Japanese Empire
The start of the struggle takes its roots near the end of the colonial days, when Russia, the United States, and Japan all had their eyes on Korea. Along with being a strong geopolitical location, Korea has always been very rich in natural resources and arable land. Japan's own land in particular was getting difficult to provide for enterprise needs, likely due to its small island size, especially in comparison with the Russian Empire and the United States. In 1894, Japan went to war with China due to Korea being a tributary of theirs. This was known as the Sino-Japanese war, and Japan seized control of the peninsula barely a year following.
But it wouldn't be long before Russia's ambitions would come into fruition. By 1904, the Russo-Japanese War commenced, also ending with a quick victory for Japan. Much of this war took place in northeastern China, playing into Japan's conquering of Manchuria. In 1905, U.S. president William Howard Taft would recognize Japanese control of Korea for the sake of East Asian stability, strengthening U.S. control over the Philippines.
Japanese control over Korea following these events saw the beginning of Korean struggles for independence and brutal repressions by foreign powers. Uprising caused tens of thousands to be killed or imprisoned, which was followed by the outlaw of Korean culture. Their political organizations were disbanded, education now focused on Japanese history and interest, Korean newspapers and public gatherings were prohibited, Japanese names and language were forced on everyone, and the worship of Shinto shrines would replace Korean religious practices.
While the building up of mines, railroads, industry and economy is typically a good thing, this was not done for the interest of Korean people, but Japanese benefit. Since Koreans were seen as a "sub-human race," they were super-exploited as a workforce, especially following alienation from their language and culture. By 1938, nearly 70% of Korean rice was exported to Japan for their own gain. Additionally, as many as 200,000 Korean women were sent to "comfort stations" for sexual slavery to the Japanese military. All of this horrendous treatment of the Korean people by Japan lasted through the end of World War II.
Kim Il-sung
All of this repression is what would lead to the patriot movements, most notably Kim Il-Sung. Because Woodrow Wilson's "Doctrine Of Self Determination" did nothing for Koreans, this guerilla fighter looked to Lenin's model in the USSR. Born Kim Sung-ju, he would later change his name like Lenin, Stalin, Trotsky, and other leftist figures had done. Kim was born in 1912, the son of a guerilla fighter who also rejected Japanese colonization. His father was jailed for a short time, and upon release moved north to Manchuria. For a while, Manchuria acted as a safe-haven prior to becoming another Japanese puppet in 1931. Kim Il-sung joined the Chinese Communist Party, after spending years studying the works of Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin, which explains why Koreans made up such a large portion of fighters in Manchuria.
From this point forward, Kim devoted his life to fighting for Korea's freedom. Western propaganda would have you believe that he became a puppet of Joseph Stalin, despite it being clear that Koreans themselves saw him as the fit leader for their people. By 1936, at the young age of 24, Kim Il-sung became a communist party leader, the commander of the Third Division. His role was so significant that the Japanese military sought to hunt him down personally. A year later, he had gained so much popularity that even the U.S. turned their attention towards him. By now, he was commander of the Sixth Division of the Anti-Japanese Army.
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| Lifted from the book, Kim Il-sung greeting Women's International Democratic Federation in 1951 |
United States Occupation
Japan's largest hit came upon entering World War II, as they would lose many of their assets. The eventual surrender is what lead to the Korean split. In 1945, John J. McCloy, the U.S. Assistant Secretary of War, ordered colonels to divide the peninsula for the Soviets in the north and the United States in the south in order to accept Japanese surrender. The 38th Parallel was strategically chosen to place the capital of Seoul in the south, where the United States would occupy, since Washington deemed Koreans incapable of governing themselves. Once again, the dehumanization of Koreans was taking place.
No Korean wanted their land split between superpowers, considering the possibility of future war between socialist and capitalist forces. So it was understood that after five years, both superpowers would end occupation and let Koreans govern themselves. Three years later, in 1948, the Soviets left. They recognized the indigenous government structure, leading to the north becoming what it is known as today, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, or the DPRK, with their capital being Pyongyang. The United States didn't grant the south the same liberties. Instead, they denounced the north, refused to recognize people's committees that formed in the south, and imposed a military occupation.
Throughout Japanese occupation, Japan enlisted Korean traitors to fill their ranks and rule over their own people, acting as puppets to the Japanese state to carry out their interests. When the U.S. entered the picture, it became as simple as swapping them out for Washington's interests. When the south went under U.S. military control, they were integrated into roles for the same reason.
Democratic People's Republic Of Korea
Considering how far Korea's efforts had come with expelling Japan's parasitic occupation, the United States would reverse as much as they could. As U.S. forces marched onto their land after not spilling an ounce of blood against Japanese occupation, the DPRK looked to the Soviets once more for inspiration, especially since they did play a role in assisting with liberation.
Korean people groups quickly took formation to enact democratic reform. This included redistributing land to workers from landlords, nationalizing large industries that previously belonged to Japan, and reducing the working day to eight hours. Kim Il-sung took the leadership role in provisional government as early as 1946, following his return from Manchuria to a now liberated Korea. The Korean peoples' admiration for his liberation struggle was what got him this role, reaffirming that it was not orchestrated by the USSR.
Autonomous leadership came out of the aforementioned people groups, which is easy to understand when you consider the four decades of hardship and humiliation by Japan. Kim was highly designated for his role in this, but it should also be noted that Soviet efforts between 1945 and 1948 didn't go unnoticed, either. By the time the North Korean state took formation, landlords would flee to south, where parasitic lifestyles were far more acceptable.
Republic Of Korea
Things were a bit different in the south, which would become the Republic of Korea, or the ROK. John R. Hodge was the commanding general of U.S. forces in Korea, and he proposed a four-point plan to stop the independence movement in the south for America's own gains. This consisted of building an army of former Japanese officers, rebuilding their former national police, strengthening right-wing collaborations/anti-egalitarian alliances, and jailing opponents of the new U.S. imposed regime. Uprisings, strikes, and rebellions would form. By 1949, as many as 30,000 leftists were rounded up and jailed. Prisons would get so full that the puppet government resorted to establishing concentration camps. Simply forming a union strike could land you in one.
American occupation forces and their Korean military puppets would have anywhere between 100,000 and 200,000 Koreans killed by 1950. After spending several decades in the United States, while Kim Il-sung was fighting Japan in Manchuria, Syngman-Rhee would take power in the south. He was seen as the perfect puppet-leader in the south due to still having some anti-Japanese sentiments, working in the new puppet state's favor. Declassified CIA documents reveal that there were strong communist movements in the south, which needed to be dealt with. The National Guidance League was set up to coerce patriots into disowning their commitment to revolution. When the Korean War broke out, many were never heard of again, up to 300,000.
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| Syngman Rhee |
The Korean War
Both states saw the entire peninsula as its own jurisdiction, projecting any movement over the 38th parallel as an act of aggression by the other state. The ROK's very foundation was seen as an act of war by the north, considering that Koreans didn't want to be part of another empire, but instead wanted self determination. These complications also make it difficult to note which side crossed the line first, but it makes little difference considering that hostilities existed several months before with both states claiming full sovereignty.
The Korean War started on June 25th of 1950. Within literal weeks, Seoul was liberated and the ROK collapsed rapidly. Syngman Rhee and some of his forces fled, while others defected to the north. By August of that year, 9/10 of the peninsula was freed, with the ROK only maintaining control in Pusan in the southeast tip. Kim Il-sung would call for the restoration of people's committees, organization of land reforms, and redistributing property that was handed to landlords from prior Japanese occupation. Most of this was simply taking what already occurred in the north and applying it to the south
About a month later, Douglas MacArthur, the General of the Army for the United States, landed in the Inchon portion of Seoul to recapture it. On president Harry Truman's authorization, he marched north towards the Yalu River, which acts as the border with China. This caused China to enter the war, and Mao Tse Tung deployed an army force of 300,000 to help prevent the occupation of U.S. forces. Many see this as a mini-war within the Korean War, known as the Sino-American War. U.S. forces had been pushed back to the 38th Parallel by December.
This action caused Truman to declare a national emergency. MacArthur would call for the use of a nuclear strike, much like was done in Japan five years earlier. Truman declined this request, but the damage done over the next two years was more than equivalent to that of a nuclear attack. MacArthur was told to "create a wasteland, and burn to the ground every city, factory, and village between the 38th parallel and China." Roughly 635,000 tons of bombs were dropped, including 32,557 tons of napalm. Nearly 10% of the Korean population died or were injured from this action.
By the end of the war in 1953, only single modern buildings remained standing amidst the rubble in the northern cities. 8,700 factories, 5,000 schools, 1,000 hospitals, and 600,000 homes were destroyed. Subterranean methods of survival became necessary in this time period, which is why it's said that by autumn of 1952, the DPRK had been sent "back to the dark ages." If this wasn't enough, irrigation dams along the Yalu River became targets by the U.S. Five reservoirs were destroyed, and acres of farmland and towns were flooded. Today, this is still considered an imperialist war. Open hostility still exists, since the war "ended" in an armistice, not a peace treaty.
Anti-Communism And The Police State
Following complete devastation of their state, the DPRK's focus would have to shift from full sovereignty over Korea to a defensive narrative against Washington's threat. The ROK became a full military dictatorship, once again suppressing Koreans' goal of sovereignty over themselves. They were in the hands of Japan from 1896 until 1945, and the grip of the United States ever since. Kim Il-sung's picture became banned from publication, and his story was told to be placed by the hands of the USSR.
Brainwashing didn't end there. Syngman Rhee and the National Security Law caused this to go on for decades. A poet named Kim Chi-ha was arrested simply for writing about class division in the 1970s. In 1976, Koreans who signed the declaration commemorating up-rise against the Japanese were imprisoned. The law even permitted university students reading about DPRK ideology to be arrested. Demonstrators against unemployment and economic crises were arrested by military leader Kim Dae-jung, one that would defect amongst a death sentence, and later return to become president. Kim Suk Hyun served 32 years in prison for refusing to denounce the DPRK, being released at the age of 79.
On the other hand, in 1960, Kim Il-sung proposed a re-unification of Korea under two governments of one single state. This was meant to maintain both systems, but rid the peninsula of foreign troops occupying their land. It greatly displeased the United States, considering that the ROK was (and is) their largest power projection in the east. Upon rejection, a crowd of 100,000 angry citizens and students gathered outside of Syngman Rhee's presidential palace. Police opened fire into these crowds.
Rhee would eventually flee, leading to military leader occupation of the government for the next 32 years. Park Chung-hee took over next, commencing the writing of a new constitution, banning any criticism of government and allowing himself full control over the government. This lead to the prevention of work stoppages, and eventually to the economic crises in 1979. The KCIA (Korean CIA) disposed of him.
General Chun Doo Hwan took over in the form of a coup at the command of the U.S. general John J. Wickham Jr. In the spring of 1980, students protested this, and the government sent out paratroopers to murder indiscriminately. This resulted in 1,500 deaths, including that of women and children. A year later, he was inaugurated as president, when he mentioned Nazi Germany's effective use of concentration camps to terrorize the left. A system like this was then set up in the mountains of South Korea, and he remained in power until 1993.
U.S. Power Projection And DPRK's Alternative
Due to the collapse of the USSR (read more about this here), political space opened up for Korea. Command was handed to Koreans in the south in 1993, keeping all prior laws in tact. The U.S. was also still allowed to intervene, should a time of war erupt again. This is where rumors of the DPRK being a threat, rather than being threatened, came about. This is a fallacy, considering that the ROK military already severely outdid that of the DPRK. In fact, the DPRK's entire military budget is equivalent to that of the New York City Police Department. The ROK has the ability to blast the DPRK "to oblivion" (again). This should be enough proof to show that the U.S. presence in Korea isn't out of defense, but to project power. They've even used South Korean military arms to fight wars in Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq for their own interests.
The DPRK's constitution is that of a socialist state, said to represent all Koreans, guided by an ideology called Juche. Juche is about self-autonomy and independence, stressing the importance of patriots' national history and not relying on world powers, since that let them down with Woodrow Wilson's doctrine. The ROK's constitution is one of "democracy" and "freedom," two terms that it fails to define. If you look at the ROK's history, it becomes obvious that this is exclusive to right wing collaborators only. It should be noted that the DPRK uses the term "re-unification," while the ROK uses "unification."
Unity with people all around the world who wish to defend their independence is also considered important in the DPRK. They run two different types of economy; one through the state, and co-op enterprises. The eight hour workday is even shorter for what's considered "arduous tasks." They are allowed to work based on their skills, and are paid according to how much they contribute. On the contrary, workers in the ROK often work 60+ hour weeks, and many don't take paid vacations.
Weakening of the DPRK is carried out through Washington via aggressive military pressure and isolation. The former takes this position by threatening them with military presence at the borders, causing a need to flow cash from civilians to military efforts for security. The latter is the effect of a network of sanctions to prevent vital economic input. Hunger and malnutrition in North Korea has caused more deaths than the atom bomb in Japan, which can be directly linked to this isolation and military threat.
There's a long history of economic growth under socialism until the point of outside invasion or sabotage; see the USSR, China, or Cuba. A report in 2010 by Amnesty International blamed the sanctions' effects on the current state of the DPRK, saying that it could not protect nor fulfill the health needs of its citizens. Military border hostility includes warships patrolling DPRK maritime borders, flying close to its airspace, and keeping nuclear weapons on the peninsula (prior to the north acquiring their own nuclear capability). In summary, you could say that the U.S. boosted the ROK economy as much as it could, giving them aid, and trying its best to cripple the north as much as it could.
My Conclusions
Personally, I found Stephen Gowans's Patriots, Traitors, And Empires to not only be one of the most eye-opening books I've ever read, but one that also made me sick to my stomach at some points. Everyone knows how bad the horrors of war can get, but certain aspects seem exponential in comparison even to that; the Korean War is no exception.
It often begs the questions; "Why is North Korea so weird?" "Why are they so isolated?" "What actually goes on there?" etc. Seldom does the explanation include U.S. meddling and colonial roots to explain the problems that a nation faces in capitalist media. The DPRK is perceived in horrible light to many Americans, including some self-proclaimed "leftists" who tend to be liberals that won't do a lick of research on something that might seem too bizarre to be true. Odds are, it is. The power projection mentioned several times in this book shows the sourcing of our information on North Korea commonly coming from the south, where a claim is picked up, fabricated, and viewed as truth despite it either being entirely false or mostly false by leaving out crucial context. It's far easier to get clicks and clouts by bringing up some nonsense claim about a nation that's projected as a crazy one-man dictatorship, rather than proper logic and research that would explain the undeniable issues of an isolated third-world nation. You have to wonder how journalists can be okay with being this dishonest.
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| DPRK capital, Pyongyang |
All things considered, the DPRK is a state that rose from the ashes of brutal Japanese suppression. It then suffered through a complete obliteration of their land at the hands of the United States within living memory. It then rebuilt and recovered amongst merciless sanctions, and still continues to live under U.S. threat at the DMZ (De-Militarized Zone) and surrounding areas today. I'd wager that the only reason the U.S. hasn't launched another direct attack is because of them attaining nuclear weapons for the sake of defense. Infrastructure has since grown tremendously, cities have popped up, and when you look at the nation's history, it becomes easy to see why they have the problems they face.
There are plenty of valid criticisms around North Korea, Kim Jong-un, and the state. None of them line up with the popular picture that is painted of the DPRK, and while this is usually where I would discuss them, we're going to save that for another time, considering that it gets enough invalid criticism as is. The focus here is Korea's struggle for freedom, not what I think should change in the DPRK. Issues that are valid, along the lines of hunger, poverty, and state laws are brought up time and time again, yet almost none of them will link to the horrendous history they've faced, nor the sanctions imposed to prevent vital needs. The amount of money that the U.S. dumps into South Korea's economy and how much they control it is also left out every time. Ridiculous, and often times racist rumors are peddled to the point that I'm baffled that grown adults believe it. The plague of looking to anecdotal evidence and nothing else runs rampant in America, and North Korea is no exception. Stories of trying to escape the impoverished nation due to its imperialist struggle will be told, yet nobody will mention why things are the way they are. Furthermore, no mention of the cash incentive for defectors to demonize the DPRK to media gets brought up. You could escape a poor situation in any country and weaponize it against that nation itself. Never will the mention of South Korean military dictatorships and mass suppression of socialists hit the surface. At the end of the day, the goal is to paint the DPRK as this horrid, underdeveloped, haunting state that acts as a world threat, while painting the ROK as a developed nation of their own accord, as if it wasn't propped up by the world's largest superpower, and all but completely controlled by it. Such narratives about many countries have taken hold all throughout U.S. history, particularly in countries they either invaded, meddled in, or funded death squads for. This book does an incredible job of showing that role in Korea's case, and I can't recommend reading the book yourself enough.
Koreans have struggled for freedom for well over a century now, and only half of the peninsula has self-autonomy, made very difficult by capitalist powers. The other half is stuff under occupation, keeping the entire peninsula at war. North Korea is far from perfect. It's a third world country that faces all of the issues that any third world country would face. There is so much to understand about it, and to get a good idea of how the nation operates theses days, check out this Youtube channel. To any educated individual, it would make sense that the DPRK faces so many issues, but it's equally important to understand its history, its culture, and view things in a nuanced sense that aren't so black and white.
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