Conflict in North Korea

Although Korea was founded around the time of Christ, it remained fractured into two or three regions until the early 900's. Korea then enjoyed a long period of unification which lasted almost 1000 years (the Koryo and Choson dynasties and the short-lived Korean empire).

On August 22, 1910, Korea was colonized by Japan with the acquiescence of the British and other western powers, who at the time were busy colonizing other parts of the world.  When Japan surrendered in 1945, at the end of World War II, the allies divided Korea into a northern region, protected by the Soviets and a southern region protected by the Americans. For three years these two regions tried and failed to form a unified government, and conflicts developed along the border.  After a further two years of tension and fragile relations, the Korean civil war broke out on June 25, 1950.

On July 27, 1953, the Korean Armistice Agreement was signed to "insure a complete cessation of hostilities and of all acts of armed force in Korea until a final peaceful settlement is achieved." Sixty four and a half years later, the North and South Koreans still have not made a resolution, and officially the war continues. There has not been a major outbreak of hostilities for several years. This is clearly an example of negative peace because even though they agreed to not fight each other, there are still active propaganda campaigns, missile tests, military drills, spying on each other, threatening violence, and developing new and sophisticated weapons. The reason why they develop new weapons is just in case they need to full out attack each other.

Now, living conditions in North Korea are very bad for the civilians. The types of civilians have been divided in to three groups: loyal, wavering, and hostile. To keep people from disobeying the law, there is a strict prison rule known as the “three generation rule” meaning that if one person goes to jail, their children and grandchildren are also forced to spend their whole life in jail. prisoners in jail are made to work twelve hours a day for seven days a week. 

In North Korea, the ruling class and elites get to enjoy basic modern benefits, such as indoor plumbing, cars, meat, coffee, and few luxury items. People in the middle class receive enough food to survive, and occasionally get new clothing. However, the majority of the people are struggling to survive. There is a population of 24 million people and half of them live in extreme poverty, and one third of the children suffer from malnutrition. North Korea’s annual GDP per capita is 1,800 dollars, which is only 2 percent of what South Korea has.


Works Cited:


McKirdy, Euan. “North Korea Accepts South's Offer to Meet for Talks.” CNN, Cable News Network, 5 Jan. 2018, www.cnn.com/2018/01/04/asia/north-korea-south-korea-talks-intl/index.html.

“Korean Armistice Agreement.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 6 Feb. 2018, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_Armistice_Agreement. 


A Timeline of Korean History | Asia for Educators | Columbia University, afe.easia.columbia.edu/timelines/korea_timeline.htm. 


https://borgenproject.org/living-conditions-in-north-korea/

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