Koreas: hope after loathing

News Mondays - Hélène Lavoyer

The whole world held its breath last Friday. Koreans in both countries even more so. After having suffered from the numerous battles that took place in the XIX^th and XX^th centuries and after seventy-five years of official separation, the hope of an era of peace and the possibility of collaboration between the two sides now seems realistic.

Kim Jong-Un smiled as he crossed the concrete border between North Korea and its southern neighbor. In a surprising move, the North Korean leader invited Moon Jae-In to do the same. The symbolic force of this act raises hopes of collaboration and peace. We take a look back at this event and the past of the two Koreas.

Victims of international conflicts

The history of Korea, from Korea and its relations, has become involved with multiple external players. It is linked to Japan, Russia, China and the United States. Initially a vassal of the Chinese Empire and advocating an isolationist policy, Korea was able to emerge from its subordinate relationship with China thanks to the Treaty of Ganghwa signed with Japan.

Nevertheless, the peasant revolt in Korea in 1894 forced its king, Kojong, to call on China for help. The Chinese and Japanese were on Korean soil, and neither country was willing to give way to the other. It was here that the first Sino-Japanese war began. A conflict which, like the Russo-Japanese war, took place mainly on Korean soil.

Korea thus seemed to be the victim of external decisions, tossed back and forth between one policy and another, without imposing its own will. Under Japanese protectorate, then fully annexed in 1907, the Korean people suffered from famine and exploitation. At the end of the Second World War, the country was divided between Russia and the United States, which had removed it from Japanese control.

The Korean War

The USSR held the North, the USA the South. Once again, the choices concerning this separation were based on relations between two countries outside Korea: the United States agreed to hold democratic elections in Korea, an event refused by the USSR, which considered this UN proposal to be biased in favor of the United States.

Free elections were held in 1947 in the American-occupied zone. In North Korea, elections influenced by the communist ideology propagated by the USSR brought Kim Il Sung - grandfather of the current dictator - to power.

In a bid to unite the two Korean poles without reaching agreement on who would remain in power, the Korean War broke out in 1950. This was followed by the involvement of foreign troops - notably Canadian, American and Australian - in the conflict, eager to save the southern part of the country. China, for its part, came to the aid of North Korea. At the end of the war, the border stabilized into the one we know today.

Aversion and calm between the two Koreas

Since then, the border between the two states has been heavily guarded and, as the relationship between South and North fluctuates, propaganda against one country or the other either intensifies or subsides. The 2016 nuclear tests, for example, angered the South Korean government, which increased the proportion of «anti-DPRK» messages at the border.

Relations between the two countries, which have turned cold, involve laws that directly concern the inhabitants - notably South Korea's National Security Law, which prohibits any relations between inhabitants of the South and the North without prior government authorization.

Elected in 2017, South Korean President Moon Jae-In used his patience and determination as soon as he was elected. On several occasions, he announced his desire to see relations between the Koreas reach a definitive peace agreement. Already at the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang (South Korea), understanding between the two sides seemed to be improving; representatives of both Koreas marched under the same banner and played together in the women's ice hockey tournament.

Optimistic declaration and shared smiles

The almost diabolical reputation of North Korea's leadership in the West over many years, and its presence in the world's media, partly explains the fascination and interest aroused by Friday's meeting. But the two countries' relations on the international stage - particularly with China and the USA - confirm that this is a meeting of the utmost political importance.

The Panmunjeom Declaration for Peace, Prosperity and Unification of the Korean Peninsula was signed on Friday. The good will of the signatories will be demonstrated on the one hand by the cessation of anti-DPRK leaflet distribution and loudspeaker announcements at the border. On the other, the agreement heralded the end of the Cold War and of hostile acts towards either side. Faced with this historic moment, the whole world was plunged into hope that the contracting parties would keep their promises.

Write to the author : helene.lavoyer@leregardlibre.com