St. Joseph's Prepratory School
Government as a
Regulator
Teacher: Mr.
Connors
Tripp Durham
Korean Unification
Korea was once a unified single country located in Southeast Asia. First the Japanese had control of had control of the provinces of Korea. (Socrates.berkerly.edu, PG 1) In 1945 The Soviets swept threw North Korea and took control of all the provinces there. (Socrates, pg1) President Truman realizing something he didn’t want could happen quickly, he took control of South Korea. (Socrates, pg1) Both Koreas were split at the 38th parallel and that’s when the war and the beginning of the end happened with Korea. Korean Unification had been talked about since the war ended, can it work out, I think its can, and both sides have been trying there hardest to work it out.
The Soviets have been in control on North Korea since 1945. North Korea has lacked a formal military occupational structure. (Violet.Berkeley.edu PG 3) The Soviets have tried to train North Koreans to act as an advisory for the Koreans of the north to help establish Korean Government. (Violet pg. 3) The Soviet occupation was better organized and carefully constructed to safeguard Soviet interests in Korea.( violet pg.3) On the other hand the American efforts in Korea have been different. Troops were sent to Korea to establish United States Military Government in Korea. (Violet pg. 2) Americans were asked to refuse to recognize the Korean People’s republic and its various people’s committees as the legitimate governing body in Korea.( Violet pg.2) The United States did attempt to bridge the gap between them and the South Koreans. Unfortunate for the United States the gap was too big. (Violet pg.2)
North Koreas worried about their Nuclear Bomb while the South worried about their economic collapse. (Minard, PG 45). Soviets wouldn’t allow elections in the north if certain pro-American parties were allowed to participate. (Cummings) North Korea isn’t entirely immune from the outside world. (Economist Newspaper PG 19) The Soviets have strived in their efforts of unification to hold summit meetings to help the North Vietemese out in any way the can. The Soviets have taken an effort, the keyword being effort toward unification. They haven’t done all that they can because they still allow little to no elections in the North that have anything to do with pro-American groups. The North’s perspective on the unification process is if they want to do we will try to make it work, but they have the attitude as “the ball is in the South’s corner”.
The South Korean unification efforts are different North. South Korea would prefer to put off unification until the huge economic gap between. (The Economist) South Korea’s views on the unification is why would we want unification with the north when basically they would control us anyway because of their finical and economical situations while the south’s in on the low end of the totem pole. After the war The United States had encouraged the South Korean government to accept an armistice that left Korea divided. (Cummings pg.1) An armistice was concluded on the 27th of July on the terms that indicated neither side gained or lost much after the 3 years of fighting. (Cummings pg.1) The Americans beloved that Unification could be made available if the North would give up some of there money and let the South have some of their finical wealth. The South was also worried about whether or not the North once in a unified Korea would try to take advantage of the South and completely rule over the entire country of Korea. The South’s idea to put of unification until both are equal is a good idea because you don’t need one dominant section of Korea while the other is still struggling.
The resolution for Unification is easy, both sides would give a little and keep a little reunification could work. The UN sought to resolve the matter by calling for general elections to establish a single national government. (Cummings pg1) The agreements between both sides are that, there does need to be one Korea, A divided Korea is something that doesn’t need to be in the upcoming years. Another is that there needs to be a single Korean National party that both sides can agree on. The both think that there needs to be one single person in charge and that each side, the north and the south should have a say in who gets to be in charge. The problems between both sides are whether or not both sides can join each other. A problem is that while the South thinks that the North has a larger finical and economic advantage over the south, the north thinks that they have the same amount of economical and finical background as the south. A problem that exists today is whether or not both sides work with one another in a governmental system. There have been conferences in order to try to establish a governmental system but so far they have been uneventful. The main disagreement in the conferences that both sides have is whether or not the North or the South should be allowed to have the most say and that each side should have the same amount of representatives in a governmental system.
My opinions on the unification of this country are as follows, I think that both sides need to resolve their differences and become one country. Each side should listen to what the other has to say and somehow join as one to find an answer to their problems. Korea I think needs to become one not only for themselves but for the whole world. Many countries have many interests in Korea, not just the United States and Russia but Japan China France and have some interest in the country. For their to be a total unification both sides need to become one and get this thing done or else another war could be on the horizon.