Korean history - 5,000 years of history

Despite the fact that Korea was subjected to numerous foreign invasions, it was able to maintain its national identity and language. However, in contemporary history, the country ended up being divided in two due to outside forces. Following World War II, the Korean peninsula was caught in a tug-of-war between superpowers trying to fight out their ideological differences. The result was a division between the South,which advocated capitalism, and the North, which advocated communism. Consequently, a civil war broke out between the two sides, which ended in an armistice. Afterwards, a military dictatorship took over in the South, while in the communist North, a hereditary dictatorship gained power.

The two sides are the last remnants of the Cold War. As such, innumerable families have been seperated by this artificial division and forced to live for more than five decades without any news of their loved ones.

In the 1980s, when South Korea finally achieved its long-held dream of democratization, the first signs of a Cold War thaw on the Korean peninsula appeared. Efforts to improve South-North relations included President Kim Daejung’s Sunshine Policy as well as the Mt. Geumgangsan tours, which allow South Koreans to visit those beautiful mountains in the North.

Another famous overture was made by the wealthy chairman of a large conglomerate in South Korea. Decades before, he had left his hometown in the North, taking with him a cow. To show his gratitude, in 1998 he arranged for 1,001 cows to be herded across the border to Pyeongyang, the capital city of North Korea.

Such policies are sometimes successful, while at other times they are not. This can lead to tension and conflict between the two sides.

However, the South will not give up its efforts to embrace the North as “part of the family.”