Following World War II, capitalist countries were having tense relations with communist ones and ideological conflict grew to encompass the globe. In an effort to achieve philosophical domination, Russia and China pressured another communist nation, North Korea, to cross the 38th parallel into their neighboring South Korea, a nation supported by the US. This became a major problem and the US had to intervene. War was waged with many countries coming into play. In 1953, however, both sides signed an armistice or treaty to stop fighting. This conflict was the start of the Cold War, and though short, resulted in many effects. The main and problematic effect is that the US is now a sworn enemy of North Korea. And, at their current rate, the North Koreans are advancing towards building missiles with the capability to attack the US. Students should care about this global issue because it deeply affects their safety within the US and will most likely cause problems in the near future.
This story of the division of a nation and the differences between them ideologically begins in the early 1900’s. During this time period and further back, nations around the world were industrializing and becoming increasingly imperialistic; especially Japan. With increasing western abilities to travel long distances across the globe, Japan had begun to feel the power of westernization and entered a period called the Meiji Restoration. One outcome of this move was to go to war with Russia over the Korean peninsula. This was called the Russo-Japanese war and Japan prevailed, imperialistically naming Korea as its own. This situation remained until the end of WWII when Russia and the US, both fighting against Japan, seized Korea and “[reoccupied] the penins...
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...ia of Modern Asia. Ed. Karen Christensen and David Levinson. Vol. 4. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2002. 361-362. World History in Context. Web. 9 Feb. 2014.
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The Cold War was a period of dark and melancholic times when the entire world lived in fear that the boiling pot may spill. The protectionist measures taken by Eisenhower kept the communists in check to suspend the progression of USSR’s radical ambitions and programs. From the suspenseful delirium from the Cold War, the United States often engaged in a dangerous policy of brinksmanship through the mid-1950s. Fortunately, these actions did not lead to a global nuclear disaster as both the US and USSR fully understood what the weapons of mass destruction were capable of.
Tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union had started since the early conference in World War Two and increased further at the War’s conclusion. These tensions developed further during the Berlin Blockade and Airlift during 1948 and 1949, China becoming communist in 1949, and the Korean War between 1950 and 1953. The events, have been labelled as the early crisis of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, and greatly increased tensions between the two superpowers and further led the countries into a Cold War.
The Korean War changed the face of American Cold War diplomacy forever. In the midst of all the political conflict and speculation worldwide, the nation had to choose between two proposed solutions, each one hoping to ensure that communism didn?t sweep across the globe and destroy American ideals of capitalism and democracy. General Douglas MacArthur takes the pro-active stance and says that, assuming it has the capability, the U.S. should attack communism everywhere. President Harry Truman, on the other hand, believed that containing the Soviet communists from Western Europe was the best and most important course of action, and that eliminating communism in Asia was not a priority.
Pearson, Lester B. "Documents on the Korean Crisis." University of Manitoba. January 24, 1951. http://www.umanitoba.ca/libraries/units/archives/canada_war/tribune/website/clippings/korea/Documents_on_the_Korean_Crisis1.shtml (accessed December 18, 2011).
United States involvement during the Cold War began with the Korean War. The War started on June 25, 1950 when troops from North Korea entered the 38th parallel, which was the boundary established after World War II between North Korea and South Korea. The North was supported by the Soviet Union and People’s Republic of China while the South was later supported by the U.S and its allies. Their attack was one of the first military measures of the Cold War (“Korean War”). Once North Korea invaded South Korea, U.S. involvement took place to prevent further communist regime and their involvement aided in several military developments and also left lasting political and diplomatic affects during the Cold War.
Database Center for North Korean Human Rights. "Prisoners in North Korea Today." Detention Facilities in North Korea Today (2011): 173+. NKDB. Web. 8 Apr. 2014. .
North Korea is notorious as the “Hermit Kingdom”. Defensive and secretive to the point of paranoia, its history as well as its present conditions remains shrouded in mystery. What little we do know can be murky at best. The central govern...
North Korea Comments. N.p., n.d. Web. The Web. The Web. 02 Apr. 2014.
Stewart Gordon is an expert historian who specializes in Asian history. He is a Senior Research Scholar at the Center for South Asian Studies at the University of Michigan and has authored three different books on Asia. Gordon’s When Asia Was The World uses the narratives of several different men to explore The Golden Age of medieval Asia. The fact that this book is based on the travels and experiences of the everyday lives of real people gives the reader a feeling of actually experiencing the history. Gordon’s work reveals to the reader that while the Europeans were trapped in the dark ages, Asia was prosperous, bursting with culture, and widely connected by trade. This book serves to teach readers about the varieties of cultures, social practices, and religions that sprang from and spread out from ancient Asia itself and shows just how far Asia was ahead of the rest of the world
This conflict began developing in 1994 when North Korea announced its intentions to withdraw from the NPT. This led to the US and North Korea signing the Agreed Framework. Under this agreement, North Korea agreed to stop its illicit plutonium production in exchange for increased aid from the United States. While this agreement broke down in 2002, the Six-Party Talks restarted the efforts to stop North Korea from gaining nuclear weapons, involving the aforementioned North Korean, South Korea, Japan, China, Russia, and the United States. This le...
Relations between the United States and North Korea have been unstable since the second world war and with each passing decade the relations have become more tense. The U.S has never have formal international relations with North Korea , however the conflict has caused much controversy in U.S foreign policy. North Korea has been the receiver of millions of dollars in U.S aid and the target of many U.S sanctions. This is due to the fact that North Korea is one of the most oppressive regimes on the planet, that uses unjust techniques such as murder, torture, and starvation to get their citizens to be obedient. They restrict contact from their citizens to the outside world, through censorship of technology and rarely allowing visitors to the country. The root of the US-North Korea conflict however ,has been on the basis of nuclear weapons and North Korea threatening to use those weapons against the U.S and neighboring South Korea. The U.S and other nations have been working for the last few decades to stop the regime from purchasing and utilizing destructive nuclear weapons.
.... The two countries are reconnecting rail lines and sent a combined team to the Olympics. Even the United States is providing $500 million dollars a year in food to the starving North Koreans. The new South Korean President, Roh-Moo-hyun was elected on a peace platform and suggested US troops may be gone within ten years. Works Cited North Korean military and nuclear proliferation threat: evaluation of the U.S.-DPRK agreed framework: joint hearing before the Subcommittee on International Economic Policy and Trade and Asia and the Pacific of the Committee on International Relations, House of Representatives, One Hundred Fourth Congress, first session, February 23, 1995, Publisher: U.S. G.P.O.: For sale by the U.S. G.P.O., Supt. of Docs, Congressional Sales Office; http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/2340405.stm http://www.iht.com/articles/95391.html
North Korea’s extremist actions cannot be excused as simply maintaining homeland security. Instead, North Korea has gone and created a dictatorship where citizens are ruthlessly controlled and isolated to avoid the inward or outward spread of facts contrary to the claims of the imperial Kim family. The brainwashing, restrictions on freedom and communication, and exile from the outside world have created a society in which North Korea’s citizens have lost their basic human rights.
From covering Japan’s perilous imperial rule to analyzing Korea’s ambivalent adoption of democratic governance, Modern East Asia explored a broad range of subjects important for one who aspires to understand Asia holistically. Much time was even spent examining China’s horrid history at the hands of foreign meddling, giving insight into a nation feared as the future #1 economic power of the world. Although we covered a broad range of topics, each was given particular attention, never skipping major events or characters which shaped Asia’s history over the last several hundred years. Essentially, this class provided an open atmosphere for students to learn the intricate history of major Asian countries in addition to sharing ideas on the effectiveness of their pre-modern governance.
North Korea is a peninsula made up of mountainous terrain with narrow valleys and has bodies of water on both its eastern and western sides. The western sides are the lowland plains of the country while the eastern side has a narrow coastal region with steep mountains (Korean Cultural Orientation, 2009, p. 5). The country only covers 47,250 square miles and is only about 20 percent bigger than South Korea. The bulk of the population resides on only one-fourth of the land due to the terrain and living conditions (Operational Cultural Awareness Training – North Korea, 2008, p