In 1945, the Korean peninsula was divided into two zones, separated by the 38 ° N parallel:
- the North was occupied by Soviet troops (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea).
- the South came under American control (Republic of Korea).
In 1950 the Korean War began, with the North Koreans invading the south, in an attempt to unify the country under the communist regime. China enters the war by supporting the north and the US, the south.
An armistice was signed in 1953, leaving a demilitarized zone along the 38 ° N parallel.
According to Loverists.com, North Korea, a socialist, has one of the most closed regimes in the world. It carried out agrarian reform, collectivized the countryside and followed the socialist system, with centralized planning.
In 1990, the UN unanimously approved the admission of the two Koreas, as members 160 and 161.
In 1991, the North and South Prime Ministers signed a Reconciliation, Non-Aggression, Exchange and Cooperation Agreement, considered an important step towards reunification.
From 1991, North Korea began to experience economic difficulties with the withdrawal of Soviet aid. The loss of the supply of Soviet oil immobilized tractors and fertilizer factories.
In 1992, the North Korean government submitted a report to the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) on the country’s nuclear facilities, including that of Yongbion.
In 1993, North Korea denied permission to the IAEA to inspect the plant, starting a serious crisis.
In 1994, North Korea agreed to freeze its nuclear program and subject it to international control.
The 1990s were marked by severe floods and periods of drought, which aggravated food shortages, which led the North Korean government to make an unusual request for international aid.
Food shortages, hunger, malnutrition, high child mortality and lack of health care are serious problems for North Korea, which has been receiving humanitarian aid from South Korea, Japan, the United States and the UN since 1995.
In 2000 (July), a historic summit meeting between the two Koreas was held in Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, to discuss security issues, missile programs and the possible reunification of the Korean peninsula.
In September 2000, the two Koreas, for the first time, paraded together at the Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia.
Nuclear crisis
North Korea, warning about the. risk of a “3rd World War”, it abandoned the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in January 2003, but said it was willing to talk to the United States to resolve the crisis over its nuclear program.
North Korea’s dependence on arms exports poses a serious threat to global efforts to control the proliferation of nuclear weapons.
In January 2002, US President George W. Bush accused North Korea of forming, together with Iran and Iraq, an “axis of evil” responsible for the development of weapons of mass destruction.
In 2002, the two Koreas carried out the construction of road and rail links across a heavily militarized border, with the hope that the project would improve bilateral relations. They also began to remove part of the mines installed on the border. Once reconnected, the Korean railway will be linked to the Russian Trans-Siberian one.
In September 2002, North Korea initiated “capitalist” openings, creating three special economic zones:
- in Sinuiju, on the border with China, northwestern Korea. It will be an “international financial, commercial and industrial zone”, which will operate without interference from the central government for a period of 50 years, and which will attract capital from China, Japan and South Korea, as well as the West. It will operate its legal and economic system and even issue its passports. Foreigners will be able to enter without visas, although the government must build walls around the city to control North Koreans’ access.
- in Kaesong,an industrial park and a new city of 30.4 square kilometers. When completed in 2010, this project is expected to house 3,000! factories, 200,000 residential units, 1,100 hotel rooms, a shopping mall and two 18-hole golf courses. This entire complex will be located just 72 kilometers from Seoul, in Kaesong, just to the north of the demilitarized zone.
- a tourist enclave on Mount Kumgang, to attract South Korean tourists.
The NPT is considered the cornerstone of international efforts to control the spread of nuclear weapons. By abandoning the treaty, North Korea will prevent the IAEA from inspecting its nuclear programs.
The crisis was unleashed in December 2002, when North Korea reactivated the Yongbyon nuclear reactor to, according to her, supply its energy needs. US and allies have suspended oil supplies.
The suspension was decided in November 2002, after a senior North Korean official revealed that Pyongyang was secretly maintaining a nuclear program, violating the 1994 agreement, according to which North Korea pledged to freeze its atomic projects and the United States and allies, to supply oil (500 thousand tons per year) and to build two light water reactors.
The first nuclear reactor to start operating in North Korea, in the town of Yongbyon, north of Seoul, in 1965, was Soviet and worked on it: specialists trained in the former USSR.
North Korea became the first of the 188 signatory countries to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) that decides to abandon this multilateral agreement, approved in New York by the UN General Assembly in June 1968, with the aim of preventing the world arms race .
According to the text, the countries in possession of this type of weapons undertake not to export them to non-nuclear nations and the latter not to acquire nuclear material that could be used for military purposes.
When the NPT came into force in 1970, there were five declared nuclear powers: USA, former USSR, Britain, France and China – currently permanent members of the UN Security Council. Today India, Pakistan and Israel also have this type of! arms and are the only countries that refuse to sign the NPT. South Africa joined the treaty in 1991, after admitting that it produced nuclear weapons until 1970.
North Korea signed the NPT in 1985, despite having threatened to abandon it in 1993/1994, during another nuclear crisis with the USA, before reaching an agreement! especially with Washington that guaranteed the supply of oil, two light water reactors and financial aid in exchange for the freezing of its nuclear program.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is the UN body in charge of supervising the process of producing uranium ore, its transformation into nuclear fuel and the destination of waste from power plants, but it can only control the facilities of the countries that serve voluntarily to that.
North Korea has about 1.2 million soldiers – the third largest active army in the world. Its reservists bring the total battle force to 8 million men, according to South Korean estimates.
North Korea has a project to build facilities, which are spread across the country, capable of enriching uranium for nuclear weapons.
North Korean influences
North Korea has characteristics that set it apart from the rest of the world. It is the most isolated country in the world, which adopts the socialist economy and has isolated itself within the socialist world itself. The North Koreans believe they have built a society of communists, with great Marxist, Leninist and Confucian influence.
Confucianism preaches that the state must be governed by morally advanced personalities. That is why workers participate in supervised studies of the scriptures of Kim II-sung, who, when he passed away in 1994, was declared president for eternity.
In North Korea the common phrase is “The great leader taught us”. The former power dictator Kim II-sung and his successor, his son, Kim Jong-ll, is based on the heavenly mandate.
Another factor shaping the North Korean mentality is people’s faith in Marxism-Leninism and the belief that they have the science of the future.
How to understand the mentality of a dictatorial regime that adopts hunger as a necessary step in its fight against imperialism?
