Preethika
North Korea
Official name: Chosŏn Minjujuŭi In’min Konghwaguk (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea)
Form of government: Unitary single-party republic with one legislative house (Supreme People’s Assembly [687])
Head of state and government: Supreme Leader/Chairman of the National Defense Commission
Capital: P’yŏngyang
Official language: Korean
Official religion: none
Monetary unit: ( North Korean) won (W)
Population estimate (2009): 24,162,000
Total area (sq mi): 47,399
Total area (sq km): 122,762
Ethnically, the population is almost completely Korean. Language: Korean (official). Religions: Ch’ŏndogyo, traditional beliefs, Christianity, Buddhism. Foreign missionaries were expelled during World War II.
North Korea’s land area largely consists of mountain ranges and uplands; its highest peak is Mount Paektu (9,022 ft [2,750 m]). North Korea has a centrally planned economy based on heavy industry (iron and steel, machinery, chemicals, and textiles) and agriculture. Cooperative farms raise crops such as rice, corn, barley, and vegetables. The country is rich in mineral resources, including coal, iron ore, and magnesite.
It is a republic with one legislature; the head of state and government is the supreme leader and chairman of the National Defense Commission. After the Japanese were defeated in World War II, the Soviet Union occupied Korea north of latitude 38° N; there the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea was established as a communist state in 1948. Seeking to unify the peninsula by force, it launched an invasion of South Korea in 1950, initiating the Korean War. UN troops intervened on the side of South Korea, and Chinese soldiers reinforced the North Korean army in the war, which ended with an armistice in 1953. Led by Kim Il-sung, North Korea became one of the most harshly regimented societies in the world, with a state-owned economy that failed to produce adequate supplies of food and consumer goods for its citizens. Under his son and successor, Kim Jong II, the country endured periods of severe food shortages from the late 1990s that caused widespread famine. Hopes that North Korea was seeking to end its long isolation—notably through meetings between Kim and the leaders of South Korea (2000) and Japan (2002)—have been tempered by concerns over its nuclear weapons program.
South Korea
Official name: Taehan Min’guk (Republic of Korea)
Form of government: Unitary multiparty republic with one legislative house (National Assembly [299]) Head of state and government: President assisted by Prime Minister
Capital: Seoul
Official language: Korean
Official religion: none
Monetary unit: (South Korean) won (W)
Population estimate (2009): 48,333,000
Total area: (sq mi) 38,486 Total area (sq km) 99,678
South Korea is west of Japan and includes Cheju Island, located about 60 mi (97 km) south of the peninsula. The population is almost entirely ethnically Korean. Most of South Korea’s land area consists of mountains and uplands; its highest peak is Mount Halla (6,398 ft [1,950 m]) on Cheju Island. The densely populated lowlands are heavily cultivated for wet rice. The Naktong, Kŭm, and Han are the principal rivers. The economy is based largely on services, manufacturing (including petrochemicals, electronic goods, and steel), and high-technology industries.
South Korea is a republic with one legislative house; its head of state and government is the president, assisted by the prime minister. The Republic of Korea was established in 1948 in the portion of the Korean peninsula south of latitude 38° N, which had been occupied by the U.S. after World War II. In 1950 North Korean troops invaded South Korea, precipitating the Korean War. UN forces intervened on the side of South Korea, while Chinese troops backed North Korea; the war ended with an armistice in 1953. The devastated country was rebuilt with U.S. aid, and South Korea prospered in the postwar era, transforming itself from an agrarian economy to one that was industrial and highly export-oriented. It experienced an economic downturn beginning in the mid-1990s that affected many countries in the area.
Efforts at reconciliation between North and South Korea, including the first-ever summit between their leaders (2000) and reunions of families from both countries, were accompanied by periods of continuing tension.
The Recent Conflict
North Korea (officially the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea or DPRK) has been accused by South Korea (officially the Republic of Korea or ROK) of initiating a torpedo attack that sank the South Korean Cheonan corvette navy warship on March 26, 2010. Forty-six sailors lost their lives in the maritime disaster near the Northern Limit Line (NLL), a disputed maritime demarcation line in the Yellow Sea between North Korea and South Korean. North Korea has denied these allegations.
South Korea’s Response to the Yellow Sea Incident
South Korean President Lee Myung Bak on March 23, 2010 stated that henceforth, the Republic of Korea would not tolerate any provocative act by the North and will maintain a principle of proactive deterrence. He also proclaimed that if their territorial waters, air space or territory are militarily violated, they would immediately exercise their right of self-defense.
Following the Cheonan warship incident, South Korea soon began blasting radio and loudspeaker broadcasts across the North Korean border. It also reduced trade with North Korea and began denying North Korean cargo ships permission to pass through South Korean waters.
North Korea’s Response to the Yellow Sea Incident
On May 25 2010, North Korean officials stated that it would end diplomatic relations with South Korea over accusations of the Cheonan warship sinking.
The North Korea government has released a statement that it would sever ties with South Korea until 2013, when the South Korea President Lee Myung Bak leaves office. Severed diplomatic relations have escalated to the point where ships and airliners from South Korea are also not allowed in North Korea territory.
According to the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), North Korea also plans to expel South Korea government officials working in the northern town of Kaesong at a joint industrial park that contains archaeological findings of human inhabitants on the peninsula durng the Neolithic-era.
The industrial estate, in which South Korean firms employ cheap North Korean labor, is an important source of revenue for the Pyongyang leadership.
North Korea earlier said if the South continued to cross into its side of the disputed sea border — the scene of deadly clashes in the past — the North would “put into force practical military measures to defend its waters.” The North referred to the South’s government as “military gangsters, seized by fever for a war”.
Korean War or Roots of the North Korea and South Korea Tensions
Long known as the forgotten war, sandwiched between the definitive victory of World War II and the trauma of Vietnam, the Korean conflict was honored with its own memorial on the National Mall in 1995.
The sinking of the Cheonan warship is one of South Korea’s worst military disasters since the end of the Korean War. The Korean War started on June 25, 1950 and ended with an armistice on July 27, 1953. Sometimes referred to as the “The Forgotten War” in the U.S., it began when a political division arose in Korea at the end of the Pacific War (also called the Asia-Pacific War), which refers to those parts of World War II that occurred in the Pacific Ocean.
Prior to the end of World War II, the whole of the Korean peninsula was ruled by Japan since 1905. When the Japanese surrendered rule of the peninsula in 1945, the U.S. government divided it at the 38th Parallel. Soviet Union troops occupied the northern 38th and U.S. troops occupied the southern 38th. In 1948, the North established a Communist government which further politicized the border between the two Koreas.
Where South Korea meets North Korea there exists a securely guarded border. On June 25, 1950, North Korea invaded South Korea. It was one of the earliest armed conflicts of the Cold War. The United Nations and the U.S. aided South Korea. China and the Soviets aided North Korea. The Korean War ended with an armistice once the threat of a U.S.-Soviet nuclear war escalated. As recent as 1999 and 2002, however, there have been military encounters between the Koreas. According to an AP report, the U.S. still has 28,500 troops in South Korea.
International Relations Effort in the Koreas
Recently, a team of international investigators issued a fact-finding report that concluded that the Cheonan warship was torpedoed by a North Korean submarine. A North Korea official stated through the KCNA that the investigation was “unilateral and not objective.” News agencies report that U.S. President Barack Obama supports South Korea’s stated intent to address the issue before the United Nations Security Council.
The U.N. has backed sanctions against North Korea on prior nuclear and missile tests. On May 24, 2010, the U.N. Secretary-General Bank Ki-moon stated that he expects the U.N. Security Council to take action against North Korea. China has urged peace and stability on the Korean peninsula since the start of the warship conflict.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced that Canada has imposed sanctions on North Korea for the incident. Canada’s Prime Minister Harper stated that Canada has condemned the reckless North Korean regime for this egregious violation of international law and its blatant disregard of its international obligations.
It is notable that both North Korea and South Korea have separate unification movements. In North Korea there is the Committee for Peaceful Reunification. In South Korea there is a Unification Ministry.
July 22nd 2010
Robert Gates, U.S. secretary of defense states that it is stunning how little had changed in the North, while South Korea has continued to grow and prosper.
Tensions have increased in recent months. The U.S. and South Korea will soon begin joint military exercises. And, in Seoul, the two Americans held security talks with their South Korean counterparts and announced new sanctions against the North, which the U.S. says is pressing ahead with its nuclear weapons program.
U.S. secretary of state Hilary Clinton says that these measures are not directed at the people of North Korea, who, she says have suffered too long due to the misguided and maligned priorities of their government. They are directed at the destabilizing, illicit, and provocative policies pursued by that government.
The U.N. Security Council voted to defend the South with a multinational force. And President Harry Truman, without asking Congress to declare war, committed U.S. soldiers to what is called a police action. Poorly trained and equipped American troops rushed to the peninsula from occupation duty in Japan, where they were first quickly pushed deep into the South by the North Koreans. Months later, the tide turned with an amphibious landing at Inchon, and the 15-nation U.N. force led by American General Douglas MacArthur routed the Northern armies almost to the Yalu River. That, in turn, drew in massive armies of Communist Chinese, who sent the allied forces into a hasty winter retreat. General MacArthur called for carrying the fight into China, but was overruled and fired for insubordination by President Truman, in one of the great tests in American history of civilian control of the military.
The war then settled into a stalemate along the 38th Parallel and ended in an armistice on July 27, 1953, but never in a formal peace treaty. For years, the official American combat death toll was set at some 56,000. But, in 2000, the military revised the actual combat toll to 37,000. Hundreds of thousands of South and North Koreans, as well as Chinese troops, died in the conflict.
In a meeting held in June 2010 diplomats said the March 26 sinking of the warship Cheonan that killed 46 South Korean sailors featured prominently at a meeting in Hanoi of Southeast Asian foreign ministers and their counterparts from China, South Korea and Japan on Wednesday.
South Korea blames the torpedoing of the ship on the communist North, which accuses Seoul of fabricating the incident.
Seoul and Washington have said the North must admit responsibility for the sinking before they would return to six-way talks on North Korea’s nuclear programme.
A Thai foreign ministry spokesman said ASEAN decided to adopt the stance of the United Nations, which condemned the sinking but in deference to China did not cite North Korea by name.
China, the closest North Korea has to an ally, has avoided taking a firm stand on who was responsible for destroying the Cheonan, which an international panel has blamed on a North Korean torpedo fired from a mini-submarine.
Russia seeks restraint
Russia, which like China and the United States holds a veto in the Security Council, urged restraint. China, the North’s only major ally and which effectively bankrolls its economy, has studiously tried to keep out of the fray, urging calm and refusing to voice support for the international report on the Cheonan sinking.
Furious Rhetoric
Both sides have stepped up their rhetoric over the Cheonan incident, one of their deadliest since the 1950-53 Korean War.
The North accused South Korea’s government of fabricating the issue, partly to help the ruling party in next week’s local elections — important to cement President Lee’s power in the second half of his single five-year term.
Analysts say the main risk is that small skirmishes along the heavily armed border could turn into broader conflict.
The U.S.-led military command monitoring the cease-fire on the Korean peninsula confronted North Korea on 23.07.2010 about the deadly sinking of a South Korean warship, calling it a violation of the 1953 armistice.
Colonels from the U.N. Command, who met at the border with counterparts from Pyongyang’s Korean People’s Army, reminded North Korea of the U.N. Security Council order to honour the truce. Officers also proposed a joint task force to discuss the “armistice violations,” the military commission said in a statement.
The 100-minute talks, which took place at the “truce village” of Panmunjom inside the Demilitarized Zone dividing the two Koreas, were the second round of talks since the Cheonan went down off the Koreas’ west coast on March 26, 2010 killing 46 South Korean sailors.
North Korea also rejected South Korean demands to apologise for the sinking of the Cheonan.
Sanctions
Following are the major international sanctions in force against North Korea for its nuclear and ballistic missile activities and suspected human rights violations.
UN Security Council Resolution 1874
The resolution of June 2009 allows inspection of all cargo to and from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, or DPRK, along with vessels containing suspicious cargo. The resolution bans provision of fuel or supplies, or services for North Korean vessels suspected to be carrying banned items. Suspicious vessels are subject to inspection at sea. Eight North Korean organisations including its General Bureau of Atomic Energy, which oversees its main nuclear complex and trading firms, are blacklisted by a UN sanctions committee under resolution 1874. The blacklist includes five North Korean individuals believed to be involved in nuclear or missile production.
UN Security Council Resolution 1718
This resolution of October 2006 imposes arms and financial sanctions on North Korea in response to its first nuclear test three months after firing its longest range Taepodong-2 ballistic missile. The sanction also bans the sale of luxury goods to the North.
UN Security Council Resolution 1695
This resolution of July 2006, also after the launch of Taepodong-2, bans trading of material, technology and financial resources that could be used in any programme of weapons of mass destruction in North Korea.
US Sanctions
The US treasury department rules ban transactions by US firms with North Korean banks and trading firms for their role in arms dealing and weapons proliferation, including Amroggang Development Bank, Tanchon Commercial Bank, Korea Hyoksin Trading Corp and Ryonbong General Corp.
Imports of goods made in North Korea require prior approval. Provisions of the US Patriot Act and the code on money laundering have been applied to North Korea.
In 2003 President George Bush launched the “proliferation security initiative”, an informal multilateral grouping that aims to stop trafficking of weapons of mass destruction.
Bush removed North Korea from the list of countries alleged to be state sponsors of terrorism and from the US Trading with the Enemies Act in October 2008 as an inducement to keep Pyongyang engaged in nuclear diplomacy. In February, Barack Obama decided not to reinstate North Korea to that list, which would deny Pyongyang access to loans and other funds from international financial organisations. Some US lawmakers say North Korea’s nuclear co-operation with Syria, which is on the list, and suspected arms exports to Hezbollah and Hamas are sufficient grounds to reinstate Pyongyang.
On 21.07.2010, Clinton unveiled new sanctions designed to deny luxury goods to North Korean elites and strangle funding for Pyongyang’s nuclear programme. The north says it will not return to nuclear negotiations unless the sanctions are lifted.
The U.S. plan to impose new financial sanctions on North Korea will focus on cracking down on its overseas arms sales and the supply of luxury goods to its leadership, according to South Korean intelligence sources, on 23.07.2010.
Washington is reportedly taking steps to freeze Pyongyang’s secret overseas bank accounts used to deposit money from arms transactions, counterfeiting, money laundering and drug trafficking.
The United States has identified about 200 bank accounts with links to North Korea and is expected to freeze some 100 of those suspected of being used for weapons exports and other illicit purposes banned under U.N. resolutions, Yonhap News reported 23.07.2010.
Japanese Sanctions
These were renewed in April, 2010 for a year and ban imports of North Korean goods, as well as all exports to the country, and prohibit port calls by North Korean vessels. Japan, in principle, bans North Korean nationals entering the country, though this does not apply to re-entry by North Korean residents of Japan. Cash sums of more than 300,000 yen carried to North Korea must be reported to authorities, while remittances of over 10m yen must be declared.
North Korea threatens ‘physical response’ to US military exercises
North Korea on 23.07.2010 threatened a “physical response” to planned military exercises by the US and South Korea in the weekend, as tensions on the Korean peninsula dominated a regional security forum in Hanoi.
*****
