The Beginning
Koreans in the North and the South share same origin, language and appearance, and yet they have taken two distinct paths that are irreversible today.
With Japan’s defeat at the end of World War II in 1945, Korea was separated into two protectorates along the 38th parallel: the North under the Soviet Union and the South under the United States. Soon, this division was followed by the establishment of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) in 1948 under Kim Il-Sung as President, and the Republic of Korea (ROK) under Syng-man Rhee in the same year.
The Brief History of North Korea from 1948-1994
In June 1950, Kim Il-Sung launched an attack on South Korea to unify and communize the entire Korean Peninsula. The invasion turned out to be inconclusive with the U.S interference, and the two Koreas have remained separate since a truce was proclaimed in July 1953.
With her abundant mineral reserves (80-90% of the mineral in the entire Peninsula concentrated in the North), North Korea had been actually economically superior to the South until the 1970s. However, the poor economic management led to the gradual decline of the economy. Also, the unexpected external circumstance of the collapse of the Soviet Union in late 1980s led to the sudden withdrawal of aid, directly hurting the North economy.
The Famine
The North Korean regime had always adhered to a central food distribution system, discouraging alternative system such as market economy, which may have significantly improved the food distribution. To make the matter worse, North Korea was struck by natural disasters such as a series of floods which not only killed numerous, but also further threatened food supplies. Thus, it is widely accepted among scholars that the combination of central mismanagement and the natural disasters led to a severe famine since the mid-1990s. While the estimates on the number of deaths during the famine vary among the academic studies, widely accepted estimates range from 1 million to 2 million dead, or approximately 5% to 10% of the entire DPRK population.
Crisis Ongoing Today
Despite a huge amount of continued humanitarian aid from foreign countries, the deadly food crisis in North Korea is still widespread, while the regime continues to conduct missile launches and nuclear testing. The regime has apparently exploited our humanitarian help to fulfill its own military and political purposes. Indeed, it is estimated that Kim Jong Il’s recent rocket launch in early April cost approximately $300 million (some say $500 million), which, if converted to the amount of rice, can feed all North Koreans for an entire year.
As North Korea continues to make military threats while completely overlooking the internal crisis, her conflict with the international society deepens today.
Some information referred to www.hanvoice.org, a Canadian not-for-profit organization advocating human rights for North Koreans.
