The Not-So-Demilitarized Zone

Soldiers still patrol Korea's DMZ

A two-and-a-half-mile-wide expanse of bunkers, mines, and barbed wire still carves the Korean peninsula in two. Talks in Beijing today between North Korea, South Korea, Japan, China, Russia, and the United States probably won't change that--or, say many experts, much of anything else.

North Korea wants fuel, food, and a security guarantee. The United States wants a "complete, verifiable, and irreversible" end to North Korea's nuclear programs. Nobody wants to blink first. So much for "juche." And what is "juche" anyway?

North Korea's "Juche"

The story of modern North Korea begins with Japan. In the early 20th century, the Japanese empire saw Korea as a stepping-stone to an invasion of China. So Japan annexed Korea in 1910, while the world turned a deaf ear to Korea's calls for help.

The Japanese dealt harshly with their new subjects, and many Koreans fled to Manchuria. Among these were the parents of a boy called Kim Song Ju, who would later join the Korean resistance movement and become a legendary guerrilla fighter under the name Kim Il Sung.

Rebirth of a Nation (or Two)

Once Japan was defeated in World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union agreed to jointly accept the surrender of Japanese forces in Korea: the Americans south of the 38th parallel and the Soviets to the north. As in Europe, this line of control soon became a border between countries.

In 1948, two Korean governments were set up: a communist government in the north and a UN-sanctioned government in the south. The Soviets, who had taken Kim Il Sung to Russia for training, brought him back to Korea amid much fanfare and installed him as the head of the communist government.

Give War a Chance

With the South Korean government in place, the United States began sending its soldiers home. Meanwhile, the North Koreans were preparing for war, with help from China and the Soviet Union. On June 25, 1950, the North invaded, and the poorly prepared South Korean military proved no obstacle. The UN voted to condemn the invasion and authorized force to resist it. U.S. President Harry Truman ordered American forces to halt the communist advance.

Seoul fell on June 28, but combined UN forces under General Douglas MacArthur steadily pushed the North's army back all the way to the Chinese border. The tide turned when China took an active part, sending 1.2 million troops across the border and pushing the lines back south of Seoul. Again the tide turned, and UN forces drove the Chinese north of the 38th parallel.

The war dragged on until 1953, until finally the two sides agreed to freeze the battle lines--still close to the 38th parallel--as the division between the two countries. Three years of war had taken almost 3 million lives and left Korea more or less as it had been at the start.

The Great Leader's Juche

After this, Kim could have little hope of reunifying Korea by force. As part of the armistice, the United States had agreed to sign a mutual defense treaty with South Korea. To this day, more than 30,000 U.S. troops remain there. So, turning his attention back to his own country, Kim crushed all opposition and celebrated himself as the "Great Leader" of the Korean people.

Kim was unhappy with the idea of relying on foreign countries for anything. So he developed a philosophy of juche (pronounced "joo-chay"), or self-reliance: "autonomy in ideology, independence in politics, self-sufficiency in economy, and self-reliance in defense."

The early returns looked good. The North Korean economy grew rapidly in the 1950s and 1960s while the population boomed. Over the years, however, foreign aid from China and the Soviet Union dried up, and the economy sank under the weight of military costs and too great an investment in heavy industry. By the early 1990s, North Korea was having trouble feeding its own citizens.

Like Father, Like Son

By then, there was a new Kim in town: Kim Jong Il, the son of Kim Il Sung. In 1980, the elder Kim had established a dynasty by designating his son as successor and appointing him to powerful positions in the army and government. When the elder Kim died in 1994, Kim Jong Il took power. Some thought that the younger Kim might support reform and pursue a more open foreign policy. Their hopes were in vain.

When, in 1994, the world discovered that North Korea was using a nuclear reactor at Yongbyon to develop weapons-grade plutonium, Kim Jong Il agreed to shut the reactor down in exchange for fuel oil and two light-water power plants. Secretly, though, North Korea resumed its nuclear weapons program at another site. Later, in 1998, North Korea launched a ballistic missile over Japan as a thinly veiled threat and demanded a similar deal for ending its missile exports.

The 1994 deal collapsed completely in October 2002, when North Korea's secret nuclear weapons development came to light. The United States suspended delivery of fuel oil, and North Korea expelled UN observers and restarted the Yongbyon plant.

Reunification or Bust?

Despite its bluster, these are dire times for North Korea. China and the Soviet Union are the only major allies North Korea has ever had. But the collapse of communism in Russia has estranged the North's relations with that country, while China is increasingly reliant on trade with South Korea.

A North Korea that continues to chase after juche could find itself completely isolated. And a desperate and unstable North Korean regime in possession of nuclear weapons could ruin the neighborhood all over again.

Want to learn more?
Explore North Korea at PBS.org
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/asia/northkorea/map.html