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What if I make all my post titles into predictable puns? Will you still read this? If you do, I probably won’t respect you.
I talked about this with North Korea, but to recap: Korea was one whole but repressed nation for over a century, until World War II ended, and Soviet forces took North Korea while the United States occupied South Korea. The idea was that this would be temporary until Korea could unite as an independent country, but as they were governed so differently, an uncrossable rift formed. (More on that from the Library of Congress if you’re interested) So that all led to the Korean War which ended in 1953, although since there was no official declaration of peace, the Korean War actually lasted over fifty years. Technically.
What marked South Korea’s development most throughout the second half of the 20th century was the development of the economy through industrial conglomerates like Samsung and Hyundai. (These, when owned by a family, are called chaebol.)
Currently South Korea has the thirteenth largest economy in the world, and the third in Asia, although they are still at risk in the global economic crisis. Relations are still terrible with North Korea and the border between the two–the demilitarized zone, or DMZ–is the most heavily guarded in the world. The US has thousands of troops there, but has been moving them out.
Lee Myung-bak has held the position of President of the Republic of Korea since his election in February 2008. His main focus is on economy reforms. He popularity and support dropped drastically in the middle of last year as a result of his decision to import US beef. This was a big deal because of mad cow disease.
Mostly: Source.
There is a wall I hit every day that I’m really learning something. It happens right when I have gotten just enough information to see the depth of what I don’t know. And with North Korea, it’s a big wall. Hence the learn one new thing. I’m trying to avoid being overwhelmed. I just want to be… whelmed.
Korea was one whole country for ages and ages until the 19th century when it was taken over by Japan. The worst part of this was 1910-1945 when it was annexed by Tokyo, and Korean culture and language were suppressed. When Japan was defeated in WWII, the US occupied the southern half of the country, and Soviet forces moved into the northern half.
Because of the differences in governing styles, irreparable damage was done to the link between the two halves of the country. When Kim Il-sung came to power, he focused on strengthening the military, and eventually attempted to “liberate” the south by imposing Soviet values. Thus the Korean War.
Under Kim Il-sung, North Korea drew further from Western countries, and became a strongly militarized state, to the detriment of the economy. As the world changed and communism fell in Europe and Russia, North Korea lost trading partners. A lot of people fled to China.
The past fifteen years have seen Kim Il-sung’s son rise to power, consistence in military strength, and the beginning of a threatening nuclear program. More on all that later.
As always, BBC makes me understand other countries better.
stupid american 