Introduction

Korea was a homogenous country with 5 thousand years of recorded history, but it was a victim of power politics in the late 19th century. Having won the Sino-Japanese War in 1895 and the Russo-Japanese War in 1905, Japan invaded Korea and colonized it in 1910. After regaining its independence in 1945, Korea was divided into two halves, the northern half being occupied by the Soviet Union, and the Southern half by the United States. In 1948, this division was institutionalized as the South established the Republic of Korea (hereafter South Korea or ROK) and the North established the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (hereafter North Korea or DPRK). North Korea invaded South Korea on June 25, 1950, and the subsequent Korean War lasted more than three years and caused more than 3 million civilian and military casualties as well as the complete destruction of infrastructure and industrial facilities. The division became fixed after the signing of the armistice agreement in July 1953 (Cumings 2005: Ch.4; Oberdorfer and Carlin 2014).