Teaching East Asia: Korea Teaching East Asia: Korea | Page 271

For three years during the Korean War (1950-1953), the United Nations opposed by
communist forces, tried to settle the conflict between the Korean north and south to no avail. The
country remained divided and devastated after the 1953 armistice. In the last part of the book, I
discuss how the two sides fared under their separate regimes. After years of dictatorship, the
south emerged as a viable democracy and an economic success, due mainly to the labors and
sacrifices of two generations of Koreans striving to make a better life for their children. The
north, though initially more successful, eventually fell victim to poor planning and
maladministration. By the 1990s, after the fall of communism in Europe, North Korea was
suffering chronic failures in agriculture and industrial production. The regime’s response was to
gather its remaining resources and to spur its people to greater sacrifices and efforts to support
the system while viewing outsiders with fear and suspicion, resorting to nuclear threats to
preserve its system. The book ends with the question of how long the elite ruling class of North
Korea can maintain its people in this state of isolation and anxiety, postponing inevitable change.
This review was written by Eric Cunningham and published in Education About Asia (Winter
2011) This review can be downloaded from the Education About Asia website.
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