarcation Line (MDL), has on both sides a Demilitarised Zone (DMZ). The DMZ runs close the 38th parallel and covers about 248 kilometres and while American and South Korean soldiers are patrolling on the southern side of the DMZ, North Korean soldiers are patrolling on the northern side. Since Korea is divided, many tried to infiltrate or just cross the border. Even tunnels were made but most of the attempts failed.

Leaders North Korea

North Korea has had a communist hereditary dictatorship as a government since the war, which means that the presidents are all from the same family. The first president who also founded the North Korean government was Kim Il-Sung. It was his initiative to invade South Korea. He also used to be the party chairman of the Workers Party of Korea and the Prime minister. Kim Il-Sung was succeeded by his oldest son Kim Jong-Il. He died at an age of 84 with a heart attack as the cause. Kim Jong-Il has quite a lot of official titles like the Supreme Commander of the Korean Peoples Army and the Eternal General Secretary of the Workers Party of Korea. He died from a heart attack too and was succeeded by Kim Jong-Un, his third son.

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Korea nowadays
The two countries still hate each other as the war is technically still going on. Nevertheless, the two countries did develop differently as North Korea has a communist government with their flag containing the star standing for communism and South Korea with their capitalist government and a flag symbolising peace and harmony. South Korea has flourished into a prosperous country with a good economy, high level of technology, democracy and other factors to have a developed society. South Korea had one of the fasted growing economies and also one of the Asian Tigers. It has also experienced high immigration rates as ethnic Koreans want to return to their homeland. North Korea has a whole different face as it has the least open economy and therefore suffers great losses due chronic economic problems. It has a terrible economy as the citizens are starving while high government officials are building villas for themselves. They still dont let foreign press into the country and if it happened to be that one entered, Kim Jong-Il used to kidnap them. There isnt a lot of information yet about how Kim Jong-Un reacts to foreign press. A good thing about North Korea is that they have decided that they should focus on improving the citizens livelihood and the economy.

North Korea

South Korea

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Sources
http://uk.ask.com/wiki/Korean_War http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Jong-il http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Il-sung#Works http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Korea http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Division_of_Korea www.globalsecurity.org/military/index.html http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/korea.htm http://www.koreanwar-educator.org/topics/dmz/index.htm https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/kn.html

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