(Describer) Titles: PBS Digital Studios.
[soft music]
North Korea is one of the most
important news items of today,
but have you ever wondered:
Why is there a North
and a South Korea?
(Describer) A shifting grid of animated sketches. Title: Origin of Everything.
[intro music]
News from North
and South Korea
has been dominating
our timelines,
social media,
and TV screens for years,
especially in light of
the U.S.'s ongoing conflicts
with North Korea.
But to fully understand
the complexity
of our current
political moment,
it's important that we stop
to ask ourselves:
Why are North and South Korea
two separate nations,
and how did this divide occur?
So, most people focus
on World War II
and the Korean War, but to
really understand this question,
we have to start further back.
By the tail end
of the 19th century,
imperialism had spread
throughout the world
as nations looked
to establish their economic
and military might,
as well as their sovereignty,
or complete independence
as a country.
At that time,
Korea was considered
a "tributary state" of China,
which is the term for a region
that is under the control
of another nation.
The Chinese Qing Empire
was dominant in the region,
but the Japanese empire was
working to establish itself
and test its military strength.
Because Korea was directly
bordered by China to the north
and Japan to the south,
it became a significant
legal battleground
between the two countries during
the first Sino-Japanese War
in 1894 to 1895.
When Japan defeated China,
Japanese officials
became instrumental in
recognizing Korean independence
after the 1895 signing
of the Treaty of Shimonoseki.
But if Japan was trying
to subsume and control Korea,
why would Japanese officials
want Korea to
first become independent?
In his book,
"The Great Enterprise,"
Professor Henry Em notes the
beginning of Korean sovereignty
on January 7, 1895.
King Gojong of Joseon,
ruler of Korea,
swore an oath of independence
at the behest of the Japanese.
He said, "All thought
of dependence on China
"shall be put away
so that the heritage
of independence
may be secured."
This marked the shift
from Chinese oversight
as a tributary state
to a form of
Westphalian sovereignty,
or a policy of a nation
having complete legal authority
and control
over its own affairs.
But it's important to note
that while this
declaration of independence
from China was a shift
in Korean's status as a nation,
it wasn't without influence
from the Japanese empire.
In December of 1894,
the Japanese envoy
and minister to Korea,
Inoue Kaoru,
compelled King Gojong
to make this speech
of independence
in order to make Western
ideals of sovereignty
more widespread
in Korea
because Japan was interested
in acquiring imperial control
over its neighbor.
Professor Em argues
that first,
by declaring itself
a sovereign country,
Korea began publicly
acting under Western law,
decreasing aid and oversight
from China's Qing Empire.
And second, that Japan
could now increase
control over Korea
through a series of treaties
designed to work in favor
of Japanese economic interests.
King Gojong became
emperor in 1897,
and while, on the surface,
Korea gained
a Western model of sovereignty
through his declaration,
other world powers
continued to interfere.
Okay, so we've set out
some earlier dates
for the establishment
of Korean sovereignty
in the late 19th century,
but how did North
and South Korea emerge
as two individual nations?
Well, remember those treaties
that I mentioned earlier?
They effectively worked to
place Korea further and further
under Japanese control
and influence.
The 1905 Japan-Korea
Protectorate Treaty
effectively eliminated
Korea's sovereignty,
so we see the status
of Korea shift again
from independent nation
to a protected state
within eight years.
And interestingly enough,
the 1905 treaty
was rumored to be
signed without the consent
of the Korean government.
Gojong was forced
to abdicate the throne in 1907
and an independence movement
spread throughout the country.
And Japanese
General Ito Hirobumi
was assassinated by
independence activist
An Jung-geun in 1909.
Starting with the Japan-Korea
Annexation Treaty of 1910,
until 1945,
Japan ruled over Korea,
and through a series
of harsh laws,
attempted to eradicate
Korean cultural practices.
As a result, this period
was marked by intense conflict
as Korea sought to free
itself from Japanese rule.
One of the big moments was
the March 1st Movement in 1919,
where activists
assembled in Seoul
to read the Korean
declaration of independence
they had drafted.
After this,
the provisional government
of the Republic of Korea
was established
as a resistance movement.
Its headquarters
were located in China
to evade Japanese oversight.
But no resistance movement
is every completely unified.
There were other factions
that supported different
political models and strategies
for economic recovery.
One of these was the communist
Northeast Anti-Japanese
United Army,
who conducted raids
on the northern border.
And one leader of
this communist guerilla force
was Kim Il-sung, the future
leader of North Korea.
But then World War II happens,
and Japan joins the Axis powers.
And because the Japanese
still controlled Korea,
thousands of Korean men
were forcibly enlisted
in the Japanese army,
and thousands of Korean women
were forced into sexual slavery
as "comfort women"
for soldiers.
Japanese control over Korea
continued
until they surrendered
to the Allied forces
in August of 1945
at the conclusion
of World War II.
But the end of World War II
left a lot of questions
as to who would control what
in the Pacific Theater.
Allied forces were
interested in occupying
defeated regions
as part of the terms
of Japanese surrender,
so even though
Japanese rule had ended,
Korea's status
was altered again
by the agreements drawn up
between the U.S.,
Soviet Union, UK, and China.
Only this time,
we began to see a desire
to demarcate
the nation internally
into two regions--
North and South,
not unlike the division of
Germany into East and West.
At the Moscow Conference
in 1945,
the U.S., UK, and Soviet Union
agreed to establish
the Far Eastern Commission
and Allied Council for Japan,
with the approval of China.
The aim of the commission
was to "control and formulate
"the policies, principles,
and standards" in the region
in line with the Japanese
terms of surrender.
The language of
this agreement was couched
in the terms of trusteeship,
where the Soviet Union
and the U.S. would assist
in the eventual establishment
of an independent Korean state.
So, Russia primarily took over
the North of the country,
with the U.S.
controlling the South
with the division along
the 38th Parallel.
But ultimately, Cold War
politics got, well,
a little hot.
As you would expect, the U.S.
centered its occupation
on capitalist
economic policies,
and the Soviet Union's
occupation focused
on communist policies.
As the U.S. and Soviet Union's
conflicts increased,
Korea was again
caught in the middle.
The Korean People's Army,
led by Kim Il-sung
was an armed force that was
built out of a guerilla movement
that stood in opposition
to Japanese rule.
They invaded the southern
region of Korea in 1950.
When the KPA crossed
the 38th Parallel,
they began a war with
the Republic of Korea Army.
This sparked the onset
of the Korean War,
which lasted until 1953.
Both the U.S.
and the Soviet Union
continued their support
of South and North Korea,
respectively.
After that, the division
of the two nations
became more and more concrete,
leading to the formation
of the Democratic People's
Republic of Korea--
AKA North Korea,
and the Republic of Korea--
AKA South Korea,
although the official border
has fluctuated.
So, how does it all add up?
It seems that
the division of Korea
into two separate countries
has much less to do
with a natural division
and more to do
with international powers
wrestling over the terms
of nationhood,
imperialism, and independence
at the turn of the century.
If we follow
this rough timeline correctly,
Korea went from kingdom
and tributary state
to sovereign nation and empire,
to protectorate,
to annexed region,
to falling under U.S.
and Soviet influence
in a trusteeship,
to independence,
all within
a few short decades.
That's an extremely rapid
and varied change in status
for a country to go through.
And most of these changes
in status
are centered around wars
Korea wasn't directly waging
and economic negotiations
between other, larger nations.
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