Kicking the North Korean can: Part 1

There are two main stories surrounding the creation of the North Korean state. If you happen to find yourself out for a stroll in Pyongyang, North Korea’s capital, and ask a local you will get the fabled tale involving the Lord of Heaven sending his young lad down Earth in 2333 BC, not long after the Pyramids were built in Egypt. The young lad found himself on a mountain in North Korea where he didn’t waste any time getting down to business. He married a woman who, just so happened, used to be a bear. The marriage was consummated and out popped another young lad called Danguan who set off to build the nation that stands today. Either this was an early example of identifying as an animal, some straight-forward bestiality, or simply a load of bollox - who am I to say.

If you ask someone outside of North Korea, surprisingly enough, the history of their state is not too different from Ireland’s own story, minus the bestiality craic.

Ireland and Korea are two countries with a division across north and south. Both southern provinces recently developed into wealthy countries while maintaining close links to rural and agricultural lifestyles, both love pints, and both are surrounded by larger countries that have dominated them down through the years.

In Ireland’s case, the British kept the Irish under their thumb for 800 years. In Korea’s case, they are sandwiched between two superpowers; Russia and China. To make matters worse for them, across the pond are the Japanese; the modern-day-good-guys but the historical-day-arseholes.

With Korea, the Yalu River in the north of the country is its boundary. From this river, it is a relatively straight run of flat ground right down to the bottom of the country in the south. The lack of natural barriers or defenses made for open-season on the Koreans down through the years. The Mongols steamrolled through, as did the Chinese, as did the Japanese.

After centuries of being invaded, the Korean’s earned the name “The Hermit Kingdom” in the 18th century in an attempt to isolate itself from the outside world so it could be left alone. This proverbial silent treatment didn’t last too long as the Japanese had other plans, once again invading in 1910 but this time colonising the country and taking it under the control of the Japanese Empire.

Just like the British Empire did to Ireland, the Japanese Empire did to Korea.

In Ireland we had “Hedge Schools” during British rule, where local Irish people held secret school lessons in makeshift classrooms in fields for children who were Catholics, as under British rule schools of that religion were outlawed. A similar heavy handed approach was deployed by the Japanese on the Koreans in seeking to decimate the local culture and people. The Korean language, religion and teaching of local history were all banned by the Japanese.

Despite being far removed from each other on the map, a bizarre situation occurred whereby Koreans studied Ireland to better learn how to resist their imperial neighbour, while the Japanese studied the British Empire to enhance and refine their arsehole methods. This repression has scarred the relationship between Korea and Japan to this day. One of the main differentiating factors between Ireland and Korea is that the Irish have come to terms with our coloniser and today enjoy the benefits from a somewhat hospitable relationship. The Koreans / Japanese are nowhere near the same level of reconciliation despite a similar level of domination.

While Japan was busy being mean to everyone in East Asia around the turn of the century of 1900, other countries had eyes on the Korean peninsula.

In my earlier piece “The Russian Bear's Bald Spot: Part 1”, I discussed the geopolitical issues the lack of a warm water port can create. This unfortunate fact is a key driver of Russia’s geopolitical policy on both its western and eastern front. The Russian Empire found itself drawn to the Korean peninsula with a view of establishing a warm water port to overcome this inherent disadvantage that plagued its Empire.

The Japanese spotted the horn the Russians had for expansion into this region, so they entered into talks to avoid confrontation. The Russians came up with a proposal to split Korea in two; along the 39th parallel; the horizontal latitude line across the map which roughly splits Korea in two. The Russians would control everything north of this line and the Japanese would have all below. The Japanese didn’t take too kindly to this suggestion, so they launched a surprise attack on the Russians and went to war. After a year and a half of scrapping, Japan came out on top.

For the next 40 odd years nobody cared too much about Korea as it was rather insignificant on the stage of geopolitics while there were much larger events taking place; namely WWI and WWII.

While the US were busy pushing hard for the defeat of Japan to end WWII in 1945, not much time was spent considering what to do with Korea once Imperial Japan was defeated. With Japan on the cusp of surrendering under the weight of America’s nukes, a power vacuum in Korea emerged. With the end of WWII on the horizon, the Cold War between the remaining superpowers; the US and Russia was fast approaching. Both sides understood the geostrategic importance of establishing spheres of influence and control to more effectively project their power.

The Russians saw their opportunity so they crossed the Yalu River in the north and began pouring down into Korea in an attempt to grab as much land as possible before the US could come from the south to do the same. Like an emergency meeting held in a GAA club after someone is caught rigging the club lotto, a similar meeting was hastily called in The White House.

Two junior members of staff (one of which actually went on to become America’s Secretary of State) were tasked with deciding how to split the country up. Lacking any expertise on Korea, the two lads got their hands on a National Geographic map and the greatest game of “Geopolitical pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey” begun. Squinting with one eye, they chose the 38th parallel because it looked to be about halfway down the country.

Surprisingly to the Americans, after pulling the 38th parallel out of their arse, the Russians accepted the line of division without any haggling. The Russians viewed this suggestion by the Americans as acceptance and recognition of their own proposal years prior to Japan to split the country along the 39th parallel, despite the fact the US proposed the 38th and not the 39th. No point falling out over the 110km in the difference, I guess.

The deal was made – north of the 38th parallel came under the Soviet’s communist umbrella while the south came under the American’s umbrella.

Split the difference down the middle | ResearchGate

Once the dust was settled in Korea, both the Soviets in the North and the US in the South began pulling their troops out of the Korea altogether by 1949.

With the coast clear, the Chinese and Soviets began whispering sweet nothings into the ears of the North Korean leaders. The North Koreans began dreaming of a day where they would take control of the entire peninsula by invading the South. It didn’t take much to get the North Koreans horny so they quickly rounded up as many lads as they could find and launched an invasion on the South by crossing the 38th parallel.

This was a major geopolitical miscalculation by both the Chinese, Soviets and the North Koreans. They calculated that America would survive without influence in South Korea and hence it did not stand as an existential threat to them. This lack of urgency and motivation to defend a country far from its shores is what they used as their fundamental assumption for a successful invasion. What they did not take into account is that if the Americans allowed South Korea to be swallowed into a Communist regime, the entire global order and geopolitical strategy that the Americans built post-WWII whereby states are bound together through trade, peace and democratic values would collapse in favour of communist regimes. In this scenario, other countries that the US had established confidence with such as Japan, Thailand and The Philippines might flip sides and join the Communist team. Preventing a domino effect is as important today, especially in the case of Taiwan, as it was back in 1950.

With the northern forces pouring down the country, a United Nations force (90% made up of Americans) came off the bench and stormed onto the field of play. The effort saw the US push the North Korean forces all the way back to the Yalu River in the north marking the border with China.

To put the scale of this war effort into perspective; in the first year of the Ukraine war, the US committed aid to Ukraine equivalent to 0.37% of GDP. The last year of the Korean war cost the US over 14% of GDP.

This put China in an awkward geopolitical position. This was only a few years after China’s neighbour Japan had nuclear bombs dropped on them which brought the once powerful country to their knees. China knew they represented an alternative regime to the US, one which would likely attract unwanted attention from the American superpower in the future. The Americans were likely days, if not weeks away from declaring victory in Korea and hunkering down with defensive military capabilities throughout the region.

As I’m sure everyone reading this will agree, nobody likes to have nosy neighbours peaking over the back wall of your house. This is especially the case when your nosy neighbours are armed with missiles and nuclear bombs well within range of everything you love. This is how the Chinese viewed the situation which was an unacceptable geopolitical risk for them, so they took action. The Chinese rushed across the Yalu River and charged at the American-led force.

The Chinese force pushed them back to the 38th parallel line where the momentum stalled. The conflict became frozen along this front for many months with neither side making significant gains. Here, a truce was agreed between North and South Korea.

It is important to note, this was a truce, which is not a peace treaty, so the two Korean states are technically still at war, 72 years later.

To understand the risk North Korea poses and the failed attempts of managing the situation, which has led to each successive world leader opting instead to continue kicking the North Korean can down the road, subscribe for Part 2.