Korea

A brief history

Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905)

• Russian Empire fought Imperial Japan for control of Korea

• Russia was defeated

• Japan took control of Korea in 1905

• The Korean army was disbanded

• Korean language and cultured were outlawed

• Japanese families began settling in Korea

• Kim Il Sung became leader of the KPRA, the guerilla resistance in 1932

• He led attacks on the Japanese for the next ten years

Japanese occupation during World War II

• Men were conscripted into labor battalions• Women were forced into service as “comfort women”

• Kim Il- Sung fled to the Soviet Union

• At the Yalta Conference in 1945, Korea was divided at the 38th Parallel

• Allies landed in Korea on September 8

• Soviets entered Korea on August 12

1948

• Soviets set up a Democratic People’s Republic in North Korea

1948

• United States sets up the Republic of South Korea

In 1950, North Korea invaded the South The war lasted 3 years, 4 million people died

• Kim Il-Sung established an authoritarian dictatorship of North Korea

• He headed North Korea's government from 1948 until his death in 1994.

• His son, Kim Jong Il became North Korea’s next leader making North Korea a communist dynasty

• The 90’s was a time of terrible famine in North Korea

• One million people or more died of starvation

• In 2006, North Korea conducted an underground nuclear weapons test, and a second test in 2009

• It is the 8th country to have nuclear weapons (U.S., Russia, U.K., France, China, India, Pakistan)

• Kim Jong-Il died on December 17th • He will be succeeded by Kim Jong Un, his third son