History never dies. It is reborn every minute of every day.
DEDICATED TO THE ORIGINS OF CONTEMPORARY EVENTS AROUND THE WORLD.
TAG: China's and North Korea's real historic enemy is Japan. Japan, which has refused to make full apology for war crimes in Korea and China, is supported by the United States. And it may be the presence of Japan, where much of the US naval fleet is stationed, that makes it difficult for China to turn its back on the one part of Korea that has remained its neighbour and often its ally for more than two millennia
IN THE NEWS: CHINA DEMANDS NO UNILATERAL ACTION TAKE PLACE IN THE STAND-OFF BETWEEN NORTH KOREA AND US-BACKED SOUTH KOREA AS THE US LAUNCHES NAVAL MANOEUVRES WITH SOUTH KOREA NEAR THE DISPUTED BORDER WHERE LAST WEEK'S PROVOCATION BY NORTH KOREA TOOK PLACE. CHINA URGES RESTRAINT ON BOTH SIDES WHILE US SECRETARY OF STATE HILLARY CLINTON AND TOP MILITARY CHIEF MIKE MULLEN DEMAND THAT CHINA BRING THE WEIGHT OF ITS INLFUENCE TO BEAR ON ITS NORTH KOREAN ALLY.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW. It was Stalin's Soviet Union, not China, that backed North Korea during the Korean war. China became involved only in 1950-1951 when the US, UN and South Korean troops reached North Korea's northern border with China which provoked a Chinese counterattack, shortly before the war's end in June, 1951. The Soviet Union backed out of the allliance after Krushchev began to reverse many of Stalin policies, leaving China as North Korea's main partner in the region. The Korean War left the Northern Limit Line, the border between the two Koreas in the Yellow Sea, in dispute.
By 2008, China kept a hand of gentle restraint on North Korea and its unpredictalble and eccentric leadership, engaging in the sporadic six-party peace talks of the US and local nations with an eye to North Korea's nuclear disarmament. China's kid-gloves approach to North Korea may be an attempt to maintain a policy independent of the West and Japan in what it regards as its zone of influence. On a deeper level, there is probably still some Communist solidarity. Otherwise, two millennia of more or less friendly relations and close cultural ties between China and Korea (and later, North Korea), not to mention a history of mutual enmity toward Japan, is probably making itself felt today.
IN HISTORY. In the last century BC, Han China brought Buddhism and Confucianism to the Korean peninsula. With the collapse of Han influence Japanese traders and troops formed a protectorate in the Kaya region between coastal the kingdoms of Paekche and Silla in the south of Korea and exereted some cultural influence as well as making contact with the Chinese. Internal divisions in the Korean kingdom of Koguryo in the 8th century led once more to suzerainty by the Chinese, this time the Tang dynasty.
In the following century, a restored polity named Koryo reinforced with Confucian and Buddhist ideals, faced China's Sung dynasty as an equal. By 1150, however, the northen Jins who invaded and ruled China, ruled Korea as well. After 1392, when both Korea and China had recovered from the Mongol invasions and Mongol rule, Korea was rebuilt by its own powerful and brilliant Joseon dynasty, once gain inculcating Chinese ideals and living in close parnership with China's Ming dynasty. The cultural ties formed in this period are said to last to the present day. Two hundred years later, in 1592 and 1597, Korea was able to count on Ming assistance in repelling invasions by the Japanese Tokugagwa.
In a short time however, the Ming were overthrown by the Manchu who took control of China and then Korea, making the latter a Chinese vassal state which it would remain from 1644 to 1800. As China weakened with penetrration by colonial European trading and military interests, Korea was faced with the rising power of Japan. The Japanese rgarded Korea, like China to be culturally alien. The Japanese and the Chinese immediately fell into competition over Korean trade and by an 1882 treaty, the United States, Russia, China, and Japan regarded Korea as open for business. A pro-Japanese cabal in the Korean elite, combined with social unrest, brought Japanese and Chinese intervention with the result that Japa finally invaded both Korea and China in 1894-95. The Japanese ruled Korea at arms length but strengthened their grip in 1910, remaining in control of an increasingly resentful populace until Japan's defeat at the end of World War Two.
RELEVANT DATES:
Korea and Han China.
108 BC- the Chinese Han occupy Korea, bringing Buddhism and Confucianism.
-3-4th cent. AD Collapse of the Han- Japanese military activity and influence moves into the south, forming the protectorate of Kaya with influence in Paekche in southern Korea- initiating Japanese contact with China.
Korea client of Tang China; deals with Sung China nation-to-nation; later ruled by Jin China
-8th century--internal divisions, due to a national parliament's restriction on monarchical power, open Korea to Chinese Tang suzerainty and Korean-chinese cultural exchange with Koreans occupying high positions in the Tang Chinese administration and military.
-935- a unified Korean state is restored by diplomatic marriages, conquest and alliance and named Koryo after a royal principality. It is ruled by a Confucian administration; Korea faces China’s Sung dynasty as an equal for the first time.
-1150- Koryo ruled by China's Jin dynasty after Jins take northern China.
Korea Protected by the Ming Dynasty; relationship formative for Korea.
-1392- After the collapse of Mongol rule, General Yi Songoye overthrows the Koryo. Litan of Korea’s new and greatest Joseon dynasty, sets up an administrative system which will last until the 20th century. He makes Confucianism and Chinese higher education universal. Korea opens relations with the Ming dynasty and will be protected by China for the next 200 years.
-16th cent. during Joseon period Korea reaches her height in cultural development, science, technology and Confucianism and successful use of Chinese ideas. This period has a profound effect on modern North and South Korea- even its cultural, social and political attitudes.
-1592, 1597- forces from China's Ming dyansty assist Korea in the expulsion of the Japanese.
Korea vassal of the Manchu.
-1627-1636- The Manchu take Korea as they overthrow Ming China. Korea becomes a vassal state of the Manchu
-17th century- As a consequence of the Chinese and Japanese invasions, the Joseon dynasty forms the Hermit Kingdom, by building fortresses, limiting contacts with other nations, enforcing stricter border controls, and controls in trade. This period is one of the sources for the CHUCHE ideology.
-1644-1800- century: Korea a Manchu vassal state.
19th century- China weakens; Japan rears its head.
-Korea's situation changes as a result of China's waning power and the rise of Japan.
-1876- Japanese influence is secured through the signing of the treaty of Kanghwa. Japan opens an embassy in Seoul. China, now threatened, opens a competing legation in the same ciity.
US, China, Russia and Japan competing for Korea.
-1882- the U.S. signs a treaty with Korea. the US, China, Japan and Russia are all competeting for Influence.
-1884- aristocratic reformers, inspired by Japanese ideas, attempt a coup which brings Chinese and Japanese relations to the boiling point. The crisis is headed off by a Sino-Japanese treaty which provides that neither country would occupy Korea without notifying the other.
Japan and China compete to quell civil unrest in Korea; Japan invades Korea and China.
1894- deteriorating social conditions explode in the Tonghak rebellion. Korea appeals for Chinese help in quelling the rebellion. Japan also sends troops. The rebellion ends leaving Japanese and Chinese troops confronting one another.
-1894-5- Japan invades China, overrunning Korea.
-1895- treaty of Simonoseki. Japanese victorious over China. Japan declares Korea a "sovereign state" but remains in essential control.
-Japanese influence replaces Chinese while the Japanese insist on “civilizing” reforms. But mood of Korean absolutism returns quickly.
-Korea and China subject to occupation and dismemberment by Japan and European nations.
China supports North Korea at end of Korean War.
Nov. 1950- Jan. 1951- During Korean War, UN, US and South Korean troops reach northern border of North Korea causing China to counter-attack in supoport of North Korea. The war ends in June when the allied troops drove the Commmunists back north of the 38th parallel.
China Participates in talks with North Korea on Disarmament.
2009- Oct.- through China, Pyongyang suggests it might be willing to restart disarmament talks.
2010- August- Kim Jong Il visits China in hopes of resuming six-party talks.
CONTENTS: SCROLL DOWN FOR:
RECENT BACKGROUND TO THE EVENTS
PREVIOUS ENTRIES
REMOTE BACKGROUND TO THE EVENTS
LOCATION OF NOTE:
PROFILE:
CROSS-CENTURY SUMMARY
TIMELINE FOR THE HISTORY OF KOREA
DISTANT BACKGROUND TO THE EVENTS After the division of Korea in 1945, the north adopted Soviet Communism and formally became the state of North Korea in 1948. South Korea was formed in the same year. The North's invasion of south Korea in 1950 was passively backed by Stalin but the attack was really North Korea’s own attempt to reunite and to dominate a historical Korea. The war ended in 1953, with North Korea’s failure to take the south and not long after, its great supporter, Stalin, died. With Khrushchev’s denunciation of Stalin’s legacy, Soviet support of North Korea receded and North Korea returned to the 17th century Korean ethic of xenophobic self sufficiency. In South Korea, meanwhile, President and strong man Singman Rhee ruled an autocratic, anti-Communist state with strict limitations on civil liberties. Economically and politically the Rhee government was heavily backed by the US which maintained a large military force in South Korea
. In 1960, Singman Rhee was forced from power by a student uprising in protest against electoral fraud. In 1961 the new government, with a constitution that still restricted liberties, was overthrown by General Park Chung-hee. Though restoring some liberties, Park maintained an iron grip as he brought about South Korea's industrial revolution through the 1960s and 1970s. South Korea specialized in value-added industrial goods to create a massive export economy. In the early 70s, however, Park further tightened his grip on power. In 1979, Park was assassinated. In the 1980s, the export economy finally began to raise the standard of living. Dictatorship persisted under a new General, Chung Dee Hwan. Internal political pressures and external pressures in connection with the Seoul Olympics brought about Chung's resignation and the country's first free elections. President-elect General Roh fought corruption and increased political liberalization. In 1990 began the two Koreas' first disarmament and reunification talks. Meanwhile, North Korea's continuing isolation and historical ‘self sufficiency’ brought about a major famine and dependence on South Korea for relief. In 1998, Kim Dae Jong was elected president. Kim liberalized politics, saved the country from recession and inaugurated his "Sunshine" policy of improved relations and eventual reunification with North Korea. He opposed a continuing diplomatic stand-off between the U.S. and North Korea.RECENT BACKGROUND TO THE EVENTS.
In 1998, South Korean president, Kim Dae Jong inaugurated his "Sunshine Policy" which pursued cooperation with the North on the condition of mutual non-aggression as a prelude to eventual reinification. It held that threats and sanctions on the North from South Korea and the US did more harm the good. On June 13-15, 2000, the leaders of North and South Korea held historic unification talks in Pyongyang and produced the "North-South Joint Declaration'. For its part, North Korea envisioned a federal structure which would leave separate leaderships intact. And increasingly, unified Korean teams began participating in the Olympics.
Meanwhile, progress was set back when US President Bush named North Korea as part of the "Axis of Evil. " In 2003, North Korea defiantly announced that it had enough plutonium for a bomb and withdrew from the Non-Proliferation Treaty. Between 2003 and 2005, negotiations between North Korea and the international community went nowhere. By the summer of 2006, it had test-fired a ballistic missile. In November, the United Nations imposed sanctions. After the failure of negotiations aimed at North Korea's nuclear disarmament, Pyongynag exploded its first nuclear device unbderground in fall, 2006. In February2007, when North Korea agreed to move toward dismantling its nuclear program, the two Koreas began to talk about the possibility of reunification.
Also in February, the president of Hyundai, the auto giant, was jailed for three years for embezzlement. In May, on the occasion of the departure of ceremonial trains from North and South, South Korean Unification Minister Lee Ji Joung talked about reconnecting "severed bloodlines" while North Korean cabinet councillor, Kwo Ho Ung implied that the United States was to blame for the division of the two Koreas. Much as medieval and early modern Korea blamed outside intervention for local problems, North Korea continued to hold foreign powers responsible for a divided Korea.
On October 4, 2007, South Korea's Roh Moo Hyun and North Korea's Kim Jong Il agreed to work out the terms of a peace deal which would bring an end to the half century of hostility during which the two nations have formally been at war. Cross border freight by rail and a common fishing zone are among several joint economic initiatives. Further commitments were made which could bring an end to North Korea's nuclear programs in a matter of months.
Things, however, were not destined to continue so msoothly. South Korea elected Lee Mung Byak, a conservative with a harder line against the North- by a landslide in December. As if to presage things to come, Seoul's historic Namdaemum Gate was destroyed by a fire (see ) in February 208. Two months later, in April, Lee Mung Byak announced a harder line against North Korea which retaliated with threats. In June, President Mung Pyak, aware of his own slim majority in palrimanet and mounting public disapproval of the government's aim to lift the ban on U.S. beef (due to BSE) promises a more responsive administration. Irritants continue to sour relations with the North as South Korea protests the police shooting of a tourist in North Korea's Mount Kumgang Special Tourism zone. In November, North Korea demanded a halt to all cross-border traffic from the soouth by December. 1.
October, meanwhile, brought the 2008 credit crisis with South Korea, heavily vulenerable to foreign debt, bringing in a bailout package of $130 billion. Febreuary 2009, sees the introduction of rock-bottom interest rates. It seems relations with the North couldn't get worse when Pyongyang, in January 2009, announces an end to all military and business deals with Seoul.
By August, unpredictably, North Korea has sent condolences upon the death of former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung while easing up cross-border traffic restrictions and reintroducing North-South family reunions. Relations become warmer yet in October when North Korea apologizes for the bursting of a North Korean dam on the Imjin river, drowing South Korean campers down stream.
And then in November 2009, North and South Korean naval ships trade gunfire across a disputed border area. Bewilderingly, perhaps, North Korea accepts from the South a first consignment of food for famine relief from the South in January, 2010. But the first talks in two years concerning a joint industrial site end in discord. An exchange of heavy weapons' fire erupts again in the disputed border area.
Soon after, in March, a South Korean war ship goes down, believed sunk by the North Korean navy. In May, the South confirms that the vessel was indeed sunk by North Korea. In the face of international opprobrium and talk of sanctions, Pyongyang threatens all out war with the South.
In July, South Korea and the United States hold joint Naval exercises in the Sea of Japan. North Korea threatens nuclear action if the exercises go ahead.
PREVIOUS ENTRIES
2/11/08- Seoul's Namdaemun Gate Destroyed by Fire.
12/15/07- Lee Mung Byak elected President of South Korea,
10/2/07- Historic talks between North amd South Korea.
5/17/07- Trains from north and South Korea Cross Border.
REMOTE BACKGROUND TO THE EVENTS. In the first century BC, the Han Chinese occupied Korea, bringing Confucianism and Buddhism. But by 57 BC, the independent kingdom of Koguryo was founded in the north and center of the peninsula. In the extreme south were the three kingdoms of Silla, Paekche and Kaya. After occupation by the Japanese, Korea was unified for the first time in the 7th century AD under Silla. However, in 900 , Silla was destroyed by Paekche and Koguryo. In 935 a unified state was restored. Decline into rule by warlords weakened Koguryo in the face of the Mongols who swept into the kingdom in 1238. In the 14th century, after the withdrawal of the Mongols, the great statesman Litan founded the Joseon dynasty which would rule Kora for the next six centuries using an efficient Confucian administrative system founded and managed by the Yang Ban bureaucratic aristocracy. Around 1600, when the Joseon dynasty was at its height, Korea suffered invasions by the Tokugawa of Japan and the newly triumphant Manchu of China. That’s when the roots of modern North Korea’s isolationism were born. Though Korea ejected Japan and managed to maintain a relatively calm, tributary relationship with China, it was in the 17th century that it adopted the polices of defensive isolation that earned it the sobriquet ‘The Hidden Kingdom’ It was also during this period that China developed an adeptness at handling Korea diplomatically that lasted throughout the Communist period and continues today in China’s stern yet protective relation to Pyongyang in the nuclear crisis. The 19th century was characterized by the gradual encroachment of commercial interests from the west and in increasing domination by a modernizing Japan. Japan, Russia, the United States and China vied for influence in Korea- though Chinese influence was waning. After Japan and China both sent troops to help Korea settle internal unrest, China withdrew and Japan occupied Korea. Japan's victory in 1905, in the Russo-Japanese War, left Japan the dominant regional power and Japan formally occupied Korea in 1910. From then until 1945, Japan was responsible for Korea's first stage of rapid, forced industrialization. Japan's cultural and political repression of Korea provoked a militant Korean nationalism.
LOCATION OF NOTE: Pyongyang- North Korean capital and the site of the current summit. On a cliff above the Taedong river, Pyongyang is administered as a province and is the oldest city in Korea. Six of the city's ancient gates remain standing. There are three 1st century BC tombs and several Buddhist temples. In 1122 BC, according to legend, the city was built by survivors of the Shang dynasty; its founder is said to have been the scholar Ki-Tze. In 300-200 BC it was the capital of the Choson dynasty. After invading in 108 BC, the Chinese made the city into a colony. Over the following centuries it was the capital of Koguryo and then Koryo. Pyong Yang was overrun by the Japanese Tokugawa in 1594; the intended to use it as a base for attacking China but destroyed it instead. The Japanese destroyed it again in 1894 and in 1904. In 1948, Pyong Yang became the capital of North Korea and was taken and retaken during the Korean war. Devastated, it was rebuilt as a modern city. In the 1990s, a mausoleum reputed to date to the ancient legendary ” Dangun” dynasty of Korea’s founding myth, was discovered near Pyongyang. But North Korea has so far refused to allow objective archeological testing by an outside nation to verify the mausoleum’s Dangun heritage. Pyong Yang remains a historic cultural centre while the Moran Bong stadium is used for the leadership's nationalist "Busby Berkeley" extravaganzas.
PROFILE: Kim Il Sung: a vociferous advocate of a united Korea, he nevertheless became first President of North Korea in 1948 and was responsible for the conutry's seminal industialization and militarization. Born Kim Sung Chu in Pyongyang in 1912, he was expelled from school in 1929 for being a Communist. He changed his name to Kim Il Sung after the Korean guerrilla freedom fighter of the early 20th century. He fought a nationalist guerrilla campaign against the Japanese in the 1930s. In 1941 the Japanese expelled him and he went to the Soviet Union where he fought with the Red Army. At the end of World War II, he led his Korean People's Revolutionary Army into North Korea with the Soviet Army. After the war, he was made chairman of the Soviet-created People's Committee of Korea. His aim of a united Korea was expressed in his invasion of South Korea in 1950. In an effort to consolidate and retrench after losing the war, he repressed internal dissent. After the death and demonization of Stalin by Moscow and North Korea's abandonment by the Soviet Union, Kim Il Sung
manufactured a personality cult along with his nationalist 'Chuche' ideology of self-sufficienty, a blend of Marxism, Confucianism and the old ideology of the 'Hermit Kingdom.' In 1972 he stepped down as premier but held the all-powerful post of president under a revised constitution. In 1980 he held talks on reunification with South Korea. He maintained good relations with China and the Soviet Union. Kim Il Sung died in 1994. Due to the cult of personality and his single-handed creation of North Korea, his death was an occasion of mass hysteria throughout the country.
CROSS-CENTURY SUMMARY: Three themes seem to dominate Korean history: dominance arising from the north, where the Korean peninsula joins Manchuria; difficulties in maintaining internal unity; and the combined threat and influence of outside powers- mainly China and Japan as well as, more recently, Russia and the United States. A Korean state ‘begins’ in the Manchurian north in the first century BCE. In the following, early centuries, CE, it is dominated by the Han Chinese. With the fall of the Han, the Japanese become the new invaders. After Japan is driven out in the 7th century, an internally divided Korea is finally united from the north in the 10th century. By the 14th century, receding Mongol rule has left the new state intact and the Joseon dynasty rrose triumphant. Over the next two hundred years of struggle with China and Japan, Korea, though a tributary of China, develops a defensive national identity, and a successful practice of playing off great powers against one another. From the beginning of the 19th century, internal dissension, caused by political favoritism and factionalism weakens the formerly powerful Korean state. Repeated occupation by Japan from the late 19th century up until World War Two only strengthens national identity. Japan industrializes Korea and Korea continues a tradition of adopting the best in culture and technology from both friends and enemies. It is Communist North Korea’s effective abandonment by the Soviet Union and isolation by the West, that has caused it to fall back on the old, Joseon traditions of wariness, isolation and self-sufficiency. South Korea, meanwhile, has grown from staunchly right-wing anti-Communist dictatorships to a period of rapid economic modernization in the 1970s to political democratization and liberalization in the 1990s.
TIMELINE FOR THE HISTORY OF KOREA:
108 BC- the Chinese Han occupy Korea, bringing Buddhism and Confucianism.
57 BC Koguryo founded in central and northern Korea and Manchuria. Paekche was the southwest (Seoul) and Silla in the SE.
-3-4th cent. Collapse of the Han- Japanese military activity and influence moves into the south, forming the protectorate of Kaya with influence in Paekche in southern Korea- initiating Japanese contact with China.
7th century -Silla unites the South and founds a paid aristocracy and bureaucracy. The small Japanese protectorates are expelled.
668- Koguryo is driven out of the South leaving a united Kingdom of Silla protected by a wall on the north side of which is Pyongyang and the state of Bohai whioch succeeds Koguryo.
-internal divisions, due to a national parliament's restriction on monarchical power, open Korea to Chinese Tang suzerainty.
-900- South Korean state of Silla is destroyed by the states of Paekche and Koguryo.
-935- a unified state is restored by diplomatic marriages, conquest and alliance and named Koryo after a royal principality. It is ruled by a Confucian administration; Korea faces China’s Sung dynasty as more of an equal.
-1170- General Cho Chung-hon stages a military coup. Rule by warlords ensues.
1238- Koryo falls to Mongols but never successfully controlled.
1392- After the fall of the Mongols, General Yi Songoye overthrows the Koryo. Litan of Korea’s new and greatest Joseon dynasty, sets up an administrative system which will last until the 20th century. He makes Confucianism and Chinese higher education universal. Korea opens relations with the Ming dynasty and will be protected by China for the next 200 years.
1400s- Korean ‘Hangul’ alphabet is formed under the Joseon
1419-1450- the Josean reaches its height under Sejong the Great.
-the Joseon develop the powerful Yangban ruling class.
16th cent. during Joseon period Korea reaches her height in cultural development, science, technology and Confucianism and successful use of Chinese ideas. This period has a profound effect on modern Korea- even its cultural, social ad political attitudes.
-1592 —under Hideyoshi, Japan’s Tokugawa dynasty invades and occupies Korea, looting Korean art.
1598- Japan is finally expelled from Korea by the Joseon. Korean admiral Yo Shun Shin, using the world's first armoured ships, beats the Japanese at sea. But Korea will be in Japan’s zone of influence until 1790. A historic hatred develops.
-1627-1636- The Manchu take Korea as they overthrow Ming China. Korea becomes a vassal state of the Manchu.
17th cent. As a consequence of the Chinese and Japanese invasions, the Joseon dynasty forms the Hermit Kingdom, by building fortresses, limiting contacts with other nations, enforcing stricter border controls, and controls in trade. This period is one of the sources for the CHUCHE ideology.
18th century: King Yongjo and then King Chongjo maintain the old, Confucian style of Joseon Yangban rule by appointing officials for merit rather than class or political faction,
19th cent. Europe’s use of punitive expeditions against Korea for its mistreatment of missionaries and adventurers only hardens the sense of isolation that began with the Hermit Kingdom.
-Korea's situation changes as a result of China's waning power and the rise of Japan.
-internal disorder in court and government and expressure weakens the Korean state.
-1876- Japanese influence is secured through the signing of the treaty of Kanghwa. Japan opens an embassy in Seoul and China, now threatened opens a competing legation in the same ciity. y
-1882-- the U.S. signs a treaty with Korea. the US, China, Japan and Russia are all competeting for Influence.
-1884- aristocratic reformers, inspired by Japanese ideas, attempt a coup which brings Chinese and Japanese relations to the boiling point. The crisis is headed off by a Sino-Japanese treaty whichprovides that neither country would occupy Korea without notifying the other.
-1894- deteriorating social creations explode in the Tonghak rebellion. Korea appeals for Chinese help in quelling the rebellion. Japan also sends troop. The rebellion ends leaving Japanese and Chonese troops confronting one another.
-1894-5- Japan invades China, overrunning Korea.
-1895- treaty of Simonoseki. Japanese victorious over China. Japan declares Korea a "sovereign state" but remains in essential control.
-Japanese influence replaces Chinese while the Japanese insist on “civilizing” reforms. But Korean absolutism returns quickly.
1905- Japan defeats Russia in the Russo-Japanese War, leaving Japan the major power in the region. Japan establishes Korea as a protectorate.
1910- Japan formally takes Korea and begins systematic industrialization. During the period 1910-1945, Korean nationalism develops in opposition to Japanese attempts to extinguish Korean culture.
1945- Korea gains independence from Japan
-1945- As with Berlin- Korea is divided between communist east and democratic west. The. Industrial north is occupied by Russia while the agricultural south is occupied by the US.
1948- 15 August- South Korea formaly created.
SK:- President Syngman Rhee relies on US political, military and economic support to resist several Communist insurrections supported by North Korea.
1949- June- US troops leave SK.
1950- Backed by Stalin, North Korea invades US-occupied South Korea. The US, with allied UN countries, occupies and defends South Korea.
1953- the Korean War ends with a Soviet-Occupied North and a US-occupied South. The Northern Limit Line in the Yellow Sea is drawn by the UN but 1999 it will be the subject of serious disoute.
SK- Rhee uses the continued communist threat from the north to impose autocratic rule with limitations on civil rights; he is strongly supported by the US.
-Krushchev's denunciation of Stalin leads to withdrawal of Soviet backing from North Korea.
1955- North Korea proclaims its Chiche ideology.
1960- SK: a student uprising over electoral fraud forces resignation of Syngmman Rhee.
-the new constitution of the Second Republic of SK still limits civil rights and insurrectionary movements continue to plot and agitate.
1961- In South Korea, a military coup led by park Chung-hee overthrows the civilian government of Chang Myon. Park institutes military rule.
1963-SK: Park is elected head of government, leading his own Democratic Republican Party (DRP). He institutes the Third Republic and restores some civil rights.
-Park leads massive industrial and economic, export-led expansion. He achieves record growth rates of 10-20 per cent into the 1970s. To build the economy he exports wealth in value-added manufactured goods and keeps wages low.
1970s- North Korea’s Communist dictator Kim Il Sung grooms his son Kim Jong Il for the succession. They live like the secluded royalty of the medieval Confucian Yangban class- even though feudalism and Confucianism have been repudiated.
1972- SK: Park brings back martial law and makes changes to the constitution granting himself unlimited power.
1975- SK: Park brings in emergency measures.
1979- Brief recession in South Korea; General Park Chung-hee is assassinated.
1980- SK: Choy Kyu Ha and then General Chun Doo Hwan succeed Park as president.
-SK's industrialization finally begins to raise its standard of living as well as capitalize on the hi-tech and computer revolution.
1987- SK: massive student demonstrations against General Chun Doo.
Oct- SK: a new constitution is passed.
1988- international pressures around the Seoul Olympics force Chun's resignation.
-first free elections in SK. Military man Roh Tae Woo succeeds Chun as president.
-Roh introduces political liberalization, creates the Democratic Liberal Party (DRP) and attacks corruption.
1990- first reunification talks between the two Koreas.
1991- the two Koreas agree not to develop nuclear weapons.
-early 1990s- North Korea working on a nuclear program.
-1993- SK: President Roh is succeeded by Kim Young Sam, a former opponent of the regime who is the country's first non-military president in 30 years.
1994- death of NK's Kim Il Sung.
1996- SK: former presidents Roh Tae Woo and Chun Doo Han are indicted for corruption and fomenting the 1979 coup.
1997- Succession of NK'S Kim Jong Il as supreme commander of the military and de facto head of state.
1998- Kim Dae Jong elected president of South Korea. But a recession follows. His business reforms barely save the economy.
-SK: in several amnesties, Kim Dae releases many communist dissidents from prison.
1997-1999- Kim Dae spurs resumption of unification talks.
-1998- floods, crop failures, food shortages result in famine in North Korea.
-South Korean president, Kim Dae Jong inaugurates his "Sunshine Policy" which declares a policy of cooperation with the north on the condition of mutual non-aggression as a prelude to eventual reinification. It also holds that threats and sanctions on the North from South Korea and the US do more harm the good.
-June 13-15, 2000- the leaders of North and South Korea hold historic unification talks in Pyongyang and produce the "North-South Joint Declaration'.
-increasingly, unified Korean teams participate in the Olympics.
2001-2002- US President Bush declares North Korea part of the ‘Axis of Evil’.
2002- North Korea is found to be developing a weapons program and expels UN weapons inspectors.
2003- North Korea withdraws from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and reports that it has enough plutonium to build a nuclear bomb
2003-2005- meetings with the international community to retrain North Korea from developing a weapons program. No agreement is reached.
2006- after missile tests, North Korea tests a nuclear device in October. The UN imposes sanctions.
Oct 31- North Korea agrees to return to nuclear talks.
Feb 12-19 2007- North Korea agrees to give up its nuclear arms program in return for oil.
March 28- after North Korea shows signs of reconciliation with the international community, South Korea resumes food aid to the north.
April 13- North Korea is silent on a promise to close a nuclear facility.
May 10- the North Korean military agrees to a test run of rebuilt north and south Korean cross-border railway lines.
May 17- North and South Korea sun ceremonial test runs cross-border railway trains.
June- for the first time since being expelled, five years ago, international inspectors are allowed to return to the Yongbyon nucelar plant.
July- international inspectors confirm the shutting down of the Yongbyon nuclear plant.
August- after massive floods, North Korea appeals for aid.
October- leaders of North and South Korea meet for a historic summit.
Lee Myung Bak President of South Korea.
December: South Korea Elects Conservative Lee Myung Bak in landslide as president.
2008- January- U.S. declares North Korea defaulting on declaration of nuclear activities. China urges Pyongyang to comply.
February- Seoul's Historic Namdaemum gate destroyed in fire.
Lee Myung Bak takes hard line against North Korea.
-Seoul's President Lee Mung Byak ties aid to North Korea to nucelar disarmement and improvement in human rights.
-Pyongyang accepts guest performance of New York Philharmonic Orchestra suggesting thaw in relations.
April- President Lee Mung Byak of South Korea taking tough line on North Korea; North Korea fires Southern managers from a joint industrial park. Pyongyang fires a test missile and accuses Ming Byak of sending a warship into North Morean waters.
Lees' majority wins narrow majority in parlaiment.
May- S. Korea removes sanctions on US beef, imposed because of BSE in 2003. Street protests erupt against removal of sanctions.
June- President Lee apologizes for not taking public concerns into account as his ratings fall sharply.
Relations Improve on US with Nuclear Disarmament.
-North Korea finally makes a declaration of its nuclear program.
-July- US and North Korea hold first nuclear disarmament talks in two years.
July- U.S. beef arrives in Seoul as government responds to popular pressure and puts further regulations in place to safeguard cosumers.
-South Korean tourist in North Korea's Mount Kumgang Special Tourism zone is shot by North Korean police, causing tensions with the South.
North Korea balks on Disarmament after not receiving US aid. Relations worsen with South Korea.
-North Korea threatens to restart its nuclear program after claiming US is reneging on renwed aid in disarmament deal.
October- South Korea, aware of its large foreign debt, brings in a $130 billion bailout package in response to the global market crash and credit crisis.
November- In response to increasing north-south tensions, North Korea tells South Korea: as of December 1, halt all cross-border traffic into the north.
-December- North Korea slows down disarmament as US suspends energy aid.
2009- January: North Korea declares an end to all military and political agreements with South Korea as relations deteriorate.
February- South Korea brings in rock bottom interest rates in anticipation of worsening credit crisis.
North Korea Carries out Nucelar and Rocket tests, raising tensions.
April- North Korea tests a rocket; in response to international objections, it walks out of disarmament talks.
May- Kim Jong Il makes first public appearance since rumours of his illness in 2008.
-North Korea carries out underground nuclear test, cuaing international protest.
August- death of Kim Dae-jung, former South Korean president. North Korea sends a senior delegion to pay respects.
-June- North Korea suggests re-starting talks on joint industrial park with South.
-August- UN Security Council votes to impose sanctions on North which threatens retaliation through nuclear war.
Pyongyang attempts to improve relations with South.
-North Korea announces easing up crossborder traffic and agrees to continue formerly suspended cross-border familuy reunions.
October- North Korea apologizes for the breaking of a dam on the Imjin River which killed campers downstream in South Korea and discusses flood prevention with the South.
-through China, Pyongyang suggests it might be willing to restart disarmament talks.
Dispute heats up on Disputed Area of Sea Border.
November- North and South Korean war ships exchange fire across a disputed border area known as the Northern Limit Line in the Yellow Sea. Drawn in 1953 at the end of the Korean war, the North insists that it should be further south.
December- US envoy ontains understanding from Pyongyang on need for six-party talks on its nuclear disarmament.
2010- January- North Korea accepts first consignment of food from the South in two years, makes peace overtures to US and South Korea.
-failure of two days of talks about the North-South Kaejong industrial estate, the first in two years.
-artillery fire from North Korea near disputed sea border ignites return fire from South Korea.
North Korea Sinks South Korean Ship.
March- South Korean war ship Cheonan believed sunk by North Korean navy.
May- South Korea confirms sinking of war ship Cheonan by North Korea. North Korea denies it.
-South Korea cuts all ties with North. The after, North Korea allows workers to return to the North-South joint industrial park which remains aan important source of revenue for North Korea.
June- North Korean government meets to approve a re-allocation of cabinet seats.
-South Korea: Lee Myung-bak's Grand National party suffers defeats in local elections.
July- the US, in continued response to the sinking of the Cheonan, imposes additional
sanctions on North Korea.
-the US and South Korea plan naval meouevres in the area in response to the Cheonan incident. North Korea threatens to reply with nuclearweapons.
August- Kim Jong Il visits China in hopes of resuming six-party talks.
September- Kim Jomng Il appears to be grooming his son, Kim Jong Un to succeed him.
November- North Korea allows a visiting US scientist to visit the nation's new, state of thecentrifuge, suggesting imminent nuclear capability, causiing alarm in Tokyo and Washington.
-after South Korean military manoeuvres, North Korea shells a South Korean island, provoking threats of string retaliation from South Korea.
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