Abrar Fahim(22201689)
History
Rewinding about 110 years. It’s 1910. Japan just annexed the
Korean peninsula. The Korean peninsula was effectively one nation of Korea but
it was colonized by Japan. A country that had huge potential. Fast forward 35
years. End of the second world war. The USA and The USSR jointly fought against
the Japanese imperial army in the pacific and on the Asian landmass
respectively. This halted the Japanese expansion in towards the Asian
continent. And USA and USSR liberated the Korean peninsula too, in that
process. What happened afterwards shaped the modern day states of South Korea and
North Korea. The two dominant powers which survived after the second world war
were USA and USSR. So obviously after the war, the whole world was like a
chessboard to them and they just started carving out territories for fun. So in
1945, after the war, when it was time to settle the Korean peninsula, the two
biggest powers came to an understanding. That both USA and USSR will control
respectively the South and the North side of the peninsula. South will be
capitalist backed and North will be communism backed. And this settlement would
stay for 5 years, which effectively ends in 1950.
This
division was done by the Americans, to keep Seoul in their territory. Which is
called the 38th parallel.
But the leader of the Russian occupied communist North Korea, Kim-IL-Sung had
other ideas. He wanted to bring the whole of Korean peninsula under communist
regime. For that he asked for help from the most obvious guy, Joseph Stalin. The
conversation between the Korean ruler and Russian overlord Joseph Stalin over
telegram is now declassified. And you can read all that
right here. Moving on, if you read those papers, you will know that
Joseph Stalin was indeed in favor of a unified communist Korea, but was afraid
of the backlash from the USA. Also, China was in the midst of a civil war, so
not much of a support to count on. All this was in 1949. Then in 1950 after the
Chinese communist party won the civil war under Mao Zedong and USSR had the atomic bomb up their sleeves,
Stalin gave the green signal to Kim IL sung to move forward. Somehow he wasn’t expecting any resistance
from the Americans. This is where he knew, he messed up. Harry S. Truman, then
president of the USA, rallied the US troops, UN peacekeeper troops, and marched on towards the 38th parallel. What happened afterwards is something that will always be remembered
as the bloodiest proxy war after the Vietnam war in the 1960s. Russia and China
backed North Korea, and UN and USA backed South Korea. The next three years completely
decimated the Korean peninsula. But I will concentrate on the Northern side of
things. USA at that time had aerial superiority. And to stop the communist
advancement in its tracks, they bombarded everything that moved. Villages,
infrastructure and especially dams. Which would flood the supplies and bases of
the enemy troops. This bloody war was going nowhere. And after three years of
fighting, they finally signed a ceasefire in 1953. They took the frontline of
the time, backed up two kilometers on both sides, and made a four kilometer
buffer zone, which is also called the demilitarized zone or DMZ.
Now, South Korea was bombarded too, Seoul was a pile of
dust. But I am emphasizing on the North because how they’re people remembered
it. The South moved on from these atrocities, USA catered them,
placed nuclear weapons to raise their confidence against the threat, and today
South Korea is a thriving nation. While on the other hand, the North Koreans
remember this war with hatred against the USA, fueled by the anti capitalist
ideals of the USSR and the North Korean government, the people never really moved
on from the horrors of the Korean war. They still have the PTSD of the bombs flying above their head. And the administration is making it more obvious. The memories
of how vulnerable North Korea was against the US bombardment, still haunt them
today. And in that regard, they still ready themselves and constantly push
themselves to be ready for whenever USA attacks again. USSR was helping North Korea
grow with this sentiment. But after the fall of the soviet union, the North Korean
government carried it on themselves. There is a museum in capital Pyongyang,
which shows the atrocities and the violence caused by the American soldiers. Every year students are to go to this museum and see what the Americans did to their
ancestors. This view being instilled in a tender age makes them more Anti-USA. All
of which is unnecessary.
What
is inside is something I don’t feel appropriate for post up front. If anyone is
willing to find out more then the door is open. North Korea holding this grudge
has crippled their economy, their foreign relations, the nation is deteriorating.
Goes to show why holding on to stuff might just never help.
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