Modern Korean History 1876-1953

1. Modern Korean History1876-1953

2. Korean history is not irrelevant, but intimately tied to important current issues

3. History of the Korean Peninsula • Ancient History (pre-918 A.D.) • Koryo Dynasty (918-1392) • Choson Dynasty (1392-1910) • Hangul (script) • Seoul (18BCE)

4. 1876-1953 • Arguably the most chaotic period in Korean history • Forced open by imperialism and fought over by other powers • Lost her national sovereignty • Suffered a 36-year colonial rule • Witnessed the division of one ancient country into two modern nations • Survived a destructive civil war with international intervention

5. Foreign influence • first invasion 1592-1593 • 1593-1597, and the failure of the peace negotiations with the Ming Empire • second campaign (1597-98), the death of Toyotomi Hideyoshi

6. Maps

7. Enlightenment and Reform inthe 19th Century • Forces of “enlightenment” refers to small body of advocates of reform of the Chosŏn dynasty: saw value of “westernization” (e.g., Yu Kil-chun) • But largely overwhelmed by forces of tradition that despised foreign technology and ideas (e.g., Yi Hangno) • Forces for isolation ascendant under Taewŏn’gun (1864-1873), father of King Kojong

8. Japanese version of Commodore’s Perry’s opening of Japan Unequal treaty Open 3 ports Extraterritoriality Residential rights Commercial privileges Open Korea to Japanese ambitions Treaty of Kanghwa 2/22/1876

9. Enlightenment Efforts after Kanghwa • Enlightenment forces advocate modernization AND “self strengthening” • Li Hung-chang’s advice • 1880s foreign relations • 1882 Treaty with United States led to relations with other Western powers • 1883 first Korean mission to U.S.

11. Conservatives and Reformers • Kojong and reformers make headway • Growth of anti-foreignism:opponents of “heterodoxy” • Plot of Taewŏn’gun to replace Kojong • Royal family torn between conservatives and reformers • Conservative Min clique

12. Progressives and Coup of 1884 • Even reformers divided: gradualists of the “Eastern values, Western science” type • Others wanted greater changes: progressives, for whom model was Japan • December 4, 1884 banquet for Postal Administration Kim Ok-kyun and followers captured Kojong, killed several ministers and engineered a 14 point reform program • Assistance of Japanese • Chinese troops put down coup: Kim, 8 others escape to Japan

13. 1884-1894 • Japanese influence down, now contested • Chinese influence ascendant: Yüan Shih-k’ai as “Director-General Resident” • Remove reformists • Stifle nationalism • Limit foreign contacts • Even as China crumbling under foreign pressure, trying to hold on to influence in Korea • “Japan between Empires” • Russia and England clash over interests in Korea, China settled issue over Kŏmun-do • Korea no longer “arbiter of its own destiny”

14. Tonghak Uprising and the Sino-Japanese War, 1894-95 • Example: Tonghak Uprising • Background of maladministration, high taxes, rural economic chaos, spiritual decay • Growing hostility of peasantry towards domestic and foreign exploitation • Ch’oe Che-u(1824-1864) and founding of Tonghak (“Eastern Learning”), preaching equality of men regardless of class • Religious AND social movement

15. Tonghak Uprising II • Execution of Ch’oe: followers want to clear name • April 1893 in Poun launch “crusade” against ills • By spring1894 a full-scale peasant uprising under Chŏn Pong-jun to topple corrupt leaders and drive out Japanese • Defeat government troops, seize Chŏnju

16. Quelling the Tonghaks • Worried gov’t. calls for Chinese troops, Japanese also dispatch • Tonghaks quelled, but Japan attacks Chinese forces: Sino-Japanese War • Japanese victory results in Treaty of Shimonoseki • Korean “independence • Taiwan • Liaotung peninsula

17. Kabo Reforms, 1894-96 • Japan “reforms” government • Appoint reformers, pro-Japanese people appointed • Many studied in Japan and U.S. • Hundreds of reform bills passed by Deliberative Assembly over 16 month period • Massive social, political reform designed to totally reform nation • Queen Min assassinated by Japanese in October 1895 • Reforms unpopular with conservatives, others because of Japanese backing

18. Incipient Nationalism: The Independence Club, 1896-98 • Triple Intervention after Sino-Japanese War • Russian position in Korea increases, multi-power struggle for advantage in Korea • Japan now considers firmer control • Philip Jaisohn forms the Independence Club to champion independence and reforms • Ran afoul of government, leaders jailed (Syngman Rhee) and Jaisohn deported to U.S. • Last real chance for Koreans to effect reform

19. Japanese Imperialism and the Russo-Japanese War, 1904-05 • Increasing tension between Japan and Russia over Manchuria and Korea • Japan attacks Russia, stuns everyone by defeating Western power • Victory led to Japanese decision to seize Korea • Theodore Roosevelt wins Nobel Prize for peace at Portsmouth

21. Treaty of Portsmouth, 1905

22. Korea Under Japanese Rule: 1910-1945 • Japan still not totally committed to colonization: “protectorate” with Ito Hirobumi as Resident General • Valiant Korean struggle against Japanese forces • Assassination of Ito in Harbin by An Chung-gŭn leads to final seizure • Japan forces Korean cabinet to sign document of annexation • 36 years of colonial rule result

23. 1910-1919 military control 1919 March First Movement leads to change 1920-1937 “cultural rule”: co-opt Koreans forced industrialization Japanese Colonialism

26. Japanese Occupation, 1937-1945 • Forced mobilization • Slave labor • Japanese language • Shinto worship • Comfort women • This is the occupation that Koreans remember today

27. Koreans Struggle for Liberation • Difficulties at home • Korean Provisional Government, Shanghai 1919 • Syngman Rhee • An Ch’ang-ho’s work at home and abroad • Guerrillas like Kim Il Sung 1931Kim Il Sung became a member of the Communist Party of Korea

28. Anti-Japanese Resistance and Japanese invasion of Manchuria • September, 1931 beginning of Japan’s war with China • Korean partisans • Kim Il Sung

29. Kim Il Sung and his partisans are pressed into the 88th Special Independent Guerrilla Brigade of the Soviet Army. • The main task of this unit is to gather military intelligence in Manchuria • February 16 1942 In Siberia Kim Jong Suk, the second wife of Kim Il Sung, gives birth to their first son, Kim Jong Il. 

30. Aug. 6, 1945 - The first A-bomb is dropped on Hiroshima • August 8, 1945 - Stalin declares war on Japan. • Three Red Army groups, over one and half million men, 5,500 tanks and self-propelled guns, invade Manchuria and reach the Korean border in less than two weeks. • Aug. 9, 1945 - The second A-bomb is dropped on Nagasaki.

31. Aug. 10, 1945 - The Soviet troops land at Ung-gi and two days later at Chungjin and Hungnam. Japan offers to surrender • Aug. 15, 1945 - Japan surrenders • "Despite the best that has been done by everyone, the war situation has developed not necessarily to Japan's advantage,,. In order to avoid further bloodshed, perhaps, even the total extinction of human civilization, we shall have to endure the unendurable, to suffer the insufferable." - Emperor Hirohito

32. Surrender of Japan, Tokyo Bay, 2 September 1945

33. Liberation, Disillusionment and Division: 1945-1950 • Jubilation at liberation short-lived • USSR and US accept Japanese surrender • 38th parallel as temporary expedient soon becomes permanent • US and USSR to work towards “trusteeship” before Koreans “ready” for self-rule • Both occupations attract Koreans with similar ideological bent: Korean nationalism already developed left-right split under Japanese • Soviets encourage revolution, Americans provide bulwark for conservatives

34. 9th of September Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). Kim Il Sung was elected as its first premier • Both regard the other as illegitimate

35. ORIGINS OF THE KOREAN WAR • North Korean advantages: • possess a larger army, it also had many experienced veterans who had fought in China's Civil War. • manufactured some of its own weapons and possessed many Soviet made weapons. • support of the Chinese Military (and support of Communist China – People’s Republic of China (1949 onwards)

36. US in Asia • The US was uncertain as to the extent of its commitment in Asia • It knew its umbrella definitely covered Japan, Okinawa, and the Philippines, but it was unclear about Taiwan, South Korea, and Southeast Asia • Believing the US did not intend to protect South Korea, the USSR allowed the North Koreans to invade the south in 1951 Secretary of State Dean Acheson’s speech to the National Press Club omitted South Korea from the US “defensive perimeter”

37. June 25, 1950 • North Korean invasion of the ROK • July 27, 1953 armistice

38. Countries remained divided • Hostility greater than ever • Destruction of the two nations enormous • Perhaps 4 million people died

39. Important To Remember • The Korean War is not over • There is only an armistice, a “cessation of hostilities” • The war is a fundamental reason behind the current “North Korean Crisis” • In America it is “the Forgotten War”-BUT NOT IN NORTH KOREA

40. Panmunjeom is the official diplomatic headquarters at the DMZ. • Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) encompasses 2 kilometers on either side of the 151 mile long Military Demarcation Line (MDL)

41. Korean Demilitarized Zone (or DMZ) most heavily armed border in the world

42. South Korean Presidency • Rhee Syngman (1948-1960) • Yun Boseon (1960-1962) • Maj. General Park Chunghee (196201979) May of 1961, a military coup • Choe Kyuha (1979-1980) • Lt. General Chun Doowhan (1980-1988) • Roh Taewoo (1988-1993) • Kim Youngsam (1993-1998) • Kim Dae-jung (1998-2003) • Roh Moo-hyun (2003- ? )

43. Kim Dae-jung (1998-2003) • 2000 Nobel Peace Prize recipient, the first winner of a Nobel to hail from Korea • A Roman Catholic since 1957, he has been called the "Nelson Mandela" of Asia and was a symbol of democratic opposition to the dictatorial government. • 1998 - ? “Sunshine Policy”

44. Sunshine Policy • soften North Korea's attitudes towards the South by encouraging interaction and economic assistance • No armed provocation by the North will be tolerated. • The South will not attempt to absorb the North in any way. • The South actively seeks cooperation.

45. Message: its goal is peaceful co-existence rather than regime change • No formal policy of re-unification, though a unified Korea is still the stated long-term goal of South Korea • separation of politics and economics

46. Post-Cold War problems • North Korean famine occurred during the mid 1990s in North Korea and lasted until about 2001 • unprecedented floods • economic system relied on "friendship prices" trade with the Soviet Union • loss of guaranteed markets following the fall of the Soviet Union.

47. Famine, Floods, Economics and Foreign Policy • 1995, the United States government initially provided over $8 million in general humanitarian assistance • (China was the only country to initially contribute more aid). • 200,000 to 3.5 million deaths to starvation • 1999, food and development aid reduced famine deaths • 2003 U.S. provided $644 million in aid to the country which comprised nearly 50% of the aid going to North Korea.

48. In the Dark?

49. 2000, Kim Dae-jung and Kim Jong-il met at a summit meeting, the first between heads of state of the two nations. • greater political contact between the two nations • several high-profile business ventures • brief meetings of separated family members – North cancelled the 4th Problems of the Past?

50. State Terrorism / Continuation of the Korean War? • Jan. 23, 1968, four NKN gunboats and two MiG fighters attacked and captured the US spy ship Pueblo near Wonsan. • October 1983, President Chun Doo Hwan of South Korea assassination attempt in Burma. • Abduction of Japanese citizens from Japan – 1970s. • 1987 in-flight bombing of KAL 858