TRANSITION, INDEPENDENCE, AND CIVIL WAR

Military Government

At the Cairo Conference of 1943, the leaders of the United States, Great Britain, and China declared that "mindful of the enslavement of the people of Korea, (we) are determined that in due course Korea shall become free and independent." The Soviet Union agreed to it in 1945. Later that year at the Yalta Conference, it was decided to split the Korean Peninsula at the 38th parallel to effect the surrender of Japanese troops south of the parallel by the U.S. army and north of it by the Soviet army. Later, a joint trusteeship of Korea by the U.S., Soviet Union, Great Britain, and China was proposed, on the premise that the Koreans lacked the mechanisms and political sophistication to govern themselves. Although the surrender of the Japanese army was carried out as planned, the trusteeship was never implemented.

Defeat in WW II ended Japan's 36-year occupation of Korea, but it did not, to the extreme regret of the Koreans, fulfill their hope of achieving immediate independence. U.S. and Soviet military governments were established in their respective sectors of the peninsula until countrywide elections could be held and a Korean govemment instituted. The artificial split of the country-never meant to be a political or permanent measure-and its control by foreign powers precluded Korean say in what happened to the peninsula immediately after the Japanese departure. The U.S. military government concerned itself primarily with immediate stability and basically carrying on the administration set up by the Japanese, while the Soviets were probably more farsighted in their goal of establishing a government in their own image. Split in two, the north was primarily industrial and the south agricultural. Neither sector was self-sufficient, so both were infused with economic aid. A joint U.S.-Soviet commission on Korea met in 1946 (P'yongyang) and 1947 (Seoul) to discuss what was to become of this orphaned country. No agreement on unification could be reached, and talks were not resumed.

In 1946, the Provisional People's Committee for North Korea was established under Soviet auspices as an interim government; the follow?ing year it was renamed the People's Committee of North Korea. In 1947, the South Korean In?terim Legislative Assembly was formed as a provisional government under the supervision of the United Nations. That same year, the U.N. General Assembly resolved to conduct supervised elections on the peninsula. The Soviets, however, would not permit election officials into their half, so in May 1948 elections were held only in the south. The first National Assembly convened in May and the constitution was adopted in July, followed three days later by the election of Syngman Rhee as president. On 15 August 1948 the Republic of Korea (Taehan Minguk) was officially founded, recognized by the U.N. as the only legitimate government of all Korea. The following month, with the blessing of the Soviet Union, North Koreans formally set up their own government in P'yongyang. Headed by Kim II-song (and under his control until his death in 1994) it was named the Democrat?ic People's Republic of Korea. Both sides claimed to be the sole legitimate government of the Korean people, and each said it would fight to regain control of the whole country.

By mid-1949 U.S. troops were withdrawn from the southern half-Russian troops having already left the north-with only a small contingent left as military advisers to the fledgling South Korean army. North Korea, with aid from both Russia and China, was able to rebuild its industrial base and create an effective military organization more quickly than the south. Three important factors, then, led to the civil war the world knows as the Korean War: the North Korean military was much better equipped, there was strong sentiment to unite the land, and U.S. Secretary of State Acheson publicly stated (mid June 1950) that the Korean Peninsula was out of the U.S. perimeter of defense in Asia.

Korean War

Heavily armed and led by a phalanx of tanks, the Soviet-trained and -equipped North Korean army crossed the 38th parallel in the early morning of 25 June 1950 and invaded South Korea. War was on. Prior to the invasion, periodic conflict occurred along the border; neither side seems blameless in its provocation of the other, and each added to the tension, distrust, and climate of uncertainty. As this border was an artificial creation of foreign powers, the North Koreans denied it was an invasion, insisting their action was meant to reclaim what was rightfully theirs. South Korea naturally saw this differently, but its poorly armed military was no match for North Korean troops. Within days Seoul fell; preceded by fleeing citizens, South Korean troops made a strategic retreat. A special session of the United Nations approved U.N. intercession (the Soviet Union-which would have vetoed the action was boycotting U.N. sessions for other reasons). Fifty-three U.N. member nations gave weapons, medical supplies, backup support, and money to South Korea; 16 countries pro?vided troops. By far the largest supplier of troops and armaments was the U.S., whose com?manding officer was military commander of all U.N. operations.

North Korean troops continued to push south until September, when they were stopped by South Korean and U.N. troops at what became known as the Pusan Perimeter, a line of defense that ran north from Masan, up and around Taegu, and over to a point south of P'ohang. This southeastern corner of the country was the only area never overrun by North Korean troops. In September, General Douglas MacArthur gambled on an amphibious invasion at Inch'On and a concurrent movement of troops up the east coast to break North Korean supply lines to the south. The now famous Inch'On land?ing seemed a harebrained idea, so preposterous that most military leaders argued heavily against it, yet it went like clockwork and was a resounding success. Troops defending the Pusan Perimeter were able to break out, capture thou?sands of North Koreans, and push into North Korea. By November nearly all of North Korean territory had been taken and some U.N. troops were at the Amnok (Valu) River. Fearful that U.N. forces would cross into Chinese territory as Gen. MacArthur had urged, the newly estab?lished People's Republic of China sent troops to help the flagging North Korean army. With this horde of humanity crushing against them, the U.N. troops were forced back. Much of the heaviest fighting of the war took place that winter in the cold northern mountain regions; the U.N. troops suffered some of their most devastating defeats and highest casualty rates.

By spring 1951, this conflict came to a stalemate at roughly the 38th parallel. On 23 June, the U.N. Security Council president, the Soviet delegate, proposed a cease-fire. Negotiations began on 10 June at Kaesong, in territory held by North Koreans. After a brief renewal of hos?tilities, negotiations resumed at P'anmunjom. During these talks, both sides increased their strength, consolidated their positions, and dug in; several devastating battle also took place, including the infamous Heartbreak Ridge, Punch Bowl, and Porkchop Hill. Cease-fire negotiations continued until 27 July 1953, when an armistice was agreed on.

Signed by the heads of the U.N., North Korean, and Chinese armies, the armistice was only a military agreement that formally ended the hostilities. President Syngman Rhee refused to sign, and South Korea has never been a signatory. The agreement provided for a cease fire line (drawn roughly along the last point of contact between the opposing forces, representing the de facto border between the two countries) flanked by a four-km-wide Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), and a bureaucratic structure to implement the armistice. It was not a peace agreement, and there has never been a political or diplomatic solution to this festering problem. However, such talks have taken place periodi?cally since then. In 1954, negotiations were started in Geneva but quickly broke down. Secret negotiations were held in 1972, and public talks have been conducted several times during the '80s and '90s, with few real results.

Neither faction won this fratricidal war. Destruction of the infrastructures of both countries was massive, and it's estimated that over a mil?lion people died and millions more were dis?placed. Figures for internal migration during the war estimate that two million people moved from

north to south while a significantly lower number went in the opposite direction. The war left untold resentment on both sides, a twisted view of the sponsoring foreign nations, and deep psychological wounds. A siege mentality has permeated the South Korean government since the war, characterized by strident anti-communism, distrust of anything across the border, and an unbending military stance. Another reality of life in this formerly undivided nation is that the artificial border has proved to be even less porous than the Berlin Wall. Virtually no contact has taken place between people of the South and North; propaganda is rampant and misconcep?tions are pervasive. A U.S.-South Korea Mutual Defense Pact was negotiated in 1953 and a treaty of friendship, commerce, and navigation was signed in 1956.

Forgettable '50s

South Korea suffered serious economic stagnation after the war. As an agricultural country, it was able to start producing food again at a reasonable rate, but because most of the heavy industry and a great deal of natural resources were in the north, it had to build its industrial base virtually from scratch and rely upon foreign sources for raw materials. Despite large amounts of aid, development came slowly. Most businesses were still small-scale, and the few large industries were concentrated in the hands of a few wealthy families with the right connec?tions in government.

President Rhee had been elected by the National Assembly in 1948, but in 1952, following a martial law proclamation in which many opposition leaders were jailed, the law was changed to permit presidential election by popular vote (to better ensure Rhee's reelection). In 1956, over muted opposition, a constitutional amendment was railroaded through the Assembly that allowed the president an unlimited number of terms. With little to show for his time in office and an increasingly authoritarian style, President Rhee's popularity dwindled. During the election of 1960, fraud was so rampant, party politics so corrupt, the economy so bad, and Rhee's rule so despotic that the majority of the people wanted him out. Students demonstrated in late February and early March. In mid-April, the discovery of the body of a student demon?strator in Masan Bay sparked renewed demon?strations that even brought university professors out into the street. On 26 April, a bitter President Rhee resigned, and left for self-exile in Hawaii, where he died nine years later at the age of 89. His regime, downfall, and exile (courtesy of the U.S. government) are very similar to that of former President Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines.

After four months of interim government led by Ho Chong, Yun Po-sun was elected the next president. Under the new parliamentary system, however, the real power resided in the prime minister, Chang Myon. More liberal than the previous government, Chang's eased po?litical restrictions. While formulated with good intentions, this coalition of inexperienced leaders with weak personal power bases was not able to control the deteriorating economy, the fractured political situation, and continued student demonstrations. The parliamentary government ended nine months later in a bloodless military coup.