The Korean Division

THE Korean

DIVISION

AT THE END OF WORLD WAR TWO, THERE WAS MASS DESTRUCTION, POVERTY AND DISARRAY

IN EUROPE AND BEYOND, EVENTUALLY THE DUST SETTLED AND DISPLAYED AN UNEXPECTED CONSEQUENCE OF THE FIGHTING - THE KOREAN DIVISION. I n 1945, Korea was under Japanese occupation but, at the end of the war, Japan surrendered. A consequence of this was that it had to give up its empire, which included Korea. Korea would be split into two across the 38th parallel. The USSR Brothers, sisters, cousins, and parents were once stranded on either side of the peninsula, but now the families in Korea do have a chance to meet each other. However, they cannot cross the border freely. In the South, individuals are chosen by (Russia) imposed a dictatorship in the North, while the USA an online lottery to have the chance to cross the border and installed a democratically elected government in the South. reconnect. Once they are chosen, if they pull out, they are This agreement was to remain in effect until the country could never entered again so they’ve lost their chance. In the North, come to terms and agree upon some kind of unified individuals are thought to be chosen because of loyalty form of government that would occupy the entire to the regime, but the real system of selection is still country. This was the agreement made by the unknown. Four of the original 93 families from United States and Soviet Union,. However, the South that were selected. Many ended up in 1947, the Cold War that had emerged cancelling, as family members were too ill to between the U.S. and the Soviet Union make the journey to the North. But, as many which led to a breakdown of these of the people wanting to meet relatives are agreements. By 1949 all US and Soviet very old, a few even die before they even forces had withdrawn from Korea. get the chance. Last year alone, 3,800 THE KOREAN WAR South Koreans died without ever seeing their relatives. Families split up because Then, on 25 June 1950, with the backing of artificial boundary drawn up by men of the USSR, North Korea made an thousands of miles away. attempt to take over the border by force. The United States, with the United Nations’ assistance, led a counter-attack and came to the aid of the South. The Soviet Union backed North Korea by offering weapons and communist China also aided the North by providing them with thousands of troops to fight alongside the North Korean military forces. The South Korean participants, who have been selected and are well enough to travel are driven by bus to North Korea’s Mount Kumgang resort in the demilitarised zone separating the two Koreas. The participants are allowed to meet six times for a total of 11 hours during their three-day stay. This is probably the last time they will ever meet. In July 1953 the Korean War came to an end. The consequences were huge, with thousands dead and businesses and homes destroyed. Yet there had been no change in the division of the country; the war only got the nation back to the same place it Many people who have not seen each other in years have met thanks to this system. Han Shin-ja, 99, was reunited with two of her daughters, 72 and 71 for the first time in around 65 years and it will also be the last. had been in before the war erupted. It was just a waste of lives. In 86 year old Cho Hye-do and her brother Cho Do-jae, 75, were 1954, during the Geneva Conference, it was decided that Korea reunited with their older sister Cho Sun-do, who is 89 and lives would remain split. But one important and lasting consequence in North Korea. “I remember how beautiful you were,” Cho Hyeof the war was that the people of the former unified Korea were do told her big sister. “I finally get to meet you after living for so no longer allowed to see each other. long,” replied the older woman. THE PEOPLE Two elderly North Korean women knelt and bowed to The division of Korea into North and South was forced upon the people by external forces, government, and powers that the Korean people had no say in. Although the former Korea is still their 98-year-old South Korean father, who brought with him red, flower-patterned shoes he had promised his daughters 65 years ago. divided and both North and South have a number of political These reunions that cross the boundaries are an agonising issues and differences, the people of Korea believe that one day reminder that there is a boundary and that this will be the only North and South Korea will have to reunite. time that these families will see their loved one ever again. The closest they have ever come to this was the Summit meeting of 2000. The leaders of North and South Korea sat down in an “effort to discuss what agreements could be reached, and what would be in the best interest of all the citizens, military, and the nation as a whole in Korea”. Small steps were agreed upon to allow relatives separated by the border to see each other once again, albeit for the briefest of moments. Imagine meeting up with your sister, brother, aunt, uncle, mother or father just to be torn apart again the next day. It is like dangling what they had in front of their noses, just out of reach but not out of sight. The artificial boundary that forces them apart is just a line slashed on a map, it only exists because humans made it exist. As a species we are very advanced, but a boundary like this is the very thing that is holding us back. M McCann, Year 9