Korean Unification Issue in the Context of East Asia

Abstract

The division of Korea was a product of the Allied victory in World War Ⅱ. Immediately, under two separate systems of tutelage, North and South Korea were constructed as different states, and different societies. From the outset, neither side was prepared to abide by any formula that threatened to lead to domination by the other. Thus, the Communists were unwilling to rest their future on universal, due to the disparity of population between two Koreas and their adamant opposition to the application of liberal electoral procedures in the North. The South was unprepared to accept any approach involving an assembly or conference of the South and the North with equal representation based upon political parties, mass organizations, and individuals of all social strata, knowing of the multiple opportunities for Communist manipulation in such a plan. The existence of two rival regimes in Korea was the direct result of the antagonism between the two superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union. When the Russian and American occupation forces withdrew, the two mutually antagonistic Korean governments were lefts, facing each other across the 38th parallel.