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2024-03-28T09:00:34Z
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https://en.prolewiki.org/index.php?title=Victoria_Nuland&diff=64491
Victoria Nuland
2024-03-23T15:14:37Z
<p>Verda.Majo: added a photo of nuland giving snacks to protesters in ukraine, mentioned her retirement from previous position, and added more details about her extended family involved in think tanks and a quote about her career</p>
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<div>[[File:Victoria Nuland offers snacks to protesters in Kiev.jpg|alt=Victoria Nuland smiles as she holds an open bag of snacks for protestors. One person is taking a snack from the bag.|thumb|Nuland offers snacks to protestors in [[Kiev]] in December 2013.<ref>Boyd-Barrett, Oliver. [https://www.mintpressnews.com/russiagate-ukraine-nato-route-nuclear-war/276634/ "From Russiagate to Ukrainegate: Route to Apocalypse."] Mintpress News, April 14, 2021. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240323134435/https://www.mintpressnews.com/russiagate-ukraine-nato-route-nuclear-war/276634/ Archived] 2024-03-23.</ref>]]<br />
'''Victoria Nuland''' (born July 1, 1961) also known as '''Toria''',<ref name=":0">Hudson, John. [https://foreignpolicy.com/2015/06/18/the-undiplomatic-diplomat/ "The Undiplomatic Diplomat."] Foreign Policy. 2015-06-18. [https://web.archive.org/web/20231030121952/https://foreignpolicy.com/2015/06/18/the-undiplomatic-diplomat/ Archived] 2023-10-30.</ref> is a diplomat from the [[United States of America]] who has served in various positions under multiple administrations as well as been involved with the [[Albright Stonebridge Group]] (the consulting firm of [[Madeleine Albright]]), various think tanks such as the [[Center for a New American Security]] (CNAS) and the [[Brookings Institution]], and a member of the board at the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] cut-out known as the [[National Endowment for Democracy]]. <br />
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Nuland was the US Ambassador to [[North Atlantic Treaty Organization|NATO]] from 2005-2008 and the Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs from September 2013 until January 2017,<ref name=":1">[https://www.brookings.edu/people/victoria-nuland/ "Victoria Nuland: Biography."] The Brookings Institution. [https://web.archive.org/web/20231030103655/https://www.brookings.edu/people/victoria-nuland/ Archived] 2023-10-30.</ref><ref name=":2">[https://www.state.gov/biographies/victoria-nuland/ “Victoria Nuland.”] United States Department of State. [https://web.archive.org/web/20231017202545/https://www.state.gov/biographies/victoria-nuland/ Archived] 2023-10-17.</ref> having a prominent involvement with the [[2014 Ukrainian coup d'etat]], a [[Colour revolution|color revolution]] known as the "Maidan Revolution".<br />
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In 2020, Nuland wrote a [[Foreign Affairs|''Foreign Affairs'']] essay entitled "Pinning Down Putin" in which she called for a permanent expansion of NATO bases in the alliance's eastern flank.<ref>Echols, Connor. [https://responsiblestatecraft.org/2023/07/25/uber-russia-hawk-victoria-nuland-rises-to-acting-deputy-secretary-of-state/ "Uber Russia-hawk Victoria Nuland rises to acting deputy secretary of state."] Responsible Statecraft, 2023-07-25. [https://web.archive.org/web/20231011211038/https://responsiblestatecraft.org/2023/07/25/uber-russia-hawk-victoria-nuland-rises-to-acting-deputy-secretary-of-state/ Archived] 2023-10-11.</ref><br />
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In a 2024 article published in [[Middle East Eye|''Middle East Eye'']], former [[Italian Republic|Italian]] diplomat Marco Carnelos wrote of Nuland: "Nuland has not been just a high-level US diplomat, she has been the spearhead, the golden girl of the US warmongering [[neoconservative]] and [[Liberal interventionism|liberal interventionist]] movements, which in barely two decades have given humanity the [[Republic of Iraq|Iraq]], [[Syrian Arab Republic|Syria]], [[State of Libya|Libya]], Ukraine and [[State of Palestine|Palestinian]] disasters" and that "if any face should be associated with the last decade's US policy on [[Russian Federation|Russia]] and, particularly, with the critical file of Ukraine, it is Nuland’s."<ref>Carnelos, Marco. [https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/victoria-nuland-us-foreign-policy-queen-blunder-farewell "Victoria Nuland: Farewell to the queen of US foreign policy disasters."] Middle East Eye, March 22, 2024. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240322150730/https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/victoria-nuland-us-foreign-policy-queen-blunder-farewell Archived] 2023-03-22.</ref><br />
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== Career ==<br />
Nuland was designated Acting Deputy Secretary by President [[Joe Biden|Biden]] on July 29, 2023. She also served as Under Secretary for Political Affairs.<ref name=":2" /> In March of 2024, Nuland announced her retirement from the position of Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs.<ref>[https://www.state.gov/on-the-retirement-of-under-secretary-of-state-for-political-affairs-victoria-nuland/ "On the Retirement of under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland."] United States Department of State, March 5, 2024. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240314021013/https://www.state.gov/on-the-retirement-of-under-secretary-of-state-for-political-affairs-victoria-nuland/ Archived] 2024-03-14.</ref><ref name=":3">Jung E-gil. [https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/english_editorials/1133133.html "Korea’s predicament in the wake of Nuland’s retirement."] Hankyoreh, 2024-03-20. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240322020106/https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/english_editorials/1133133.html Archived] 2024-03-22.</ref><br />
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Previously, she has been a senior counselor at the global strategic advisory and commercial diplomacy firm Albright Stonebridge Group, former CEO of the [[Center for a New American Security]] (CNAS) [[think tank]],<ref name=":1" /> a non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution think tank, distinguished practitioner in grand strategy at [[Yale University]], and a member of the board at the National Endowment for Democracy. She also served as Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs from September 2013 until January 2017 under President [[Barack Obama|Obama]]. She was State Department Spokesperson during Secretary [[Hillary Clinton]]'s tenure, and U.S. Ambassador to [[North Atlantic Treaty Organization|NATO]] from 2005-2008, during the [[George W. Bush]] administration and was Deputy National Security Advisor to Vice President [[Dick Cheney|Cheney]] from 2003-2005.<ref name=":2" /><br />
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== Personal life ==<br />
Nuland is married to the neoconservative [[Robert Kagan]], co-founder of the [[Project for the New American Century]] (PNAC).<ref name=":0" /> Nuland's in-laws are similarly involved in neoconservative and liberal interventionist organizations, with Robert Kagan's younger brother [[Frederick Kagan]] being a senior fellow at the [[American Enterprise Institute]], a conservative think tank, and Frederick's wife [[Kimberly Kagan]] being the founder and president of the [[Institute for the Study of War]].<ref name=":3" /><br />
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== References ==<br />
<references /></div>
Verda.Majo
https://en.prolewiki.org/index.php?title=File:Victoria_Nuland_offers_snacks_to_protesters_in_Kiev.jpg&diff=64489
File:Victoria Nuland offers snacks to protesters in Kiev.jpg
2024-03-23T14:34:59Z
<p>Verda.Majo: </p>
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<div>Victoria Nuland offers snacks to pro-EU protesters in Kiev, December 11, 2013.</div>
Verda.Majo
https://en.prolewiki.org/index.php?title=Korea&diff=64469
Korea
2024-03-22T09:12:59Z
<p>Verda.Majo: /* Japanese colonialism */ added a photo</p>
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<div>{{Infobox country|name=Korea|native_name=조선|image_flag=Korean Unification Flag.png|image_map=Korea.png|capital=[[Pyongyang]]|largest_city=[[Seoul]]|official_languages=Korean|area_km2=223,155|population_estimate=77,000,000|population_estimate_year=2017|map_width=250}}<br />
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'''Korea''' is a nation in [[East Asia]] consisting of the Korean Peninsula and nearby islands, including the island of [[Jeju Island|Jeju]]. In the present day, Korea is split between two governments, one located in the north and the other in the south. The [[Democratic People's Republic of Korea]] (DPRK), commonly called North Korea, is located in the northern portion of the peninsula. Meanwhile, the [[United States of America|US]]-occupied [[Republic of Korea]] (ROK), commonly called South Korea, is located in the southern portion of the peninsula. The division of the peninsula in 1945 was originally meant only to be temporary, but has persisted to the present day due to the continued occupation of the South and uncompromising policy of aggression toward the DPRK by the United States. <br />
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In the past, Korea was a single nation for at least 1,000 years with a continuous society, language and political system.<ref>Jay Hauben (2011-08-20). [http://www.jejuweekly.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=1865 "People's Republic of Korea: Jeju, 1945-1946"] ''The Jeju Weekly''.</ref> [[Empire of Japan (1868–1947)|Japan]] forced Korea to open its ports in 1876 and annexed it in 1905. From 1910 to 1945, Korea was a colony of the Empire of Japan.<ref>{{Citation|author=Ki-baik Lee|year=2019|title=Korea|title-url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Korea/Korea-under-Japanese-rule|chapter=Korea since c. 1400|section=Korea under Japanese rule|publisher=Encyclopedia Britannica|chapter-url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Korea/Korea-since-c-1400}}</ref> Under Japanese colonial rule, Korean language and culture were banned, and the Korean people faced conditions of forced labor and sexual [[slavery]].<ref>{{Web citation|author=Derek Ford|newspaper=[[Liberation School]]|title=Chongryon: The struggle of Koreans in Japan|date=2019-01-30|url=https://www.liberationschool.org/the-chongryon-movement-the-struggle-of-koreans-in-japan/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220814225352/https://www.liberationschool.org/the-chongryon-movement-the-struggle-of-koreans-in-japan/|archive-date=2022-08-14|retrieved=2022-08-27}}</ref> <br />
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The DPRK's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ri Yong Ho, stated to the [[United Nations|UN]] General Assembly in 2017 that the essence of the situation of the Korean peninsula is a confrontation between the DPRK and the US, where the DPRK tries to defend its national dignity and sovereignty against the hostile policy and nuclear threats of the US, and clarified that the DPRK "do[es] not have any intention at all to use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against the countries that do not join in the U.S. military actions against the DPRK."<ref>Ri Yong Ho, DPRK Minister for Foreign Affairs. [https://gadebate.un.org/sites/default/files/gastatements/72/kp_en.pdf "Statement by H.E. Mr. RI YONG HO, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea at the General Debate of the 72 Session of the United Nations General Assembly."] New York, 23rd September 2017. gadebate.un.org. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220709114619/https://gadebate.un.org/sites/default/files/gastatements/72/kp_en.pdf Archived] 2022-08-28.</ref><br />
[[File:Provinces of Korea.png|thumb|395x395px|Provinces of Korea.]]<br />
The [[People's Democracy Party]] (PDP), a revolutionary [[Communist party|workers' party]] in South Korea, stated in a 2020 article that the Korean reunification and peace struggle is contingent on the withdrawal of U.S. troops, that the U.S. troops are "occupation forces in South Corea and invading army to North Corea" and therefore U.S. military withdrawal from South Korea is "the most desperate and preferred struggle task for the whole Corean nation to solve." The PDP added that as long as the U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea and war exercises are conducted against North Korea, "the prospect for peace is bound to be dark."<ref>People's Democracy Party and Liberation School. [https://www.liberationschool.org/korean-war-70-years/ “70 Years Too Long: The Struggle to End the Korean War – Liberation School.”] ''Liberation School – Revolutionary Marxism for a New Generation of Fighters'', 25 June 2020. [https://web.archive.org/web/2/https://www.liberationschool.org/korean-war-70-years/ Archived].</ref> <br />
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The Korean Peninsula is bordered by [[People's Republic of China|China]] to the northwest and [[Russia (disambiguation)|Russia]] to the northeast. It is separated from [[Japan]] to the east by the Korea Strait and the Sea of Japan (East Sea). <br />
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== Etymology ==<br />
The English name "Korea" derives from the Korean kingdom of Goryeo, also transcribed as Koryŏ (Korean: 고려), which lasted from 918 to 1392. It is commonly considered that during the Goryeo period, the individual identities of Goguryeo, Baekje, and Silla were successfully merged into a single entity that became the basis of modern-day Korean identity.<br />
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In the modern Korean language, the word used to refer to Korea differs in usage between DPRK and the south. In DPRK, Korea is referred to as ''Choson'' (Korean: 조선; Hanja: 朝鮮), while in the south, Korea is referred to as ''Hanguk'' (Korean: 한국; Hanja: 韓國). Each of these names has roots in both modern and ancient Korean history.<ref>[https://tongiltours.com/part-1-study-in-north-korea-kim-il-sung-university “How to Speak the North Korean Language: Part 1”] Tongil Tours. March 10, 2017. [https://web.archive.org/web/20221025103531/https://tongiltours.com/part-1-study-in-north-korea-kim-il-sung-university Archived] 2022-10-25.<br />
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</ref> Therefore, among the liberation movement in Korea during the imperial Japanese occupation period, the names ''Choson'' and ''Hanguk'' both came to be regarded as potential choices for the future name of the post-liberation country. <br />
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In south Korea, it is common to refer to DPRK as "Bukhan" (북한; 北韓), meaning "North ''Han'' (Korea)". Meanwhile, it is common for people in DPRK to refer to south Korea as "Namchoson" (남조선; 南朝鮮), "South ''Choson'' (Korea)". In some contexts, the word ''cheuk'' (측; 側), meaning "side" is used, forming ''bukcheuk'', "north side" and ''namcheuk'', "south side", to speak more neutrally about each other.<ref>이진욱. [https://www.nocutnews.co.kr/news/4910375 “언론은 왜 북한을 '북측’이라고 할까?”] 노컷뉴스. 노컷뉴스. January 22, 2018. [https://web.archive.org/web/20221025120530/https://www.nocutnews.co.kr/news/4910375 Archived] 2022-10-25.</ref><br />
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The name Choson derives from a Korean dynasty which ruled from 1392 to 1897. However, in October of 1897, the monarch of Korea declared an end to the Choson Kingdom, founding a new regime known as the ''Daehanjeguk'' or "Great Han Empire" (Korean: 대한제국; Hanja: 大韓帝國) in 1897, with himself as emperor. The name "Daehan" was formed in reference to the three states that existed in Korea in the past, Mahan, Byunhan, and Jinhan. However, with the Japanese annexation of Korea in 1910, the name for Korea was reverted back to "Choson" during the period of Japanese [[imperialism]].<ref name=":4">[https://615tv.net/432?category=1051910 <nowiki>“[1조] 북한의 국호에 민주주의를 유지하는 이유는?”</nowiki>] 주권방송. The615tv. July 29, 2022. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220904010957/https://615tv.net/432?category=1051910 Archived] 2022-09-04.<br />
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</ref> <br />
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Therefore, an argument emerged that the future name of the country should be "Daehan" (Korean: 대한; Hanja: 大韓) as it had been the name of the country just prior to the Japanese colonial period, and "Choson" had been the name revived by the Japanese. However, the independence movement activists affiliated with socialism preferred "Choson" to "Daehan" because, for the general public, the name Choson was a more familiar country name than "Daehan Empire" which had only lasted for about 10 years, and "Daehan" was the name of the country that fell to Japanese annexation, making it an undesirable name.<ref name=":4" /><br />
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Eventually, the government that formed in south Korea came to be called ''Daehanminguk'' (Korean: 대한민국; Hanja: 大韓民國), which literally means “The Great Han Republic”, or, since “Han” here refers to Korea, “The Great Korean Republic”, with the name ''Hanguk'' being a short version of this name. Meanwhile in north Korea, people continued using ''Choson'', the word for Korea that had been used during the early 20th century Japanese [[Colonialism|colonial]] period and the 14th – 19th century Choson Dynasty.<ref>[https://tongiltours.com/part-2-korea-south-korean-hanguk “How to Speak the North Korean Language: Part 2”] Tongil Tours. March 19, 2017. [https://web.archive.org/web/20221025103547/https://tongiltours.com/part-2-korea-south-korean-hanguk Archived] 2022-10-25.</ref><br />
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== History ==<br />
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=== Early history ===<br />
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==== Prehistory ====<br />
The prehistory of the Korean nation began in [[Manchuria]] and the Korean Peninsula when people started settling there 700,000 years ago. Korea's Neolithic age began around 8,000 BCE. People started farming, cultivating cereals such as millet, and used polished stone tools. They started settling down permanently in places and formed clan societies.<ref name=":10" /><br />
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Korea's predominant foundation myth consists of the legend of Dangun, who is considered to be the founder of Korea. According to the narrative, he is the son of a heavenly prince who wanted to live on earth, and a bear who became a human woman. Dangun is considered to have established his capital in the city of [[Pyongyang]] (later moving it to Asadal, or originally establishing it in Asadal by some accounts)<ref name=":11">Violet Kim. [https://www.korea.net/NewsFocus/Culture/view?articleId=121092 "Dangun, Father of Korea: Korea’s Foundation Tale Lends Itself to Many Interpretations."] Korea.net. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230825142733/https://www.korea.net/NewsFocus/Culture/view?articleId=121092 Archived] 2023-08-25.</ref> and called his kingdom Joseon, and is considered to have ruled for 1,500 years, then became a mountain god.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/outline-of-korean-history "The Outline of Korean History."] Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1977. Pyongyang, Korea.</ref> In both north and south Korea, National Foundation Day (Korean: 개천절; Hanja: 開天節; <abbr>lit.</abbr> "opening of heavens celebration" or "the day the sky opened") is observed on October 3, marking the founding of Korea by Dangun, which according to the predominant narrative, occurred in 2333 B.C.<ref>Shaffer, David. [https://gwangjunewsgic.com/arts-culture/korean-myths/korea-is-created/ “The Heavens Open: Korea Is Created.”] Gwangju News. October 7, 2021. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230825142446/https://gwangjunewsgic.com/arts-culture/korean-myths/korea-is-created/ Archived] 2023-08-25.</ref> According to an article on south Korea's Ministry of Culture website, "despite inconsistencies between historical accounts, ultimately Dangun is still considered the founder of this nation."<ref name=":11" /><br />
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==== Ancient history ====<br />
[[File:Tongmyong mausoleum.png|thumb|Mausoleum of King Tongmyŏng]]<br />
Over time, clan leaders started merging many clans into one, and these groups very gradually developed into early states. Eventually, Gojoseon emerged as the first recognizable state of the Korean people. It was eventually followed by other states and groups of states on the Korean Peninsula, such as the Three Kingdoms, Unified Silla and Balhae, the Koryo dynasty, and the Choson dynasty.<ref name=":10">[https://www.korea.net/AboutKorea/History/The-Beginnings-of-the-Countrys-History “The Beginnings of Korea’s History (Prehistoric Times – Gojoseon) : Korea.net : The Official Website of the Republic of Korea.”] Korea.net. 2021. [https://web.archive.org/web/20221012230807/https://www.korea.net/AboutKorea/History/The-Beginnings-of-the-Countrys-History Archived] 2022-10-12.<br />
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</ref><ref>[https://www.korea.net/AboutKorea/History/Joseon “Joseon Dynasty : Korea.net : The Official Website of the Republic of Korea.”] Korea.net. 2021. </ref><br />
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King Tongmyong established the Koguryŏ Kingdom (37 BCE–668 CE).<ref>{{Web citation|newspaper=[[Rodong Sinmun]]|date=2023-03-04|url=http://www.rodong.rep.kp/en/index.php?MTJAMjAyMy0wMy0wNC1IMDAyQDdAMUBAMEA3==|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230819014817/http://www.rodong.rep.kp/en/index.php?MTJAMjAyMy0wMy0wNC1IMDAyQDdAMUBAMEA3==|archive-date=2023-08-19}}</ref><br />
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The first unified Korean state was the Koryŏ Kingdom, which existed from 918 to 1392. By then, [[Buddhism]] was already widespread in Korea. In the early 13th century, Korea suffered a [[Great Mongol Nation (1206–1368)|foreign invasion]].<ref>{{Web citation|newspaper=[[Rodong Sinmun]]|title=Phalmandaejanggyong|date=2023-05-28|url=http://rodong.rep.kp/en/index.php?MTJAMjAyMy0wNS0yOC1IMDAxQDdAMUBAMEAz==|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230819015445/http://rodong.rep.kp/en/index.php?MTJAMjAyMy0wNS0yOC1IMDAxQDdAMUBAMEAz==|archive-date=2023-08-19}}</ref><br />
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==== Joseon dynasty ====<br />
[[File:Pukgwan monument.png|thumb|238x238px|1708 monument commemorating Jong Mun-bu's victory against Japanese invaders]]<br />
The Joseon dynasty was founded in 1392 and lasted until 1897, a period of just over 500 years. It was followed by the relatively short-lived Korean Empire (1897-1910), which ended with the Japanese colonial period.<br />
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The government and public systems of the Joseon dynasty were organized according to principles of [[Neo-Confucianism]], the official state ideology. Unlike the Goryeo dynasty, in which agricultural lands were privately controlled by aristocrats and local clans, the Joseon dynasty installed a centralized government that was responsible for overseeing the legal administration, the military, and the performance of national rituals.<ref>[https://www.museum.go.kr/site/eng/showroom/list/759?showroomCode=DM0045 “Medieval and Early Modern History.”] National Museum of Korea. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230826041616/https://www.museum.go.kr/site/eng/showroom/list/759?showroomCode=DM0045 Archived] 2023-08-26.</ref><br />
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[[Sejong]], the fourth king of the [[Feudalism|feudal]] Joseon dynasty, invented the Korean writing system in 1444.<ref>{{Web citation|newspaper=[[Rodong Sinmun]]|title=Korean Characters Hunminjongum, Treasure and Pride of Nation|date=2023-04-27|url=http://www.rodong.rep.kp/en/index.php?MTJAMjAyMy0wNC0yNy1IMDA3QDdAMUBAMEA1==|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230819015659/http://www.rodong.rep.kp/en/index.php?MTJAMjAyMy0wNC0yNy1IMDA3QDdAMUBAMEA1==|archive-date=2023-08-19}}</ref> Koreans had used the traditional [[Chinese Characters|Chinese characters]] for a writing system for many centuries. The invention of the Korean writing system contributed to increasing literacy and enhancing communication between the people and the government.<ref name=":13" /> In the modern day, the Korean writing system's invention is commemorated throughout Korea on Korean Alphabet Day, observed in north Korea on January 15th (the day the alphabet was created) and in south Korea on October 9 (the day the alphabet was proclaimed).<ref>[https://www.joongang.co.kr/article/16065452#home “북한 한글날은 '조선글날’인 1월15일…왜?” ("Why is north Korea's Hangeul day, 'Chosongul day', on January 15?")] 중앙일보. 중앙일보. The JoongAng. October 9, 2014. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230826043741/https://www.joongang.co.kr/article/16065452 Archived] 2023-08-26.</ref> <br />
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Joseon maintained friendly relations with the [[Ming dynasty (1368–1644)|Ming dynasty]] of China. The two countries exchanged royal envoys every year and engaged in cultural and economic exchanges. Joseon also accepted Japan's request for bilateral trade by opening the ports of Busan, Jinhae, and Ulsan. In 1443, Joseon signed the Gyehae Treaty with the clan of Tsushima Island for limited bilateral trade. Joseon also traded with other Asian countries such as Ryukyu, Siam, and Java. Throughout the 14th and 15th centuries, Joseon maintained good relations with Japan. However, in the 16th century, Japan called for a larger share of the bilateral trade, but Joseon refused to comply with the request, resulting in a war that lasted for 7 years, referred to as the Japanese invasions of Korea of 1592–1598 or the Imjin War.<ref name=":13">[https://www.korea.net/AboutKorea/History/Joseon "Joseon Dynasty."] Korea.net. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230110182550/https://www.korea.net/AboutKorea/History/Joseon Archived] 2023-01-10.</ref><br />
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Jong Mun-bu's volunteer army defeated Japanese pirates invading northern Korea in the 16th century.<ref>{{Web citation|newspaper=[[Rodong Sinmun]]|title=A Historic Relic, Monument to Great Victory in Pukgwan|date=2023-02-19|url=http://www.rodong.rep.kp/en/index.php?MTJAMjAyMy0wMi0xOS1IMDA3QDdAMUBAMEA5==|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230819015136/http://www.rodong.rep.kp/en/index.php?MTJAMjAyMy0wMi0xOS1IMDA3QDdAMUBAMEA5==|archive-date=2023-08-19}}</ref><br />
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By the mid-19th century, the western powers had forced the [[Qing dynasty (1636–1912)|Qing dynasty]] of China and Japan to open their doors and then asked the same of Joseon, but Joseon rejected such requests, facing naval attacks by the [[French Republic|French]] in 1866 and by the USA in 1871, as well as by Japan in 1875. Ultimately, Joseon was forced to sign an unequal treaty with Japan in 1876 under military threat.<ref name=":14">[https://www.korea.net/AboutKorea/History/The-Fall-Joseon "The Fall of Joseon: Imperial Japan’s Annexation of Korea."] Korea.net. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220912184320/https://www.korea.net/AboutKorea/History/The-Fall-Joseon Archived] 2022-09-12.</ref><br />
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Throughout the 1800s, a series of [[Peasantry|peasant]] rebellions arose throughout Korea, reflecting the economic and social problems experienced by the peasantry. Additionally, in the 1860s, the ideology of Donghak (Korean: 동학; "Eastern learning") was developed and gained a following among academics. Donghak ideology was characterized by egalitarian tendencies and reflected an anxiety about the looming threat of western aggression, and displayed a reformist attitude toward the prevailing Confucian ideology and governance of Joseon. Donghak ideology and leaders had an influence on subsequent peasant uprisings, although the uprisings were ultimately driven by the peasantry's own impetus.<ref>Bae Hang-seob, [https://oak.go.kr/repository/journal/18654/NRF003_2013_v16n2_399.pdf "Foundations for the Legitimation of the Tonghak Peasant Army and Awareness of a New Political Order."] Acta Koreana Volume 16, Number 2, December 2013: 399-430. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230826102104/https://oak.go.kr/repository/journal/18654/NRF003_2013_v16n2_399.pdf Archived] 2023-08-26.</ref><br />
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The [[Peasant Revolution of 1894]], also called the Kabo Peasants' War (Korean: 갑오농민전쟁) or the Donghak Peasant Revolution (Korean: 동학농민혁명), was noteworthy in that it passed beyond the previous sporadic protests at the county and prefecture levels and reached the national level, resulting in an approximately year-long, nation-wide rebellion. The experience of the rebellion had extensive influence on the course of Korea's modern development and the people's consciousness, influencing the March 1st independence movement and the anti-Japanese armed struggle which developed in the following decades.<ref>[http://www.1894.or.kr/eng/?menu=185 “Definition and Meaning.”] Donghak Peasant Revolution Foundation. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230826124441/http://www.1894.or.kr/eng/?menu=185 Archived] 2023-08-26.</ref> The Donghak ideology would go on to form the basis of [[Chondoism]] (Korean: 천도교), a religion espoused in both north and south Korea today and the religion of DPRK's [[Chondoist Chongu Party]] (Korean: 천도교청우당), one of the three parties in DPRK's [[Supreme People's Assembly]].<ref>[https://www.youngpioneertours.com/chondoism/ “What Is Chondoism?”] Young Pioneer Tours. May 2, 2019. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230528120001/https://www.youngpioneertours.com/chondoism/ Archived] 2023-05-28.</ref><br />
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The [[First Sino-Japanese War]] (Korean: 청일 전쟁; Hanja: 淸日戰爭), a conflict between the Qing Dynasty and the Empire of Japan from 1894–1895, grew out of conflict between the two countries for supremacy in Korea at the time, with the war being declared after a series of escalating tensions, including the Donghak Peasant Rebellion which saw the Joseon government request the Qing government's assistance to suppress the rebels. The arrival of the Chinese troops in Korea caused the Japanese to send 8,000 troops of their own to Korea, as they considered this to be a violation of their agreements with China in regard to Korea.<ref>[https://www.britannica.com/event/First-Sino-Japanese-War-1894-1895 “First Sino-Japanese War.”] ''Encyclopædia Britannica''.</ref><br />
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As explained by Ryo Sung Chol in the work ''Korea -- The 38th Parallel North'', the USA was the first Western state which set up diplomatic relations with the feudal Korean kingdom, and King Kojong, alarmed by the increasing threats of Japanese imperialism, sent emissaries to Washington twice, in 1896 and 1905, requesting Statesian assistance, in accordance with the duty the US had assumed under an 1882 Korea-US Treaty. The USA and Japan made a secret agreement dividing Korea and the [[Republic of the Philippines|Philippines]] between themselves, known as the Katsura-Taft Agreement. The USA, [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland|Britain]] and other Western powers at one time pursued the strategy of alliance with Japan, from the ulterior motive of backing, encouraging and using the bellicose Japanese militarist forces as a deterrent to the rapidly growing national liberation forces and the influence of communism in Asia, but that their alliance was fraught with contradictions due to their competing colonial interests.<ref name=":0">Ryo Sung Chol. "KOREA -- The 38th Parallel North." Foreign Languages Publishing House. Pyongyang, Korea. 1995. [https://www.koryography.com/wp-content/images/1548.pdf PDF]. [https://web.archive.org/web/20200926235752/https://www.koryography.com/wp-content/images/1548.pdf Archive].</ref><br />
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Over time, imperialist powers vied with each other to pillage Joseon's resources, and in 1897, Joseon changed its name to the Korean Empire and pushed ahead with reforms and an open-door policy. Japan soon won major victories in its wars against the Qing dynasty and [[Russian Empire (1721–1917)|Russia]], emerged as a strong power in Northeast Asia, and took steps to annex Joseon. Many Koreans resisted this, but in August 1910, the Korean Empire was formally annexed by the Empire of Japan.<ref name=":14" /><br />
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=== Japanese colonialism ===<br />
In 1894, [[Qing dynasty (1636–1912)|China]] and Japan went to war over control of Korea. The Japanese established a military base in the Korean capital city of Hanseong (now Seoul) and murdered Empress [[Myeongseong]], who had sought [[Russian Empire (1721–1917)|Russian]] protection against the Japanese. In 1896, Japan offered to divide Korea with Russia along the 38th parallel, the same line along which the [[United States imperialism|U.S. imperialists]] later split Korea after Japan's defeat in 1945. Russia rejected the proposal along with another proposal giving [[Manchuria]] to Russia and Korea to Japan. After negotiations failed, the Japanese attacked a Russian fleet at Port Arthur and took control of Korea in 1905. The Japanese killed 29,000 Korean rebels in the first three years of occupation and disbanded the Korean army in 1907. After the first few years of colonial rule, most of the resistance fighters fled to Manchuria. Japan formally annexed Korea in 1910.<br />
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In the late 19th and early 20th century, Korea had been developing capitalist elements which were gradually growing and coming into conflict with the feudal system. The feudal ruling circles had been making efforts to prevent the feudal relations from being broken and to prevent the development of capitalist elements. From this process, a socio-political movement to oppose the feudal system and introduce a capitalist system gained in strength. However, Korea's internal development toward capitalism was affected by the imposition of Japanese colonial rule. The Japanese imperialist policies toward Korea altered Korea's development, developing it into a semi-feudal colony that was made into a source of raw materials and labor for imperialist Japan, as well as a market for Japanese commodities and capital investment and a military base for further incursion into the continent.<ref name=":15">Kim Han Gil. [https://archive.org/details/ModernHistoryOfKorea/ "Modern History of Korea."] Foreign Languages Publishing House, Pyongyang, Korea, 1979.</ref><br />
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The Japanese developed Korea's economy for their own purposes, and 60% of Korean rice was exported to Japan. The land that remained under Korean ownership was controlled by feudal [[Landlord|landlords]] who later became the south Korean [[bourgeoisie]]. All industrial goods made in Korea were exported to Japan, and Japanese workers were paid three times as much as Koreans. The Japanese sent one eighth of the Korean population to other parts of their empire to work as slaves.<ref name=":16" /><br />
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The industrial development of Korea under Japanese rule was geared toward generating colonial [[Superprofit|superprofits]], securing exclusive possession of all the key branches of industry and putting a curb on the development of Korean national industry. As is noted by Kim Han Gil in ''Modern History of Korea'', during the colonial period, Korean industry developed as an "appendage" to Japanese industry, with Korean capitalist forces remaining relatively small, and with traditional handicrafts brought to total ruin:<blockquote>Korean industry was made to turn out mainly raw materials and half-finished goods for Japanese industry and the productive forces were so distributed as to facilitate their colonial plunder. Korean industry was nothing more than an appendage to Japanese industry. <br />
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The Japanese imperialists' policy of monopolizing industries arrested the normal development of national industry. Factories and enterprises run by Koreans were few and most of them were small.<br />
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Tyrannical Japanese imperialist colonial rule not only hindered the normal development of national industry but brought the traditional handicraft to total ruin. <br />
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Such being the situation, the Korean capitalist forces were very weak in general, and, on top of it, they were split into compradore and non-compradore capitalists.<ref name=":15" /></blockquote>Korea's comprador capitalists were made up of comparatively big capitalists who were in collusion with the Japanese imperialists and rendering active support to them, along with other reactionary groups such as landlords. Non-comprador capitalists were mainly composed of middle and small entrepreneurs, who typically felt themselves under the thumb of the Japanese imperialists and comprador capitalists and therefore were discontent with Japanese imperialist colonial rule. In addition, the urban small-propertied class found themselves in a precarious situation, due to the predatory policy of the Japanese imperialists and the pressure exercised by the comprador capitalists, causing them constant insecurity. Hence, most of them were also opposed to Japanese imperialism.<ref name=":15" /><br />
[[File:Three Koreans shot for pulling up rail as protest.png|alt=A photo of three Koreans tied to posts and blindfolded. Four soldiers stand nearby.|thumb|A photo of three Koreans who were shot for pulling up rails as a protest against seizure of land without payment by the Japanese.<ref>Hulbert, Homer B. [https://archive.org/details/passingkorea00hulb "The Passing of Korea."]</ref>]]<br />
In the countryside, the Japanese imperialists left the feudal land ownership and tenancy system in place, but introduced commodity-money relations and modern trade connections, turning it into a semi-feudal system. This enabled them to plunder the countryside through means of both feudal and capitalist exploitation. In addition to this, they seized large amounts of land. By 1927, the absolute majority of the big landlords were Japanese, accounting for 81% of the landlords owning over 200 hectares of land. Landlords exacted farm rent amounting to 50 to 90% of the total output from the peasants and had [[Tenant farmer|tenant farmers]] pay various taxes and levies. Landless and "landshort" peasants constituted the majority of the peasantry, with rich peasants being relatively few in number. The combined colonial, feudal, and capitalist oppression converging upon the peasantry caused high anti-Japanese and anti-feudal sentiments among them, leading them to take an active part in the anti-imperialist, anti-feudal struggle.<ref name=":15" /><br />
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Labor conditions under colonial rule saw most workers working for 12 hours or more every day, with many forced to work 14 to 16 hours, while receiving wages consisting of less than half or one-third of those paid to Japanese workers. Due to the peasantry suffering from increasing impoverishment from the colonial policies imposed in the countryside, more and more of them flowed to towns looking for work. Therefore, capitalists could easily obtain cheap labor, which contributed to wages being low. Workers found it hard to meet their minimum expenses and were also charged with various fines. Female and child labor became subject to especially harsh exploitation. Labor protections were absent and workers' concerns were suppressed. When a worker was disabled by a labor accident, they were discharged immediately without compensation.<ref name=":15" /><br />
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Additionally, under Japanese rule, all Korean political organizations were banned. Koreans were forced to speak Japanese, have Japanese names, and follow [[Shintoism]].<ref name=":16">{{Citation|author=Stephen Gowans|year=2018|title=Patriots, Traitors and Empires: The Story of Korea’s Struggle for Freedom|chapter=The Empire of Japan|page=25–29|pdf=https://ipfs.io/ipfs/bafykbzaced4iiga4ngtxusr2civjxewbili5jne2sbpefbx2s3im2kphattzc?filename=Stephen%20Gowans%20-%20Patriots%2C%20Traitors%20and%20Empires_%20The%20Story%20of%20Korea%E2%80%99s%20Struggle%20for%20Freedom-Baraka%20Books%20%282018%29.pdf|city=Montreal|publisher=Baraka Books|isbn=9781771861427|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=8435F6FF91279531705764823FDC2A7F}}</ref> Patriotic Groups (Korean: 애국반; Hanja: 愛國班) were neighborhood cells which functioned as the local arm of the Korean Federation of National Power, the single ruling party of colonial Korea. They typically consisted of groups of 10 households led by a Patriotic Group leader, who would monitor and control others within the Patriotic Group. This included rationing food and goods, enforcing mandatory State Shinto prayer times and shrine visits, "volunteering" laborers upon the colonial government’s request, arranging marriages, holding mandatory Japanese language classes, and spying on "ideological criminals". Patriotic Group leaders were among the first to be targeted for reprisals following Korean Independence in August 1945, with many of their homes set on fire.<ref>[https://encykorea.aks.ac.kr/Article/E0073853 “애국반(愛國班).”] Encyclopedia of Korean Culture.Aks.ac.kr. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230314133948/https://encykorea.aks.ac.kr/Article/E0073853 Archived] 2023-03-14.</ref><ref>[https://exposingimperialjapan.com/yoko-versus-hoshiko-a-1944-morality-play-pitting-good-korean-woman-yoko-who-is-kind-and-considerate-against-bad-korean-woman-hoshiko-the-selfish-corrupt-patriotic-group-leader-harbori/ “‘Yōko versus Hoshiko’, a 1944 Morality Play Pitting ‘Good Korean Woman’ Yōko, Who Is Kind and Considerate, against ‘Bad Korean Woman’ Hoshiko, the Selfish, Corrupt Patriotic Group Leader Harboring Liberal and Hedonistic British/American Thoughts Who ‘Needs to Be Shot’ for Betraying Imperial Japan.”] Exposing Imperial Japan. September 21, 2022. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230314133325/https://exposingimperialjapan.com/yoko-versus-hoshiko-a-1944-morality-play-pitting-good-korean-woman-yoko-who-is-kind-and-considerate-against-bad-korean-woman-hoshiko-the-selfish-corrupt-patriotic-group-leader-harbori/ Archived] 2023-03-14.<br />
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</ref><ref>[http://contents.history.go.kr/front/tg/view.do?treeId=0106&levelId=tg_004_2520&ganada=&pageUnit=10 “애국반 - 교과서 용어해설 | 우리역사넷.”] History.go.kr. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230314134446/http://contents.history.go.kr/front/tg/view.do?treeId=0106&levelId=tg_004_2520&ganada=&pageUnit=10 Archived] 2023-03-14.</ref><br />
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In 1937, Kim Il Sung summarized the conditions experienced by Koreans during the 27 years of occupation and under the intensifying repressive wartime conditions:<blockquote>Twenty-seven years have elapsed since the Japanese imperialists occupied Korea.<br />
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During this period they have turned our country into a source of raw materials and labour, a market for their commodities and a military base for aggression against the continent.<br />
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Owing to their ferocious colonial policy, the Korean people have been deprived of their national rights and freedom and are suffering untold sorrow as a ruined people. Our people are not only subjected to double and treble oppression and exploitation by the Japanese imperialists and their lackeys in a manner reminiscent of mediaeval times, but threatened with the danger of being deprived of their beautiful written and spoken language.<br />
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The Sino-Japanese War unleashed by the Japanese imperialists is driving our people into an even more terrible plight. With an eye to ensuring "safety in the rear," the Japanese imperialists have greatly expanded their fascist, colonial, repressive machinery-troops, police, prisons, gallows and all-and concocted a new set of Draconian laws. In this way, they have turned our beautiful land of 3,000 ri into a living hell on earth. They are cracking down on the revolutionary forces with fury, while suppressing and slaughtering innocent people as never before. [...]They have openly instituted compulsory conscription and grain deliveries in order to meet the ever-increasing demand for manpower and materials in their aggressive war against the continent. Thus, our precious young and middle-aged people are being forcibly rounded up to become bullet shields for the Japanese imperialists and our country’s abundant natural wealth is being ruthlessly plundered.<ref name=":17">Kim Il Sung. "The Tasks of Korean Communists." Treatise Published in Sogwang, Organ of the Korean People's Revolutionary Army, November 10, 1937. Collected Works Volume 1. [https://www.marxists.org/archive/kim-il-sung/cw/01.pdf <nowiki>[PDF]</nowiki>] </ref></blockquote>Analyzing the conditions at the time, Kim Il Sung described Korea as a semi-feudal colonial society where, due to Japanese colonialist rule, capitalist development was extremely backward and feudal relations of production were predominant. With such conditions, he evaluated that the basic tasks of the Korea revolution at the time were to carry out the task of anti-imperialist national liberation to overthrow Japanese colonial rule, while at the same time, carrying out and anti-feudal democratic revolution to eliminate feudal relations and pave the way for the country's development along democratic lines. Stressing the interrelation of these tasks, he wrote: "Japanese imperialism maintains its colonial system of rule in Korea with the help of its agents, the comprador capitalists and the feudal landlords, and the landlords retain the feudal relations of exploitation under its patronage. Therefore, the struggle against Japanese imperialism and the struggle against feudalism must be waged as an integral whole." Thus he regarded that the task of Korean communists at the time was carrying out an anti-imperialist anti-feudal democratic revolution, regarding these as prerequisites for national and class liberation and social progress, regarding the broad anti-imperialist democratic forces as the motive force of the revolution at that stage. Although the anti-imperialist struggle was broad and would include the peasantry, petty bourgeoisie, and national capitalists, the working class was regarded as being the leading class for the anti-imperialist anti-feudal democratic revolution and in the future socialist revolution and the period of building socialism and communism.<ref name=":17" /><br />
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=== Struggle for independence ===<br />
[[File:Company of Korean rebels circa 1907 by F.A. McKenzie.png|alt=Photo of Korean rebels|thumb|Anti-Japanese Korean rebels circa 1907.]]<br />
[[File:Japanese Troops Detraining to attack Korean Rebels by F. A. McKenzie.png|alt=Photo of Japanese troops standing in line in front of a train|thumb|Japanese troops detraining to attack Korean rebels circa 1907.]]<br />
Koreans engaged in persistent struggles to regain their independence, including armed struggle against the Japanese. They organized numerous clandestine organizations to fight the Japanese. In March 1919, Korean leaders announced the Declaration of Independence. This is known as the March 1st Movement.<ref>[https://www.korea.net/AboutKorea/History/Independence-Movement “Independence Movement : Korea.net : The Official Website of the Republic of Korea.”] Korea.net. 2021.<br />
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The revolutionary tradition of the anti-Japanese struggle still has heavy influence on DPRK's guiding ideology today. The anti-Japanese struggle influenced the development of the [[Juche]] idea and is intimately linked with the history of Korean socialism, the Korean independence movement, and the life of [[Kim Il-sung]]. Therefore, the revolutionary tradition of the anti-Japanese struggle remains important in the DPRK, as both a source of inspiration as well as important material for study.<ref name=":7">[https://615tv.net/376 <nowiki>“[기획연재1] 김일성 주석의 항일운동 역사.”</nowiki>] 2022. 주권방송. April 5, 2022. [https://web.archive.org/web/20221020065905/https://615tv.net/376 Archived] 2022-10-20.</ref><br />
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In 1926, Kim Il Sung and other communist youths formed the [[Down-with-Imperialism Union]], which set as its immediate task the destruction of Japanese imperialism and achievement of Korea's liberation and independence, with the ultimate aim of building socialism and communism in Korea and destroying all imperialists and building communism throughout the world. By August of 1927 the DIU was reorganized into the [[Anti-Imperialist Youth League]] (AIYL) and the [[Young Communist League of Korea]] (YCLK). Conducting students' strikes, students' and popular masses' struggle to boycott Japanese goods and their struggle against the Japanese imperialists, they gradually grew into a leading force of the Korean communist movement and the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle. By 1930, amid a context of strikes, demonstrations, and sporadic violent struggle of workers, peasants, and student youth, Kim Il Sung defined the armed struggle as the main form of struggle necessary to further develop the anti-Japanese struggle.<ref name=":15" /> <br />
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At a meeting in 1930, Kim Il-sung established the line and strategy of the anti-Japanese revolution and argued that national liberation can be achieved only when all Koreans emerge under the banner of organized armed struggle. Kim Il-sung criticized the existing anti-Japanese movement at the time for the fact that some of the upper classes were only studying words and fighting, and were alienated from the masses.<ref name=":7" /> Subsequently, on July 6, 1930, the first unit of the [[Korean Revolutionary Army]] (KRA) was formed with the core members of the AIYL and YCLK.<ref name=":15" /><br />
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Those recruited into the KRA were tempered through mass struggles, and upon joining the KRA, were trained politically to be communists in addition to being trained militarily. Small groups of KRA members would be formed and sent to various urban and rural areas where they would conduct political and military activities in preparation of forming a guerrilla army. Schools and mass organizations were set up to help educate, rally, and organize the peasant masses, with KRA members taking an active part in the work. The youth who graduated from these schools were sent to different rural areas to conduct organizational and political work for the revolutionization of the rural areas.<br />
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In March 1932, Kim II Sung formed a small guerrilla unit with those active in the revolutionary struggle since the DIU as its core and gradually expanded its ranks, while giving general guidance to the work of forming guerrilla ranks in different parts. In the areas along the Tuman River in east Manchuria, small guerrilla units and groups were formed with KRA members and other young communists, workers, peasants and youths who had gained experience in the struggle. ''Modern History of Korea'' notes that the struggle to obtain arms was very arduous, stating that "at times a pistol, a bullet or a gram of gunpowder cost human lives. Members of small guerrilla groups, the YCLK, the Anti-Imperialist Youth League, the Children's Vanguard and the Women's Association, and even children and old people took part in the struggle. By their self-sacrificing struggle they took weapons from the Japanese imperialist army of aggression, the Japanese and Manchurian police and the vicious pro-Japanese landlords and officials." Additionally, revolutionaries manufactured weapons themselves using the basic tools and materials they had available to them.<ref name=":15" /><br />
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The Anti-Japanese People's Guerrilla Army (AJPGA) was formed on April 25, 1932. ''Modern History of Korea'' notes that it was not only an armed force fighting Japanese imperialism, but was also a political army, a propagandist and organizer that educated the masses and roused them to revolutionary struggle. Its founding marked the declaration of war upon the Japanese imperialists as well as signaled a repudiation of the movements within Korea who had sought outside assistance for Korea's national liberation.<ref name=":15" /><br />
[[File:Artistic depiction of Korean revolutionary base.png|alt=A painting of people sitting at an outdoor meeting at a Korean revolutionary base. A podium has the words "Long life the People's Revolutionary Government!" written on it in Korean. |thumb|An artistic depiction of a revolutionary base in Korea. The podium's sign reads "Long live the People's Revolutionary Government!" (Korean: "인민혁명정부만세!")]]<br />
A struggle was also waged to establish guerrilla bases, as, with no state backing or outside help, a base was needed to make it possible to organize and conduct military and political activity and logistical work as a whole. A base was also considered necessary in order to progress with preparations for the founding of a communist party and the revolutionary movement as a whole, while waging armed struggle. A policy of setting up bases in the form of a liberated area was adopted. The mountainous area along the Tuman River was determined as the most suitable site, and a struggle was fought there to establish a liberated area, beginning with politico-ideological work being conducted among the masses to raise their anti-imperialist revolutionary consciousness and the expansion of revolutionary organizations into the area, and ties were formed between the people and the guerrilla units. The creation of a guerrilla base was promoted and guerrilla units active in different areas engaged he enemy forces, in cooperation with paramilitary organizations, to neutralize the enemy militarily, leading eventually to a wide area along the Tuman River being secured. Patriotic-minded people began coming to the area and a revolutionary government was established, with barracks, schools, publishing houses, arms repair shops, sewing shops and others being set up in the liberated areas.<ref name=":15" /><br />
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The [[Battle of Pochonbo]] is an important battle in the history of the liberation of Korea from Japanese occupation. The battle was fought from 3-4 June 1937 by a unit from the guerilla army, who crossed into Korea from China, crept through the forests, rested beside Samjiyon Lake before starting their final advance. Kim Il-sung became a wanted man to the Japanese after the battle, and a hero to the resistance movement and to Korean patriots.<ref>[https://koryogroup.com/travel-guide/pochonbo-battle-site-monument-north-korea-travel-guide-needs-photos “Pochonbo Battle Site & Monument | North Korea Travel Guide - Koryo Tours.”] Koryogroup.com. May 18, 2020. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230314132053/https://koryogroup.com/travel-guide/pochonbo-battle-site-monument-north-korea-travel-guide-needs-photos Archived] 2023-03-14.</ref><br />
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The [[Workers' and Peasants' Red Army|Red Army]] entered Korea on 8 August 1948 and continued fighting until the Japanese surrendered on 15 August. US forces did not arrive in Korea until 8 September.<ref name=":12">{{Citation|author=Stephen Gowans|year=2018|title=Patriots, Traitors and Empires: The Story of Korea’s Struggle for Freedom|chapter=The US Occupation|page=79–80|pdf=https://ipfs.io/ipfs/bafykbzaced4iiga4ngtxusr2civjxewbili5jne2sbpefbx2s3im2kphattzc?filename=Stephen%20Gowans%20-%20Patriots%2C%20Traitors%20and%20Empires_%20The%20Story%20of%20Korea%E2%80%99s%20Struggle%20for%20Freedom-Baraka%20Books%20%282018%29.pdf|city=Montreal|publisher=Baraka Books|isbn=9781771861427|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=8435F6FF91279531705764823FDC2A7F}}</ref><br />
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According to the blog ''Exposing Imperial Japan,'' which translates Japanese colonial era news articles, the 1000+ Shinto shrines that were built in colonial Korea were all destroyed following Japan's surrender, starting with the Pyongyang shrine which was set on fire on August 15, 1945, the day Imperial Japan surrendered. A statue of Kim Il-sung now stands on the former site of Pyongyang shrine.<ref>[https://exposingimperialjapan.com/imperial-japan-built-shinto-shrines-all-over-korea-in-every-eup-and-myeon-enlisting-patriotic-groups-to-cultivate-the-worship-of-gods-and-faith-in-the-emperor-among-koreans-and-realize-the-fusi/ “Imperial Japan Built Shinto Shrines All over Korea in Every Eup and Myeon, Enlisting Patriotic Groups to ‘Cultivate the Worship of Gods and Faith in the Emperor’ among Koreans and Realize ‘the Fusion of the Japanese-Korean Family Based on Divine Will’.”] Exposing Imperial Japan. October 6, 2022. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230314135238/https://exposingimperialjapan.com/imperial-japan-built-shinto-shrines-all-over-korea-in-every-eup-and-myeon-enlisting-patriotic-groups-to-cultivate-the-worship-of-gods-and-faith-in-the-emperor-among-koreans-and-realize-the-fusi/ Archived] 2023-03-14. <br />
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=== Division into north and south ===<br />
[[File:The Japanese flag in front of the Japanese Government-General of Korea building in Seoul is replaced with the U.S. flag..png|thumb|The Japanese flag in front of the Japanese Government-General of Korea building in Seoul is replaced with the U.S. flag.]]<br />
After the surrender of the Japanese empire at the end of the [[Second World War]], Korea was divided as a temporary measure by the outside powers of the United States and [[Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (1922–1991)|Soviet Union]] to assist in the transition away from Japanese colonial rule and the re-establishment of Korea's independence. The line was agreed upon between the Soviet Union and the United States only as a temporary boundary of military operations, and never as a line for the division of Korea. <br />
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The United States did not liberate south Korea from Japanese colonial forces, but rather ordered the Japanese forces to remain in place until the U.S. Army landed in Korea nearly a month later.<ref name=":8">Kim, Crystal. [https://www.liberationnews.org/north-koreans-mourn-death-of-html/ “North Koreans Mourn Death of Leader Kim Jong Il.”] Liberation News, 22 Dec. 2011, Accessed 10 Apr. 2023. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230410044940/https://www.liberationnews.org/north-koreans-mourn-death-of-html/ Archived] 2023-04-10.</ref> Upon arriving in south Korea, the U.S. forces immediately began dismantling Korean people's committees and placing property back into the hands of Japanese collaborators and re-appointing Japanese collaborators as police, who helped to arrest and dismantle the people's committees. The U.S. occupation forces also struck down the food supply management system of the people's committees, demanding a "free market" of rice. As a result, [[Landlord|landlords]], [[police]], other government officials, and [[Bourgeoisie|businessmen]] engaged in hoarding and speculation and selling the grain to Japan on the black market, causing food shortages and hunger in cities. As the situation continued, U.S. rice rations eventually fell to half of the ration size that had been received under the Japanese colonial administration during World War II, and newspapers published accounts of [[famine]] and starvation, further disaster only being averted by eventual shipments of U.S. grains as emergency relief. By 1946, the deteriorating food situation forced the Americans to revive the old Japanese rice collection system, which resulted in farmers being arrested and beaten for not meeting their quotas.<ref>Kim Jinwung. [https://www.kci.go.kr/kciportal/ci/sereArticleSearch/ciSereArtiView.kci?sereArticleSearchBean.artiId=ART001085494 A ''Policy of Amateurism: The Rice Policy of the U.S. Army Military''.] Government in Korea, 1945-1948. Korea Journal, Summer 2007.</ref> <br />
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In the northern zone, the Soviets allowed Koreans to govern themselves through a system of people's committees, and assisted Koreans with the re-appropriation of land from Japanese colonizers. The Soviets then left after three years of assisting north Korea in this way.<ref name=":8" /> In the south, General [[Douglas MacArthur]] ruled as a dictator and established English as the official language. <br />
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While the Soviets left Korea in late 1948,<ref name=":12" /> the United States failed to withdraw its troops from the south and instead promoted the installation of a pro-US, right wing regime rather than promoting the reunification of Korea. This resulted in opposition among the southern masses, the [[Jeju Uprising|Jeju uprising]] and massacre, the escalation of the [[Korean War]], and the continued division of the Korean nation and continued occupation of the south by US forces which persists to the present day.<br />
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In the words of author Ryo Sung Chol, "The strife among the great powers for hegemony in the world in the complicated military and political situation towards the close of World War II forced the tragedy of national split upon the Korean people before their rejoicing over liberation subsided."<ref name=":0" /><br />
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On February 20, 1948, the day after the US-led UN proposition of the resolution on the US-sponsored separate election in the south, the Central Committee of the Democratic National United Front of North Korea made public its appeal to the entire Korean people at its 24th conference. The appeal indicated that it was clear what kind of election would take place in south Korea, where democratic parties and organizations had been forced underground and democrats were being arrested, imprisoned, tortured and murdered, and called for a general election across the whole of Korea after the withdrawal of the foreign armies. It called for holding elections to the People’s Assembly throughout Korea by secret ballot on the principles of universal, direct and equal vote. The People’s Assembly elected in that way would approve the constitution and establish a democratic government, and Kim Il Sung put forward the line of convening a joint conference of political parties and social organizations of north and south Korea.<ref name=":0" /><br />
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=== Establishment of DPRK and ROK ===<br />
Faced with the serious menace of division of the nation by the United States, Kim Kyu Sik, Kim Ku and other nationalists in south Korea supported the policy of establishing a unified government of north and south Korea in order to prevent national division, and resolutely and finally parted from [[Far-right politics|extreme rightist]] [[Syngman Rhee]] and the reactionaries of the “Korean Democratic Party” who advocated a separate election. Kim Ku opposed election under UN observation, claiming that “the United Nations is an extraneous body with no right to interfere in the internal affairs of Korea”. Kim Kyu Sik also opposed it for the reason that a separate election would mean “the permanent division of the country”. According to author Ryo Sung Chol, seven public figures, including Kim Ku and Kim Kyu Sik, who led 12 political parties and social organizations including the Korean Independence Party, complied with the proposal for a north-south political conference as opposed to a separate election.<ref name=":0" /> <br />
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In April 1948 there was held in [[Pyongyang]] a joint conference of 16 political parties and 40 social organizations of north and south Korea for the first time since liberation, with the participation of 695 representatives of the north and 216 the south, including Kim Kyu Sik, Hong Myong Hui and Kim Ku, who had crossed the 38th parallel to be present. The joint conference adopted a decision calling for opposition to the separate election, the withdrawal of foreign troops and the founding of a unified democratic state, and issued a manifesto. They officially called for the simultaneous withdrawal of the troops of the USSR and the United States, pointing out that "We, the Korean people, are mature enough to settle our problems by ourselves without foreign interference, and our country has many cadres prepared to settle them" as well as laid out a plan of action for peaceful reunification of Korea and the formation of a unified, democratic government. The manifesto was signed by 42 political parties and social organizations of north and south Korea which opposed the division of the country and people.<ref name=":0" /> [[File:Actors re-enact the massacre of residents branded as communist insurgents during the Jeju Uprising and Massacre, for its 70th anniversary.jpg|thumb|319x319px|People in south Korea re-enact the massacre of residents branded as communist insurgents during the [[Jeju Uprising|Jeju massacre]], which occurred from 1948-1949 and claimed the lives of 10% of Jeju's population. Many residents of Jeju had protested the division of Korea and the separate elections held in the south, and virtually the entire population of the island was brutally punished by the right wing southern regime as a result.]]Meanwhile, in south Korea, general strikes and popular uprisings, such as the [[Jeju Uprising|Jeju uprising]], arose in opposition to the US-led separate elections. The south Korean government's militant suppression of the Jeju uprising in turn sparked the [[Yeosu-Suncheon rebellion]] in [[South Jeolla Province|South Jeolla]] province, which occurred from October to November in 1948, when members of a south Korean military regiment in Yeosu refused to transfer to Jeju Island to suppress the Jeju islanders. The guerrilla-style rebellion was led by 2,000 left-leaning soldiers who opposed the U.S.-backed dictator Syngman Rhee and the regime's crackdown on Jeju. In the wake of such resistance, the Rhee regime instituted the [[Anti-communism|anti-communist]] [[National Security Law]] (Korean: 국가보안법) on December 1, 1948. This law has since been the south Korean regime's legal tool to restrict freedom of expression and to enforce anti-communist policies in the country. Under this ambiguously formulated law, thousands of opposition politicians, dissidents, journalists, students and artists have been arrested, imprisoned, tortured and executed.<ref>[http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/332032.html “439 Civilians Confirmed Dead in Yeosu-Suncheon Uprising of 1948.”] Jan. 8, 2009. Hankyoreh. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220906021316/http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/332032.html Archived] 2022-09-06.</ref><ref>[https://asia.fes.de/news/korea-national-security-act “Exhibition Sheds Light on the History of South Korea’s National Security Act.”] Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) – Foundation for social democracy. Asia.fes.de. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230328071745/https://asia.fes.de/news/korea-national-security-act Archived] 2023-03-28.</ref><br />
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According to Ryo, at the UN, the Australian delegate demanded that the separate election be suspended because it was clear that all the political parties in south Korea except the ultra-right party would boycott it. The Canadian delegate warned that it had been an illegal and indiscreet act for the US-led "Little Assembly" on Korea to have accepted the US draft resolution, and that it would create a new and grave situation. Regardless of these statements at the UN and the clear and widespread opposition by the Korean people themselves, on May 10, 1948 the United States carried out the separate election.<ref name=":0" /><br />
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After the US-occupied southern regime under extreme rightist Syngman Rhee was declared in August 1948, the [[socialist state|socialist]] DPRK, led by [[Kim Il-sung]], was declared in the north in September, 1948.<br />
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Syngman Rhee and his regime are widely recognized to be responsible for the killing of 30,000 Jeju islanders from 1948-49, resulting in the death of about 10% of the island's total population. The massacre was a result of severe crack-down against Jeju islanders who protested against the division of the country and police oppression by Syngman Rhee’s administration and the US military who held an operational control over the South Korean military and police.<ref name=":1">The Association for Bereaved Families of the Jeju 4.3 Victims, Bereaved Family Association of Korean War and 252 South Korean NGOs (2020-01-20). [https://www.jejudarktours.org/en/news/letter-251-south-korean-ngos-against-syngman-rhee-day/ "Letter from 252 South Korean NGOs against Syngman Rhee Day"] ''Jeju Dark Tours''. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220818105837/https://www.jejudarktours.org/en/news/letter-251-south-korean-ngos-against-syngman-rhee-day/ Archived] from the original on 2022-08-19.</ref><br />
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=== Fatherland Liberation War ===<br />
{{Main article|Korean War}}<br />
The period that is referred to by bourgeois historians as the Korean War is considered to have occurred between 1950 and 1953. However, the 1950 start date of the war conforms to the imperialist narrative that the war began with an unprovoked attack from the North that took the US and Southern forces by surprise. However, considering the tens of thousands of people being killed in Korea throughout the 1940s by US, UN, and Southern forces, the continuous resistance in the South to the division of the country, and the numerous skirmishes that regularly occurred along the border between North and South, some consider it more accurate to frame the 1950-1953 period as an escalation of a war that was already in progress, rather than the sudden outbreak narrative favored by the bourgeois states. <br />
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Author William Blum writes of this period of escalation: <blockquote>The two sides had been clashing across the Parallel for several years. What happened on that fateful day in June could thus be regarded as no more than the escalation of an ongoing civil war. The North Korean Government has claimed that in 1949 alone, the South Korean army or police perpetrated 2,617 armed incursions into the North to carry out murder, kidnapping, pillage and arson for the purpose of causing social disorder and unrest, as well as to increase the combat capabilities of the invaders. At times, stated the Pyongyang government, thousands of soldiers were involved in a single battle with many casualties resulting. [...] Seen in this context, the question of who fired the first shot on 25 June 1950 takes on a much reduced air of significance. As it is, the North Korean version of events is that their invasion was provoked by two days of bombardment by the South Koreans, on the 23rd and 24th, followed by a surprise South Korean attack across the border on the 25th against the western town of Haeju and other places. Announcement of the Southern attack was broadcast over the North's radio later in the morning of the 25th.<ref name=":2">Blum, William. ''[https://www.cia.gov/library/abbottabad-compound/13/130AEF1531746AAD6AC03EF59F91E1A1_Killing_Hope_Blum_William.pdf Killing Hope: US Military & CIA Interventions Since World War II].'' Zed Books London, 2004.</ref></blockquote>According to Blum, citing Joseph C. Goulden's ''Korea: The Untold Story of the War'', "On 26 June, the United States presented a resolution before the UN Security Council condemning North Korea for its 'unprovoked aggression'. The resolution was approved, although there were arguments that 'this was a fight between Koreans' and should be treated as a civil war, and a suggestion from the Egyptian delegate that the word 'unprovoked' should be dropped in view of the longstanding hostilities between the two Koreas."<ref name=":2" /><br />
[[File:South Korean soldiers walk among dead political prisoners, Taejon, South Korea.jpg|thumb|July 1950 U.S. Army file photograph once classified "top secret", South Korean soldiers walk among dead political prisoners, Taejon (Daejeon), South Korea.]]<br />
During the Korean War period, between 1950 and 1953, Syngman Rhee's government indiscriminately and arbitrarily killed civilians without any legal evidence, on the pretense that they may have cooperated with the North Korean People's Army. During this process, around 1 million people were massacred, including people who were against the Rhee administration. According to a letter signed by 252 Korean NGOs, including The Association for Bereaved Families of the Jeju 4.3 Victims and the Bereaved Family Association of Korean War, Rhee engaged in "the mass killing of civilians, fraudulent elections, illegal amendment of the Constitution and several cases of enforced disappearance and torture leading to the death of his opponents", crimes and corruption which he was not held legally responsible for in his lifetime, but which were later investigated and confirmed by South Korean national investigation committees.<ref name=":1" /><br />
[[File:Prisoners lie on the ground before execution by South Korean troops near Daejon, South Korea, July 1950. Photo by U.S. Army Maj. Abbott.jpg|thumb|July 1950 U.S. Army file photograph once classified "top secret," prisoners lie on the ground before their execution by South Korean troops in Taejon (Daejeon), South Korea. Photo by U.S. Army Maj. Abbott.]]<br />
The atrocities committed by the US-backed Southern forces during this period were continuously covered up and dismissed as communist propaganda throughout the war. Western journalists, many of them leftists, who attempted to expose the atrocities committed by the US-backed regime had their passports revoked, some of them for decades, effectively exiling them from their native countries for their truthful reporting. An article that details the fates of some of these persecuted journalists notes that "The atrocities committed by the US-led UN forces are beyond dispute [...] Almost as shameful as the atrocities in Korea were the extreme steps taken to silence and eventually to punish those who sought to expose them."<ref>Ewing, K. D., Mahoney, J., & Moretta, A. (2018). [https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/files/94544925/Ewing_Korean_2017_Article.pdf "Civil Liberties and the Korean War."] Modern Law Review, 81(3), 395-421. <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2230.12339</nowiki> [https://web.archive.org/web/2/https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/files/94544925/Ewing_Korean_2017_Article.pdf Archive].</ref> Mass killings committed by Southern forces in Daejeon, now known as the [[Daejeon massacre]], were falsely attributed to the Northern army in US Army reports. An article in the Asia-Pacific Journal says of this false reporting, "Such myths survived a half-century, in part because those who knew the truth were cowed into silence."<ref name=":3">Charles J. Hanley & Jae-Soon Chang (July 2, 2008). [https://apjjf.org/-Charles-J.-Hanley/2827/article.html "Summer of Terror: At least 100,000 said executed by Korean ally of US in 1950"] ''The Asia-Pacific Journal''. [https://web.archive.org/web/2/https://apjjf.org/-Charles-J.-Hanley/2827/article.html Archived] from the original on 2022-08-26.</ref> Silencing tactics persisted for decades under the succession of right-wing authoritarian regimes in South Korea, where people who tried to speak out or bring light to atrocities committed by the South were harassed by police, or found themselves arrested and beaten.<ref name=":3" /><ref>Kim, Hun Joon. (2014). ''The Massacres at Mt. Halla: Sixty Years of Truth Seeking in South Korea''. Cornell University Press.</ref> One author who wrote about the Jeju massacre 30 years after it had occurred was arrested by the [[National Intelligence Service|Korean intelligence agency]] and tortured for three days and told not to write about the massacre again. He was then released with no charges, so a trial could be avoided so as not to further expose the public to the truth of the massacre.<ref>Darryl Coote (2012.11.20). [http://www.jejuweekly.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=2841 "My Dinner With Hyun Ki Young"] ''The Jeju Weekly''. [https://web.archive.org/web/2/http://www.jejuweekly.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=2841 Archived] 2022-08-26.</ref> Given the facts of such widespread and systematic suppression of the truth by the US-backed Southern regime and the US itself, who regularly dismissed reporting of their own crimes as "communist propaganda", many of which later proved to be indisputably truthful accounts of US and Southern regime crimes, caution must be taken in interpreting anti-communist narratives of the Korean War.<br />
[[File:Thatched huts go up in flames after B-26 bombers unload napalm bombs on a village near Hanchon, North Korea, on May 10, 1951 (AP photo).png|thumb|Thatched huts go up in flames after B-26 bombers unload napalm bombs on a village near Hanchon, North Korea, on May 10, 1951.]]<br />
During the Korean War, U.S. troops killed large numbers of Korean civilians and engaged in copious firebombing with [[napalm]], and, as was eventually revealed through declassified documents, had at certain times a policy of deliberately firing on South Korean refugee groups approaching its lines.<ref>Youkyung Lee (2014-08-07). [https://apnews.com/article/108b4bd1dc854caeaf5f9349fcd5a176 "S. Korean who forced US to admit massacre has died"] ''Associated Press''. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220726115036/https://apnews.com/article/108b4bd1dc854caeaf5f9349fcd5a176 Archive]. </ref> During the war, the United States dropped "635,000 tons of bombs in Korea (not counting 32,557 tons of napalm), compared to 503,000 tons in the entire Pacific Theater in World War II" and "at least 50 percent of eighteen out of the North's twenty-two major cities were obliterated."<ref>Bruce Cumings (2010). [https://archive.org/details/koreanwarhistory0000cumi/ ''The Korean War: A History'': '"The Most Disproportionate Result:"] The Air War' (pp. 159-160). New York: Modern Library. <small>ISBN 978-0-679-64357-9</small></ref><br />
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In the words of the United States Air Force General Curtis LeMay, commander of the U.S.'s Strategic Air Command, "[W]e went over there and fought the war and eventually burned down every town in North Korea anyway, some way or another, and some in South Korea, too. We even burned down Pusan—an accident, but we burned it down anyway. The Marines started a battle down there with no enemy in sight. Over a period of three years or so, we killed off—what—twenty percent of the population of Korea as direct casualties of war, or from starvation and exposure?"<ref>Richard H. Kohn and Joseph P. Harahan (1988). ''Strategic Air Warfare: an interview with generals Curtis E. LeMay, Leon W. Johnson, David A. Burchinal, and Jack J. Catton'' (p. 88). <small>[https://media.defense.gov/2010/Sep/29/2001329790/-1/-1/0/AFD-100929-052.pdf <nowiki>[PDF]</nowiki>]</small> Washington, D.C.: Office of Air Force History, United States Air Force. <small>ISBN 0-912799-56-0</small></ref><br />
[[File:Pyongyang after U.S. Air Force bombing.jpg|thumb|Pyongyang after U.S. Air Force bombing.]]<br />
U.S. Naval Captain Walter Karig, in his book ''Battle Report: The War in Korea,'' a compilation from official sources, wrote: "[W]e killed civilians, friendly civilians, and bombed their homes; fired whole villages with the occupants--women and children and ten times as many hidden Communist soldiers--under showers of napalm, and the pilots came back to their ships stinking of vomit twisted from their vitals by the shock of what they had to do."<ref>Walter Karig; Malcolm W Cagle; Frank A Manson; et al (1952). ''Battle Report: The War in Korea'' (pp. 111-112). New York: Rinehart.</ref><br />
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US sanctions on DPRK began in conjunction with the 1950 escalation of the war, with the US imposing an export ban on DPRK and forbidding financial transactions by or on behalf of DPRK. This began with U.S. President [[Harry S. Truman]] ordering naval blockade of Korean coast and imposing a total trade embargo against north Korea in June of 1950. This was followed by the Trading with the Enemy Act in December 1950, to terminate all US economic contacts with north Korea and freezing north Korea's assets.<ref name=":5">Gary Clyde Hufbauer (PIIE), Jeffrey J. Schott (PIIE), Kimberly Ann Elliott (PIIE) and Barbara Oegg (PIIE). [https://www.piie.com/commentary/speeches-papers/case-50-1-and-93-1 “US and UN v. North Korea: Case 50-1 and 93-1.”] 2016. Peterson Institute for International Economics. May 1, 2008. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220909082604/https://www.piie.com/commentary/speeches-papers/case-50-1-and-93-1 Archived] 2022-09-09. </ref><br />
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After three years, an armistice agreement was signed that stopped the active fighting. The armistice was signed on 27 July 1953. The signed armistice established the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), the de facto new border between the two nations, put into force a cease-fire, and finalized repatriation of prisoners of war. The DMZ runs close to the 38th parallel and has continued to separate north and south Korea since the Korean Armistice Agreement was signed in 1953.<br />
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=== Post-war ===<br />
After the armistice agreement, the US continued to prohibit all US economic contacts with DPRK in line with its general strategic controls against socialist countries.<ref name=":5" /><br />
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At a meeting in 1957, the U.S. informed the north Korean representatives that the United Nations Command no longer considered itself bound by paragraph 13d of the armistice, and in 1958 the U.S. abrogated paragraph 13d of the armistice by introducing nuclear weapons into south Korea.<ref>[https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,809583,00.html "Korea: The End of 13d"] (1957-07-01). ''Time Magazine''. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220728030416/https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,809583,00.html Archived] 2022-07-28.</ref><ref>Lee Jae-Bong (2009-02-07). [https://apjjf.org/-Lee-Jae-Bong/3053/article.html "US Deployment of Nuclear Weapons in 1950s South Korea & North Korea's Nuclear Development: Toward Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula"] ''The Asia-Pacific Journal''. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220819105903/https://apjjf.org/-Lee-Jae-Bong/3053/article.html Archived] 2022-18-19.</ref> The armistice has never been replaced with a peace treaty and the two sides remain technically at war, with the U.S. occupying the south and retaining operational control over the south Korean military in wartime, and regularly engaging in provocative joint military exercises with south Korea aimed at "decapitating" DPRK's government,<ref>Flounders, Sara. [https://www.workers.org/2022/08/66398/ “Faced with U.S. ‘Decapitation Drill’/DPRK Korea Missile Launch Is Self-Defense.”] Workers World. August 26, 2022. [https://web.archive.org/web/20221014032939/https://www.workers.org/2022/08/66398/ Archived] 2022-10-14.</ref> while enforcing strict [[economic sanctions]] against DPRK as a form of siege warfare. <br />
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The years following the Korean war, DPRK carried out its [[Chollima]] policy. The Chollima policy encouraged people to produce and innovate more in order to speed up the reconstruction of the country. In line with this policy, the DPRK concentrated its economy on [[heavy industry]] in the years following the war and it economically outperformed its southern counterpart until the early 1970s.<ref>[https://www.north-korea-travel.com/political-history-of-north-korea.html “Political History of North Korea | KTG® Tours | Information and North Korea Tours.”] North-Korea-Travel.com. </ref><br />
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==== 1960s ====<br />
In 1960, south Korea's right-wing dictator Syngman Rhee resigned and fled the country due to mass protests across the nation after the body of a student killed by police was found floating in the harbor. As a result of the protests against him, he fled to [[Honolulu]], [[Hawaii]], where he remained in exile until his death. <br />
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After Rhee's resignation, president [[Yun Bo-seon]] briefly governed in a somewhat more democratic but still bourgeois government. After thirteen months this administration was overthrown by the south Korean Army in the May 16 coup led by [[Park Chung-hee]], former Japanese collaborator and the father of future president [[Park Geun-hye]] (who served as the 11th president of South Korea from 2013 to 2017, until she was impeached and convicted on related corruption charges). <br />
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Park Chung-hee ruled as a military dictator for 18 years and sent 320,000 troops to support the [[Republic of Vietnam (1955–1975)|South Vietnamese]] puppet state in the [[Vietnam War]].<br />
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The Korean DMZ conflict was a series of low-level armed clashes between north Korean forces and the forces of south Korea and the United States, largely occurring between 1966 and 1969 at the Korean DMZ. <br />
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The 2003 documentary [[Repatriation (film)|''Repatriation'']] tells the story of and interviews several north and south Korean supporters of DPRK who had been arrested as spies, most of them during the 1960s, and who were subsequently imprisoned and tortured in the south for decades for refusing to give up their loyalty to DPRK. The documentary follows their struggle to be repatriated to DPRK after their release from prison in the 1990s.<br />
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==== 1970s ====<br />
In 1972, the [[Supreme People's Assembly]] elected Kim Il-sung as President of the DPRK.<br />
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In south Korea, the fourth republic was founded on the approval of the Yushin Constitution in the 1972 constitutional referendum, codifying the ''de facto'' dictatorial powers held by President Park Chung-hee. <br />
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An [[Amnesty International]] mission from 1975, conducted when Park Chung-hee was in power, found that torture was "frequently" used by south Korea's law enforcement agencies, "both in an attempt to extract false confessions, and as a means of intimidation." Systematic harassment of citizens by law enforcement agencies was also found to be "commonplace" by the investigation. The report states that detention without charge of journalists, lawyers, churchmen and academics was frequent. The mission also found that lawyers would be detained on house arrest and prevented from coming to trials to present defenses for their clients, and bodies of likely torture victims burned before they could be examined.<ref>[https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/asa25/001/1975/en/ "Report of the Mission to the Republic of Korea 1975."] [[Amnesty International]]. June 1, 1975. Index Number: ASA 25/001/1975. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230315081755/https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/asa25/001/1975/en/ Archived] 2023-03-15.</ref><br />
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The Fourth Republic entered a period of political instability under Park's successor, Choi Kyu-hah, and the escalating martial law declared after Park's death.<br />
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Choi was unofficially overthrown by [[Chun Doo-hwan]] in a coup d'état of December Twelfth in December 1979, and began the armed suppression of the [[May 18 uprising|Gwangju Democratization Movement]] against martial law.<br />
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==== 1980s ====<br />
[[File:Gwangju protest.png|thumb|Mass protest in Gwangju in May 1980.]]<br />
During Chun Doo-hawn's presidency in south Korea, he perpetrated the largest massacre of Korean civilians since the Korean war. In May 1980, protests against martial law began in [[Gwangju]], which were met with special warfare troops. Estimates vary as to the amount of casualties, but they range from 165 at the most conservative, to over 300. Some also claim that up to 2,300 civilians were killed in the Gwangju massacre, in response to the May 18 uprising also known as the Gwangju uprising.<ref>K. J. Noh (2020-12-02). [https://www.hamptonthink.org/read/south-korean-dictator-dies-western-media-resurrects-a-myth "South Korean Dictator Dies, Western Media Resurrects a Myth"] ''Hampton Institute''. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220519190752/https://www.hamptonthink.org/read/south-korean-dictator-dies-western-media-resurrects-a-myth Archived] from the original on 2022-05-19. Retrieved 2022-06-02.</ref> Chun Doo-hawn's administration faced growing opposition from the democratization movement of the Gwangju Uprising, and the June Democracy Movement of 1987 resulted in the election of [[Roh Tae-woo]] in the December 1987 presidential election. Roh's election was the first direct presidential election in 16 years. The fifth republic was dissolved three days after the election upon the adoption of a new constitution that laid the foundations for the relatively stable (although bourgeois and rife with corruption scandals) democratic system of the current sixth Republic of Korea.<br />
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In 1988, south Korea and the US eased isolation of north Korea by opening bilateral dialogue and allowing limited export of goods to the North for humanitarian purposes. Some travel restrictions were also lifted on a case-by-case basis. However, in that same year, DPRK was added to the [[U.S. State Department]] [[State Sponsors of Terrorism|"State Sponsors of Terrorism"]] list.<ref name=":6">[https://nodutdol.org/sanctions-of-empire/ "제국의 제재 - Sanctions of Empire."] Nodutdol. October 20, 2020. [https://nodutdol.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Sanctions-of-Empire.pdf PDF]. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220520095404/https://nodutdol.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Sanctions-of-Empire.pdf Archive].</ref><br />
<br />
On March 25, 1989, south Korean pastor and activist [[Moon Ik-hwan]], representing the National Federation of Democratic Movements (Korean: 전국민족민주운동연합; Hanja: 全國民族民主運動聯合; abbreviated 전민련), travelled to DPRK and met with Kim Il-sung to discuss Korean reunification. He and some other individuals had travelled there after Kim Il-sung had invited the leaders of all south Korean political parties as well as some religious figures to attend an inter-Korean dialogue. On April 2, pastor Moon and his party held two talks with President Kim Il-Sung and issued a joint statement with the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland. Pastor Moon and his party returned home to south Korea on April 13 after completing their 10-day visit to DPRK. As soon as they returned to south Korea, the government executed a prior arrest warrant and arrested and imprisoned them on charges under the National Security Act, such as receiving orders, infiltrating and escaping, meeting and communication, and encouraging praise of an anti-state group.<ref>[https://encykorea.aks.ac.kr/Article/E0075760 “문익환목사방북사건(文牧師訪北事件).”] Encyclopedia of Korean Culture.</ref><ref>[https://archive.md/jNpJH “Moon Ik Hwan Dies; Dictators’ Foe Was 76 - New York Times.”] Jan 20, 1994. ''Archive.md.'' Accessed 12 Apr. 2023.</ref><br />
<br />
In 1989, Pyongyang held the [[World Festival of Youth and Students, 1989|World Festival of Youth and Students]]. A south Korean activist named [[Lim Su-kyung]] (Korean: 임수경; also romanized as Lim Soo-kyung or Rim Su Gyong) took part in the festival, although this was illegal for her to do under south Korean law. She attended the festival representing the student organization Jeondaehyop (전대협, an abbreviation of 전국대학생대표자협의회), now known as Hanchongryun (한총련, abbreviation of 한국대학총학생회연합). In the north, she was celebrated for her decision to take part in the festival, and dubbed the "Flower of Reunification" (Korean: 통일의 꽃) in the north's media. Upon her return to the south, she was arrested and ended up in a Seoul prison, sentenced to 5 years. Later in life, she became a politician in the south.<ref>네이버 지식백과. [https://terms.naver.com/entry.naver?docId=1216785&mobile&cid=40942&categoryId=31778 “임수경방북사건.”] 두산백과. Naver.com. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230328081613/https://terms.naver.com/entry.naver?docId=1216785&mobile&cid=40942&categoryId=31778 Archived] 2023-03-28.</ref><br />
<br />
==== 1990s ====<br />
A unified team under the name Korea (KOR) competed in 1991 World Table Tennis Championships and FIFA World Youth Championship with athletes from both north and south Korea.<ref>이환우. [http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2018/07/103_243225.html “Unified Teams Date back to 1991.”] The Korea Times, 29 Jan. 2018, Accessed 10 Apr. 2023.</ref> In 1991, the team used the Unification Flag and the anthem "Arirang".<br />
<br />
[[Kim Jong-il]] became Supreme Commander of the [[Korean People's Army]] in 1991.<br />
<br />
In 1990, south Korean pastor Moon Ik-hwan had been released from prison in consideration of his poor health and old age. After his release, he resumed his pro-unification and democratization activism despite receiving warnings that he may be re-imprisoned by the south Korean authorities for such activities. A 1991 Amnesty International report on his activities stated that since his release, he was reported to have delivered speeches at at least 100 meetings of students and dissidents and to have participated in other political activities. In December 1990, police warned him to stop speaking to gatherings of students and dissidents about his visit to DPRK and about DPRK's ideology. In January of 1991 he was placed under house arrest to prevent him from attending the inauguration meeting for the preparatory committee of the south Korean headquarters of [[Pomminnyon]] (Pan-National Alliance for Reunification of Korea). He later became chairperson of the preparatory committee. On June 6 of 1991, Reverend Moon Ik-hwan was rearrested on the grounds that he had violated the terms of his parole by engaging in political activities and that his health had improved.<ref>[https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/asa25/032/1991/en/ "South Korea: Prisoner of conscience: Reverend Moon Ik-hwan."] September 30, 1991. Index Number: ASA 25/032/1991. Amnesty International. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220714020953/https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/asa25/032/1991/en/ Archived] 2022-07-14.</ref><br />
<br />
In 1992, the [[Pyongyang Declaration]], titled "Let Us Defend and Advance the Cause of Socialism" was published on April 20. The declaration was a joint-communique in which various communist bloc and fraternal parties which remained after the fall of the Soviet Union declared their intention to continue to defend and advance the socialist cause. At the time of its original signing, 70 political parties signed the declaration, with its number of signatories increasing over time into the hundreds, reaching 300 as of 2017.<ref>[https://kcnawatch.xyz/newstream/1546674832-39763653/pyongyang-declaration-signed-by-more-than-300-political-parties-of-world/ "Pyongyang Declaration Signed by More than 300 Political Parties of World."] [[Naenara]] accessed via [[KCNA Watch]]. 2017-04-21. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230929065855/https://kcnawatch.xyz/newstream/1546674832-39763653/pyongyang-declaration-signed-by-more-than-300-political-parties-of-world/ Archived] 2023-09-29.</ref> The document declares its signatories' firm conviction to defend and advance the socialist cause and explains that the path of socialism is an untrodden one and, therefore, the advance of socialism is inevitably accompanied by trials and difficulties. It asserts that although facing setbacks and attacks from the collusion of imperialists and reactionaries, socialism represents the future of mankind and that all parties striving for socialism should firmly maintain independence and firmly build up their own forces and that each party should work out lines and policies which "tally with the actual situation of the country where it is active and with the demands of its people and implement them by relying on the popular masses". It says that socialist cause is a national one and, at the same time, a common cause of mankind, and that "socialism is carved out and built with a country or national state as a unit." It states that all parties should cement the ties of comradely unity, cooperation and solidarity on the principles of independence and equality and defend the cause of socialism, not give up their revolutionary principles under any circumstances, and concludes with the statement that the socialist cause shall not perish.<ref>[https://www.youngpioneertours.com/pyongyang-declaration/ "What was the Pyongyang declaration of 1992?"] Young Pioneer Tours. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230929065726/https://www.youngpioneertours.com/pyongyang-declaration/ Archived] 2023-09-29.</ref><br />
<br />
In July 1994, [[Kim Il-sung]] passed away. <br />
<br />
Kim Jong-il became the General Secretary of the party on October 8, 1997.<ref name=":9">[https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2011-12/19/content_14287241.htm “DPRK Top Leader Kim Jong-Il Passes Away|Asia-Pacific|Chinadaily.com.cn.”] ''Chinadaily.com.cn.'' Accessed 10 Apr. 2023. [https://web.archive.org/web/20221020162831/http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2011-12/19/content_14287241.htm Archived] 2022-10-20.</ref><br />
<br />
The period of economic crisis, floods, and famine in DPRK known as the [[Arduous March]] lasted from 1994 to 1998. The thriving north Korean economy, which had exceeded south Korea's in production of electricity, coal, fertilizer, machine tools and steel even into the 1980s, was brought to a halt in the 1990s with the overthrow of the Soviet Union and a string of natural disasters. Factors such as the fall of the Soviet Union and worldwide economic shifts in its wake, unprecedented natural disasters, DPRK only having 15% arable land,<ref name=":8" /> and [[economic sanctions]] imposed on DPRK compounded at this time, contributing to the severity of the crisis.<ref>[https://www.north-korea-travel.com/north-korean-history.html “North Korean History 1980s & 1990s | KTG® Tours.”] North-Korea-Travel.com.</ref> <br />
<br />
Beginning in 1997, the period known as the [[Asian financial crisis]] or the [[International Monetary Fund|IMF]] crisis affected several Asian countries, with south Korea being among some of the most heavily impacted, with the crisis resulting in the bankruptcy of major south Korean companies and the imposition of [[austerity]] measures. The generation of people who entered the job market in this period are sometimes called the "IMF generation" and have faced a pattern of worsened economic conditions and struggling with job security.<ref>[https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2019/11/17/economy/IMF-generation-feels-job-shortage/3070390.html “‘IMF Generation’ Feels Job Shortage.”] November 17, 2019. [https://web.archive.org/web/20211207004114/https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2019/11/17/economy/IMF-generation-feels-job-shortage/3070390.html Archived] Dec. 7, 2021.</ref><ref>[https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/tech/2021/05/693_33603.html “A Familiar Story.”] Koreatimes. The Korea Times. October 30, 2008. [https://web.archive.org/web/20221101044751/https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/tech/2021/05/693_33603.html Archived] 2022-11-01.</ref><br />
<br />
In south Korea in the late 1990s, amnesty was declared for certain elderly and ill political prisoners who had been held in prison for decades, facing torture and solitary confinement for refusing to renounce communism and their support for DPRK. Some of these prisoners then began a movement to be repatriated to DPRK, with some of them being allowed to return while others remained in south Korea, some willingly and some unwillingly, with many of the participants mistakenly believing that more repatriations and further freedom of movement between north and south would follow.<ref>Liberation School (Jul 27, 2022). [https://www.liberationschool.org/interview-with-ahn-hak-sop/ "Still fighting for Korea’s liberation: An interview with Ahn Hak-sop"] ''Liberation School''. [https://web.archive.org/web/2/https://www.liberationschool.org/interview-with-ahn-hak-sop/ Archived] from the original.</ref> This series of events is detailed in the 2003 documentary [[Repatriation (film)|''Repatriation'']], which follows the release of several of these political prisoners and the different events in their lives afterward.<br />
<br />
DPRK's hopes for direct talks with the United States, a formal peace treaty ending the Korean War and normalized relations with the U.S. seemed potentially realizable in the last years of the [[Bill Clinton|Clinton]] administration (which lasted from 1993 to 2001). The United States and DPRK signed the General Framework Agreement, which provided that DPRK would seal its heavy water nuclear energy reactors in return for normalized diplomatic relations with the U.S. government and assistance constructing light water nuclear reactor facilities. Pursuant to the agreement, DPRK stopped its nuclear program at this time.<ref name=":8" /><br />
<br />
==== 2000s ====<br />
[[File:President Kim Dae-jung and Chairman Kim Jong-il join hands at Inter-Korean summit.jpg|thumb|250x250px|President Kim Dae-jung and Chairman Kim Jong-il join hands at the 2000 Inter-Korean summit, which resulted in the 6.15 Inter-Korean Joint Declaration.]]<br />
The south Korean policy towards DPRK from the late 1990s to mid 2000s is known as the period of "Sunshine Policy" and is primarily associated with the south Korean [[Kim Dae-jung]] administration (1998–2003) and the [[Roh Moo-hyun]] administration (2003–2008). <br />
<br />
During this time, a notable attitude of reconciliation between north and south Korea was expressed by south Korean leadership toward DPRK, and on June 13-15, 2000 the leaders of south and north Korea met for the first time since the war. South Korean president Kim Dae-jung and DPRK leader Kim Jong-il signed an agreement calling for family reunions, economic cooperation, social and cultural exchanges and follow-up governmental contacts between the north and south to ease tensions. This is known as the June 15th North–South Joint Declaration or the [[6.15 Inter-Korean Joint Declaration]].<br />
<br />
In 2002, [[George W. Bush|President Bush's]] State of the Union address singled out [[Islamic Republic of Iran|Iran]], [[Republic of Iraq|Iraq]] and DPRK as the so-called "[[Axis of Evil|axis of evil]]" for their supposed pursuit of weapons of mass destruction. The next year, the U.S. military invaded Iraq. It was in this context that the DPRK, under the leadership of Kim Jong Il, tested highly publicized nuclear weapons. Liberation News notes that "This was not an act of international terrorism, but a maneuver to bring the United States back to the negotiation table, which worked."<ref name=":8" /> <br />
<br />
Since the beginning of the DPRK nuclear tests in 2003, the Bush and [[Barack Obama|Obama]] administrations respectively lifted some sanctions to facilitate negotiations around DPRK denuclearization. However, they then reinstated them when the negotiations failed to produce the results desired by the US.<ref name=":5" /><ref name=":6" /> Following the country’s 2006 nuclear test, the US, EU, and others added more stringent sanctions, which have periodically intensified since then. Sanctions now target [[Petroleum politics|oil]] imports, and cover most finance and trade, and the country’s [[key minerals]] sector.<ref>Galant, Michael. [https://cepr.net/cepr-sanctions-watch-may-june-2022/ “CEPR Sanctions Watch, May-June 2022”] Center for Economic and Policy Research. July 8, 2022. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220907145545/https://cepr.net/cepr-sanctions-watch-may-june-2022/ Archived] 2022-09-07</ref><br />
<br />
==== 2010s ====<br />
[[File:Activist No Su-hui shouts Long Live Reunification at Panmunjom.jpg|thumb|In 2012, south Korean pro-reunification activist Roh Su-hui, who had been in DPRK without southern approval, shouted "Long live national reunification, by our nation itself!" before stepping over the divide back into south Korea and being tackled and carried away by south Korean authorities.]]<br />
Kim Jong-il passed away on December 17, 2011.<ref name=":9" /> Following this, Kim Jong-un was named supreme commander of the military.<ref>[https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2022/04/11/680112/North-Korea-Kim-Jong-un-10th-Anniversary-Celebrations-Choe-Ryong-hae “‘North Korea Marks 10 Years of Kim Jong-Un’s Leadership with Week-Long Events.’”] PressTV News, 11 Apr. 2022, Accessed 10 Apr. 2023.</ref><br />
<br />
A period of mourning ensued in DPRK following Kim Jong-il's death. Chinese President [[Hu Jintao]] also reached out in solidarity to DPRK after the announcement of Kim Jong Il's death, and [[Republic of Cuba|Cuba]] declared a period of mourning from Dec. 20-22, during which flags would be flown at half-mast. A [[Liberation News]] article from the time notes that the [[Imperial core|Western]] [[Imperialism|imperialist]] media took the opportunity at this time to make insinuations and accusations to portray north Koreans as "brainwashed" via the West's media commentary about the traditional mourning rituals Koreans publicly engaged in at the time. Liberation News points out that this portrayal is part of the West's continued campaign to [[Manufacturing consent|manufacture consent]] for the overthrow of DPRK's leadership, using disingenuous concern over the so-called "[[cult of personality]]" as a pretext.<ref name=":8" /> <br />
<br />
In 2012, a [[Left–right political spectrum|left-wing]] south Korean activist named [[Roh Su-hui]] (Korean: 노수희; also spelled Ro Su Hui and Noh Su-hui), member of the [[Pan-National Alliance for Korea's Reunification]] (Korean: 조국통일범민족연합; abbreviated 범민련; "Pomminryon"), was arrested at Panmunjom after having entered into DPRK months before without approval from the southern regime. He had travelled to DPRK in order to attend a memorial service marking the 100th day since the death of Kim Jong-Il. At Panmunjom, he was waved farewell by a crowd of people from the northern side, who waved Korean unification flags and flowers. Officials of the DPRK accompanied him to Panmunjom to see him off. Before stepping over the border, Roh shouted "Long live national reunification, by our nation itself!" (Korean: "우리민족끼리 조국통일 만세!") holding up a unification flag and flowers. After crossing the border, south Korean authorities seized him, and a struggle ensued where he was tackled to the ground, then lifted and carried away by the southern authorities, who bound his arms and hands with rope as they brought him into custody. He was sentenced to four years in prison and to have his suffrage stripped for three years after release. Another activist, Won Jin Wook, received a three-year prison sentence for communicating with DPRK officials to arrange the trip.<ref>AP Archive. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtiCNzuVp4Y “SKorean Activist No Su-Hui Arrested as He Returns from Unauthorised Trip to the North.”] ''YouTube'', 31 July 2015, Accessed 9 Apr. 2023. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230328191034/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtiCNzuVp4Y Archived] 2023-03-28.</ref><ref>[https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1145933/south-korean-activists-jailed-visit-north “South Korean Activists Jailed for Visit to North.”] ''[[South China Morning Post]]'', 8 Feb. 2013, Accessed 9 Apr. 2023. [https://web.archive.org/web/20201214161836/https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1145933/south-korean-activists-jailed-visit-north Archived] 2020-12-14.</ref><ref>[https://committeeforreleaseofvicechairman.blogspot.com/ “International Committee for the Release of Mr Ro Su Hu.”] ''Blogspot.com'', 2023, Accessed 9 Apr. 2023. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230409065234/https://committeeforreleaseofvicechairman.blogspot.com/ Archived] 2023-04-09.</ref><br />
<br />
[[Park Geun-hye]], daughter of dictator Park Chung-hee, was in office as the 11th president of south Korea from 2013–2017 until she was impeached and convicted on corruption charges following public demonstrations, commonly known as the Candlelight Revolution or Candlelight Demonstrations. She became the first south Korean president to be removed from power by impeachment, and was sentenced to 24 years in prison, but received a pardon and was released in 2021 after serving just under 5 years.<ref>Hyonhee Shin (2021-12-31). [https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/skoreas-disgraced-ex-president-park-freed-after-nearly-5-years-prison-2021-12-31/ "S.Korea's disgraced ex-president Park freed after nearly 5 years in prison"] ''Reuters''.</ref> Park Geun-hye's presidency was followed by [[Moon Jae-in]] (in office 2017–2022). <br />
<br />
According to a 2017 article by CNN, 49 countries, including [[Republic of Cuba|Cuba]], [[Islamic Republic of Iran|Iran]], and [[Syrian Arab Republic|Syria]] have violated sanctions and have traded with DPRK.<ref>Rishi Iyengar (2017-12-06). [https://money.cnn.com/2017/12/06/news/north-korea-sanctions-countries-violation/index.html "Report: 49 countries have been busting sanctions on North Korea"] ''[[CNN]]''. [https://web.archive.org/web/20210508065837/https://money.cnn.com/2017/12/06/news/north-korea-sanctions-countries-violation/index.html Archived] from the original on 2021-05-08.</ref> In 2017, sanctions imposed by the UN caused thousands of DPRK workers who had been working abroad to be forced to return to DPRK as well as led to the closure of numerous DPRK companies and joint ventures.<ref>[https://www.asianews.it/news-en/North-Korean-workers-leave-China-because-of-UN-sanctions-41942.html “North Korean Workers Leave China because of UN Sanctions.”] Asianews.it. 2017. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220909073331/https://www.asianews.it/news-en/North-Korean-workers-leave-China-because-of-UN-sanctions-41942.html Archived] 2022-09-09.</ref> According to Nodutdol, in 2018, 3,968 people in the DPRK, who were mostly children under the age of 5, died as a result of shortages and delays to UN aid programs caused by sanctions.<ref name=":6" /><br />
<br />
Talks between General secretary [[Kim Jong-un]] and Former U.S. [[President of the United states|President]] [[Donald Trump]] began on June of 2019 to discuss disarmament and potential reunification with the [[Republic of Korea]].<br />
<br />
==== 2020s ====<br />
In January 2020 when south Korean President [[Moon Jae-In]] expressed interest in developing tourism to north Korea, the US ambassador Harry Harris blocked this effort, claiming that "independent" tourism plans would have to undergo U.S. consultation. The U.S. ambassador emphasized that the items inside South Korean tourists' luggage could violate sanctions.<ref name=":6" /><br />
<br />
The 13th and current president of south Korea is [[Yoon Suk-yeol]] of the conservative People Power Party, who took office in 2022. His presidency has been surrounded with criticism, with numerous protests drawing thousands of participants calling for his resignation and his approval rating frequently falling below 30%.<ref>[https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_editorial/1063998.html "Rekindled candlelight rallies amid near collapse of Korean politics."] Hankyoreh. Oct.24,2022. [https://web.archive.org/web/20221030111216/http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_editorial/1063998.html Archived] 2022-10-30.</ref> On August 13, 2022, thousands of south Korean unionists and their progressive supporters rallied in downtown Seoul to protest against joint US-south Korea war game exercises. In a video uploaded by [[Press TV]], Oh Eun-Jung of the National Teachers Union was quoted as saying "The threat of nuclear war is growing on the Korean peninsula, conservative forces of Yoon Suk-yeol in south Korea and those in the U.S. are frantically conducting aggressive war drills in the sky, the land, and the sea, and are about to start large-scale military exercises, aimed at the invasion of north Korea. We must stamp out this behavior of anti-reunification forces." In the same video, construction worker Lee Seung-Woo stated, "We not only oppose the war exercises, but we want the U.S. Forces Korea, which is actually controlling and interfering with the Korean peninsula to leave this land. We believe that only then will the eighty million Koreans from both north and south be able to live peacefully."<ref>Frank Smith. [https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2022/08/13/687322/South-Korean-unionists-protest-US-South-Korea-war-games “‘South Korean Unionists Protest US-South Korea War Games.’”] PressTV News. August 13, 2022. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220826124551/https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2022/08/13/687322/South-Korean-unionists-protest-US-South-Korea-war-games Archived] 2022-08-28.</ref><br />
<br />
In September 2022, a statement on the nuclear force policy of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea was carried by DPRK's [[Korean Central News Agency]] (KCNA), noting that while the government considers nuclear weapons a last resort, it would deploy them to prevent aggression that seriously threatens the security of the state and people. The statement stressed that DPRK "does not threaten or use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear countries," and warned it would forcefully respond to aggression, or to nations threatening the DPRK by "colluding with other nuclear-armed states."<ref>[https://www.rt.com/news/562473-north-korea-nuclear-doctrine/ “North Korea Clarifies Nuclear Doctrine.”] RT International. September 9, 2022. [https://web.archive.org/web/20221026142625/https://www.rt.com/news/562473-north-korea-nuclear-doctrine/ Archived] 2022-10-26.<br />
<br />
</ref><br />
<br />
== Culture ==<br />
The folk song "Arirang" (Korean: 아리랑) is regarded as a representative folk song of Korea, sung throughout the nation and presenting many different orally transmitted versions. Arirang typically contains a gentle and lyrical melody. Arirang songs speak about leaving and reunion, sorrow, joy and happiness. The various categories differ according to the lyrics and melody used. While dealing with diverse universal themes, the simple musical and literary composition invites improvisation, imitation and singing in unison, encouraging its acceptance by different musical genres. Both DPRK and south Korea have submitted the song to the [[UNESCO]] Intangible Cultural Heritage list. DPRK's submission states that Arirang folk songs reinforce social relations, thus contributing to mutual respect and peaceful social development, and help people to express their feelings and overcome grief. They function as an important symbol of unity and occupy a place of pride in the performing arts, cinema, literature and other works of contemporary art. South Korea's submission notes that Arirang is a popular subject and motif in diverse arts and media, including cinema, musicals, drama, dance and literature, describing it as an evocative hymn with the power to enhance communication and unity among the Korean people, whether at home or abroad.<ref>[https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/arirang-folk-song-in-the-democratic-people-s-republic-of-korea-00914 “UNESCO - Arirang Folk Song in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.”] Unesco.org. 2023.</ref><ref>[https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/arirang-lyrical-folk-song-in-the-republic-of-korea-00445 “UNESCO - Arirang, Lyrical Folk Song in the Republic of Korea.”] Unesco.org. 2023.</ref><br />
<br />
== Languages ==<br />
<br />
=== Korean language ===<br />
[[Korean language|Korean]] is the official language of both north and south Korea. <br />
<br />
There are regional dialects and accents of Korean spoken throughout the Korean Peninsula. In general they are largely mutually intelligible with standardized forms of Korean. Additionally, despite the division of the country into north and south, the language has not diverged to the point of unintelligibility, although certain vocabulary, spelling, and pronunciation differences do exist. Notably, in the north, a preference for using native Korean words is shown, while in the south, foreign loanwords show a higher prevalence of use.<br />
<br />
Korean is also the official language of [[Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture]] in [[Jilin Province]], China (along with [[Mandarin]]). Other large groups of Korean speakers are found in China, the United States, Japan, former [[Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (1922–1991)|Soviet Union]] and elsewhere.<br />
<br />
=== Jeju language ===<br />
The [[Jeju language]], which is closely related to Korean, is an endangered language whose main community of speakers come from Jeju Island. While often classified as a divergent dialect of the Korean language, the variety is referred to as a language in local government and increasingly in both South Korean and foreign academia. Jeju language is not mutually intelligible with the mainland dialects of South Korea. Most people in Jeju Island now speak a variety of Korean with a Jeju substratum, and efforts to revitalize the endangered language are ongoing. <br />
<br />
=== North and South Korean Sign Language ===<br />
A form of [[Korean Sign Language]] (KSL) is used in both north and south Korea. Following the division of the country, the heterogeneity of sign language has accelerated. Researchers Lee and Choi compared the handshapes of north and south Korean Sign Languages, and found in 2017 that there was 15% both hands agreement, 21% dominant hand agreement, 23% nondominant hand agreement, and 71% disagreement.<ref>Choi Sangbae, Ko Eunji. [https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jasl/29/3/29_51/_pdf/-char/ja "Contrastive Linguistic Study of South and North Korean Sign Language and Japanese Sign Language at the Level of Phoneme and Lexis."] 2020. Kongju National University. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230325065228/https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jasl/29/3/29_51/_pdf/-char/ja Archived] 2023-03-25.</ref> A YouTube channel called Sonmal Sueo (Korean: 손말수어) is dedicated to presenting the differences between north and south Korean signs to promote communication and understanding.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/@sonmalsueo3478/featured Sonmal Sueo 손말수어]. YouTube.</ref><br />
<br />
== References ==<br />
[[Category:Asian countries]]</div>
Verda.Majo
https://en.prolewiki.org/index.php?title=File:Three_Koreans_shot_for_pulling_up_rail_as_protest.png&diff=64468
File:Three Koreans shot for pulling up rail as protest.png
2024-03-22T09:07:57Z
<p>Verda.Majo: </p>
<hr />
<div>A photo of three Koreans who were shot for pulling up rails as a protest against seizure of land without payment by the Japanese. Photo is from "The Passing of Korea" by Homer B. Hulbert.</div>
Verda.Majo
https://en.prolewiki.org/index.php?title=Korea&diff=64467
Korea
2024-03-22T08:27:31Z
<p>Verda.Majo: /* Struggle for independence */ moved 2 images to this section and added an image depicting a revolutionary base</p>
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<div>{{Infobox country|name=Korea|native_name=조선|image_flag=Korean Unification Flag.png|image_map=Korea.png|capital=[[Pyongyang]]|largest_city=[[Seoul]]|official_languages=Korean|area_km2=223,155|population_estimate=77,000,000|population_estimate_year=2017|map_width=250}}<br />
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'''Korea''' is a nation in [[East Asia]] consisting of the Korean Peninsula and nearby islands, including the island of [[Jeju Island|Jeju]]. In the present day, Korea is split between two governments, one located in the north and the other in the south. The [[Democratic People's Republic of Korea]] (DPRK), commonly called North Korea, is located in the northern portion of the peninsula. Meanwhile, the [[United States of America|US]]-occupied [[Republic of Korea]] (ROK), commonly called South Korea, is located in the southern portion of the peninsula. The division of the peninsula in 1945 was originally meant only to be temporary, but has persisted to the present day due to the continued occupation of the South and uncompromising policy of aggression toward the DPRK by the United States. <br />
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In the past, Korea was a single nation for at least 1,000 years with a continuous society, language and political system.<ref>Jay Hauben (2011-08-20). [http://www.jejuweekly.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=1865 "People's Republic of Korea: Jeju, 1945-1946"] ''The Jeju Weekly''.</ref> [[Empire of Japan (1868–1947)|Japan]] forced Korea to open its ports in 1876 and annexed it in 1905. From 1910 to 1945, Korea was a colony of the Empire of Japan.<ref>{{Citation|author=Ki-baik Lee|year=2019|title=Korea|title-url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Korea/Korea-under-Japanese-rule|chapter=Korea since c. 1400|section=Korea under Japanese rule|publisher=Encyclopedia Britannica|chapter-url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Korea/Korea-since-c-1400}}</ref> Under Japanese colonial rule, Korean language and culture were banned, and the Korean people faced conditions of forced labor and sexual [[slavery]].<ref>{{Web citation|author=Derek Ford|newspaper=[[Liberation School]]|title=Chongryon: The struggle of Koreans in Japan|date=2019-01-30|url=https://www.liberationschool.org/the-chongryon-movement-the-struggle-of-koreans-in-japan/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220814225352/https://www.liberationschool.org/the-chongryon-movement-the-struggle-of-koreans-in-japan/|archive-date=2022-08-14|retrieved=2022-08-27}}</ref> <br />
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The DPRK's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ri Yong Ho, stated to the [[United Nations|UN]] General Assembly in 2017 that the essence of the situation of the Korean peninsula is a confrontation between the DPRK and the US, where the DPRK tries to defend its national dignity and sovereignty against the hostile policy and nuclear threats of the US, and clarified that the DPRK "do[es] not have any intention at all to use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against the countries that do not join in the U.S. military actions against the DPRK."<ref>Ri Yong Ho, DPRK Minister for Foreign Affairs. [https://gadebate.un.org/sites/default/files/gastatements/72/kp_en.pdf "Statement by H.E. Mr. RI YONG HO, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea at the General Debate of the 72 Session of the United Nations General Assembly."] New York, 23rd September 2017. gadebate.un.org. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220709114619/https://gadebate.un.org/sites/default/files/gastatements/72/kp_en.pdf Archived] 2022-08-28.</ref><br />
[[File:Provinces of Korea.png|thumb|395x395px|Provinces of Korea.]]<br />
The [[People's Democracy Party]] (PDP), a revolutionary [[Communist party|workers' party]] in South Korea, stated in a 2020 article that the Korean reunification and peace struggle is contingent on the withdrawal of U.S. troops, that the U.S. troops are "occupation forces in South Corea and invading army to North Corea" and therefore U.S. military withdrawal from South Korea is "the most desperate and preferred struggle task for the whole Corean nation to solve." The PDP added that as long as the U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea and war exercises are conducted against North Korea, "the prospect for peace is bound to be dark."<ref>People's Democracy Party and Liberation School. [https://www.liberationschool.org/korean-war-70-years/ “70 Years Too Long: The Struggle to End the Korean War – Liberation School.”] ''Liberation School – Revolutionary Marxism for a New Generation of Fighters'', 25 June 2020. [https://web.archive.org/web/2/https://www.liberationschool.org/korean-war-70-years/ Archived].</ref> <br />
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The Korean Peninsula is bordered by [[People's Republic of China|China]] to the northwest and [[Russia (disambiguation)|Russia]] to the northeast. It is separated from [[Japan]] to the east by the Korea Strait and the Sea of Japan (East Sea). <br />
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== Etymology ==<br />
The English name "Korea" derives from the Korean kingdom of Goryeo, also transcribed as Koryŏ (Korean: 고려), which lasted from 918 to 1392. It is commonly considered that during the Goryeo period, the individual identities of Goguryeo, Baekje, and Silla were successfully merged into a single entity that became the basis of modern-day Korean identity.<br />
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In the modern Korean language, the word used to refer to Korea differs in usage between DPRK and the south. In DPRK, Korea is referred to as ''Choson'' (Korean: 조선; Hanja: 朝鮮), while in the south, Korea is referred to as ''Hanguk'' (Korean: 한국; Hanja: 韓國). Each of these names has roots in both modern and ancient Korean history.<ref>[https://tongiltours.com/part-1-study-in-north-korea-kim-il-sung-university “How to Speak the North Korean Language: Part 1”] Tongil Tours. March 10, 2017. [https://web.archive.org/web/20221025103531/https://tongiltours.com/part-1-study-in-north-korea-kim-il-sung-university Archived] 2022-10-25.<br />
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</ref> Therefore, among the liberation movement in Korea during the imperial Japanese occupation period, the names ''Choson'' and ''Hanguk'' both came to be regarded as potential choices for the future name of the post-liberation country. <br />
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In south Korea, it is common to refer to DPRK as "Bukhan" (북한; 北韓), meaning "North ''Han'' (Korea)". Meanwhile, it is common for people in DPRK to refer to south Korea as "Namchoson" (남조선; 南朝鮮), "South ''Choson'' (Korea)". In some contexts, the word ''cheuk'' (측; 側), meaning "side" is used, forming ''bukcheuk'', "north side" and ''namcheuk'', "south side", to speak more neutrally about each other.<ref>이진욱. [https://www.nocutnews.co.kr/news/4910375 “언론은 왜 북한을 '북측’이라고 할까?”] 노컷뉴스. 노컷뉴스. January 22, 2018. [https://web.archive.org/web/20221025120530/https://www.nocutnews.co.kr/news/4910375 Archived] 2022-10-25.</ref><br />
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The name Choson derives from a Korean dynasty which ruled from 1392 to 1897. However, in October of 1897, the monarch of Korea declared an end to the Choson Kingdom, founding a new regime known as the ''Daehanjeguk'' or "Great Han Empire" (Korean: 대한제국; Hanja: 大韓帝國) in 1897, with himself as emperor. The name "Daehan" was formed in reference to the three states that existed in Korea in the past, Mahan, Byunhan, and Jinhan. However, with the Japanese annexation of Korea in 1910, the name for Korea was reverted back to "Choson" during the period of Japanese [[imperialism]].<ref name=":4">[https://615tv.net/432?category=1051910 <nowiki>“[1조] 북한의 국호에 민주주의를 유지하는 이유는?”</nowiki>] 주권방송. The615tv. July 29, 2022. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220904010957/https://615tv.net/432?category=1051910 Archived] 2022-09-04.<br />
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</ref> <br />
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Therefore, an argument emerged that the future name of the country should be "Daehan" (Korean: 대한; Hanja: 大韓) as it had been the name of the country just prior to the Japanese colonial period, and "Choson" had been the name revived by the Japanese. However, the independence movement activists affiliated with socialism preferred "Choson" to "Daehan" because, for the general public, the name Choson was a more familiar country name than "Daehan Empire" which had only lasted for about 10 years, and "Daehan" was the name of the country that fell to Japanese annexation, making it an undesirable name.<ref name=":4" /><br />
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Eventually, the government that formed in south Korea came to be called ''Daehanminguk'' (Korean: 대한민국; Hanja: 大韓民國), which literally means “The Great Han Republic”, or, since “Han” here refers to Korea, “The Great Korean Republic”, with the name ''Hanguk'' being a short version of this name. Meanwhile in north Korea, people continued using ''Choson'', the word for Korea that had been used during the early 20th century Japanese [[Colonialism|colonial]] period and the 14th – 19th century Choson Dynasty.<ref>[https://tongiltours.com/part-2-korea-south-korean-hanguk “How to Speak the North Korean Language: Part 2”] Tongil Tours. March 19, 2017. [https://web.archive.org/web/20221025103547/https://tongiltours.com/part-2-korea-south-korean-hanguk Archived] 2022-10-25.</ref><br />
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== History ==<br />
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=== Early history ===<br />
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==== Prehistory ====<br />
The prehistory of the Korean nation began in [[Manchuria]] and the Korean Peninsula when people started settling there 700,000 years ago. Korea's Neolithic age began around 8,000 BCE. People started farming, cultivating cereals such as millet, and used polished stone tools. They started settling down permanently in places and formed clan societies.<ref name=":10" /><br />
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Korea's predominant foundation myth consists of the legend of Dangun, who is considered to be the founder of Korea. According to the narrative, he is the son of a heavenly prince who wanted to live on earth, and a bear who became a human woman. Dangun is considered to have established his capital in the city of [[Pyongyang]] (later moving it to Asadal, or originally establishing it in Asadal by some accounts)<ref name=":11">Violet Kim. [https://www.korea.net/NewsFocus/Culture/view?articleId=121092 "Dangun, Father of Korea: Korea’s Foundation Tale Lends Itself to Many Interpretations."] Korea.net. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230825142733/https://www.korea.net/NewsFocus/Culture/view?articleId=121092 Archived] 2023-08-25.</ref> and called his kingdom Joseon, and is considered to have ruled for 1,500 years, then became a mountain god.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/outline-of-korean-history "The Outline of Korean History."] Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1977. Pyongyang, Korea.</ref> In both north and south Korea, National Foundation Day (Korean: 개천절; Hanja: 開天節; <abbr>lit.</abbr> "opening of heavens celebration" or "the day the sky opened") is observed on October 3, marking the founding of Korea by Dangun, which according to the predominant narrative, occurred in 2333 B.C.<ref>Shaffer, David. [https://gwangjunewsgic.com/arts-culture/korean-myths/korea-is-created/ “The Heavens Open: Korea Is Created.”] Gwangju News. October 7, 2021. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230825142446/https://gwangjunewsgic.com/arts-culture/korean-myths/korea-is-created/ Archived] 2023-08-25.</ref> According to an article on south Korea's Ministry of Culture website, "despite inconsistencies between historical accounts, ultimately Dangun is still considered the founder of this nation."<ref name=":11" /><br />
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==== Ancient history ====<br />
[[File:Tongmyong mausoleum.png|thumb|Mausoleum of King Tongmyŏng]]<br />
Over time, clan leaders started merging many clans into one, and these groups very gradually developed into early states. Eventually, Gojoseon emerged as the first recognizable state of the Korean people. It was eventually followed by other states and groups of states on the Korean Peninsula, such as the Three Kingdoms, Unified Silla and Balhae, the Koryo dynasty, and the Choson dynasty.<ref name=":10">[https://www.korea.net/AboutKorea/History/The-Beginnings-of-the-Countrys-History “The Beginnings of Korea’s History (Prehistoric Times – Gojoseon) : Korea.net : The Official Website of the Republic of Korea.”] Korea.net. 2021. [https://web.archive.org/web/20221012230807/https://www.korea.net/AboutKorea/History/The-Beginnings-of-the-Countrys-History Archived] 2022-10-12.<br />
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</ref><ref>[https://www.korea.net/AboutKorea/History/Joseon “Joseon Dynasty : Korea.net : The Official Website of the Republic of Korea.”] Korea.net. 2021. </ref><br />
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King Tongmyong established the Koguryŏ Kingdom (37 BCE–668 CE).<ref>{{Web citation|newspaper=[[Rodong Sinmun]]|date=2023-03-04|url=http://www.rodong.rep.kp/en/index.php?MTJAMjAyMy0wMy0wNC1IMDAyQDdAMUBAMEA3==|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230819014817/http://www.rodong.rep.kp/en/index.php?MTJAMjAyMy0wMy0wNC1IMDAyQDdAMUBAMEA3==|archive-date=2023-08-19}}</ref><br />
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The first unified Korean state was the Koryŏ Kingdom, which existed from 918 to 1392. By then, [[Buddhism]] was already widespread in Korea. In the early 13th century, Korea suffered a [[Great Mongol Nation (1206–1368)|foreign invasion]].<ref>{{Web citation|newspaper=[[Rodong Sinmun]]|title=Phalmandaejanggyong|date=2023-05-28|url=http://rodong.rep.kp/en/index.php?MTJAMjAyMy0wNS0yOC1IMDAxQDdAMUBAMEAz==|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230819015445/http://rodong.rep.kp/en/index.php?MTJAMjAyMy0wNS0yOC1IMDAxQDdAMUBAMEAz==|archive-date=2023-08-19}}</ref><br />
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==== Joseon dynasty ====<br />
[[File:Pukgwan monument.png|thumb|238x238px|1708 monument commemorating Jong Mun-bu's victory against Japanese invaders]]<br />
The Joseon dynasty was founded in 1392 and lasted until 1897, a period of just over 500 years. It was followed by the relatively short-lived Korean Empire (1897-1910), which ended with the Japanese colonial period.<br />
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The government and public systems of the Joseon dynasty were organized according to principles of [[Neo-Confucianism]], the official state ideology. Unlike the Goryeo dynasty, in which agricultural lands were privately controlled by aristocrats and local clans, the Joseon dynasty installed a centralized government that was responsible for overseeing the legal administration, the military, and the performance of national rituals.<ref>[https://www.museum.go.kr/site/eng/showroom/list/759?showroomCode=DM0045 “Medieval and Early Modern History.”] National Museum of Korea. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230826041616/https://www.museum.go.kr/site/eng/showroom/list/759?showroomCode=DM0045 Archived] 2023-08-26.</ref><br />
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[[Sejong]], the fourth king of the [[Feudalism|feudal]] Joseon dynasty, invented the Korean writing system in 1444.<ref>{{Web citation|newspaper=[[Rodong Sinmun]]|title=Korean Characters Hunminjongum, Treasure and Pride of Nation|date=2023-04-27|url=http://www.rodong.rep.kp/en/index.php?MTJAMjAyMy0wNC0yNy1IMDA3QDdAMUBAMEA1==|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230819015659/http://www.rodong.rep.kp/en/index.php?MTJAMjAyMy0wNC0yNy1IMDA3QDdAMUBAMEA1==|archive-date=2023-08-19}}</ref> Koreans had used the traditional [[Chinese Characters|Chinese characters]] for a writing system for many centuries. The invention of the Korean writing system contributed to increasing literacy and enhancing communication between the people and the government.<ref name=":13" /> In the modern day, the Korean writing system's invention is commemorated throughout Korea on Korean Alphabet Day, observed in north Korea on January 15th (the day the alphabet was created) and in south Korea on October 9 (the day the alphabet was proclaimed).<ref>[https://www.joongang.co.kr/article/16065452#home “북한 한글날은 '조선글날’인 1월15일…왜?” ("Why is north Korea's Hangeul day, 'Chosongul day', on January 15?")] 중앙일보. 중앙일보. The JoongAng. October 9, 2014. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230826043741/https://www.joongang.co.kr/article/16065452 Archived] 2023-08-26.</ref> <br />
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Joseon maintained friendly relations with the [[Ming dynasty (1368–1644)|Ming dynasty]] of China. The two countries exchanged royal envoys every year and engaged in cultural and economic exchanges. Joseon also accepted Japan's request for bilateral trade by opening the ports of Busan, Jinhae, and Ulsan. In 1443, Joseon signed the Gyehae Treaty with the clan of Tsushima Island for limited bilateral trade. Joseon also traded with other Asian countries such as Ryukyu, Siam, and Java. Throughout the 14th and 15th centuries, Joseon maintained good relations with Japan. However, in the 16th century, Japan called for a larger share of the bilateral trade, but Joseon refused to comply with the request, resulting in a war that lasted for 7 years, referred to as the Japanese invasions of Korea of 1592–1598 or the Imjin War.<ref name=":13">[https://www.korea.net/AboutKorea/History/Joseon "Joseon Dynasty."] Korea.net. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230110182550/https://www.korea.net/AboutKorea/History/Joseon Archived] 2023-01-10.</ref><br />
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Jong Mun-bu's volunteer army defeated Japanese pirates invading northern Korea in the 16th century.<ref>{{Web citation|newspaper=[[Rodong Sinmun]]|title=A Historic Relic, Monument to Great Victory in Pukgwan|date=2023-02-19|url=http://www.rodong.rep.kp/en/index.php?MTJAMjAyMy0wMi0xOS1IMDA3QDdAMUBAMEA5==|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230819015136/http://www.rodong.rep.kp/en/index.php?MTJAMjAyMy0wMi0xOS1IMDA3QDdAMUBAMEA5==|archive-date=2023-08-19}}</ref><br />
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By the mid-19th century, the western powers had forced the [[Qing dynasty (1636–1912)|Qing dynasty]] of China and Japan to open their doors and then asked the same of Joseon, but Joseon rejected such requests, facing naval attacks by the [[French Republic|French]] in 1866 and by the USA in 1871, as well as by Japan in 1875. Ultimately, Joseon was forced to sign an unequal treaty with Japan in 1876 under military threat.<ref name=":14">[https://www.korea.net/AboutKorea/History/The-Fall-Joseon "The Fall of Joseon: Imperial Japan’s Annexation of Korea."] Korea.net. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220912184320/https://www.korea.net/AboutKorea/History/The-Fall-Joseon Archived] 2022-09-12.</ref><br />
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Throughout the 1800s, a series of [[Peasantry|peasant]] rebellions arose throughout Korea, reflecting the economic and social problems experienced by the peasantry. Additionally, in the 1860s, the ideology of Donghak (Korean: 동학; "Eastern learning") was developed and gained a following among academics. Donghak ideology was characterized by egalitarian tendencies and reflected an anxiety about the looming threat of western aggression, and displayed a reformist attitude toward the prevailing Confucian ideology and governance of Joseon. Donghak ideology and leaders had an influence on subsequent peasant uprisings, although the uprisings were ultimately driven by the peasantry's own impetus.<ref>Bae Hang-seob, [https://oak.go.kr/repository/journal/18654/NRF003_2013_v16n2_399.pdf "Foundations for the Legitimation of the Tonghak Peasant Army and Awareness of a New Political Order."] Acta Koreana Volume 16, Number 2, December 2013: 399-430. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230826102104/https://oak.go.kr/repository/journal/18654/NRF003_2013_v16n2_399.pdf Archived] 2023-08-26.</ref><br />
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The [[Peasant Revolution of 1894]], also called the Kabo Peasants' War (Korean: 갑오농민전쟁) or the Donghak Peasant Revolution (Korean: 동학농민혁명), was noteworthy in that it passed beyond the previous sporadic protests at the county and prefecture levels and reached the national level, resulting in an approximately year-long, nation-wide rebellion. The experience of the rebellion had extensive influence on the course of Korea's modern development and the people's consciousness, influencing the March 1st independence movement and the anti-Japanese armed struggle which developed in the following decades.<ref>[http://www.1894.or.kr/eng/?menu=185 “Definition and Meaning.”] Donghak Peasant Revolution Foundation. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230826124441/http://www.1894.or.kr/eng/?menu=185 Archived] 2023-08-26.</ref> The Donghak ideology would go on to form the basis of [[Chondoism]] (Korean: 천도교), a religion espoused in both north and south Korea today and the religion of DPRK's [[Chondoist Chongu Party]] (Korean: 천도교청우당), one of the three parties in DPRK's [[Supreme People's Assembly]].<ref>[https://www.youngpioneertours.com/chondoism/ “What Is Chondoism?”] Young Pioneer Tours. May 2, 2019. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230528120001/https://www.youngpioneertours.com/chondoism/ Archived] 2023-05-28.</ref><br />
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The [[First Sino-Japanese War]] (Korean: 청일 전쟁; Hanja: 淸日戰爭), a conflict between the Qing Dynasty and the Empire of Japan from 1894–1895, grew out of conflict between the two countries for supremacy in Korea at the time, with the war being declared after a series of escalating tensions, including the Donghak Peasant Rebellion which saw the Joseon government request the Qing government's assistance to suppress the rebels. The arrival of the Chinese troops in Korea caused the Japanese to send 8,000 troops of their own to Korea, as they considered this to be a violation of their agreements with China in regard to Korea.<ref>[https://www.britannica.com/event/First-Sino-Japanese-War-1894-1895 “First Sino-Japanese War.”] ''Encyclopædia Britannica''.</ref><br />
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As explained by Ryo Sung Chol in the work ''Korea -- The 38th Parallel North'', the USA was the first Western state which set up diplomatic relations with the feudal Korean kingdom, and King Kojong, alarmed by the increasing threats of Japanese imperialism, sent emissaries to Washington twice, in 1896 and 1905, requesting Statesian assistance, in accordance with the duty the US had assumed under an 1882 Korea-US Treaty. The USA and Japan made a secret agreement dividing Korea and the [[Republic of the Philippines|Philippines]] between themselves, known as the Katsura-Taft Agreement. The USA, [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland|Britain]] and other Western powers at one time pursued the strategy of alliance with Japan, from the ulterior motive of backing, encouraging and using the bellicose Japanese militarist forces as a deterrent to the rapidly growing national liberation forces and the influence of communism in Asia, but that their alliance was fraught with contradictions due to their competing colonial interests.<ref name=":0">Ryo Sung Chol. "KOREA -- The 38th Parallel North." Foreign Languages Publishing House. Pyongyang, Korea. 1995. [https://www.koryography.com/wp-content/images/1548.pdf PDF]. [https://web.archive.org/web/20200926235752/https://www.koryography.com/wp-content/images/1548.pdf Archive].</ref><br />
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Over time, imperialist powers vied with each other to pillage Joseon's resources, and in 1897, Joseon changed its name to the Korean Empire and pushed ahead with reforms and an open-door policy. Japan soon won major victories in its wars against the Qing dynasty and [[Russian Empire (1721–1917)|Russia]], emerged as a strong power in Northeast Asia, and took steps to annex Joseon. Many Koreans resisted this, but in August 1910, the Korean Empire was formally annexed by the Empire of Japan.<ref name=":14" /><br />
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=== Japanese colonialism ===<br />
In 1894, [[Qing dynasty (1636–1912)|China]] and Japan went to war over control of Korea. The Japanese established a military base in the Korean capital city of Hanseong (now Seoul) and murdered Empress [[Myeongseong]], who had sought [[Russian Empire (1721–1917)|Russian]] protection against the Japanese. In 1896, Japan offered to divide Korea with Russia along the 38th parallel, the same line along which the [[United States imperialism|U.S. imperialists]] later split Korea after Japan's defeat in 1945. Russia rejected the proposal along with another proposal giving [[Manchuria]] to Russia and Korea to Japan. After negotiations failed, the Japanese attacked a Russian fleet at Port Arthur and took control of Korea in 1905. The Japanese killed 29,000 Korean rebels in the first three years of occupation and disbanded the Korean army in 1907. After the first few years of colonial rule, most of the resistance fighters fled to Manchuria. Japan formally annexed Korea in 1910.<br />
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In the late 19th and early 20th century, Korea had been developing capitalist elements which were gradually growing and coming into conflict with the feudal system. The feudal ruling circles had been making efforts to prevent the feudal relations from being broken and to prevent the development of capitalist elements. From this process, a socio-political movement to oppose the feudal system and introduce a capitalist system gained in strength. However, Korea's internal development toward capitalism was affected by the imposition of Japanese colonial rule. The Japanese imperialist policies toward Korea altered Korea's development, developing it into a semi-feudal colony that was made into a source of raw materials and labor for imperialist Japan, as well as a market for Japanese commodities and capital investment and a military base for further incursion into the continent.<ref name=":15">Kim Han Gil. [https://archive.org/details/ModernHistoryOfKorea/ "Modern History of Korea."] Foreign Languages Publishing House, Pyongyang, Korea, 1979.</ref><br />
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The Japanese developed Korea's economy for their own purposes, and 60% of Korean rice was exported to Japan. The land that remained under Korean ownership was controlled by feudal [[Landlord|landlords]] who later became the south Korean [[bourgeoisie]]. All industrial goods made in Korea were exported to Japan, and Japanese workers were paid three times as much as Koreans. The Japanese sent one eighth of the Korean population to other parts of their empire to work as slaves.<ref name=":16" /><br />
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The industrial development of Korea under Japanese rule was geared toward generating colonial [[Superprofit|superprofits]], securing exclusive possession of all the key branches of industry and putting a curb on the development of Korean national industry. As is noted by Kim Han Gil in ''Modern History of Korea'', during the colonial period, Korean industry developed as an "appendage" to Japanese industry, with Korean capitalist forces remaining relatively small, and with traditional handicrafts brought to total ruin:<blockquote>Korean industry was made to turn out mainly raw materials and half-finished goods for Japanese industry and the productive forces were so distributed as to facilitate their colonial plunder. Korean industry was nothing more than an appendage to Japanese industry. <br />
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The Japanese imperialists' policy of monopolizing industries arrested the normal development of national industry. Factories and enterprises run by Koreans were few and most of them were small.<br />
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Tyrannical Japanese imperialist colonial rule not only hindered the normal development of national industry but brought the traditional handicraft to total ruin. <br />
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Such being the situation, the Korean capitalist forces were very weak in general, and, on top of it, they were split into compradore and non-compradore capitalists.<ref name=":15" /></blockquote>Korea's comprador capitalists were made up of comparatively big capitalists who were in collusion with the Japanese imperialists and rendering active support to them, along with other reactionary groups such as landlords. Non-comprador capitalists were mainly composed of middle and small entrepreneurs, who typically felt themselves under the thumb of the Japanese imperialists and comprador capitalists and therefore were discontent with Japanese imperialist colonial rule. In addition, the urban small-propertied class found themselves in a precarious situation, due to the predatory policy of the Japanese imperialists and the pressure exercised by the comprador capitalists, causing them constant insecurity. Hence, most of them were also opposed to Japanese imperialism.<ref name=":15" /><br />
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In the countryside, the Japanese imperialists left the feudal land ownership and tenancy system in place, but introduced commodity-money relations and modern trade connections, turning it into a semi-feudal system. This enabled them to plunder the countryside through means of both feudal and capitalist exploitation. In addition to this, they seized large amounts of land. By 1927, the absolute majority of the big landlords were Japanese, accounting for 81% of the landlords owning over 200 hectares of land. Landlords exacted farm rent amounting to 50 to 90% of the total output from the peasants and had [[Tenant farmer|tenant farmers]] pay various taxes and levies. Landless and "landshort" peasants constituted the majority of the peasantry, with rich peasants being relatively few in number. The combined colonial, feudal, and capitalist oppression converging upon the peasantry caused high anti-Japanese and anti-feudal sentiments among them, leading them to take an active part in the anti-imperialist, anti-feudal struggle.<ref name=":15" /><br />
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Labor conditions under colonial rule saw most workers working for 12 hours or more every day, with many forced to work 14 to 16 hours, while receiving wages consisting of less than half or one-third of those paid to Japanese workers. Due to the peasantry suffering from increasing impoverishment from the colonial policies imposed in the countryside, more and more of them flowed to towns looking for work. Therefore, capitalists could easily obtain cheap labor, which contributed to wages being low. Workers found it hard to meet their minimum expenses and were also charged with various fines. Female and child labor became subject to especially harsh exploitation. Labor protections were absent and workers' concerns were suppressed. When a worker was disabled by a labor accident, they were discharged immediately without compensation.<ref name=":15" /><br />
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Additionally, under Japanese rule, all Korean political organizations were banned. Koreans were forced to speak Japanese, have Japanese names, and follow [[Shintoism]].<ref name=":16">{{Citation|author=Stephen Gowans|year=2018|title=Patriots, Traitors and Empires: The Story of Korea’s Struggle for Freedom|chapter=The Empire of Japan|page=25–29|pdf=https://ipfs.io/ipfs/bafykbzaced4iiga4ngtxusr2civjxewbili5jne2sbpefbx2s3im2kphattzc?filename=Stephen%20Gowans%20-%20Patriots%2C%20Traitors%20and%20Empires_%20The%20Story%20of%20Korea%E2%80%99s%20Struggle%20for%20Freedom-Baraka%20Books%20%282018%29.pdf|city=Montreal|publisher=Baraka Books|isbn=9781771861427|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=8435F6FF91279531705764823FDC2A7F}}</ref> Patriotic Groups (Korean: 애국반; Hanja: 愛國班) were neighborhood cells which functioned as the local arm of the Korean Federation of National Power, the single ruling party of colonial Korea. They typically consisted of groups of 10 households led by a Patriotic Group leader, who would monitor and control others within the Patriotic Group. This included rationing food and goods, enforcing mandatory State Shinto prayer times and shrine visits, "volunteering" laborers upon the colonial government’s request, arranging marriages, holding mandatory Japanese language classes, and spying on "ideological criminals". Patriotic Group leaders were among the first to be targeted for reprisals following Korean Independence in August 1945, with many of their homes set on fire.<ref>[https://encykorea.aks.ac.kr/Article/E0073853 “애국반(愛國班).”] Encyclopedia of Korean Culture.Aks.ac.kr. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230314133948/https://encykorea.aks.ac.kr/Article/E0073853 Archived] 2023-03-14.</ref><ref>[https://exposingimperialjapan.com/yoko-versus-hoshiko-a-1944-morality-play-pitting-good-korean-woman-yoko-who-is-kind-and-considerate-against-bad-korean-woman-hoshiko-the-selfish-corrupt-patriotic-group-leader-harbori/ “‘Yōko versus Hoshiko’, a 1944 Morality Play Pitting ‘Good Korean Woman’ Yōko, Who Is Kind and Considerate, against ‘Bad Korean Woman’ Hoshiko, the Selfish, Corrupt Patriotic Group Leader Harboring Liberal and Hedonistic British/American Thoughts Who ‘Needs to Be Shot’ for Betraying Imperial Japan.”] Exposing Imperial Japan. September 21, 2022. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230314133325/https://exposingimperialjapan.com/yoko-versus-hoshiko-a-1944-morality-play-pitting-good-korean-woman-yoko-who-is-kind-and-considerate-against-bad-korean-woman-hoshiko-the-selfish-corrupt-patriotic-group-leader-harbori/ Archived] 2023-03-14.<br />
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</ref><ref>[http://contents.history.go.kr/front/tg/view.do?treeId=0106&levelId=tg_004_2520&ganada=&pageUnit=10 “애국반 - 교과서 용어해설 | 우리역사넷.”] History.go.kr. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230314134446/http://contents.history.go.kr/front/tg/view.do?treeId=0106&levelId=tg_004_2520&ganada=&pageUnit=10 Archived] 2023-03-14.</ref><br />
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In 1937, Kim Il Sung summarized the conditions experienced by Koreans during the 27 years of occupation and under the intensifying repressive wartime conditions:<blockquote>Twenty-seven years have elapsed since the Japanese imperialists occupied Korea.<br />
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During this period they have turned our country into a source of raw materials and labour, a market for their commodities and a military base for aggression against the continent.<br />
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Owing to their ferocious colonial policy, the Korean people have been deprived of their national rights and freedom and are suffering untold sorrow as a ruined people. Our people are not only subjected to double and treble oppression and exploitation by the Japanese imperialists and their lackeys in a manner reminiscent of mediaeval times, but threatened with the danger of being deprived of their beautiful written and spoken language.<br />
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The Sino-Japanese War unleashed by the Japanese imperialists is driving our people into an even more terrible plight. With an eye to ensuring "safety in the rear," the Japanese imperialists have greatly expanded their fascist, colonial, repressive machinery-troops, police, prisons, gallows and all-and concocted a new set of Draconian laws. In this way, they have turned our beautiful land of 3,000 ri into a living hell on earth. They are cracking down on the revolutionary forces with fury, while suppressing and slaughtering innocent people as never before. [...]They have openly instituted compulsory conscription and grain deliveries in order to meet the ever-increasing demand for manpower and materials in their aggressive war against the continent. Thus, our precious young and middle-aged people are being forcibly rounded up to become bullet shields for the Japanese imperialists and our country’s abundant natural wealth is being ruthlessly plundered.<ref name=":17">Kim Il Sung. "The Tasks of Korean Communists." Treatise Published in Sogwang, Organ of the Korean People's Revolutionary Army, November 10, 1937. Collected Works Volume 1. [https://www.marxists.org/archive/kim-il-sung/cw/01.pdf <nowiki>[PDF]</nowiki>] </ref></blockquote>Analyzing the conditions at the time, Kim Il Sung described Korea as a semi-feudal colonial society where, due to Japanese colonialist rule, capitalist development was extremely backward and feudal relations of production were predominant. With such conditions, he evaluated that the basic tasks of the Korea revolution at the time were to carry out the task of anti-imperialist national liberation to overthrow Japanese colonial rule, while at the same time, carrying out and anti-feudal democratic revolution to eliminate feudal relations and pave the way for the country's development along democratic lines. Stressing the interrelation of these tasks, he wrote: "Japanese imperialism maintains its colonial system of rule in Korea with the help of its agents, the comprador capitalists and the feudal landlords, and the landlords retain the feudal relations of exploitation under its patronage. Therefore, the struggle against Japanese imperialism and the struggle against feudalism must be waged as an integral whole." Thus he regarded that the task of Korean communists at the time was carrying out an anti-imperialist anti-feudal democratic revolution, regarding these as prerequisites for national and class liberation and social progress, regarding the broad anti-imperialist democratic forces as the motive force of the revolution at that stage. Although the anti-imperialist struggle was broad and would include the peasantry, petty bourgeoisie, and national capitalists, the working class was regarded as being the leading class for the anti-imperialist anti-feudal democratic revolution and in the future socialist revolution and the period of building socialism and communism.<ref name=":17" /><br />
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=== Struggle for independence ===<br />
[[File:Company of Korean rebels circa 1907 by F.A. McKenzie.png|alt=Photo of Korean rebels|thumb|Anti-Japanese Korean rebels circa 1907.]]<br />
[[File:Japanese Troops Detraining to attack Korean Rebels by F. A. McKenzie.png|alt=Photo of Japanese troops standing in line in front of a train|thumb|Japanese troops detraining to attack Korean rebels circa 1907.]]<br />
Koreans engaged in persistent struggles to regain their independence, including armed struggle against the Japanese. They organized numerous clandestine organizations to fight the Japanese. In March 1919, Korean leaders announced the Declaration of Independence. This is known as the March 1st Movement.<ref>[https://www.korea.net/AboutKorea/History/Independence-Movement “Independence Movement : Korea.net : The Official Website of the Republic of Korea.”] Korea.net. 2021.<br />
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The revolutionary tradition of the anti-Japanese struggle still has heavy influence on DPRK's guiding ideology today. The anti-Japanese struggle influenced the development of the [[Juche]] idea and is intimately linked with the history of Korean socialism, the Korean independence movement, and the life of [[Kim Il-sung]]. Therefore, the revolutionary tradition of the anti-Japanese struggle remains important in the DPRK, as both a source of inspiration as well as important material for study.<ref name=":7">[https://615tv.net/376 <nowiki>“[기획연재1] 김일성 주석의 항일운동 역사.”</nowiki>] 2022. 주권방송. April 5, 2022. [https://web.archive.org/web/20221020065905/https://615tv.net/376 Archived] 2022-10-20.</ref><br />
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In 1926, Kim Il Sung and other communist youths formed the [[Down-with-Imperialism Union]], which set as its immediate task the destruction of Japanese imperialism and achievement of Korea's liberation and independence, with the ultimate aim of building socialism and communism in Korea and destroying all imperialists and building communism throughout the world. By August of 1927 the DIU was reorganized into the [[Anti-Imperialist Youth League]] (AIYL) and the [[Young Communist League of Korea]] (YCLK). Conducting students' strikes, students' and popular masses' struggle to boycott Japanese goods and their struggle against the Japanese imperialists, they gradually grew into a leading force of the Korean communist movement and the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle. By 1930, amid a context of strikes, demonstrations, and sporadic violent struggle of workers, peasants, and student youth, Kim Il Sung defined the armed struggle as the main form of struggle necessary to further develop the anti-Japanese struggle.<ref name=":15" /> <br />
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At a meeting in 1930, Kim Il-sung established the line and strategy of the anti-Japanese revolution and argued that national liberation can be achieved only when all Koreans emerge under the banner of organized armed struggle. Kim Il-sung criticized the existing anti-Japanese movement at the time for the fact that some of the upper classes were only studying words and fighting, and were alienated from the masses.<ref name=":7" /> Subsequently, on July 6, 1930, the first unit of the [[Korean Revolutionary Army]] (KRA) was formed with the core members of the AIYL and YCLK.<ref name=":15" /><br />
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Those recruited into the KRA were tempered through mass struggles, and upon joining the KRA, were trained politically to be communists in addition to being trained militarily. Small groups of KRA members would be formed and sent to various urban and rural areas where they would conduct political and military activities in preparation of forming a guerrilla army. Schools and mass organizations were set up to help educate, rally, and organize the peasant masses, with KRA members taking an active part in the work. The youth who graduated from these schools were sent to different rural areas to conduct organizational and political work for the revolutionization of the rural areas.<br />
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In March 1932, Kim II Sung formed a small guerrilla unit with those active in the revolutionary struggle since the DIU as its core and gradually expanded its ranks, while giving general guidance to the work of forming guerrilla ranks in different parts. In the areas along the Tuman River in east Manchuria, small guerrilla units and groups were formed with KRA members and other young communists, workers, peasants and youths who had gained experience in the struggle. ''Modern History of Korea'' notes that the struggle to obtain arms was very arduous, stating that "at times a pistol, a bullet or a gram of gunpowder cost human lives. Members of small guerrilla groups, the YCLK, the Anti-Imperialist Youth League, the Children's Vanguard and the Women's Association, and even children and old people took part in the struggle. By their self-sacrificing struggle they took weapons from the Japanese imperialist army of aggression, the Japanese and Manchurian police and the vicious pro-Japanese landlords and officials." Additionally, revolutionaries manufactured weapons themselves using the basic tools and materials they had available to them.<ref name=":15" /><br />
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The Anti-Japanese People's Guerrilla Army (AJPGA) was formed on April 25, 1932. ''Modern History of Korea'' notes that it was not only an armed force fighting Japanese imperialism, but was also a political army, a propagandist and organizer that educated the masses and roused them to revolutionary struggle. Its founding marked the declaration of war upon the Japanese imperialists as well as signaled a repudiation of the movements within Korea who had sought outside assistance for Korea's national liberation.<ref name=":15" /><br />
[[File:Artistic depiction of Korean revolutionary base.png|alt=A painting of people sitting at an outdoor meeting at a Korean revolutionary base. A podium has the words "Long life the People's Revolutionary Government!" written on it in Korean. |thumb|An artistic depiction of a revolutionary base in Korea. The podium's sign reads "Long live the People's Revolutionary Government!" (Korean: "인민혁명정부만세!")]]<br />
A struggle was also waged to establish guerrilla bases, as, with no state backing or outside help, a base was needed to make it possible to organize and conduct military and political activity and logistical work as a whole. A base was also considered necessary in order to progress with preparations for the founding of a communist party and the revolutionary movement as a whole, while waging armed struggle. A policy of setting up bases in the form of a liberated area was adopted. The mountainous area along the Tuman River was determined as the most suitable site, and a struggle was fought there to establish a liberated area, beginning with politico-ideological work being conducted among the masses to raise their anti-imperialist revolutionary consciousness and the expansion of revolutionary organizations into the area, and ties were formed between the people and the guerrilla units. The creation of a guerrilla base was promoted and guerrilla units active in different areas engaged he enemy forces, in cooperation with paramilitary organizations, to neutralize the enemy militarily, leading eventually to a wide area along the Tuman River being secured. Patriotic-minded people began coming to the area and a revolutionary government was established, with barracks, schools, publishing houses, arms repair shops, sewing shops and others being set up in the liberated areas.<ref name=":15" /><br />
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The [[Battle of Pochonbo]] is an important battle in the history of the liberation of Korea from Japanese occupation. The battle was fought from 3-4 June 1937 by a unit from the guerilla army, who crossed into Korea from China, crept through the forests, rested beside Samjiyon Lake before starting their final advance. Kim Il-sung became a wanted man to the Japanese after the battle, and a hero to the resistance movement and to Korean patriots.<ref>[https://koryogroup.com/travel-guide/pochonbo-battle-site-monument-north-korea-travel-guide-needs-photos “Pochonbo Battle Site & Monument | North Korea Travel Guide - Koryo Tours.”] Koryogroup.com. May 18, 2020. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230314132053/https://koryogroup.com/travel-guide/pochonbo-battle-site-monument-north-korea-travel-guide-needs-photos Archived] 2023-03-14.</ref><br />
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The [[Workers' and Peasants' Red Army|Red Army]] entered Korea on 8 August 1948 and continued fighting until the Japanese surrendered on 15 August. US forces did not arrive in Korea until 8 September.<ref name=":12">{{Citation|author=Stephen Gowans|year=2018|title=Patriots, Traitors and Empires: The Story of Korea’s Struggle for Freedom|chapter=The US Occupation|page=79–80|pdf=https://ipfs.io/ipfs/bafykbzaced4iiga4ngtxusr2civjxewbili5jne2sbpefbx2s3im2kphattzc?filename=Stephen%20Gowans%20-%20Patriots%2C%20Traitors%20and%20Empires_%20The%20Story%20of%20Korea%E2%80%99s%20Struggle%20for%20Freedom-Baraka%20Books%20%282018%29.pdf|city=Montreal|publisher=Baraka Books|isbn=9781771861427|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=8435F6FF91279531705764823FDC2A7F}}</ref><br />
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According to the blog ''Exposing Imperial Japan,'' which translates Japanese colonial era news articles, the 1000+ Shinto shrines that were built in colonial Korea were all destroyed following Japan's surrender, starting with the Pyongyang shrine which was set on fire on August 15, 1945, the day Imperial Japan surrendered. A statue of Kim Il-sung now stands on the former site of Pyongyang shrine.<ref>[https://exposingimperialjapan.com/imperial-japan-built-shinto-shrines-all-over-korea-in-every-eup-and-myeon-enlisting-patriotic-groups-to-cultivate-the-worship-of-gods-and-faith-in-the-emperor-among-koreans-and-realize-the-fusi/ “Imperial Japan Built Shinto Shrines All over Korea in Every Eup and Myeon, Enlisting Patriotic Groups to ‘Cultivate the Worship of Gods and Faith in the Emperor’ among Koreans and Realize ‘the Fusion of the Japanese-Korean Family Based on Divine Will’.”] Exposing Imperial Japan. October 6, 2022. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230314135238/https://exposingimperialjapan.com/imperial-japan-built-shinto-shrines-all-over-korea-in-every-eup-and-myeon-enlisting-patriotic-groups-to-cultivate-the-worship-of-gods-and-faith-in-the-emperor-among-koreans-and-realize-the-fusi/ Archived] 2023-03-14. <br />
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=== Division into north and south ===<br />
[[File:The Japanese flag in front of the Japanese Government-General of Korea building in Seoul is replaced with the U.S. flag..png|thumb|The Japanese flag in front of the Japanese Government-General of Korea building in Seoul is replaced with the U.S. flag.]]<br />
After the surrender of the Japanese empire at the end of the [[Second World War]], Korea was divided as a temporary measure by the outside powers of the United States and [[Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (1922–1991)|Soviet Union]] to assist in the transition away from Japanese colonial rule and the re-establishment of Korea's independence. The line was agreed upon between the Soviet Union and the United States only as a temporary boundary of military operations, and never as a line for the division of Korea. <br />
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The United States did not liberate south Korea from Japanese colonial forces, but rather ordered the Japanese forces to remain in place until the U.S. Army landed in Korea nearly a month later.<ref name=":8">Kim, Crystal. [https://www.liberationnews.org/north-koreans-mourn-death-of-html/ “North Koreans Mourn Death of Leader Kim Jong Il.”] Liberation News, 22 Dec. 2011, Accessed 10 Apr. 2023. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230410044940/https://www.liberationnews.org/north-koreans-mourn-death-of-html/ Archived] 2023-04-10.</ref> Upon arriving in south Korea, the U.S. forces immediately began dismantling Korean people's committees and placing property back into the hands of Japanese collaborators and re-appointing Japanese collaborators as police, who helped to arrest and dismantle the people's committees. The U.S. occupation forces also struck down the food supply management system of the people's committees, demanding a "free market" of rice. As a result, [[Landlord|landlords]], [[police]], other government officials, and [[Bourgeoisie|businessmen]] engaged in hoarding and speculation and selling the grain to Japan on the black market, causing food shortages and hunger in cities. As the situation continued, U.S. rice rations eventually fell to half of the ration size that had been received under the Japanese colonial administration during World War II, and newspapers published accounts of [[famine]] and starvation, further disaster only being averted by eventual shipments of U.S. grains as emergency relief. By 1946, the deteriorating food situation forced the Americans to revive the old Japanese rice collection system, which resulted in farmers being arrested and beaten for not meeting their quotas.<ref>Kim Jinwung. [https://www.kci.go.kr/kciportal/ci/sereArticleSearch/ciSereArtiView.kci?sereArticleSearchBean.artiId=ART001085494 A ''Policy of Amateurism: The Rice Policy of the U.S. Army Military''.] Government in Korea, 1945-1948. Korea Journal, Summer 2007.</ref> <br />
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In the northern zone, the Soviets allowed Koreans to govern themselves through a system of people's committees, and assisted Koreans with the re-appropriation of land from Japanese colonizers. The Soviets then left after three years of assisting north Korea in this way.<ref name=":8" /> In the south, General [[Douglas MacArthur]] ruled as a dictator and established English as the official language. <br />
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While the Soviets left Korea in late 1948,<ref name=":12" /> the United States failed to withdraw its troops from the south and instead promoted the installation of a pro-US, right wing regime rather than promoting the reunification of Korea. This resulted in opposition among the southern masses, the [[Jeju Uprising|Jeju uprising]] and massacre, the escalation of the [[Korean War]], and the continued division of the Korean nation and continued occupation of the south by US forces which persists to the present day.<br />
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In the words of author Ryo Sung Chol, "The strife among the great powers for hegemony in the world in the complicated military and political situation towards the close of World War II forced the tragedy of national split upon the Korean people before their rejoicing over liberation subsided."<ref name=":0" /><br />
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On February 20, 1948, the day after the US-led UN proposition of the resolution on the US-sponsored separate election in the south, the Central Committee of the Democratic National United Front of North Korea made public its appeal to the entire Korean people at its 24th conference. The appeal indicated that it was clear what kind of election would take place in south Korea, where democratic parties and organizations had been forced underground and democrats were being arrested, imprisoned, tortured and murdered, and called for a general election across the whole of Korea after the withdrawal of the foreign armies. It called for holding elections to the People’s Assembly throughout Korea by secret ballot on the principles of universal, direct and equal vote. The People’s Assembly elected in that way would approve the constitution and establish a democratic government, and Kim Il Sung put forward the line of convening a joint conference of political parties and social organizations of north and south Korea.<ref name=":0" /><br />
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=== Establishment of DPRK and ROK ===<br />
Faced with the serious menace of division of the nation by the United States, Kim Kyu Sik, Kim Ku and other nationalists in south Korea supported the policy of establishing a unified government of north and south Korea in order to prevent national division, and resolutely and finally parted from [[Far-right politics|extreme rightist]] [[Syngman Rhee]] and the reactionaries of the “Korean Democratic Party” who advocated a separate election. Kim Ku opposed election under UN observation, claiming that “the United Nations is an extraneous body with no right to interfere in the internal affairs of Korea”. Kim Kyu Sik also opposed it for the reason that a separate election would mean “the permanent division of the country”. According to author Ryo Sung Chol, seven public figures, including Kim Ku and Kim Kyu Sik, who led 12 political parties and social organizations including the Korean Independence Party, complied with the proposal for a north-south political conference as opposed to a separate election.<ref name=":0" /> <br />
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In April 1948 there was held in [[Pyongyang]] a joint conference of 16 political parties and 40 social organizations of north and south Korea for the first time since liberation, with the participation of 695 representatives of the north and 216 the south, including Kim Kyu Sik, Hong Myong Hui and Kim Ku, who had crossed the 38th parallel to be present. The joint conference adopted a decision calling for opposition to the separate election, the withdrawal of foreign troops and the founding of a unified democratic state, and issued a manifesto. They officially called for the simultaneous withdrawal of the troops of the USSR and the United States, pointing out that "We, the Korean people, are mature enough to settle our problems by ourselves without foreign interference, and our country has many cadres prepared to settle them" as well as laid out a plan of action for peaceful reunification of Korea and the formation of a unified, democratic government. The manifesto was signed by 42 political parties and social organizations of north and south Korea which opposed the division of the country and people.<ref name=":0" /> [[File:Actors re-enact the massacre of residents branded as communist insurgents during the Jeju Uprising and Massacre, for its 70th anniversary.jpg|thumb|319x319px|People in south Korea re-enact the massacre of residents branded as communist insurgents during the [[Jeju Uprising|Jeju massacre]], which occurred from 1948-1949 and claimed the lives of 10% of Jeju's population. Many residents of Jeju had protested the division of Korea and the separate elections held in the south, and virtually the entire population of the island was brutally punished by the right wing southern regime as a result.]]Meanwhile, in south Korea, general strikes and popular uprisings, such as the [[Jeju Uprising|Jeju uprising]], arose in opposition to the US-led separate elections. The south Korean government's militant suppression of the Jeju uprising in turn sparked the [[Yeosu-Suncheon rebellion]] in [[South Jeolla Province|South Jeolla]] province, which occurred from October to November in 1948, when members of a south Korean military regiment in Yeosu refused to transfer to Jeju Island to suppress the Jeju islanders. The guerrilla-style rebellion was led by 2,000 left-leaning soldiers who opposed the U.S.-backed dictator Syngman Rhee and the regime's crackdown on Jeju. In the wake of such resistance, the Rhee regime instituted the [[Anti-communism|anti-communist]] [[National Security Law]] (Korean: 국가보안법) on December 1, 1948. This law has since been the south Korean regime's legal tool to restrict freedom of expression and to enforce anti-communist policies in the country. Under this ambiguously formulated law, thousands of opposition politicians, dissidents, journalists, students and artists have been arrested, imprisoned, tortured and executed.<ref>[http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/332032.html “439 Civilians Confirmed Dead in Yeosu-Suncheon Uprising of 1948.”] Jan. 8, 2009. Hankyoreh. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220906021316/http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/332032.html Archived] 2022-09-06.</ref><ref>[https://asia.fes.de/news/korea-national-security-act “Exhibition Sheds Light on the History of South Korea’s National Security Act.”] Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) – Foundation for social democracy. Asia.fes.de. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230328071745/https://asia.fes.de/news/korea-national-security-act Archived] 2023-03-28.</ref><br />
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According to Ryo, at the UN, the Australian delegate demanded that the separate election be suspended because it was clear that all the political parties in south Korea except the ultra-right party would boycott it. The Canadian delegate warned that it had been an illegal and indiscreet act for the US-led "Little Assembly" on Korea to have accepted the US draft resolution, and that it would create a new and grave situation. Regardless of these statements at the UN and the clear and widespread opposition by the Korean people themselves, on May 10, 1948 the United States carried out the separate election.<ref name=":0" /><br />
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After the US-occupied southern regime under extreme rightist Syngman Rhee was declared in August 1948, the [[socialist state|socialist]] DPRK, led by [[Kim Il-sung]], was declared in the north in September, 1948.<br />
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Syngman Rhee and his regime are widely recognized to be responsible for the killing of 30,000 Jeju islanders from 1948-49, resulting in the death of about 10% of the island's total population. The massacre was a result of severe crack-down against Jeju islanders who protested against the division of the country and police oppression by Syngman Rhee’s administration and the US military who held an operational control over the South Korean military and police.<ref name=":1">The Association for Bereaved Families of the Jeju 4.3 Victims, Bereaved Family Association of Korean War and 252 South Korean NGOs (2020-01-20). [https://www.jejudarktours.org/en/news/letter-251-south-korean-ngos-against-syngman-rhee-day/ "Letter from 252 South Korean NGOs against Syngman Rhee Day"] ''Jeju Dark Tours''. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220818105837/https://www.jejudarktours.org/en/news/letter-251-south-korean-ngos-against-syngman-rhee-day/ Archived] from the original on 2022-08-19.</ref><br />
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=== Fatherland Liberation War ===<br />
{{Main article|Korean War}}<br />
The period that is referred to by bourgeois historians as the Korean War is considered to have occurred between 1950 and 1953. However, the 1950 start date of the war conforms to the imperialist narrative that the war began with an unprovoked attack from the North that took the US and Southern forces by surprise. However, considering the tens of thousands of people being killed in Korea throughout the 1940s by US, UN, and Southern forces, the continuous resistance in the South to the division of the country, and the numerous skirmishes that regularly occurred along the border between North and South, some consider it more accurate to frame the 1950-1953 period as an escalation of a war that was already in progress, rather than the sudden outbreak narrative favored by the bourgeois states. <br />
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Author William Blum writes of this period of escalation: <blockquote>The two sides had been clashing across the Parallel for several years. What happened on that fateful day in June could thus be regarded as no more than the escalation of an ongoing civil war. The North Korean Government has claimed that in 1949 alone, the South Korean army or police perpetrated 2,617 armed incursions into the North to carry out murder, kidnapping, pillage and arson for the purpose of causing social disorder and unrest, as well as to increase the combat capabilities of the invaders. At times, stated the Pyongyang government, thousands of soldiers were involved in a single battle with many casualties resulting. [...] Seen in this context, the question of who fired the first shot on 25 June 1950 takes on a much reduced air of significance. As it is, the North Korean version of events is that their invasion was provoked by two days of bombardment by the South Koreans, on the 23rd and 24th, followed by a surprise South Korean attack across the border on the 25th against the western town of Haeju and other places. Announcement of the Southern attack was broadcast over the North's radio later in the morning of the 25th.<ref name=":2">Blum, William. ''[https://www.cia.gov/library/abbottabad-compound/13/130AEF1531746AAD6AC03EF59F91E1A1_Killing_Hope_Blum_William.pdf Killing Hope: US Military & CIA Interventions Since World War II].'' Zed Books London, 2004.</ref></blockquote>According to Blum, citing Joseph C. Goulden's ''Korea: The Untold Story of the War'', "On 26 June, the United States presented a resolution before the UN Security Council condemning North Korea for its 'unprovoked aggression'. The resolution was approved, although there were arguments that 'this was a fight between Koreans' and should be treated as a civil war, and a suggestion from the Egyptian delegate that the word 'unprovoked' should be dropped in view of the longstanding hostilities between the two Koreas."<ref name=":2" /><br />
[[File:South Korean soldiers walk among dead political prisoners, Taejon, South Korea.jpg|thumb|July 1950 U.S. Army file photograph once classified "top secret", South Korean soldiers walk among dead political prisoners, Taejon (Daejeon), South Korea.]]<br />
During the Korean War period, between 1950 and 1953, Syngman Rhee's government indiscriminately and arbitrarily killed civilians without any legal evidence, on the pretense that they may have cooperated with the North Korean People's Army. During this process, around 1 million people were massacred, including people who were against the Rhee administration. According to a letter signed by 252 Korean NGOs, including The Association for Bereaved Families of the Jeju 4.3 Victims and the Bereaved Family Association of Korean War, Rhee engaged in "the mass killing of civilians, fraudulent elections, illegal amendment of the Constitution and several cases of enforced disappearance and torture leading to the death of his opponents", crimes and corruption which he was not held legally responsible for in his lifetime, but which were later investigated and confirmed by South Korean national investigation committees.<ref name=":1" /><br />
[[File:Prisoners lie on the ground before execution by South Korean troops near Daejon, South Korea, July 1950. Photo by U.S. Army Maj. Abbott.jpg|thumb|July 1950 U.S. Army file photograph once classified "top secret," prisoners lie on the ground before their execution by South Korean troops in Taejon (Daejeon), South Korea. Photo by U.S. Army Maj. Abbott.]]<br />
The atrocities committed by the US-backed Southern forces during this period were continuously covered up and dismissed as communist propaganda throughout the war. Western journalists, many of them leftists, who attempted to expose the atrocities committed by the US-backed regime had their passports revoked, some of them for decades, effectively exiling them from their native countries for their truthful reporting. An article that details the fates of some of these persecuted journalists notes that "The atrocities committed by the US-led UN forces are beyond dispute [...] Almost as shameful as the atrocities in Korea were the extreme steps taken to silence and eventually to punish those who sought to expose them."<ref>Ewing, K. D., Mahoney, J., & Moretta, A. (2018). [https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/files/94544925/Ewing_Korean_2017_Article.pdf "Civil Liberties and the Korean War."] Modern Law Review, 81(3), 395-421. <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2230.12339</nowiki> [https://web.archive.org/web/2/https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/files/94544925/Ewing_Korean_2017_Article.pdf Archive].</ref> Mass killings committed by Southern forces in Daejeon, now known as the [[Daejeon massacre]], were falsely attributed to the Northern army in US Army reports. An article in the Asia-Pacific Journal says of this false reporting, "Such myths survived a half-century, in part because those who knew the truth were cowed into silence."<ref name=":3">Charles J. Hanley & Jae-Soon Chang (July 2, 2008). [https://apjjf.org/-Charles-J.-Hanley/2827/article.html "Summer of Terror: At least 100,000 said executed by Korean ally of US in 1950"] ''The Asia-Pacific Journal''. [https://web.archive.org/web/2/https://apjjf.org/-Charles-J.-Hanley/2827/article.html Archived] from the original on 2022-08-26.</ref> Silencing tactics persisted for decades under the succession of right-wing authoritarian regimes in South Korea, where people who tried to speak out or bring light to atrocities committed by the South were harassed by police, or found themselves arrested and beaten.<ref name=":3" /><ref>Kim, Hun Joon. (2014). ''The Massacres at Mt. Halla: Sixty Years of Truth Seeking in South Korea''. Cornell University Press.</ref> One author who wrote about the Jeju massacre 30 years after it had occurred was arrested by the [[National Intelligence Service|Korean intelligence agency]] and tortured for three days and told not to write about the massacre again. He was then released with no charges, so a trial could be avoided so as not to further expose the public to the truth of the massacre.<ref>Darryl Coote (2012.11.20). [http://www.jejuweekly.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=2841 "My Dinner With Hyun Ki Young"] ''The Jeju Weekly''. [https://web.archive.org/web/2/http://www.jejuweekly.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=2841 Archived] 2022-08-26.</ref> Given the facts of such widespread and systematic suppression of the truth by the US-backed Southern regime and the US itself, who regularly dismissed reporting of their own crimes as "communist propaganda", many of which later proved to be indisputably truthful accounts of US and Southern regime crimes, caution must be taken in interpreting anti-communist narratives of the Korean War.<br />
[[File:Thatched huts go up in flames after B-26 bombers unload napalm bombs on a village near Hanchon, North Korea, on May 10, 1951 (AP photo).png|thumb|Thatched huts go up in flames after B-26 bombers unload napalm bombs on a village near Hanchon, North Korea, on May 10, 1951.]]<br />
During the Korean War, U.S. troops killed large numbers of Korean civilians and engaged in copious firebombing with [[napalm]], and, as was eventually revealed through declassified documents, had at certain times a policy of deliberately firing on South Korean refugee groups approaching its lines.<ref>Youkyung Lee (2014-08-07). [https://apnews.com/article/108b4bd1dc854caeaf5f9349fcd5a176 "S. Korean who forced US to admit massacre has died"] ''Associated Press''. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220726115036/https://apnews.com/article/108b4bd1dc854caeaf5f9349fcd5a176 Archive]. </ref> During the war, the United States dropped "635,000 tons of bombs in Korea (not counting 32,557 tons of napalm), compared to 503,000 tons in the entire Pacific Theater in World War II" and "at least 50 percent of eighteen out of the North's twenty-two major cities were obliterated."<ref>Bruce Cumings (2010). [https://archive.org/details/koreanwarhistory0000cumi/ ''The Korean War: A History'': '"The Most Disproportionate Result:"] The Air War' (pp. 159-160). New York: Modern Library. <small>ISBN 978-0-679-64357-9</small></ref><br />
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In the words of the United States Air Force General Curtis LeMay, commander of the U.S.'s Strategic Air Command, "[W]e went over there and fought the war and eventually burned down every town in North Korea anyway, some way or another, and some in South Korea, too. We even burned down Pusan—an accident, but we burned it down anyway. The Marines started a battle down there with no enemy in sight. Over a period of three years or so, we killed off—what—twenty percent of the population of Korea as direct casualties of war, or from starvation and exposure?"<ref>Richard H. Kohn and Joseph P. Harahan (1988). ''Strategic Air Warfare: an interview with generals Curtis E. LeMay, Leon W. Johnson, David A. Burchinal, and Jack J. Catton'' (p. 88). <small>[https://media.defense.gov/2010/Sep/29/2001329790/-1/-1/0/AFD-100929-052.pdf <nowiki>[PDF]</nowiki>]</small> Washington, D.C.: Office of Air Force History, United States Air Force. <small>ISBN 0-912799-56-0</small></ref><br />
[[File:Pyongyang after U.S. Air Force bombing.jpg|thumb|Pyongyang after U.S. Air Force bombing.]]<br />
U.S. Naval Captain Walter Karig, in his book ''Battle Report: The War in Korea,'' a compilation from official sources, wrote: "[W]e killed civilians, friendly civilians, and bombed their homes; fired whole villages with the occupants--women and children and ten times as many hidden Communist soldiers--under showers of napalm, and the pilots came back to their ships stinking of vomit twisted from their vitals by the shock of what they had to do."<ref>Walter Karig; Malcolm W Cagle; Frank A Manson; et al (1952). ''Battle Report: The War in Korea'' (pp. 111-112). New York: Rinehart.</ref><br />
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US sanctions on DPRK began in conjunction with the 1950 escalation of the war, with the US imposing an export ban on DPRK and forbidding financial transactions by or on behalf of DPRK. This began with U.S. President [[Harry S. Truman]] ordering naval blockade of Korean coast and imposing a total trade embargo against north Korea in June of 1950. This was followed by the Trading with the Enemy Act in December 1950, to terminate all US economic contacts with north Korea and freezing north Korea's assets.<ref name=":5">Gary Clyde Hufbauer (PIIE), Jeffrey J. Schott (PIIE), Kimberly Ann Elliott (PIIE) and Barbara Oegg (PIIE). [https://www.piie.com/commentary/speeches-papers/case-50-1-and-93-1 “US and UN v. North Korea: Case 50-1 and 93-1.”] 2016. Peterson Institute for International Economics. May 1, 2008. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220909082604/https://www.piie.com/commentary/speeches-papers/case-50-1-and-93-1 Archived] 2022-09-09. </ref><br />
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After three years, an armistice agreement was signed that stopped the active fighting. The armistice was signed on 27 July 1953. The signed armistice established the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), the de facto new border between the two nations, put into force a cease-fire, and finalized repatriation of prisoners of war. The DMZ runs close to the 38th parallel and has continued to separate north and south Korea since the Korean Armistice Agreement was signed in 1953.<br />
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=== Post-war ===<br />
After the armistice agreement, the US continued to prohibit all US economic contacts with DPRK in line with its general strategic controls against socialist countries.<ref name=":5" /><br />
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At a meeting in 1957, the U.S. informed the north Korean representatives that the United Nations Command no longer considered itself bound by paragraph 13d of the armistice, and in 1958 the U.S. abrogated paragraph 13d of the armistice by introducing nuclear weapons into south Korea.<ref>[https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,809583,00.html "Korea: The End of 13d"] (1957-07-01). ''Time Magazine''. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220728030416/https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,809583,00.html Archived] 2022-07-28.</ref><ref>Lee Jae-Bong (2009-02-07). [https://apjjf.org/-Lee-Jae-Bong/3053/article.html "US Deployment of Nuclear Weapons in 1950s South Korea & North Korea's Nuclear Development: Toward Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula"] ''The Asia-Pacific Journal''. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220819105903/https://apjjf.org/-Lee-Jae-Bong/3053/article.html Archived] 2022-18-19.</ref> The armistice has never been replaced with a peace treaty and the two sides remain technically at war, with the U.S. occupying the south and retaining operational control over the south Korean military in wartime, and regularly engaging in provocative joint military exercises with south Korea aimed at "decapitating" DPRK's government,<ref>Flounders, Sara. [https://www.workers.org/2022/08/66398/ “Faced with U.S. ‘Decapitation Drill’/DPRK Korea Missile Launch Is Self-Defense.”] Workers World. August 26, 2022. [https://web.archive.org/web/20221014032939/https://www.workers.org/2022/08/66398/ Archived] 2022-10-14.</ref> while enforcing strict [[economic sanctions]] against DPRK as a form of siege warfare. <br />
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The years following the Korean war, DPRK carried out its [[Chollima]] policy. The Chollima policy encouraged people to produce and innovate more in order to speed up the reconstruction of the country. In line with this policy, the DPRK concentrated its economy on [[heavy industry]] in the years following the war and it economically outperformed its southern counterpart until the early 1970s.<ref>[https://www.north-korea-travel.com/political-history-of-north-korea.html “Political History of North Korea | KTG® Tours | Information and North Korea Tours.”] North-Korea-Travel.com. </ref><br />
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==== 1960s ====<br />
In 1960, south Korea's right-wing dictator Syngman Rhee resigned and fled the country due to mass protests across the nation after the body of a student killed by police was found floating in the harbor. As a result of the protests against him, he fled to [[Honolulu]], [[Hawaii]], where he remained in exile until his death. <br />
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After Rhee's resignation, president [[Yun Bo-seon]] briefly governed in a somewhat more democratic but still bourgeois government. After thirteen months this administration was overthrown by the south Korean Army in the May 16 coup led by [[Park Chung-hee]], former Japanese collaborator and the father of future president [[Park Geun-hye]] (who served as the 11th president of South Korea from 2013 to 2017, until she was impeached and convicted on related corruption charges). <br />
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Park Chung-hee ruled as a military dictator for 18 years and sent 320,000 troops to support the [[Republic of Vietnam (1955–1975)|South Vietnamese]] puppet state in the [[Vietnam War]].<br />
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The Korean DMZ conflict was a series of low-level armed clashes between north Korean forces and the forces of south Korea and the United States, largely occurring between 1966 and 1969 at the Korean DMZ. <br />
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The 2003 documentary [[Repatriation (film)|''Repatriation'']] tells the story of and interviews several north and south Korean supporters of DPRK who had been arrested as spies, most of them during the 1960s, and who were subsequently imprisoned and tortured in the south for decades for refusing to give up their loyalty to DPRK. The documentary follows their struggle to be repatriated to DPRK after their release from prison in the 1990s.<br />
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==== 1970s ====<br />
In 1972, the [[Supreme People's Assembly]] elected Kim Il-sung as President of the DPRK.<br />
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In south Korea, the fourth republic was founded on the approval of the Yushin Constitution in the 1972 constitutional referendum, codifying the ''de facto'' dictatorial powers held by President Park Chung-hee. <br />
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An [[Amnesty International]] mission from 1975, conducted when Park Chung-hee was in power, found that torture was "frequently" used by south Korea's law enforcement agencies, "both in an attempt to extract false confessions, and as a means of intimidation." Systematic harassment of citizens by law enforcement agencies was also found to be "commonplace" by the investigation. The report states that detention without charge of journalists, lawyers, churchmen and academics was frequent. The mission also found that lawyers would be detained on house arrest and prevented from coming to trials to present defenses for their clients, and bodies of likely torture victims burned before they could be examined.<ref>[https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/asa25/001/1975/en/ "Report of the Mission to the Republic of Korea 1975."] [[Amnesty International]]. June 1, 1975. Index Number: ASA 25/001/1975. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230315081755/https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/asa25/001/1975/en/ Archived] 2023-03-15.</ref><br />
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The Fourth Republic entered a period of political instability under Park's successor, Choi Kyu-hah, and the escalating martial law declared after Park's death.<br />
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Choi was unofficially overthrown by [[Chun Doo-hwan]] in a coup d'état of December Twelfth in December 1979, and began the armed suppression of the [[May 18 uprising|Gwangju Democratization Movement]] against martial law.<br />
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==== 1980s ====<br />
[[File:Gwangju protest.png|thumb|Mass protest in Gwangju in May 1980.]]<br />
During Chun Doo-hawn's presidency in south Korea, he perpetrated the largest massacre of Korean civilians since the Korean war. In May 1980, protests against martial law began in [[Gwangju]], which were met with special warfare troops. Estimates vary as to the amount of casualties, but they range from 165 at the most conservative, to over 300. Some also claim that up to 2,300 civilians were killed in the Gwangju massacre, in response to the May 18 uprising also known as the Gwangju uprising.<ref>K. J. Noh (2020-12-02). [https://www.hamptonthink.org/read/south-korean-dictator-dies-western-media-resurrects-a-myth "South Korean Dictator Dies, Western Media Resurrects a Myth"] ''Hampton Institute''. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220519190752/https://www.hamptonthink.org/read/south-korean-dictator-dies-western-media-resurrects-a-myth Archived] from the original on 2022-05-19. Retrieved 2022-06-02.</ref> Chun Doo-hawn's administration faced growing opposition from the democratization movement of the Gwangju Uprising, and the June Democracy Movement of 1987 resulted in the election of [[Roh Tae-woo]] in the December 1987 presidential election. Roh's election was the first direct presidential election in 16 years. The fifth republic was dissolved three days after the election upon the adoption of a new constitution that laid the foundations for the relatively stable (although bourgeois and rife with corruption scandals) democratic system of the current sixth Republic of Korea.<br />
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In 1988, south Korea and the US eased isolation of north Korea by opening bilateral dialogue and allowing limited export of goods to the North for humanitarian purposes. Some travel restrictions were also lifted on a case-by-case basis. However, in that same year, DPRK was added to the [[U.S. State Department]] [[State Sponsors of Terrorism|"State Sponsors of Terrorism"]] list.<ref name=":6">[https://nodutdol.org/sanctions-of-empire/ "제국의 제재 - Sanctions of Empire."] Nodutdol. October 20, 2020. [https://nodutdol.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Sanctions-of-Empire.pdf PDF]. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220520095404/https://nodutdol.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Sanctions-of-Empire.pdf Archive].</ref><br />
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On March 25, 1989, south Korean pastor and activist [[Moon Ik-hwan]], representing the National Federation of Democratic Movements (Korean: 전국민족민주운동연합; Hanja: 全國民族民主運動聯合; abbreviated 전민련), travelled to DPRK and met with Kim Il-sung to discuss Korean reunification. He and some other individuals had travelled there after Kim Il-sung had invited the leaders of all south Korean political parties as well as some religious figures to attend an inter-Korean dialogue. On April 2, pastor Moon and his party held two talks with President Kim Il-Sung and issued a joint statement with the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland. Pastor Moon and his party returned home to south Korea on April 13 after completing their 10-day visit to DPRK. As soon as they returned to south Korea, the government executed a prior arrest warrant and arrested and imprisoned them on charges under the National Security Act, such as receiving orders, infiltrating and escaping, meeting and communication, and encouraging praise of an anti-state group.<ref>[https://encykorea.aks.ac.kr/Article/E0075760 “문익환목사방북사건(文牧師訪北事件).”] Encyclopedia of Korean Culture.</ref><ref>[https://archive.md/jNpJH “Moon Ik Hwan Dies; Dictators’ Foe Was 76 - New York Times.”] Jan 20, 1994. ''Archive.md.'' Accessed 12 Apr. 2023.</ref><br />
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In 1989, Pyongyang held the [[World Festival of Youth and Students, 1989|World Festival of Youth and Students]]. A south Korean activist named [[Lim Su-kyung]] (Korean: 임수경; also romanized as Lim Soo-kyung or Rim Su Gyong) took part in the festival, although this was illegal for her to do under south Korean law. She attended the festival representing the student organization Jeondaehyop (전대협, an abbreviation of 전국대학생대표자협의회), now known as Hanchongryun (한총련, abbreviation of 한국대학총학생회연합). In the north, she was celebrated for her decision to take part in the festival, and dubbed the "Flower of Reunification" (Korean: 통일의 꽃) in the north's media. Upon her return to the south, she was arrested and ended up in a Seoul prison, sentenced to 5 years. Later in life, she became a politician in the south.<ref>네이버 지식백과. [https://terms.naver.com/entry.naver?docId=1216785&mobile&cid=40942&categoryId=31778 “임수경방북사건.”] 두산백과. Naver.com. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230328081613/https://terms.naver.com/entry.naver?docId=1216785&mobile&cid=40942&categoryId=31778 Archived] 2023-03-28.</ref><br />
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==== 1990s ====<br />
A unified team under the name Korea (KOR) competed in 1991 World Table Tennis Championships and FIFA World Youth Championship with athletes from both north and south Korea.<ref>이환우. [http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2018/07/103_243225.html “Unified Teams Date back to 1991.”] The Korea Times, 29 Jan. 2018, Accessed 10 Apr. 2023.</ref> In 1991, the team used the Unification Flag and the anthem "Arirang".<br />
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[[Kim Jong-il]] became Supreme Commander of the [[Korean People's Army]] in 1991.<br />
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In 1990, south Korean pastor Moon Ik-hwan had been released from prison in consideration of his poor health and old age. After his release, he resumed his pro-unification and democratization activism despite receiving warnings that he may be re-imprisoned by the south Korean authorities for such activities. A 1991 Amnesty International report on his activities stated that since his release, he was reported to have delivered speeches at at least 100 meetings of students and dissidents and to have participated in other political activities. In December 1990, police warned him to stop speaking to gatherings of students and dissidents about his visit to DPRK and about DPRK's ideology. In January of 1991 he was placed under house arrest to prevent him from attending the inauguration meeting for the preparatory committee of the south Korean headquarters of [[Pomminnyon]] (Pan-National Alliance for Reunification of Korea). He later became chairperson of the preparatory committee. On June 6 of 1991, Reverend Moon Ik-hwan was rearrested on the grounds that he had violated the terms of his parole by engaging in political activities and that his health had improved.<ref>[https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/asa25/032/1991/en/ "South Korea: Prisoner of conscience: Reverend Moon Ik-hwan."] September 30, 1991. Index Number: ASA 25/032/1991. Amnesty International. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220714020953/https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/asa25/032/1991/en/ Archived] 2022-07-14.</ref><br />
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In 1992, the [[Pyongyang Declaration]], titled "Let Us Defend and Advance the Cause of Socialism" was published on April 20. The declaration was a joint-communique in which various communist bloc and fraternal parties which remained after the fall of the Soviet Union declared their intention to continue to defend and advance the socialist cause. At the time of its original signing, 70 political parties signed the declaration, with its number of signatories increasing over time into the hundreds, reaching 300 as of 2017.<ref>[https://kcnawatch.xyz/newstream/1546674832-39763653/pyongyang-declaration-signed-by-more-than-300-political-parties-of-world/ "Pyongyang Declaration Signed by More than 300 Political Parties of World."] [[Naenara]] accessed via [[KCNA Watch]]. 2017-04-21. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230929065855/https://kcnawatch.xyz/newstream/1546674832-39763653/pyongyang-declaration-signed-by-more-than-300-political-parties-of-world/ Archived] 2023-09-29.</ref> The document declares its signatories' firm conviction to defend and advance the socialist cause and explains that the path of socialism is an untrodden one and, therefore, the advance of socialism is inevitably accompanied by trials and difficulties. It asserts that although facing setbacks and attacks from the collusion of imperialists and reactionaries, socialism represents the future of mankind and that all parties striving for socialism should firmly maintain independence and firmly build up their own forces and that each party should work out lines and policies which "tally with the actual situation of the country where it is active and with the demands of its people and implement them by relying on the popular masses". It says that socialist cause is a national one and, at the same time, a common cause of mankind, and that "socialism is carved out and built with a country or national state as a unit." It states that all parties should cement the ties of comradely unity, cooperation and solidarity on the principles of independence and equality and defend the cause of socialism, not give up their revolutionary principles under any circumstances, and concludes with the statement that the socialist cause shall not perish.<ref>[https://www.youngpioneertours.com/pyongyang-declaration/ "What was the Pyongyang declaration of 1992?"] Young Pioneer Tours. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230929065726/https://www.youngpioneertours.com/pyongyang-declaration/ Archived] 2023-09-29.</ref><br />
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In July 1994, [[Kim Il-sung]] passed away. <br />
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Kim Jong-il became the General Secretary of the party on October 8, 1997.<ref name=":9">[https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2011-12/19/content_14287241.htm “DPRK Top Leader Kim Jong-Il Passes Away|Asia-Pacific|Chinadaily.com.cn.”] ''Chinadaily.com.cn.'' Accessed 10 Apr. 2023. [https://web.archive.org/web/20221020162831/http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2011-12/19/content_14287241.htm Archived] 2022-10-20.</ref><br />
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The period of economic crisis, floods, and famine in DPRK known as the [[Arduous March]] lasted from 1994 to 1998. The thriving north Korean economy, which had exceeded south Korea's in production of electricity, coal, fertilizer, machine tools and steel even into the 1980s, was brought to a halt in the 1990s with the overthrow of the Soviet Union and a string of natural disasters. Factors such as the fall of the Soviet Union and worldwide economic shifts in its wake, unprecedented natural disasters, DPRK only having 15% arable land,<ref name=":8" /> and [[economic sanctions]] imposed on DPRK compounded at this time, contributing to the severity of the crisis.<ref>[https://www.north-korea-travel.com/north-korean-history.html “North Korean History 1980s & 1990s | KTG® Tours.”] North-Korea-Travel.com.</ref> <br />
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Beginning in 1997, the period known as the [[Asian financial crisis]] or the [[International Monetary Fund|IMF]] crisis affected several Asian countries, with south Korea being among some of the most heavily impacted, with the crisis resulting in the bankruptcy of major south Korean companies and the imposition of [[austerity]] measures. The generation of people who entered the job market in this period are sometimes called the "IMF generation" and have faced a pattern of worsened economic conditions and struggling with job security.<ref>[https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2019/11/17/economy/IMF-generation-feels-job-shortage/3070390.html “‘IMF Generation’ Feels Job Shortage.”] November 17, 2019. [https://web.archive.org/web/20211207004114/https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2019/11/17/economy/IMF-generation-feels-job-shortage/3070390.html Archived] Dec. 7, 2021.</ref><ref>[https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/tech/2021/05/693_33603.html “A Familiar Story.”] Koreatimes. The Korea Times. October 30, 2008. [https://web.archive.org/web/20221101044751/https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/tech/2021/05/693_33603.html Archived] 2022-11-01.</ref><br />
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In south Korea in the late 1990s, amnesty was declared for certain elderly and ill political prisoners who had been held in prison for decades, facing torture and solitary confinement for refusing to renounce communism and their support for DPRK. Some of these prisoners then began a movement to be repatriated to DPRK, with some of them being allowed to return while others remained in south Korea, some willingly and some unwillingly, with many of the participants mistakenly believing that more repatriations and further freedom of movement between north and south would follow.<ref>Liberation School (Jul 27, 2022). [https://www.liberationschool.org/interview-with-ahn-hak-sop/ "Still fighting for Korea’s liberation: An interview with Ahn Hak-sop"] ''Liberation School''. [https://web.archive.org/web/2/https://www.liberationschool.org/interview-with-ahn-hak-sop/ Archived] from the original.</ref> This series of events is detailed in the 2003 documentary [[Repatriation (film)|''Repatriation'']], which follows the release of several of these political prisoners and the different events in their lives afterward.<br />
<br />
DPRK's hopes for direct talks with the United States, a formal peace treaty ending the Korean War and normalized relations with the U.S. seemed potentially realizable in the last years of the [[Bill Clinton|Clinton]] administration (which lasted from 1993 to 2001). The United States and DPRK signed the General Framework Agreement, which provided that DPRK would seal its heavy water nuclear energy reactors in return for normalized diplomatic relations with the U.S. government and assistance constructing light water nuclear reactor facilities. Pursuant to the agreement, DPRK stopped its nuclear program at this time.<ref name=":8" /><br />
<br />
==== 2000s ====<br />
[[File:President Kim Dae-jung and Chairman Kim Jong-il join hands at Inter-Korean summit.jpg|thumb|250x250px|President Kim Dae-jung and Chairman Kim Jong-il join hands at the 2000 Inter-Korean summit, which resulted in the 6.15 Inter-Korean Joint Declaration.]]<br />
The south Korean policy towards DPRK from the late 1990s to mid 2000s is known as the period of "Sunshine Policy" and is primarily associated with the south Korean [[Kim Dae-jung]] administration (1998–2003) and the [[Roh Moo-hyun]] administration (2003–2008). <br />
<br />
During this time, a notable attitude of reconciliation between north and south Korea was expressed by south Korean leadership toward DPRK, and on June 13-15, 2000 the leaders of south and north Korea met for the first time since the war. South Korean president Kim Dae-jung and DPRK leader Kim Jong-il signed an agreement calling for family reunions, economic cooperation, social and cultural exchanges and follow-up governmental contacts between the north and south to ease tensions. This is known as the June 15th North–South Joint Declaration or the [[6.15 Inter-Korean Joint Declaration]].<br />
<br />
In 2002, [[George W. Bush|President Bush's]] State of the Union address singled out [[Islamic Republic of Iran|Iran]], [[Republic of Iraq|Iraq]] and DPRK as the so-called "[[Axis of Evil|axis of evil]]" for their supposed pursuit of weapons of mass destruction. The next year, the U.S. military invaded Iraq. It was in this context that the DPRK, under the leadership of Kim Jong Il, tested highly publicized nuclear weapons. Liberation News notes that "This was not an act of international terrorism, but a maneuver to bring the United States back to the negotiation table, which worked."<ref name=":8" /> <br />
<br />
Since the beginning of the DPRK nuclear tests in 2003, the Bush and [[Barack Obama|Obama]] administrations respectively lifted some sanctions to facilitate negotiations around DPRK denuclearization. However, they then reinstated them when the negotiations failed to produce the results desired by the US.<ref name=":5" /><ref name=":6" /> Following the country’s 2006 nuclear test, the US, EU, and others added more stringent sanctions, which have periodically intensified since then. Sanctions now target [[Petroleum politics|oil]] imports, and cover most finance and trade, and the country’s [[key minerals]] sector.<ref>Galant, Michael. [https://cepr.net/cepr-sanctions-watch-may-june-2022/ “CEPR Sanctions Watch, May-June 2022”] Center for Economic and Policy Research. July 8, 2022. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220907145545/https://cepr.net/cepr-sanctions-watch-may-june-2022/ Archived] 2022-09-07</ref><br />
<br />
==== 2010s ====<br />
[[File:Activist No Su-hui shouts Long Live Reunification at Panmunjom.jpg|thumb|In 2012, south Korean pro-reunification activist Roh Su-hui, who had been in DPRK without southern approval, shouted "Long live national reunification, by our nation itself!" before stepping over the divide back into south Korea and being tackled and carried away by south Korean authorities.]]<br />
Kim Jong-il passed away on December 17, 2011.<ref name=":9" /> Following this, Kim Jong-un was named supreme commander of the military.<ref>[https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2022/04/11/680112/North-Korea-Kim-Jong-un-10th-Anniversary-Celebrations-Choe-Ryong-hae “‘North Korea Marks 10 Years of Kim Jong-Un’s Leadership with Week-Long Events.’”] PressTV News, 11 Apr. 2022, Accessed 10 Apr. 2023.</ref><br />
<br />
A period of mourning ensued in DPRK following Kim Jong-il's death. Chinese President [[Hu Jintao]] also reached out in solidarity to DPRK after the announcement of Kim Jong Il's death, and [[Republic of Cuba|Cuba]] declared a period of mourning from Dec. 20-22, during which flags would be flown at half-mast. A [[Liberation News]] article from the time notes that the [[Imperial core|Western]] [[Imperialism|imperialist]] media took the opportunity at this time to make insinuations and accusations to portray north Koreans as "brainwashed" via the West's media commentary about the traditional mourning rituals Koreans publicly engaged in at the time. Liberation News points out that this portrayal is part of the West's continued campaign to [[Manufacturing consent|manufacture consent]] for the overthrow of DPRK's leadership, using disingenuous concern over the so-called "[[cult of personality]]" as a pretext.<ref name=":8" /> <br />
<br />
In 2012, a [[Left–right political spectrum|left-wing]] south Korean activist named [[Roh Su-hui]] (Korean: 노수희; also spelled Ro Su Hui and Noh Su-hui), member of the [[Pan-National Alliance for Korea's Reunification]] (Korean: 조국통일범민족연합; abbreviated 범민련; "Pomminryon"), was arrested at Panmunjom after having entered into DPRK months before without approval from the southern regime. He had travelled to DPRK in order to attend a memorial service marking the 100th day since the death of Kim Jong-Il. At Panmunjom, he was waved farewell by a crowd of people from the northern side, who waved Korean unification flags and flowers. Officials of the DPRK accompanied him to Panmunjom to see him off. Before stepping over the border, Roh shouted "Long live national reunification, by our nation itself!" (Korean: "우리민족끼리 조국통일 만세!") holding up a unification flag and flowers. After crossing the border, south Korean authorities seized him, and a struggle ensued where he was tackled to the ground, then lifted and carried away by the southern authorities, who bound his arms and hands with rope as they brought him into custody. He was sentenced to four years in prison and to have his suffrage stripped for three years after release. Another activist, Won Jin Wook, received a three-year prison sentence for communicating with DPRK officials to arrange the trip.<ref>AP Archive. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtiCNzuVp4Y “SKorean Activist No Su-Hui Arrested as He Returns from Unauthorised Trip to the North.”] ''YouTube'', 31 July 2015, Accessed 9 Apr. 2023. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230328191034/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtiCNzuVp4Y Archived] 2023-03-28.</ref><ref>[https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1145933/south-korean-activists-jailed-visit-north “South Korean Activists Jailed for Visit to North.”] ''[[South China Morning Post]]'', 8 Feb. 2013, Accessed 9 Apr. 2023. [https://web.archive.org/web/20201214161836/https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1145933/south-korean-activists-jailed-visit-north Archived] 2020-12-14.</ref><ref>[https://committeeforreleaseofvicechairman.blogspot.com/ “International Committee for the Release of Mr Ro Su Hu.”] ''Blogspot.com'', 2023, Accessed 9 Apr. 2023. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230409065234/https://committeeforreleaseofvicechairman.blogspot.com/ Archived] 2023-04-09.</ref><br />
<br />
[[Park Geun-hye]], daughter of dictator Park Chung-hee, was in office as the 11th president of south Korea from 2013–2017 until she was impeached and convicted on corruption charges following public demonstrations, commonly known as the Candlelight Revolution or Candlelight Demonstrations. She became the first south Korean president to be removed from power by impeachment, and was sentenced to 24 years in prison, but received a pardon and was released in 2021 after serving just under 5 years.<ref>Hyonhee Shin (2021-12-31). [https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/skoreas-disgraced-ex-president-park-freed-after-nearly-5-years-prison-2021-12-31/ "S.Korea's disgraced ex-president Park freed after nearly 5 years in prison"] ''Reuters''.</ref> Park Geun-hye's presidency was followed by [[Moon Jae-in]] (in office 2017–2022). <br />
<br />
According to a 2017 article by CNN, 49 countries, including [[Republic of Cuba|Cuba]], [[Islamic Republic of Iran|Iran]], and [[Syrian Arab Republic|Syria]] have violated sanctions and have traded with DPRK.<ref>Rishi Iyengar (2017-12-06). [https://money.cnn.com/2017/12/06/news/north-korea-sanctions-countries-violation/index.html "Report: 49 countries have been busting sanctions on North Korea"] ''[[CNN]]''. [https://web.archive.org/web/20210508065837/https://money.cnn.com/2017/12/06/news/north-korea-sanctions-countries-violation/index.html Archived] from the original on 2021-05-08.</ref> In 2017, sanctions imposed by the UN caused thousands of DPRK workers who had been working abroad to be forced to return to DPRK as well as led to the closure of numerous DPRK companies and joint ventures.<ref>[https://www.asianews.it/news-en/North-Korean-workers-leave-China-because-of-UN-sanctions-41942.html “North Korean Workers Leave China because of UN Sanctions.”] Asianews.it. 2017. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220909073331/https://www.asianews.it/news-en/North-Korean-workers-leave-China-because-of-UN-sanctions-41942.html Archived] 2022-09-09.</ref> According to Nodutdol, in 2018, 3,968 people in the DPRK, who were mostly children under the age of 5, died as a result of shortages and delays to UN aid programs caused by sanctions.<ref name=":6" /><br />
<br />
Talks between General secretary [[Kim Jong-un]] and Former U.S. [[President of the United states|President]] [[Donald Trump]] began on June of 2019 to discuss disarmament and potential reunification with the [[Republic of Korea]].<br />
<br />
==== 2020s ====<br />
In January 2020 when south Korean President [[Moon Jae-In]] expressed interest in developing tourism to north Korea, the US ambassador Harry Harris blocked this effort, claiming that "independent" tourism plans would have to undergo U.S. consultation. The U.S. ambassador emphasized that the items inside South Korean tourists' luggage could violate sanctions.<ref name=":6" /><br />
<br />
The 13th and current president of south Korea is [[Yoon Suk-yeol]] of the conservative People Power Party, who took office in 2022. His presidency has been surrounded with criticism, with numerous protests drawing thousands of participants calling for his resignation and his approval rating frequently falling below 30%.<ref>[https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_editorial/1063998.html "Rekindled candlelight rallies amid near collapse of Korean politics."] Hankyoreh. Oct.24,2022. [https://web.archive.org/web/20221030111216/http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_editorial/1063998.html Archived] 2022-10-30.</ref> On August 13, 2022, thousands of south Korean unionists and their progressive supporters rallied in downtown Seoul to protest against joint US-south Korea war game exercises. In a video uploaded by [[Press TV]], Oh Eun-Jung of the National Teachers Union was quoted as saying "The threat of nuclear war is growing on the Korean peninsula, conservative forces of Yoon Suk-yeol in south Korea and those in the U.S. are frantically conducting aggressive war drills in the sky, the land, and the sea, and are about to start large-scale military exercises, aimed at the invasion of north Korea. We must stamp out this behavior of anti-reunification forces." In the same video, construction worker Lee Seung-Woo stated, "We not only oppose the war exercises, but we want the U.S. Forces Korea, which is actually controlling and interfering with the Korean peninsula to leave this land. We believe that only then will the eighty million Koreans from both north and south be able to live peacefully."<ref>Frank Smith. [https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2022/08/13/687322/South-Korean-unionists-protest-US-South-Korea-war-games “‘South Korean Unionists Protest US-South Korea War Games.’”] PressTV News. August 13, 2022. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220826124551/https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2022/08/13/687322/South-Korean-unionists-protest-US-South-Korea-war-games Archived] 2022-08-28.</ref><br />
<br />
In September 2022, a statement on the nuclear force policy of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea was carried by DPRK's [[Korean Central News Agency]] (KCNA), noting that while the government considers nuclear weapons a last resort, it would deploy them to prevent aggression that seriously threatens the security of the state and people. The statement stressed that DPRK "does not threaten or use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear countries," and warned it would forcefully respond to aggression, or to nations threatening the DPRK by "colluding with other nuclear-armed states."<ref>[https://www.rt.com/news/562473-north-korea-nuclear-doctrine/ “North Korea Clarifies Nuclear Doctrine.”] RT International. September 9, 2022. [https://web.archive.org/web/20221026142625/https://www.rt.com/news/562473-north-korea-nuclear-doctrine/ Archived] 2022-10-26.<br />
<br />
</ref><br />
<br />
== Culture ==<br />
The folk song "Arirang" (Korean: 아리랑) is regarded as a representative folk song of Korea, sung throughout the nation and presenting many different orally transmitted versions. Arirang typically contains a gentle and lyrical melody. Arirang songs speak about leaving and reunion, sorrow, joy and happiness. The various categories differ according to the lyrics and melody used. While dealing with diverse universal themes, the simple musical and literary composition invites improvisation, imitation and singing in unison, encouraging its acceptance by different musical genres. Both DPRK and south Korea have submitted the song to the [[UNESCO]] Intangible Cultural Heritage list. DPRK's submission states that Arirang folk songs reinforce social relations, thus contributing to mutual respect and peaceful social development, and help people to express their feelings and overcome grief. They function as an important symbol of unity and occupy a place of pride in the performing arts, cinema, literature and other works of contemporary art. South Korea's submission notes that Arirang is a popular subject and motif in diverse arts and media, including cinema, musicals, drama, dance and literature, describing it as an evocative hymn with the power to enhance communication and unity among the Korean people, whether at home or abroad.<ref>[https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/arirang-folk-song-in-the-democratic-people-s-republic-of-korea-00914 “UNESCO - Arirang Folk Song in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.”] Unesco.org. 2023.</ref><ref>[https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/arirang-lyrical-folk-song-in-the-republic-of-korea-00445 “UNESCO - Arirang, Lyrical Folk Song in the Republic of Korea.”] Unesco.org. 2023.</ref><br />
<br />
== Languages ==<br />
<br />
=== Korean language ===<br />
[[Korean language|Korean]] is the official language of both north and south Korea. <br />
<br />
There are regional dialects and accents of Korean spoken throughout the Korean Peninsula. In general they are largely mutually intelligible with standardized forms of Korean. Additionally, despite the division of the country into north and south, the language has not diverged to the point of unintelligibility, although certain vocabulary, spelling, and pronunciation differences do exist. Notably, in the north, a preference for using native Korean words is shown, while in the south, foreign loanwords show a higher prevalence of use.<br />
<br />
Korean is also the official language of [[Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture]] in [[Jilin Province]], China (along with [[Mandarin]]). Other large groups of Korean speakers are found in China, the United States, Japan, former [[Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (1922–1991)|Soviet Union]] and elsewhere.<br />
<br />
=== Jeju language ===<br />
The [[Jeju language]], which is closely related to Korean, is an endangered language whose main community of speakers come from Jeju Island. While often classified as a divergent dialect of the Korean language, the variety is referred to as a language in local government and increasingly in both South Korean and foreign academia. Jeju language is not mutually intelligible with the mainland dialects of South Korea. Most people in Jeju Island now speak a variety of Korean with a Jeju substratum, and efforts to revitalize the endangered language are ongoing. <br />
<br />
=== North and South Korean Sign Language ===<br />
A form of [[Korean Sign Language]] (KSL) is used in both north and south Korea. Following the division of the country, the heterogeneity of sign language has accelerated. Researchers Lee and Choi compared the handshapes of north and south Korean Sign Languages, and found in 2017 that there was 15% both hands agreement, 21% dominant hand agreement, 23% nondominant hand agreement, and 71% disagreement.<ref>Choi Sangbae, Ko Eunji. [https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jasl/29/3/29_51/_pdf/-char/ja "Contrastive Linguistic Study of South and North Korean Sign Language and Japanese Sign Language at the Level of Phoneme and Lexis."] 2020. Kongju National University. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230325065228/https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jasl/29/3/29_51/_pdf/-char/ja Archived] 2023-03-25.</ref> A YouTube channel called Sonmal Sueo (Korean: 손말수어) is dedicated to presenting the differences between north and south Korean signs to promote communication and understanding.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/@sonmalsueo3478/featured Sonmal Sueo 손말수어]. YouTube.</ref><br />
<br />
== References ==<br />
[[Category:Asian countries]]</div>
Verda.Majo
https://en.prolewiki.org/index.php?title=File:Artistic_depiction_of_Korean_revolutionary_base.png&diff=64466
File:Artistic depiction of Korean revolutionary base.png
2024-03-22T08:23:22Z
<p>Verda.Majo: </p>
<hr />
<div>An artistic depiction of a revolutionary base in Korea.<br />
<br />
Source: "The People's Paradise", Foreign Languages Publishing House, Pyongyang, Korea, 1978. https://archive.org/details/the-peoples-paradise/page/13/</div>
Verda.Majo
https://en.prolewiki.org/index.php?title=Korea&diff=64465
Korea
2024-03-22T08:04:09Z
<p>Verda.Majo: /* Japanese colonialism */ moved a paragraph into the previous section about Joseon era, took out a sentence about WWII era, and added some photos of anti-Japanese rebels and Japanese troops in 1907. Planning to gradually make this article better organized, written, sourced, etc.</p>
<hr />
<div>{{Infobox country|name=Korea|native_name=조선|image_flag=Korean Unification Flag.png|image_map=Korea.png|capital=[[Pyongyang]]|largest_city=[[Seoul]]|official_languages=Korean|area_km2=223,155|population_estimate=77,000,000|population_estimate_year=2017|map_width=250}}<br />
<br />
'''Korea''' is a nation in [[East Asia]] consisting of the Korean Peninsula and nearby islands, including the island of [[Jeju Island|Jeju]]. In the present day, Korea is split between two governments, one located in the north and the other in the south. The [[Democratic People's Republic of Korea]] (DPRK), commonly called North Korea, is located in the northern portion of the peninsula. Meanwhile, the [[United States of America|US]]-occupied [[Republic of Korea]] (ROK), commonly called South Korea, is located in the southern portion of the peninsula. The division of the peninsula in 1945 was originally meant only to be temporary, but has persisted to the present day due to the continued occupation of the South and uncompromising policy of aggression toward the DPRK by the United States. <br />
<br />
In the past, Korea was a single nation for at least 1,000 years with a continuous society, language and political system.<ref>Jay Hauben (2011-08-20). [http://www.jejuweekly.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=1865 "People's Republic of Korea: Jeju, 1945-1946"] ''The Jeju Weekly''.</ref> [[Empire of Japan (1868–1947)|Japan]] forced Korea to open its ports in 1876 and annexed it in 1905. From 1910 to 1945, Korea was a colony of the Empire of Japan.<ref>{{Citation|author=Ki-baik Lee|year=2019|title=Korea|title-url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Korea/Korea-under-Japanese-rule|chapter=Korea since c. 1400|section=Korea under Japanese rule|publisher=Encyclopedia Britannica|chapter-url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Korea/Korea-since-c-1400}}</ref> Under Japanese colonial rule, Korean language and culture were banned, and the Korean people faced conditions of forced labor and sexual [[slavery]].<ref>{{Web citation|author=Derek Ford|newspaper=[[Liberation School]]|title=Chongryon: The struggle of Koreans in Japan|date=2019-01-30|url=https://www.liberationschool.org/the-chongryon-movement-the-struggle-of-koreans-in-japan/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220814225352/https://www.liberationschool.org/the-chongryon-movement-the-struggle-of-koreans-in-japan/|archive-date=2022-08-14|retrieved=2022-08-27}}</ref> <br />
<br />
The DPRK's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ri Yong Ho, stated to the [[United Nations|UN]] General Assembly in 2017 that the essence of the situation of the Korean peninsula is a confrontation between the DPRK and the US, where the DPRK tries to defend its national dignity and sovereignty against the hostile policy and nuclear threats of the US, and clarified that the DPRK "do[es] not have any intention at all to use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against the countries that do not join in the U.S. military actions against the DPRK."<ref>Ri Yong Ho, DPRK Minister for Foreign Affairs. [https://gadebate.un.org/sites/default/files/gastatements/72/kp_en.pdf "Statement by H.E. Mr. RI YONG HO, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea at the General Debate of the 72 Session of the United Nations General Assembly."] New York, 23rd September 2017. gadebate.un.org. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220709114619/https://gadebate.un.org/sites/default/files/gastatements/72/kp_en.pdf Archived] 2022-08-28.</ref><br />
[[File:Provinces of Korea.png|thumb|395x395px|Provinces of Korea.]]<br />
The [[People's Democracy Party]] (PDP), a revolutionary [[Communist party|workers' party]] in South Korea, stated in a 2020 article that the Korean reunification and peace struggle is contingent on the withdrawal of U.S. troops, that the U.S. troops are "occupation forces in South Corea and invading army to North Corea" and therefore U.S. military withdrawal from South Korea is "the most desperate and preferred struggle task for the whole Corean nation to solve." The PDP added that as long as the U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea and war exercises are conducted against North Korea, "the prospect for peace is bound to be dark."<ref>People's Democracy Party and Liberation School. [https://www.liberationschool.org/korean-war-70-years/ “70 Years Too Long: The Struggle to End the Korean War – Liberation School.”] ''Liberation School – Revolutionary Marxism for a New Generation of Fighters'', 25 June 2020. [https://web.archive.org/web/2/https://www.liberationschool.org/korean-war-70-years/ Archived].</ref> <br />
<br />
The Korean Peninsula is bordered by [[People's Republic of China|China]] to the northwest and [[Russia (disambiguation)|Russia]] to the northeast. It is separated from [[Japan]] to the east by the Korea Strait and the Sea of Japan (East Sea). <br />
<br />
== Etymology ==<br />
The English name "Korea" derives from the Korean kingdom of Goryeo, also transcribed as Koryŏ (Korean: 고려), which lasted from 918 to 1392. It is commonly considered that during the Goryeo period, the individual identities of Goguryeo, Baekje, and Silla were successfully merged into a single entity that became the basis of modern-day Korean identity.<br />
<br />
In the modern Korean language, the word used to refer to Korea differs in usage between DPRK and the south. In DPRK, Korea is referred to as ''Choson'' (Korean: 조선; Hanja: 朝鮮), while in the south, Korea is referred to as ''Hanguk'' (Korean: 한국; Hanja: 韓國). Each of these names has roots in both modern and ancient Korean history.<ref>[https://tongiltours.com/part-1-study-in-north-korea-kim-il-sung-university “How to Speak the North Korean Language: Part 1”] Tongil Tours. March 10, 2017. [https://web.archive.org/web/20221025103531/https://tongiltours.com/part-1-study-in-north-korea-kim-il-sung-university Archived] 2022-10-25.<br />
<br />
</ref> Therefore, among the liberation movement in Korea during the imperial Japanese occupation period, the names ''Choson'' and ''Hanguk'' both came to be regarded as potential choices for the future name of the post-liberation country. <br />
<br />
In south Korea, it is common to refer to DPRK as "Bukhan" (북한; 北韓), meaning "North ''Han'' (Korea)". Meanwhile, it is common for people in DPRK to refer to south Korea as "Namchoson" (남조선; 南朝鮮), "South ''Choson'' (Korea)". In some contexts, the word ''cheuk'' (측; 側), meaning "side" is used, forming ''bukcheuk'', "north side" and ''namcheuk'', "south side", to speak more neutrally about each other.<ref>이진욱. [https://www.nocutnews.co.kr/news/4910375 “언론은 왜 북한을 '북측’이라고 할까?”] 노컷뉴스. 노컷뉴스. January 22, 2018. [https://web.archive.org/web/20221025120530/https://www.nocutnews.co.kr/news/4910375 Archived] 2022-10-25.</ref><br />
<br />
The name Choson derives from a Korean dynasty which ruled from 1392 to 1897. However, in October of 1897, the monarch of Korea declared an end to the Choson Kingdom, founding a new regime known as the ''Daehanjeguk'' or "Great Han Empire" (Korean: 대한제국; Hanja: 大韓帝國) in 1897, with himself as emperor. The name "Daehan" was formed in reference to the three states that existed in Korea in the past, Mahan, Byunhan, and Jinhan. However, with the Japanese annexation of Korea in 1910, the name for Korea was reverted back to "Choson" during the period of Japanese [[imperialism]].<ref name=":4">[https://615tv.net/432?category=1051910 <nowiki>“[1조] 북한의 국호에 민주주의를 유지하는 이유는?”</nowiki>] 주권방송. The615tv. July 29, 2022. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220904010957/https://615tv.net/432?category=1051910 Archived] 2022-09-04.<br />
<br />
</ref> <br />
<br />
Therefore, an argument emerged that the future name of the country should be "Daehan" (Korean: 대한; Hanja: 大韓) as it had been the name of the country just prior to the Japanese colonial period, and "Choson" had been the name revived by the Japanese. However, the independence movement activists affiliated with socialism preferred "Choson" to "Daehan" because, for the general public, the name Choson was a more familiar country name than "Daehan Empire" which had only lasted for about 10 years, and "Daehan" was the name of the country that fell to Japanese annexation, making it an undesirable name.<ref name=":4" /><br />
<br />
Eventually, the government that formed in south Korea came to be called ''Daehanminguk'' (Korean: 대한민국; Hanja: 大韓民國), which literally means “The Great Han Republic”, or, since “Han” here refers to Korea, “The Great Korean Republic”, with the name ''Hanguk'' being a short version of this name. Meanwhile in north Korea, people continued using ''Choson'', the word for Korea that had been used during the early 20th century Japanese [[Colonialism|colonial]] period and the 14th – 19th century Choson Dynasty.<ref>[https://tongiltours.com/part-2-korea-south-korean-hanguk “How to Speak the North Korean Language: Part 2”] Tongil Tours. March 19, 2017. [https://web.archive.org/web/20221025103547/https://tongiltours.com/part-2-korea-south-korean-hanguk Archived] 2022-10-25.</ref><br />
<br />
== History ==<br />
<br />
=== Early history ===<br />
<br />
==== Prehistory ====<br />
The prehistory of the Korean nation began in [[Manchuria]] and the Korean Peninsula when people started settling there 700,000 years ago. Korea's Neolithic age began around 8,000 BCE. People started farming, cultivating cereals such as millet, and used polished stone tools. They started settling down permanently in places and formed clan societies.<ref name=":10" /><br />
<br />
Korea's predominant foundation myth consists of the legend of Dangun, who is considered to be the founder of Korea. According to the narrative, he is the son of a heavenly prince who wanted to live on earth, and a bear who became a human woman. Dangun is considered to have established his capital in the city of [[Pyongyang]] (later moving it to Asadal, or originally establishing it in Asadal by some accounts)<ref name=":11">Violet Kim. [https://www.korea.net/NewsFocus/Culture/view?articleId=121092 "Dangun, Father of Korea: Korea’s Foundation Tale Lends Itself to Many Interpretations."] Korea.net. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230825142733/https://www.korea.net/NewsFocus/Culture/view?articleId=121092 Archived] 2023-08-25.</ref> and called his kingdom Joseon, and is considered to have ruled for 1,500 years, then became a mountain god.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/outline-of-korean-history "The Outline of Korean History."] Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1977. Pyongyang, Korea.</ref> In both north and south Korea, National Foundation Day (Korean: 개천절; Hanja: 開天節; <abbr>lit.</abbr> "opening of heavens celebration" or "the day the sky opened") is observed on October 3, marking the founding of Korea by Dangun, which according to the predominant narrative, occurred in 2333 B.C.<ref>Shaffer, David. [https://gwangjunewsgic.com/arts-culture/korean-myths/korea-is-created/ “The Heavens Open: Korea Is Created.”] Gwangju News. October 7, 2021. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230825142446/https://gwangjunewsgic.com/arts-culture/korean-myths/korea-is-created/ Archived] 2023-08-25.</ref> According to an article on south Korea's Ministry of Culture website, "despite inconsistencies between historical accounts, ultimately Dangun is still considered the founder of this nation."<ref name=":11" /><br />
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==== Ancient history ====<br />
[[File:Tongmyong mausoleum.png|thumb|Mausoleum of King Tongmyŏng]]<br />
Over time, clan leaders started merging many clans into one, and these groups very gradually developed into early states. Eventually, Gojoseon emerged as the first recognizable state of the Korean people. It was eventually followed by other states and groups of states on the Korean Peninsula, such as the Three Kingdoms, Unified Silla and Balhae, the Koryo dynasty, and the Choson dynasty.<ref name=":10">[https://www.korea.net/AboutKorea/History/The-Beginnings-of-the-Countrys-History “The Beginnings of Korea’s History (Prehistoric Times – Gojoseon) : Korea.net : The Official Website of the Republic of Korea.”] Korea.net. 2021. [https://web.archive.org/web/20221012230807/https://www.korea.net/AboutKorea/History/The-Beginnings-of-the-Countrys-History Archived] 2022-10-12.<br />
<br />
</ref><ref>[https://www.korea.net/AboutKorea/History/Joseon “Joseon Dynasty : Korea.net : The Official Website of the Republic of Korea.”] Korea.net. 2021. </ref><br />
<br />
King Tongmyong established the Koguryŏ Kingdom (37 BCE–668 CE).<ref>{{Web citation|newspaper=[[Rodong Sinmun]]|date=2023-03-04|url=http://www.rodong.rep.kp/en/index.php?MTJAMjAyMy0wMy0wNC1IMDAyQDdAMUBAMEA3==|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230819014817/http://www.rodong.rep.kp/en/index.php?MTJAMjAyMy0wMy0wNC1IMDAyQDdAMUBAMEA3==|archive-date=2023-08-19}}</ref><br />
<br />
The first unified Korean state was the Koryŏ Kingdom, which existed from 918 to 1392. By then, [[Buddhism]] was already widespread in Korea. In the early 13th century, Korea suffered a [[Great Mongol Nation (1206–1368)|foreign invasion]].<ref>{{Web citation|newspaper=[[Rodong Sinmun]]|title=Phalmandaejanggyong|date=2023-05-28|url=http://rodong.rep.kp/en/index.php?MTJAMjAyMy0wNS0yOC1IMDAxQDdAMUBAMEAz==|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230819015445/http://rodong.rep.kp/en/index.php?MTJAMjAyMy0wNS0yOC1IMDAxQDdAMUBAMEAz==|archive-date=2023-08-19}}</ref><br />
<br />
==== Joseon dynasty ====<br />
[[File:Pukgwan monument.png|thumb|238x238px|1708 monument commemorating Jong Mun-bu's victory against Japanese invaders]]<br />
The Joseon dynasty was founded in 1392 and lasted until 1897, a period of just over 500 years. It was followed by the relatively short-lived Korean Empire (1897-1910), which ended with the Japanese colonial period.<br />
<br />
The government and public systems of the Joseon dynasty were organized according to principles of [[Neo-Confucianism]], the official state ideology. Unlike the Goryeo dynasty, in which agricultural lands were privately controlled by aristocrats and local clans, the Joseon dynasty installed a centralized government that was responsible for overseeing the legal administration, the military, and the performance of national rituals.<ref>[https://www.museum.go.kr/site/eng/showroom/list/759?showroomCode=DM0045 “Medieval and Early Modern History.”] National Museum of Korea. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230826041616/https://www.museum.go.kr/site/eng/showroom/list/759?showroomCode=DM0045 Archived] 2023-08-26.</ref><br />
<br />
[[Sejong]], the fourth king of the [[Feudalism|feudal]] Joseon dynasty, invented the Korean writing system in 1444.<ref>{{Web citation|newspaper=[[Rodong Sinmun]]|title=Korean Characters Hunminjongum, Treasure and Pride of Nation|date=2023-04-27|url=http://www.rodong.rep.kp/en/index.php?MTJAMjAyMy0wNC0yNy1IMDA3QDdAMUBAMEA1==|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230819015659/http://www.rodong.rep.kp/en/index.php?MTJAMjAyMy0wNC0yNy1IMDA3QDdAMUBAMEA1==|archive-date=2023-08-19}}</ref> Koreans had used the traditional [[Chinese Characters|Chinese characters]] for a writing system for many centuries. The invention of the Korean writing system contributed to increasing literacy and enhancing communication between the people and the government.<ref name=":13" /> In the modern day, the Korean writing system's invention is commemorated throughout Korea on Korean Alphabet Day, observed in north Korea on January 15th (the day the alphabet was created) and in south Korea on October 9 (the day the alphabet was proclaimed).<ref>[https://www.joongang.co.kr/article/16065452#home “북한 한글날은 '조선글날’인 1월15일…왜?” ("Why is north Korea's Hangeul day, 'Chosongul day', on January 15?")] 중앙일보. 중앙일보. The JoongAng. October 9, 2014. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230826043741/https://www.joongang.co.kr/article/16065452 Archived] 2023-08-26.</ref> <br />
<br />
Joseon maintained friendly relations with the [[Ming dynasty (1368–1644)|Ming dynasty]] of China. The two countries exchanged royal envoys every year and engaged in cultural and economic exchanges. Joseon also accepted Japan's request for bilateral trade by opening the ports of Busan, Jinhae, and Ulsan. In 1443, Joseon signed the Gyehae Treaty with the clan of Tsushima Island for limited bilateral trade. Joseon also traded with other Asian countries such as Ryukyu, Siam, and Java. Throughout the 14th and 15th centuries, Joseon maintained good relations with Japan. However, in the 16th century, Japan called for a larger share of the bilateral trade, but Joseon refused to comply with the request, resulting in a war that lasted for 7 years, referred to as the Japanese invasions of Korea of 1592–1598 or the Imjin War.<ref name=":13">[https://www.korea.net/AboutKorea/History/Joseon "Joseon Dynasty."] Korea.net. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230110182550/https://www.korea.net/AboutKorea/History/Joseon Archived] 2023-01-10.</ref><br />
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Jong Mun-bu's volunteer army defeated Japanese pirates invading northern Korea in the 16th century.<ref>{{Web citation|newspaper=[[Rodong Sinmun]]|title=A Historic Relic, Monument to Great Victory in Pukgwan|date=2023-02-19|url=http://www.rodong.rep.kp/en/index.php?MTJAMjAyMy0wMi0xOS1IMDA3QDdAMUBAMEA5==|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230819015136/http://www.rodong.rep.kp/en/index.php?MTJAMjAyMy0wMi0xOS1IMDA3QDdAMUBAMEA5==|archive-date=2023-08-19}}</ref><br />
<br />
By the mid-19th century, the western powers had forced the [[Qing dynasty (1636–1912)|Qing dynasty]] of China and Japan to open their doors and then asked the same of Joseon, but Joseon rejected such requests, facing naval attacks by the [[French Republic|French]] in 1866 and by the USA in 1871, as well as by Japan in 1875. Ultimately, Joseon was forced to sign an unequal treaty with Japan in 1876 under military threat.<ref name=":14">[https://www.korea.net/AboutKorea/History/The-Fall-Joseon "The Fall of Joseon: Imperial Japan’s Annexation of Korea."] Korea.net. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220912184320/https://www.korea.net/AboutKorea/History/The-Fall-Joseon Archived] 2022-09-12.</ref><br />
<br />
Throughout the 1800s, a series of [[Peasantry|peasant]] rebellions arose throughout Korea, reflecting the economic and social problems experienced by the peasantry. Additionally, in the 1860s, the ideology of Donghak (Korean: 동학; "Eastern learning") was developed and gained a following among academics. Donghak ideology was characterized by egalitarian tendencies and reflected an anxiety about the looming threat of western aggression, and displayed a reformist attitude toward the prevailing Confucian ideology and governance of Joseon. Donghak ideology and leaders had an influence on subsequent peasant uprisings, although the uprisings were ultimately driven by the peasantry's own impetus.<ref>Bae Hang-seob, [https://oak.go.kr/repository/journal/18654/NRF003_2013_v16n2_399.pdf "Foundations for the Legitimation of the Tonghak Peasant Army and Awareness of a New Political Order."] Acta Koreana Volume 16, Number 2, December 2013: 399-430. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230826102104/https://oak.go.kr/repository/journal/18654/NRF003_2013_v16n2_399.pdf Archived] 2023-08-26.</ref><br />
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The [[Peasant Revolution of 1894]], also called the Kabo Peasants' War (Korean: 갑오농민전쟁) or the Donghak Peasant Revolution (Korean: 동학농민혁명), was noteworthy in that it passed beyond the previous sporadic protests at the county and prefecture levels and reached the national level, resulting in an approximately year-long, nation-wide rebellion. The experience of the rebellion had extensive influence on the course of Korea's modern development and the people's consciousness, influencing the March 1st independence movement and the anti-Japanese armed struggle which developed in the following decades.<ref>[http://www.1894.or.kr/eng/?menu=185 “Definition and Meaning.”] Donghak Peasant Revolution Foundation. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230826124441/http://www.1894.or.kr/eng/?menu=185 Archived] 2023-08-26.</ref> The Donghak ideology would go on to form the basis of [[Chondoism]] (Korean: 천도교), a religion espoused in both north and south Korea today and the religion of DPRK's [[Chondoist Chongu Party]] (Korean: 천도교청우당), one of the three parties in DPRK's [[Supreme People's Assembly]].<ref>[https://www.youngpioneertours.com/chondoism/ “What Is Chondoism?”] Young Pioneer Tours. May 2, 2019. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230528120001/https://www.youngpioneertours.com/chondoism/ Archived] 2023-05-28.</ref><br />
<br />
The [[First Sino-Japanese War]] (Korean: 청일 전쟁; Hanja: 淸日戰爭), a conflict between the Qing Dynasty and the Empire of Japan from 1894–1895, grew out of conflict between the two countries for supremacy in Korea at the time, with the war being declared after a series of escalating tensions, including the Donghak Peasant Rebellion which saw the Joseon government request the Qing government's assistance to suppress the rebels. The arrival of the Chinese troops in Korea caused the Japanese to send 8,000 troops of their own to Korea, as they considered this to be a violation of their agreements with China in regard to Korea.<ref>[https://www.britannica.com/event/First-Sino-Japanese-War-1894-1895 “First Sino-Japanese War.”] ''Encyclopædia Britannica''.</ref><br />
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As explained by Ryo Sung Chol in the work ''Korea -- The 38th Parallel North'', the USA was the first Western state which set up diplomatic relations with the feudal Korean kingdom, and King Kojong, alarmed by the increasing threats of Japanese imperialism, sent emissaries to Washington twice, in 1896 and 1905, requesting Statesian assistance, in accordance with the duty the US had assumed under an 1882 Korea-US Treaty. The USA and Japan made a secret agreement dividing Korea and the [[Republic of the Philippines|Philippines]] between themselves, known as the Katsura-Taft Agreement. The USA, [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland|Britain]] and other Western powers at one time pursued the strategy of alliance with Japan, from the ulterior motive of backing, encouraging and using the bellicose Japanese militarist forces as a deterrent to the rapidly growing national liberation forces and the influence of communism in Asia, but that their alliance was fraught with contradictions due to their competing colonial interests.<ref name=":0">Ryo Sung Chol. "KOREA -- The 38th Parallel North." Foreign Languages Publishing House. Pyongyang, Korea. 1995. [https://www.koryography.com/wp-content/images/1548.pdf PDF]. [https://web.archive.org/web/20200926235752/https://www.koryography.com/wp-content/images/1548.pdf Archive].</ref><br />
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Over time, imperialist powers vied with each other to pillage Joseon's resources, and in 1897, Joseon changed its name to the Korean Empire and pushed ahead with reforms and an open-door policy. Japan soon won major victories in its wars against the Qing dynasty and [[Russian Empire (1721–1917)|Russia]], emerged as a strong power in Northeast Asia, and took steps to annex Joseon. Many Koreans resisted this, but in August 1910, the Korean Empire was formally annexed by the Empire of Japan.<ref name=":14" /><br />
<br />
=== Japanese colonialism ===<br />
[[File:Company of Korean rebels circa 1907 by F.A. McKenzie.png|thumb|Anti-Japanese Korean rebels circa 1907.]]<br />
[[File:Japanese Troops Detraining to attack Korean Rebels by F. A. McKenzie.png|thumb|Japanese troops detraining to attack Korean rebels circa 1907.]]<br />
In 1894, [[Qing dynasty (1636–1912)|China]] and Japan went to war over control of Korea. The Japanese established a military base in the Korean capital city of Hanseong (now Seoul) and murdered Empress [[Myeongseong]], who had sought [[Russian Empire (1721–1917)|Russian]] protection against the Japanese. In 1896, Japan offered to divide Korea with Russia along the 38th parallel, the same line along which the [[United States imperialism|U.S. imperialists]] later split Korea after Japan's defeat in 1945. Russia rejected the proposal along with another proposal giving [[Manchuria]] to Russia and Korea to Japan. After negotiations failed, the Japanese attacked a Russian fleet at Port Arthur and took control of Korea in 1905. The Japanese killed 29,000 Korean rebels in the first three years of occupation and disbanded the Korean army in 1907. After the first few years of colonial rule, most of the resistance fighters fled to Manchuria. Japan formally annexed Korea in 1910.<br />
<br />
In the late 19th and early 20th century, Korea had been developing capitalist elements which were gradually growing and coming into conflict with the feudal system. The feudal ruling circles had been making efforts to prevent the feudal relations from being broken and to prevent the development of capitalist elements. From this process, a socio-political movement to oppose the feudal system and introduce a capitalist system gained in strength. However, Korea's internal development toward capitalism was affected by the imposition of Japanese colonial rule. The Japanese imperialist policies toward Korea altered Korea's development, developing it into a semi-feudal colony that was made into a source of raw materials and labor for imperialist Japan, as well as a market for Japanese commodities and capital investment and a military base for further incursion into the continent.<ref name=":15">Kim Han Gil. [https://archive.org/details/ModernHistoryOfKorea/ "Modern History of Korea."] Foreign Languages Publishing House, Pyongyang, Korea, 1979.</ref><br />
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The Japanese developed Korea's economy for their own purposes, and 60% of Korean rice was exported to Japan. The land that remained under Korean ownership was controlled by feudal [[Landlord|landlords]] who later became the south Korean [[bourgeoisie]]. All industrial goods made in Korea were exported to Japan, and Japanese workers were paid three times as much as Koreans. The Japanese sent one eighth of the Korean population to other parts of their empire to work as slaves.<ref name=":16" /><br />
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The industrial development of Korea under Japanese rule was geared toward generating colonial [[Superprofit|superprofits]], securing exclusive possession of all the key branches of industry and putting a curb on the development of Korean national industry. As is noted by Kim Han Gil in ''Modern History of Korea'', during the colonial period, Korean industry developed as an "appendage" to Japanese industry, with Korean capitalist forces remaining relatively small, and with traditional handicrafts brought to total ruin:<blockquote>Korean industry was made to turn out mainly raw materials and half-finished goods for Japanese industry and the productive forces were so distributed as to facilitate their colonial plunder. Korean industry was nothing more than an appendage to Japanese industry. <br />
<br />
The Japanese imperialists' policy of monopolizing industries arrested the normal development of national industry. Factories and enterprises run by Koreans were few and most of them were small.<br />
<br />
Tyrannical Japanese imperialist colonial rule not only hindered the normal development of national industry but brought the traditional handicraft to total ruin. <br />
<br />
Such being the situation, the Korean capitalist forces were very weak in general, and, on top of it, they were split into compradore and non-compradore capitalists.<ref name=":15" /></blockquote>Korea's comprador capitalists were made up of comparatively big capitalists who were in collusion with the Japanese imperialists and rendering active support to them, along with other reactionary groups such as landlords. Non-comprador capitalists were mainly composed of middle and small entrepreneurs, who typically felt themselves under the thumb of the Japanese imperialists and comprador capitalists and therefore were discontent with Japanese imperialist colonial rule. In addition, the urban small-propertied class found themselves in a precarious situation, due to the predatory policy of the Japanese imperialists and the pressure exercised by the comprador capitalists, causing them constant insecurity. Hence, most of them were also opposed to Japanese imperialism.<ref name=":15" /><br />
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In the countryside, the Japanese imperialists left the feudal land ownership and tenancy system in place, but introduced commodity-money relations and modern trade connections, turning it into a semi-feudal system. This enabled them to plunder the countryside through means of both feudal and capitalist exploitation. In addition to this, they seized large amounts of land. By 1927, the absolute majority of the big landlords were Japanese, accounting for 81% of the landlords owning over 200 hectares of land. Landlords exacted farm rent amounting to 50 to 90% of the total output from the peasants and had [[Tenant farmer|tenant farmers]] pay various taxes and levies. Landless and "landshort" peasants constituted the majority of the peasantry, with rich peasants being relatively few in number. The combined colonial, feudal, and capitalist oppression converging upon the peasantry caused high anti-Japanese and anti-feudal sentiments among them, leading them to take an active part in the anti-imperialist, anti-feudal struggle.<ref name=":15" /><br />
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Labor conditions under colonial rule saw most workers working for 12 hours or more every day, with many forced to work 14 to 16 hours, while receiving wages consisting of less than half or one-third of those paid to Japanese workers. Due to the peasantry suffering from increasing impoverishment from the colonial policies imposed in the countryside, more and more of them flowed to towns looking for work. Therefore, capitalists could easily obtain cheap labor, which contributed to wages being low. Workers found it hard to meet their minimum expenses and were also charged with various fines. Female and child labor became subject to especially harsh exploitation. Labor protections were absent and workers' concerns were suppressed. When a worker was disabled by a labor accident, they were discharged immediately without compensation.<ref name=":15" /><br />
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Additionally, under Japanese rule, all Korean political organizations were banned. Koreans were forced to speak Japanese, have Japanese names, and follow [[Shintoism]].<ref name=":16">{{Citation|author=Stephen Gowans|year=2018|title=Patriots, Traitors and Empires: The Story of Korea’s Struggle for Freedom|chapter=The Empire of Japan|page=25–29|pdf=https://ipfs.io/ipfs/bafykbzaced4iiga4ngtxusr2civjxewbili5jne2sbpefbx2s3im2kphattzc?filename=Stephen%20Gowans%20-%20Patriots%2C%20Traitors%20and%20Empires_%20The%20Story%20of%20Korea%E2%80%99s%20Struggle%20for%20Freedom-Baraka%20Books%20%282018%29.pdf|city=Montreal|publisher=Baraka Books|isbn=9781771861427|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=8435F6FF91279531705764823FDC2A7F}}</ref> Patriotic Groups (Korean: 애국반; Hanja: 愛國班) were neighborhood cells which functioned as the local arm of the Korean Federation of National Power, the single ruling party of colonial Korea. They typically consisted of groups of 10 households led by a Patriotic Group leader, who would monitor and control others within the Patriotic Group. This included rationing food and goods, enforcing mandatory State Shinto prayer times and shrine visits, "volunteering" laborers upon the colonial government’s request, arranging marriages, holding mandatory Japanese language classes, and spying on "ideological criminals". Patriotic Group leaders were among the first to be targeted for reprisals following Korean Independence in August 1945, with many of their homes set on fire.<ref>[https://encykorea.aks.ac.kr/Article/E0073853 “애국반(愛國班).”] Encyclopedia of Korean Culture.Aks.ac.kr. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230314133948/https://encykorea.aks.ac.kr/Article/E0073853 Archived] 2023-03-14.</ref><ref>[https://exposingimperialjapan.com/yoko-versus-hoshiko-a-1944-morality-play-pitting-good-korean-woman-yoko-who-is-kind-and-considerate-against-bad-korean-woman-hoshiko-the-selfish-corrupt-patriotic-group-leader-harbori/ “‘Yōko versus Hoshiko’, a 1944 Morality Play Pitting ‘Good Korean Woman’ Yōko, Who Is Kind and Considerate, against ‘Bad Korean Woman’ Hoshiko, the Selfish, Corrupt Patriotic Group Leader Harboring Liberal and Hedonistic British/American Thoughts Who ‘Needs to Be Shot’ for Betraying Imperial Japan.”] Exposing Imperial Japan. September 21, 2022. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230314133325/https://exposingimperialjapan.com/yoko-versus-hoshiko-a-1944-morality-play-pitting-good-korean-woman-yoko-who-is-kind-and-considerate-against-bad-korean-woman-hoshiko-the-selfish-corrupt-patriotic-group-leader-harbori/ Archived] 2023-03-14.<br />
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</ref><ref>[http://contents.history.go.kr/front/tg/view.do?treeId=0106&levelId=tg_004_2520&ganada=&pageUnit=10 “애국반 - 교과서 용어해설 | 우리역사넷.”] History.go.kr. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230314134446/http://contents.history.go.kr/front/tg/view.do?treeId=0106&levelId=tg_004_2520&ganada=&pageUnit=10 Archived] 2023-03-14.</ref><br />
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In 1937, Kim Il Sung summarized the conditions experienced by Koreans during the 27 years of occupation and under the intensifying repressive wartime conditions:<blockquote>Twenty-seven years have elapsed since the Japanese imperialists occupied Korea.<br />
<br />
During this period they have turned our country into a source of raw materials and labour, a market for their commodities and a military base for aggression against the continent.<br />
<br />
Owing to their ferocious colonial policy, the Korean people have been deprived of their national rights and freedom and are suffering untold sorrow as a ruined people. Our people are not only subjected to double and treble oppression and exploitation by the Japanese imperialists and their lackeys in a manner reminiscent of mediaeval times, but threatened with the danger of being deprived of their beautiful written and spoken language.<br />
<br />
The Sino-Japanese War unleashed by the Japanese imperialists is driving our people into an even more terrible plight. With an eye to ensuring "safety in the rear," the Japanese imperialists have greatly expanded their fascist, colonial, repressive machinery-troops, police, prisons, gallows and all-and concocted a new set of Draconian laws. In this way, they have turned our beautiful land of 3,000 ri into a living hell on earth. They are cracking down on the revolutionary forces with fury, while suppressing and slaughtering innocent people as never before. [...]They have openly instituted compulsory conscription and grain deliveries in order to meet the ever-increasing demand for manpower and materials in their aggressive war against the continent. Thus, our precious young and middle-aged people are being forcibly rounded up to become bullet shields for the Japanese imperialists and our country’s abundant natural wealth is being ruthlessly plundered.<ref name=":17">Kim Il Sung. "The Tasks of Korean Communists." Treatise Published in Sogwang, Organ of the Korean People's Revolutionary Army, November 10, 1937. Collected Works Volume 1. [https://www.marxists.org/archive/kim-il-sung/cw/01.pdf <nowiki>[PDF]</nowiki>] </ref></blockquote>Analyzing the conditions at the time, Kim Il Sung described Korea as a semi-feudal colonial society where, due to Japanese colonialist rule, capitalist development was extremely backward and feudal relations of production were predominant. With such conditions, he evaluated that the basic tasks of the Korea revolution at the time were to carry out the task of anti-imperialist national liberation to overthrow Japanese colonial rule, while at the same time, carrying out and anti-feudal democratic revolution to eliminate feudal relations and pave the way for the country's development along democratic lines. Stressing the interrelation of these tasks, he wrote: "Japanese imperialism maintains its colonial system of rule in Korea with the help of its agents, the comprador capitalists and the feudal landlords, and the landlords retain the feudal relations of exploitation under its patronage. Therefore, the struggle against Japanese imperialism and the struggle against feudalism must be waged as an integral whole." Thus he regarded that the task of Korean communists at the time was carrying out an anti-imperialist anti-feudal democratic revolution, regarding these as prerequisites for national and class liberation and social progress, regarding the broad anti-imperialist democratic forces as the motive force of the revolution at that stage. Although the anti-imperialist struggle was broad and would include the peasantry, petty bourgeoisie, and national capitalists, the working class was regarded as being the leading class for the anti-imperialist anti-feudal democratic revolution and in the future socialist revolution and the period of building socialism and communism.<ref name=":17" /><br />
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=== Struggle for independence ===<br />
Koreans engaged in persistent struggles to regain their independence, including armed struggle against the Japanese. They organized numerous clandestine organizations to fight the Japanese. In March 1919, Korean leaders announced the Declaration of Independence. This is known as the March 1st Movement.<ref>[https://www.korea.net/AboutKorea/History/Independence-Movement “Independence Movement : Korea.net : The Official Website of the Republic of Korea.”] Korea.net. 2021.<br />
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</ref> <br />
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The revolutionary tradition of the anti-Japanese struggle still has heavy influence on DPRK's guiding ideology today. The anti-Japanese struggle influenced the development of the [[Juche]] idea and is intimately linked with the history of Korean socialism, the Korean independence movement, and the life of [[Kim Il-sung]]. Therefore, the revolutionary tradition of the anti-Japanese struggle remains important in the DPRK, as both a source of inspiration as well as important material for study.<ref name=":7">[https://615tv.net/376 <nowiki>“[기획연재1] 김일성 주석의 항일운동 역사.”</nowiki>] 2022. 주권방송. April 5, 2022. [https://web.archive.org/web/20221020065905/https://615tv.net/376 Archived] 2022-10-20.</ref><br />
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In 1926, Kim Il Sung and other communist youths formed the [[Down-with-Imperialism Union]], which set as its immediate task the destruction of Japanese imperialism and achievement of Korea's liberation and independence, with the ultimate aim of building socialism and communism in Korea and destroying all imperialists and building communism throughout the world. By August of 1927 the DIU was reorganized into the [[Anti-Imperialist Youth League]] (AIYL) and the [[Young Communist League of Korea]] (YCLK). Conducting students' strikes, students' and popular masses' struggle to boycott Japanese goods and their struggle against the Japanese imperialists, they gradually grew into a leading force of the Korean communist movement and the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle. By 1930, amid a context of strikes, demonstrations, and sporadic violent struggle of workers, peasants, and student youth, Kim Il Sung defined the armed struggle as the main form of struggle necessary to further develop the anti-Japanese struggle.<ref name=":15" /> <br />
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At a meeting in 1930, Kim Il-sung established the line and strategy of the anti-Japanese revolution and argued that national liberation can be achieved only when all Koreans emerge under the banner of organized armed struggle. Kim Il-sung criticized the existing anti-Japanese movement at the time for the fact that some of the upper classes were only studying words and fighting, and were alienated from the masses.<ref name=":7" /> Subsequently, on July 6, 1930, the first unit of the [[Korean Revolutionary Army]] (KRA) was formed with the core members of the AIYL and YCLK.<ref name=":15" /><br />
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Those recruited into the KRA were tempered through mass struggles, and upon joining the KRA, were trained politically to be communists in addition to being trained militarily. Small groups of KRA members would be formed and sent to various urban and rural areas where they would conduct political and military activities in preparation of forming a guerrilla army. Schools and mass organizations were set up to help educate, rally, and organize the peasant masses, with KRA members taking an active part in the work. The youth who graduated from these schools were sent to different rural areas to conduct organizational and political work for the revolutionization of the rural areas.<br />
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In March 1932, Kim II Sung formed a small guerrilla unit with those active in the revolutionary struggle since the DIU as its core and gradually expanded its ranks, while giving general guidance to the work of forming guerrilla ranks in different parts. In the areas along the Tuman River in east Manchuria, small guerrilla units and groups were formed with KRA members and other young communists, workers, peasants and youths who had gained experience in the struggle. ''Modern History of Korea'' notes that the struggle to obtain arms was very arduous, stating that "at times a pistol, a bullet or a gram of gunpowder cost human lives. Members of small guerrilla groups, the YCLK, the Anti-Imperialist Youth League, the Children's Vanguard and the Women's Association, and even children and old people took part in the struggle. By their self-sacrificing struggle they took weapons from the Japanese imperialist army of aggression, the Japanese and Manchurian police and the vicious pro-Japanese landlords and officials." Additionally, revolutionaries manufactured weapons themselves using the basic tools and materials they had available to them.<ref name=":15" /><br />
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The Anti-Japanese People's Guerrilla Army (AJPGA) was formed on April 25, 1932. ''Modern History of Korea'' notes that it was not only an armed force fighting Japanese imperialism, but was also a political army, a propagandist and organizer that educated the masses and roused them to revolutionary struggle. Its founding marked the declaration of war upon the Japanese imperialists as well as signaled a repudiation of the movements within Korea who had sought outside assistance for Korea's national liberation.<ref name=":15" /><br />
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A struggle was also waged to establish guerrilla bases, as, with no state backing or outside help, a base was needed to make it possible to organize and conduct military and political activity and logistical work as a whole. A base was also considered necessary in order to progress with preparations for the founding of a communist party and the revolutionary movement as a whole, while waging armed struggle. A policy of setting up bases in the form of a liberated area was adopted. The mountainous area along the Tuman River was determined as the most suitable site, and a struggle was fought there to establish a liberated area, beginning with politico-ideological work being conducted among the masses to raise their anti-imperialist revolutionary consciousness and the expansion of revolutionary organizations into the area, and ties were formed between the people and the guerrilla units. The creation of a guerrilla base was promoted and guerrilla units active in different areas engaged he enemy forces, in cooperation with paramilitary organizations, to neutralize the enemy militarily, leading eventually to a wide area along the Tuman River being secured. Patriotic-minded people began coming to the area and a revolutionary government was established, with barracks, schools, publishing houses, arms repair shops, sewing shops and others being set up in the liberated areas.<ref name=":15" /><br />
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The [[Battle of Pochonbo]] is an important battle in the history of the liberation of Korea from Japanese occupation. The battle was fought from 3-4 June 1937 by a unit from the guerilla army, who crossed into Korea from China, crept through the forests, rested beside Samjiyon Lake before starting their final advance. Kim Il-sung became a wanted man to the Japanese after the battle, and a hero to the resistance movement and to Korean patriots.<ref>[https://koryogroup.com/travel-guide/pochonbo-battle-site-monument-north-korea-travel-guide-needs-photos “Pochonbo Battle Site & Monument | North Korea Travel Guide - Koryo Tours.”] Koryogroup.com. May 18, 2020. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230314132053/https://koryogroup.com/travel-guide/pochonbo-battle-site-monument-north-korea-travel-guide-needs-photos Archived] 2023-03-14.</ref><br />
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The [[Workers' and Peasants' Red Army|Red Army]] entered Korea on 8 August 1948 and continued fighting until the Japanese surrendered on 15 August. US forces did not arrive in Korea until 8 September.<ref name=":12">{{Citation|author=Stephen Gowans|year=2018|title=Patriots, Traitors and Empires: The Story of Korea’s Struggle for Freedom|chapter=The US Occupation|page=79–80|pdf=https://ipfs.io/ipfs/bafykbzaced4iiga4ngtxusr2civjxewbili5jne2sbpefbx2s3im2kphattzc?filename=Stephen%20Gowans%20-%20Patriots%2C%20Traitors%20and%20Empires_%20The%20Story%20of%20Korea%E2%80%99s%20Struggle%20for%20Freedom-Baraka%20Books%20%282018%29.pdf|city=Montreal|publisher=Baraka Books|isbn=9781771861427|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=8435F6FF91279531705764823FDC2A7F}}</ref><br />
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According to the blog ''Exposing Imperial Japan,'' which translates Japanese colonial era news articles, the 1000+ Shinto shrines that were built in colonial Korea were all destroyed following Japan's surrender, starting with the Pyongyang shrine which was set on fire on August 15, 1945, the day Imperial Japan surrendered. A statue of Kim Il-sung now stands on the former site of Pyongyang shrine.<ref>[https://exposingimperialjapan.com/imperial-japan-built-shinto-shrines-all-over-korea-in-every-eup-and-myeon-enlisting-patriotic-groups-to-cultivate-the-worship-of-gods-and-faith-in-the-emperor-among-koreans-and-realize-the-fusi/ “Imperial Japan Built Shinto Shrines All over Korea in Every Eup and Myeon, Enlisting Patriotic Groups to ‘Cultivate the Worship of Gods and Faith in the Emperor’ among Koreans and Realize ‘the Fusion of the Japanese-Korean Family Based on Divine Will’.”] Exposing Imperial Japan. October 6, 2022. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230314135238/https://exposingimperialjapan.com/imperial-japan-built-shinto-shrines-all-over-korea-in-every-eup-and-myeon-enlisting-patriotic-groups-to-cultivate-the-worship-of-gods-and-faith-in-the-emperor-among-koreans-and-realize-the-fusi/ Archived] 2023-03-14. <br />
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=== Division into north and south ===<br />
[[File:The Japanese flag in front of the Japanese Government-General of Korea building in Seoul is replaced with the U.S. flag..png|thumb|The Japanese flag in front of the Japanese Government-General of Korea building in Seoul is replaced with the U.S. flag.]]<br />
After the surrender of the Japanese empire at the end of the [[Second World War]], Korea was divided as a temporary measure by the outside powers of the United States and [[Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (1922–1991)|Soviet Union]] to assist in the transition away from Japanese colonial rule and the re-establishment of Korea's independence. The line was agreed upon between the Soviet Union and the United States only as a temporary boundary of military operations, and never as a line for the division of Korea. <br />
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The United States did not liberate south Korea from Japanese colonial forces, but rather ordered the Japanese forces to remain in place until the U.S. Army landed in Korea nearly a month later.<ref name=":8">Kim, Crystal. [https://www.liberationnews.org/north-koreans-mourn-death-of-html/ “North Koreans Mourn Death of Leader Kim Jong Il.”] Liberation News, 22 Dec. 2011, Accessed 10 Apr. 2023. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230410044940/https://www.liberationnews.org/north-koreans-mourn-death-of-html/ Archived] 2023-04-10.</ref> Upon arriving in south Korea, the U.S. forces immediately began dismantling Korean people's committees and placing property back into the hands of Japanese collaborators and re-appointing Japanese collaborators as police, who helped to arrest and dismantle the people's committees. The U.S. occupation forces also struck down the food supply management system of the people's committees, demanding a "free market" of rice. As a result, [[Landlord|landlords]], [[police]], other government officials, and [[Bourgeoisie|businessmen]] engaged in hoarding and speculation and selling the grain to Japan on the black market, causing food shortages and hunger in cities. As the situation continued, U.S. rice rations eventually fell to half of the ration size that had been received under the Japanese colonial administration during World War II, and newspapers published accounts of [[famine]] and starvation, further disaster only being averted by eventual shipments of U.S. grains as emergency relief. By 1946, the deteriorating food situation forced the Americans to revive the old Japanese rice collection system, which resulted in farmers being arrested and beaten for not meeting their quotas.<ref>Kim Jinwung. [https://www.kci.go.kr/kciportal/ci/sereArticleSearch/ciSereArtiView.kci?sereArticleSearchBean.artiId=ART001085494 A ''Policy of Amateurism: The Rice Policy of the U.S. Army Military''.] Government in Korea, 1945-1948. Korea Journal, Summer 2007.</ref> <br />
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In the northern zone, the Soviets allowed Koreans to govern themselves through a system of people's committees, and assisted Koreans with the re-appropriation of land from Japanese colonizers. The Soviets then left after three years of assisting north Korea in this way.<ref name=":8" /> In the south, General [[Douglas MacArthur]] ruled as a dictator and established English as the official language. <br />
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While the Soviets left Korea in late 1948,<ref name=":12" /> the United States failed to withdraw its troops from the south and instead promoted the installation of a pro-US, right wing regime rather than promoting the reunification of Korea. This resulted in opposition among the southern masses, the [[Jeju Uprising|Jeju uprising]] and massacre, the escalation of the [[Korean War]], and the continued division of the Korean nation and continued occupation of the south by US forces which persists to the present day.<br />
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In the words of author Ryo Sung Chol, "The strife among the great powers for hegemony in the world in the complicated military and political situation towards the close of World War II forced the tragedy of national split upon the Korean people before their rejoicing over liberation subsided."<ref name=":0" /><br />
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On February 20, 1948, the day after the US-led UN proposition of the resolution on the US-sponsored separate election in the south, the Central Committee of the Democratic National United Front of North Korea made public its appeal to the entire Korean people at its 24th conference. The appeal indicated that it was clear what kind of election would take place in south Korea, where democratic parties and organizations had been forced underground and democrats were being arrested, imprisoned, tortured and murdered, and called for a general election across the whole of Korea after the withdrawal of the foreign armies. It called for holding elections to the People’s Assembly throughout Korea by secret ballot on the principles of universal, direct and equal vote. The People’s Assembly elected in that way would approve the constitution and establish a democratic government, and Kim Il Sung put forward the line of convening a joint conference of political parties and social organizations of north and south Korea.<ref name=":0" /><br />
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=== Establishment of DPRK and ROK ===<br />
Faced with the serious menace of division of the nation by the United States, Kim Kyu Sik, Kim Ku and other nationalists in south Korea supported the policy of establishing a unified government of north and south Korea in order to prevent national division, and resolutely and finally parted from [[Far-right politics|extreme rightist]] [[Syngman Rhee]] and the reactionaries of the “Korean Democratic Party” who advocated a separate election. Kim Ku opposed election under UN observation, claiming that “the United Nations is an extraneous body with no right to interfere in the internal affairs of Korea”. Kim Kyu Sik also opposed it for the reason that a separate election would mean “the permanent division of the country”. According to author Ryo Sung Chol, seven public figures, including Kim Ku and Kim Kyu Sik, who led 12 political parties and social organizations including the Korean Independence Party, complied with the proposal for a north-south political conference as opposed to a separate election.<ref name=":0" /> <br />
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In April 1948 there was held in [[Pyongyang]] a joint conference of 16 political parties and 40 social organizations of north and south Korea for the first time since liberation, with the participation of 695 representatives of the north and 216 the south, including Kim Kyu Sik, Hong Myong Hui and Kim Ku, who had crossed the 38th parallel to be present. The joint conference adopted a decision calling for opposition to the separate election, the withdrawal of foreign troops and the founding of a unified democratic state, and issued a manifesto. They officially called for the simultaneous withdrawal of the troops of the USSR and the United States, pointing out that "We, the Korean people, are mature enough to settle our problems by ourselves without foreign interference, and our country has many cadres prepared to settle them" as well as laid out a plan of action for peaceful reunification of Korea and the formation of a unified, democratic government. The manifesto was signed by 42 political parties and social organizations of north and south Korea which opposed the division of the country and people.<ref name=":0" /> [[File:Actors re-enact the massacre of residents branded as communist insurgents during the Jeju Uprising and Massacre, for its 70th anniversary.jpg|thumb|319x319px|People in south Korea re-enact the massacre of residents branded as communist insurgents during the [[Jeju Uprising|Jeju massacre]], which occurred from 1948-1949 and claimed the lives of 10% of Jeju's population. Many residents of Jeju had protested the division of Korea and the separate elections held in the south, and virtually the entire population of the island was brutally punished by the right wing southern regime as a result.]]Meanwhile, in south Korea, general strikes and popular uprisings, such as the [[Jeju Uprising|Jeju uprising]], arose in opposition to the US-led separate elections. The south Korean government's militant suppression of the Jeju uprising in turn sparked the [[Yeosu-Suncheon rebellion]] in [[South Jeolla Province|South Jeolla]] province, which occurred from October to November in 1948, when members of a south Korean military regiment in Yeosu refused to transfer to Jeju Island to suppress the Jeju islanders. The guerrilla-style rebellion was led by 2,000 left-leaning soldiers who opposed the U.S.-backed dictator Syngman Rhee and the regime's crackdown on Jeju. In the wake of such resistance, the Rhee regime instituted the [[Anti-communism|anti-communist]] [[National Security Law]] (Korean: 국가보안법) on December 1, 1948. This law has since been the south Korean regime's legal tool to restrict freedom of expression and to enforce anti-communist policies in the country. Under this ambiguously formulated law, thousands of opposition politicians, dissidents, journalists, students and artists have been arrested, imprisoned, tortured and executed.<ref>[http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/332032.html “439 Civilians Confirmed Dead in Yeosu-Suncheon Uprising of 1948.”] Jan. 8, 2009. Hankyoreh. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220906021316/http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/332032.html Archived] 2022-09-06.</ref><ref>[https://asia.fes.de/news/korea-national-security-act “Exhibition Sheds Light on the History of South Korea’s National Security Act.”] Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) – Foundation for social democracy. Asia.fes.de. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230328071745/https://asia.fes.de/news/korea-national-security-act Archived] 2023-03-28.</ref><br />
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According to Ryo, at the UN, the Australian delegate demanded that the separate election be suspended because it was clear that all the political parties in south Korea except the ultra-right party would boycott it. The Canadian delegate warned that it had been an illegal and indiscreet act for the US-led "Little Assembly" on Korea to have accepted the US draft resolution, and that it would create a new and grave situation. Regardless of these statements at the UN and the clear and widespread opposition by the Korean people themselves, on May 10, 1948 the United States carried out the separate election.<ref name=":0" /><br />
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After the US-occupied southern regime under extreme rightist Syngman Rhee was declared in August 1948, the [[socialist state|socialist]] DPRK, led by [[Kim Il-sung]], was declared in the north in September, 1948.<br />
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Syngman Rhee and his regime are widely recognized to be responsible for the killing of 30,000 Jeju islanders from 1948-49, resulting in the death of about 10% of the island's total population. The massacre was a result of severe crack-down against Jeju islanders who protested against the division of the country and police oppression by Syngman Rhee’s administration and the US military who held an operational control over the South Korean military and police.<ref name=":1">The Association for Bereaved Families of the Jeju 4.3 Victims, Bereaved Family Association of Korean War and 252 South Korean NGOs (2020-01-20). [https://www.jejudarktours.org/en/news/letter-251-south-korean-ngos-against-syngman-rhee-day/ "Letter from 252 South Korean NGOs against Syngman Rhee Day"] ''Jeju Dark Tours''. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220818105837/https://www.jejudarktours.org/en/news/letter-251-south-korean-ngos-against-syngman-rhee-day/ Archived] from the original on 2022-08-19.</ref><br />
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=== Fatherland Liberation War ===<br />
{{Main article|Korean War}}<br />
The period that is referred to by bourgeois historians as the Korean War is considered to have occurred between 1950 and 1953. However, the 1950 start date of the war conforms to the imperialist narrative that the war began with an unprovoked attack from the North that took the US and Southern forces by surprise. However, considering the tens of thousands of people being killed in Korea throughout the 1940s by US, UN, and Southern forces, the continuous resistance in the South to the division of the country, and the numerous skirmishes that regularly occurred along the border between North and South, some consider it more accurate to frame the 1950-1953 period as an escalation of a war that was already in progress, rather than the sudden outbreak narrative favored by the bourgeois states. <br />
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Author William Blum writes of this period of escalation: <blockquote>The two sides had been clashing across the Parallel for several years. What happened on that fateful day in June could thus be regarded as no more than the escalation of an ongoing civil war. The North Korean Government has claimed that in 1949 alone, the South Korean army or police perpetrated 2,617 armed incursions into the North to carry out murder, kidnapping, pillage and arson for the purpose of causing social disorder and unrest, as well as to increase the combat capabilities of the invaders. At times, stated the Pyongyang government, thousands of soldiers were involved in a single battle with many casualties resulting. [...] Seen in this context, the question of who fired the first shot on 25 June 1950 takes on a much reduced air of significance. As it is, the North Korean version of events is that their invasion was provoked by two days of bombardment by the South Koreans, on the 23rd and 24th, followed by a surprise South Korean attack across the border on the 25th against the western town of Haeju and other places. Announcement of the Southern attack was broadcast over the North's radio later in the morning of the 25th.<ref name=":2">Blum, William. ''[https://www.cia.gov/library/abbottabad-compound/13/130AEF1531746AAD6AC03EF59F91E1A1_Killing_Hope_Blum_William.pdf Killing Hope: US Military & CIA Interventions Since World War II].'' Zed Books London, 2004.</ref></blockquote>According to Blum, citing Joseph C. Goulden's ''Korea: The Untold Story of the War'', "On 26 June, the United States presented a resolution before the UN Security Council condemning North Korea for its 'unprovoked aggression'. The resolution was approved, although there were arguments that 'this was a fight between Koreans' and should be treated as a civil war, and a suggestion from the Egyptian delegate that the word 'unprovoked' should be dropped in view of the longstanding hostilities between the two Koreas."<ref name=":2" /><br />
[[File:South Korean soldiers walk among dead political prisoners, Taejon, South Korea.jpg|thumb|July 1950 U.S. Army file photograph once classified "top secret", South Korean soldiers walk among dead political prisoners, Taejon (Daejeon), South Korea.]]<br />
During the Korean War period, between 1950 and 1953, Syngman Rhee's government indiscriminately and arbitrarily killed civilians without any legal evidence, on the pretense that they may have cooperated with the North Korean People's Army. During this process, around 1 million people were massacred, including people who were against the Rhee administration. According to a letter signed by 252 Korean NGOs, including The Association for Bereaved Families of the Jeju 4.3 Victims and the Bereaved Family Association of Korean War, Rhee engaged in "the mass killing of civilians, fraudulent elections, illegal amendment of the Constitution and several cases of enforced disappearance and torture leading to the death of his opponents", crimes and corruption which he was not held legally responsible for in his lifetime, but which were later investigated and confirmed by South Korean national investigation committees.<ref name=":1" /><br />
[[File:Prisoners lie on the ground before execution by South Korean troops near Daejon, South Korea, July 1950. Photo by U.S. Army Maj. Abbott.jpg|thumb|July 1950 U.S. Army file photograph once classified "top secret," prisoners lie on the ground before their execution by South Korean troops in Taejon (Daejeon), South Korea. Photo by U.S. Army Maj. Abbott.]]<br />
The atrocities committed by the US-backed Southern forces during this period were continuously covered up and dismissed as communist propaganda throughout the war. Western journalists, many of them leftists, who attempted to expose the atrocities committed by the US-backed regime had their passports revoked, some of them for decades, effectively exiling them from their native countries for their truthful reporting. An article that details the fates of some of these persecuted journalists notes that "The atrocities committed by the US-led UN forces are beyond dispute [...] Almost as shameful as the atrocities in Korea were the extreme steps taken to silence and eventually to punish those who sought to expose them."<ref>Ewing, K. D., Mahoney, J., & Moretta, A. (2018). [https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/files/94544925/Ewing_Korean_2017_Article.pdf "Civil Liberties and the Korean War."] Modern Law Review, 81(3), 395-421. <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2230.12339</nowiki> [https://web.archive.org/web/2/https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/files/94544925/Ewing_Korean_2017_Article.pdf Archive].</ref> Mass killings committed by Southern forces in Daejeon, now known as the [[Daejeon massacre]], were falsely attributed to the Northern army in US Army reports. An article in the Asia-Pacific Journal says of this false reporting, "Such myths survived a half-century, in part because those who knew the truth were cowed into silence."<ref name=":3">Charles J. Hanley & Jae-Soon Chang (July 2, 2008). [https://apjjf.org/-Charles-J.-Hanley/2827/article.html "Summer of Terror: At least 100,000 said executed by Korean ally of US in 1950"] ''The Asia-Pacific Journal''. [https://web.archive.org/web/2/https://apjjf.org/-Charles-J.-Hanley/2827/article.html Archived] from the original on 2022-08-26.</ref> Silencing tactics persisted for decades under the succession of right-wing authoritarian regimes in South Korea, where people who tried to speak out or bring light to atrocities committed by the South were harassed by police, or found themselves arrested and beaten.<ref name=":3" /><ref>Kim, Hun Joon. (2014). ''The Massacres at Mt. Halla: Sixty Years of Truth Seeking in South Korea''. Cornell University Press.</ref> One author who wrote about the Jeju massacre 30 years after it had occurred was arrested by the [[National Intelligence Service|Korean intelligence agency]] and tortured for three days and told not to write about the massacre again. He was then released with no charges, so a trial could be avoided so as not to further expose the public to the truth of the massacre.<ref>Darryl Coote (2012.11.20). [http://www.jejuweekly.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=2841 "My Dinner With Hyun Ki Young"] ''The Jeju Weekly''. [https://web.archive.org/web/2/http://www.jejuweekly.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=2841 Archived] 2022-08-26.</ref> Given the facts of such widespread and systematic suppression of the truth by the US-backed Southern regime and the US itself, who regularly dismissed reporting of their own crimes as "communist propaganda", many of which later proved to be indisputably truthful accounts of US and Southern regime crimes, caution must be taken in interpreting anti-communist narratives of the Korean War.<br />
[[File:Thatched huts go up in flames after B-26 bombers unload napalm bombs on a village near Hanchon, North Korea, on May 10, 1951 (AP photo).png|thumb|Thatched huts go up in flames after B-26 bombers unload napalm bombs on a village near Hanchon, North Korea, on May 10, 1951.]]<br />
During the Korean War, U.S. troops killed large numbers of Korean civilians and engaged in copious firebombing with [[napalm]], and, as was eventually revealed through declassified documents, had at certain times a policy of deliberately firing on South Korean refugee groups approaching its lines.<ref>Youkyung Lee (2014-08-07). [https://apnews.com/article/108b4bd1dc854caeaf5f9349fcd5a176 "S. Korean who forced US to admit massacre has died"] ''Associated Press''. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220726115036/https://apnews.com/article/108b4bd1dc854caeaf5f9349fcd5a176 Archive]. </ref> During the war, the United States dropped "635,000 tons of bombs in Korea (not counting 32,557 tons of napalm), compared to 503,000 tons in the entire Pacific Theater in World War II" and "at least 50 percent of eighteen out of the North's twenty-two major cities were obliterated."<ref>Bruce Cumings (2010). [https://archive.org/details/koreanwarhistory0000cumi/ ''The Korean War: A History'': '"The Most Disproportionate Result:"] The Air War' (pp. 159-160). New York: Modern Library. <small>ISBN 978-0-679-64357-9</small></ref><br />
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In the words of the United States Air Force General Curtis LeMay, commander of the U.S.'s Strategic Air Command, "[W]e went over there and fought the war and eventually burned down every town in North Korea anyway, some way or another, and some in South Korea, too. We even burned down Pusan—an accident, but we burned it down anyway. The Marines started a battle down there with no enemy in sight. Over a period of three years or so, we killed off—what—twenty percent of the population of Korea as direct casualties of war, or from starvation and exposure?"<ref>Richard H. Kohn and Joseph P. Harahan (1988). ''Strategic Air Warfare: an interview with generals Curtis E. LeMay, Leon W. Johnson, David A. Burchinal, and Jack J. Catton'' (p. 88). <small>[https://media.defense.gov/2010/Sep/29/2001329790/-1/-1/0/AFD-100929-052.pdf <nowiki>[PDF]</nowiki>]</small> Washington, D.C.: Office of Air Force History, United States Air Force. <small>ISBN 0-912799-56-0</small></ref><br />
[[File:Pyongyang after U.S. Air Force bombing.jpg|thumb|Pyongyang after U.S. Air Force bombing.]]<br />
U.S. Naval Captain Walter Karig, in his book ''Battle Report: The War in Korea,'' a compilation from official sources, wrote: "[W]e killed civilians, friendly civilians, and bombed their homes; fired whole villages with the occupants--women and children and ten times as many hidden Communist soldiers--under showers of napalm, and the pilots came back to their ships stinking of vomit twisted from their vitals by the shock of what they had to do."<ref>Walter Karig; Malcolm W Cagle; Frank A Manson; et al (1952). ''Battle Report: The War in Korea'' (pp. 111-112). New York: Rinehart.</ref><br />
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US sanctions on DPRK began in conjunction with the 1950 escalation of the war, with the US imposing an export ban on DPRK and forbidding financial transactions by or on behalf of DPRK. This began with U.S. President [[Harry S. Truman]] ordering naval blockade of Korean coast and imposing a total trade embargo against north Korea in June of 1950. This was followed by the Trading with the Enemy Act in December 1950, to terminate all US economic contacts with north Korea and freezing north Korea's assets.<ref name=":5">Gary Clyde Hufbauer (PIIE), Jeffrey J. Schott (PIIE), Kimberly Ann Elliott (PIIE) and Barbara Oegg (PIIE). [https://www.piie.com/commentary/speeches-papers/case-50-1-and-93-1 “US and UN v. North Korea: Case 50-1 and 93-1.”] 2016. Peterson Institute for International Economics. May 1, 2008. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220909082604/https://www.piie.com/commentary/speeches-papers/case-50-1-and-93-1 Archived] 2022-09-09. </ref><br />
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After three years, an armistice agreement was signed that stopped the active fighting. The armistice was signed on 27 July 1953. The signed armistice established the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), the de facto new border between the two nations, put into force a cease-fire, and finalized repatriation of prisoners of war. The DMZ runs close to the 38th parallel and has continued to separate north and south Korea since the Korean Armistice Agreement was signed in 1953.<br />
<br />
=== Post-war ===<br />
After the armistice agreement, the US continued to prohibit all US economic contacts with DPRK in line with its general strategic controls against socialist countries.<ref name=":5" /><br />
<br />
At a meeting in 1957, the U.S. informed the north Korean representatives that the United Nations Command no longer considered itself bound by paragraph 13d of the armistice, and in 1958 the U.S. abrogated paragraph 13d of the armistice by introducing nuclear weapons into south Korea.<ref>[https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,809583,00.html "Korea: The End of 13d"] (1957-07-01). ''Time Magazine''. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220728030416/https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,809583,00.html Archived] 2022-07-28.</ref><ref>Lee Jae-Bong (2009-02-07). [https://apjjf.org/-Lee-Jae-Bong/3053/article.html "US Deployment of Nuclear Weapons in 1950s South Korea & North Korea's Nuclear Development: Toward Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula"] ''The Asia-Pacific Journal''. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220819105903/https://apjjf.org/-Lee-Jae-Bong/3053/article.html Archived] 2022-18-19.</ref> The armistice has never been replaced with a peace treaty and the two sides remain technically at war, with the U.S. occupying the south and retaining operational control over the south Korean military in wartime, and regularly engaging in provocative joint military exercises with south Korea aimed at "decapitating" DPRK's government,<ref>Flounders, Sara. [https://www.workers.org/2022/08/66398/ “Faced with U.S. ‘Decapitation Drill’/DPRK Korea Missile Launch Is Self-Defense.”] Workers World. August 26, 2022. [https://web.archive.org/web/20221014032939/https://www.workers.org/2022/08/66398/ Archived] 2022-10-14.</ref> while enforcing strict [[economic sanctions]] against DPRK as a form of siege warfare. <br />
<br />
The years following the Korean war, DPRK carried out its [[Chollima]] policy. The Chollima policy encouraged people to produce and innovate more in order to speed up the reconstruction of the country. In line with this policy, the DPRK concentrated its economy on [[heavy industry]] in the years following the war and it economically outperformed its southern counterpart until the early 1970s.<ref>[https://www.north-korea-travel.com/political-history-of-north-korea.html “Political History of North Korea | KTG® Tours | Information and North Korea Tours.”] North-Korea-Travel.com. </ref><br />
<br />
==== 1960s ====<br />
In 1960, south Korea's right-wing dictator Syngman Rhee resigned and fled the country due to mass protests across the nation after the body of a student killed by police was found floating in the harbor. As a result of the protests against him, he fled to [[Honolulu]], [[Hawaii]], where he remained in exile until his death. <br />
<br />
After Rhee's resignation, president [[Yun Bo-seon]] briefly governed in a somewhat more democratic but still bourgeois government. After thirteen months this administration was overthrown by the south Korean Army in the May 16 coup led by [[Park Chung-hee]], former Japanese collaborator and the father of future president [[Park Geun-hye]] (who served as the 11th president of South Korea from 2013 to 2017, until she was impeached and convicted on related corruption charges). <br />
<br />
Park Chung-hee ruled as a military dictator for 18 years and sent 320,000 troops to support the [[Republic of Vietnam (1955–1975)|South Vietnamese]] puppet state in the [[Vietnam War]].<br />
<br />
The Korean DMZ conflict was a series of low-level armed clashes between north Korean forces and the forces of south Korea and the United States, largely occurring between 1966 and 1969 at the Korean DMZ. <br />
<br />
The 2003 documentary [[Repatriation (film)|''Repatriation'']] tells the story of and interviews several north and south Korean supporters of DPRK who had been arrested as spies, most of them during the 1960s, and who were subsequently imprisoned and tortured in the south for decades for refusing to give up their loyalty to DPRK. The documentary follows their struggle to be repatriated to DPRK after their release from prison in the 1990s.<br />
<br />
==== 1970s ====<br />
In 1972, the [[Supreme People's Assembly]] elected Kim Il-sung as President of the DPRK.<br />
<br />
In south Korea, the fourth republic was founded on the approval of the Yushin Constitution in the 1972 constitutional referendum, codifying the ''de facto'' dictatorial powers held by President Park Chung-hee. <br />
<br />
An [[Amnesty International]] mission from 1975, conducted when Park Chung-hee was in power, found that torture was "frequently" used by south Korea's law enforcement agencies, "both in an attempt to extract false confessions, and as a means of intimidation." Systematic harassment of citizens by law enforcement agencies was also found to be "commonplace" by the investigation. The report states that detention without charge of journalists, lawyers, churchmen and academics was frequent. The mission also found that lawyers would be detained on house arrest and prevented from coming to trials to present defenses for their clients, and bodies of likely torture victims burned before they could be examined.<ref>[https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/asa25/001/1975/en/ "Report of the Mission to the Republic of Korea 1975."] [[Amnesty International]]. June 1, 1975. Index Number: ASA 25/001/1975. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230315081755/https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/asa25/001/1975/en/ Archived] 2023-03-15.</ref><br />
<br />
The Fourth Republic entered a period of political instability under Park's successor, Choi Kyu-hah, and the escalating martial law declared after Park's death.<br />
<br />
Choi was unofficially overthrown by [[Chun Doo-hwan]] in a coup d'état of December Twelfth in December 1979, and began the armed suppression of the [[May 18 uprising|Gwangju Democratization Movement]] against martial law.<br />
<br />
==== 1980s ====<br />
[[File:Gwangju protest.png|thumb|Mass protest in Gwangju in May 1980.]]<br />
During Chun Doo-hawn's presidency in south Korea, he perpetrated the largest massacre of Korean civilians since the Korean war. In May 1980, protests against martial law began in [[Gwangju]], which were met with special warfare troops. Estimates vary as to the amount of casualties, but they range from 165 at the most conservative, to over 300. Some also claim that up to 2,300 civilians were killed in the Gwangju massacre, in response to the May 18 uprising also known as the Gwangju uprising.<ref>K. J. Noh (2020-12-02). [https://www.hamptonthink.org/read/south-korean-dictator-dies-western-media-resurrects-a-myth "South Korean Dictator Dies, Western Media Resurrects a Myth"] ''Hampton Institute''. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220519190752/https://www.hamptonthink.org/read/south-korean-dictator-dies-western-media-resurrects-a-myth Archived] from the original on 2022-05-19. Retrieved 2022-06-02.</ref> Chun Doo-hawn's administration faced growing opposition from the democratization movement of the Gwangju Uprising, and the June Democracy Movement of 1987 resulted in the election of [[Roh Tae-woo]] in the December 1987 presidential election. Roh's election was the first direct presidential election in 16 years. The fifth republic was dissolved three days after the election upon the adoption of a new constitution that laid the foundations for the relatively stable (although bourgeois and rife with corruption scandals) democratic system of the current sixth Republic of Korea.<br />
<br />
In 1988, south Korea and the US eased isolation of north Korea by opening bilateral dialogue and allowing limited export of goods to the North for humanitarian purposes. Some travel restrictions were also lifted on a case-by-case basis. However, in that same year, DPRK was added to the [[U.S. State Department]] [[State Sponsors of Terrorism|"State Sponsors of Terrorism"]] list.<ref name=":6">[https://nodutdol.org/sanctions-of-empire/ "제국의 제재 - Sanctions of Empire."] Nodutdol. October 20, 2020. [https://nodutdol.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Sanctions-of-Empire.pdf PDF]. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220520095404/https://nodutdol.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Sanctions-of-Empire.pdf Archive].</ref><br />
<br />
On March 25, 1989, south Korean pastor and activist [[Moon Ik-hwan]], representing the National Federation of Democratic Movements (Korean: 전국민족민주운동연합; Hanja: 全國民族民主運動聯合; abbreviated 전민련), travelled to DPRK and met with Kim Il-sung to discuss Korean reunification. He and some other individuals had travelled there after Kim Il-sung had invited the leaders of all south Korean political parties as well as some religious figures to attend an inter-Korean dialogue. On April 2, pastor Moon and his party held two talks with President Kim Il-Sung and issued a joint statement with the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland. Pastor Moon and his party returned home to south Korea on April 13 after completing their 10-day visit to DPRK. As soon as they returned to south Korea, the government executed a prior arrest warrant and arrested and imprisoned them on charges under the National Security Act, such as receiving orders, infiltrating and escaping, meeting and communication, and encouraging praise of an anti-state group.<ref>[https://encykorea.aks.ac.kr/Article/E0075760 “문익환목사방북사건(文牧師訪北事件).”] Encyclopedia of Korean Culture.</ref><ref>[https://archive.md/jNpJH “Moon Ik Hwan Dies; Dictators’ Foe Was 76 - New York Times.”] Jan 20, 1994. ''Archive.md.'' Accessed 12 Apr. 2023.</ref><br />
<br />
In 1989, Pyongyang held the [[World Festival of Youth and Students, 1989|World Festival of Youth and Students]]. A south Korean activist named [[Lim Su-kyung]] (Korean: 임수경; also romanized as Lim Soo-kyung or Rim Su Gyong) took part in the festival, although this was illegal for her to do under south Korean law. She attended the festival representing the student organization Jeondaehyop (전대협, an abbreviation of 전국대학생대표자협의회), now known as Hanchongryun (한총련, abbreviation of 한국대학총학생회연합). In the north, she was celebrated for her decision to take part in the festival, and dubbed the "Flower of Reunification" (Korean: 통일의 꽃) in the north's media. Upon her return to the south, she was arrested and ended up in a Seoul prison, sentenced to 5 years. Later in life, she became a politician in the south.<ref>네이버 지식백과. [https://terms.naver.com/entry.naver?docId=1216785&mobile&cid=40942&categoryId=31778 “임수경방북사건.”] 두산백과. Naver.com. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230328081613/https://terms.naver.com/entry.naver?docId=1216785&mobile&cid=40942&categoryId=31778 Archived] 2023-03-28.</ref><br />
<br />
==== 1990s ====<br />
A unified team under the name Korea (KOR) competed in 1991 World Table Tennis Championships and FIFA World Youth Championship with athletes from both north and south Korea.<ref>이환우. [http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2018/07/103_243225.html “Unified Teams Date back to 1991.”] The Korea Times, 29 Jan. 2018, Accessed 10 Apr. 2023.</ref> In 1991, the team used the Unification Flag and the anthem "Arirang".<br />
<br />
[[Kim Jong-il]] became Supreme Commander of the [[Korean People's Army]] in 1991.<br />
<br />
In 1990, south Korean pastor Moon Ik-hwan had been released from prison in consideration of his poor health and old age. After his release, he resumed his pro-unification and democratization activism despite receiving warnings that he may be re-imprisoned by the south Korean authorities for such activities. A 1991 Amnesty International report on his activities stated that since his release, he was reported to have delivered speeches at at least 100 meetings of students and dissidents and to have participated in other political activities. In December 1990, police warned him to stop speaking to gatherings of students and dissidents about his visit to DPRK and about DPRK's ideology. In January of 1991 he was placed under house arrest to prevent him from attending the inauguration meeting for the preparatory committee of the south Korean headquarters of [[Pomminnyon]] (Pan-National Alliance for Reunification of Korea). He later became chairperson of the preparatory committee. On June 6 of 1991, Reverend Moon Ik-hwan was rearrested on the grounds that he had violated the terms of his parole by engaging in political activities and that his health had improved.<ref>[https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/asa25/032/1991/en/ "South Korea: Prisoner of conscience: Reverend Moon Ik-hwan."] September 30, 1991. Index Number: ASA 25/032/1991. Amnesty International. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220714020953/https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/asa25/032/1991/en/ Archived] 2022-07-14.</ref><br />
<br />
In 1992, the [[Pyongyang Declaration]], titled "Let Us Defend and Advance the Cause of Socialism" was published on April 20. The declaration was a joint-communique in which various communist bloc and fraternal parties which remained after the fall of the Soviet Union declared their intention to continue to defend and advance the socialist cause. At the time of its original signing, 70 political parties signed the declaration, with its number of signatories increasing over time into the hundreds, reaching 300 as of 2017.<ref>[https://kcnawatch.xyz/newstream/1546674832-39763653/pyongyang-declaration-signed-by-more-than-300-political-parties-of-world/ "Pyongyang Declaration Signed by More than 300 Political Parties of World."] [[Naenara]] accessed via [[KCNA Watch]]. 2017-04-21. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230929065855/https://kcnawatch.xyz/newstream/1546674832-39763653/pyongyang-declaration-signed-by-more-than-300-political-parties-of-world/ Archived] 2023-09-29.</ref> The document declares its signatories' firm conviction to defend and advance the socialist cause and explains that the path of socialism is an untrodden one and, therefore, the advance of socialism is inevitably accompanied by trials and difficulties. It asserts that although facing setbacks and attacks from the collusion of imperialists and reactionaries, socialism represents the future of mankind and that all parties striving for socialism should firmly maintain independence and firmly build up their own forces and that each party should work out lines and policies which "tally with the actual situation of the country where it is active and with the demands of its people and implement them by relying on the popular masses". It says that socialist cause is a national one and, at the same time, a common cause of mankind, and that "socialism is carved out and built with a country or national state as a unit." It states that all parties should cement the ties of comradely unity, cooperation and solidarity on the principles of independence and equality and defend the cause of socialism, not give up their revolutionary principles under any circumstances, and concludes with the statement that the socialist cause shall not perish.<ref>[https://www.youngpioneertours.com/pyongyang-declaration/ "What was the Pyongyang declaration of 1992?"] Young Pioneer Tours. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230929065726/https://www.youngpioneertours.com/pyongyang-declaration/ Archived] 2023-09-29.</ref><br />
<br />
In July 1994, [[Kim Il-sung]] passed away. <br />
<br />
Kim Jong-il became the General Secretary of the party on October 8, 1997.<ref name=":9">[https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2011-12/19/content_14287241.htm “DPRK Top Leader Kim Jong-Il Passes Away|Asia-Pacific|Chinadaily.com.cn.”] ''Chinadaily.com.cn.'' Accessed 10 Apr. 2023. [https://web.archive.org/web/20221020162831/http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2011-12/19/content_14287241.htm Archived] 2022-10-20.</ref><br />
<br />
The period of economic crisis, floods, and famine in DPRK known as the [[Arduous March]] lasted from 1994 to 1998. The thriving north Korean economy, which had exceeded south Korea's in production of electricity, coal, fertilizer, machine tools and steel even into the 1980s, was brought to a halt in the 1990s with the overthrow of the Soviet Union and a string of natural disasters. Factors such as the fall of the Soviet Union and worldwide economic shifts in its wake, unprecedented natural disasters, DPRK only having 15% arable land,<ref name=":8" /> and [[economic sanctions]] imposed on DPRK compounded at this time, contributing to the severity of the crisis.<ref>[https://www.north-korea-travel.com/north-korean-history.html “North Korean History 1980s & 1990s | KTG® Tours.”] North-Korea-Travel.com.</ref> <br />
<br />
Beginning in 1997, the period known as the [[Asian financial crisis]] or the [[International Monetary Fund|IMF]] crisis affected several Asian countries, with south Korea being among some of the most heavily impacted, with the crisis resulting in the bankruptcy of major south Korean companies and the imposition of [[austerity]] measures. The generation of people who entered the job market in this period are sometimes called the "IMF generation" and have faced a pattern of worsened economic conditions and struggling with job security.<ref>[https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2019/11/17/economy/IMF-generation-feels-job-shortage/3070390.html “‘IMF Generation’ Feels Job Shortage.”] November 17, 2019. [https://web.archive.org/web/20211207004114/https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2019/11/17/economy/IMF-generation-feels-job-shortage/3070390.html Archived] Dec. 7, 2021.</ref><ref>[https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/tech/2021/05/693_33603.html “A Familiar Story.”] Koreatimes. The Korea Times. October 30, 2008. [https://web.archive.org/web/20221101044751/https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/tech/2021/05/693_33603.html Archived] 2022-11-01.</ref><br />
<br />
In south Korea in the late 1990s, amnesty was declared for certain elderly and ill political prisoners who had been held in prison for decades, facing torture and solitary confinement for refusing to renounce communism and their support for DPRK. Some of these prisoners then began a movement to be repatriated to DPRK, with some of them being allowed to return while others remained in south Korea, some willingly and some unwillingly, with many of the participants mistakenly believing that more repatriations and further freedom of movement between north and south would follow.<ref>Liberation School (Jul 27, 2022). [https://www.liberationschool.org/interview-with-ahn-hak-sop/ "Still fighting for Korea’s liberation: An interview with Ahn Hak-sop"] ''Liberation School''. [https://web.archive.org/web/2/https://www.liberationschool.org/interview-with-ahn-hak-sop/ Archived] from the original.</ref> This series of events is detailed in the 2003 documentary [[Repatriation (film)|''Repatriation'']], which follows the release of several of these political prisoners and the different events in their lives afterward.<br />
<br />
DPRK's hopes for direct talks with the United States, a formal peace treaty ending the Korean War and normalized relations with the U.S. seemed potentially realizable in the last years of the [[Bill Clinton|Clinton]] administration (which lasted from 1993 to 2001). The United States and DPRK signed the General Framework Agreement, which provided that DPRK would seal its heavy water nuclear energy reactors in return for normalized diplomatic relations with the U.S. government and assistance constructing light water nuclear reactor facilities. Pursuant to the agreement, DPRK stopped its nuclear program at this time.<ref name=":8" /><br />
<br />
==== 2000s ====<br />
[[File:President Kim Dae-jung and Chairman Kim Jong-il join hands at Inter-Korean summit.jpg|thumb|250x250px|President Kim Dae-jung and Chairman Kim Jong-il join hands at the 2000 Inter-Korean summit, which resulted in the 6.15 Inter-Korean Joint Declaration.]]<br />
The south Korean policy towards DPRK from the late 1990s to mid 2000s is known as the period of "Sunshine Policy" and is primarily associated with the south Korean [[Kim Dae-jung]] administration (1998–2003) and the [[Roh Moo-hyun]] administration (2003–2008). <br />
<br />
During this time, a notable attitude of reconciliation between north and south Korea was expressed by south Korean leadership toward DPRK, and on June 13-15, 2000 the leaders of south and north Korea met for the first time since the war. South Korean president Kim Dae-jung and DPRK leader Kim Jong-il signed an agreement calling for family reunions, economic cooperation, social and cultural exchanges and follow-up governmental contacts between the north and south to ease tensions. This is known as the June 15th North–South Joint Declaration or the [[6.15 Inter-Korean Joint Declaration]].<br />
<br />
In 2002, [[George W. Bush|President Bush's]] State of the Union address singled out [[Islamic Republic of Iran|Iran]], [[Republic of Iraq|Iraq]] and DPRK as the so-called "[[Axis of Evil|axis of evil]]" for their supposed pursuit of weapons of mass destruction. The next year, the U.S. military invaded Iraq. It was in this context that the DPRK, under the leadership of Kim Jong Il, tested highly publicized nuclear weapons. Liberation News notes that "This was not an act of international terrorism, but a maneuver to bring the United States back to the negotiation table, which worked."<ref name=":8" /> <br />
<br />
Since the beginning of the DPRK nuclear tests in 2003, the Bush and [[Barack Obama|Obama]] administrations respectively lifted some sanctions to facilitate negotiations around DPRK denuclearization. However, they then reinstated them when the negotiations failed to produce the results desired by the US.<ref name=":5" /><ref name=":6" /> Following the country’s 2006 nuclear test, the US, EU, and others added more stringent sanctions, which have periodically intensified since then. Sanctions now target [[Petroleum politics|oil]] imports, and cover most finance and trade, and the country’s [[key minerals]] sector.<ref>Galant, Michael. [https://cepr.net/cepr-sanctions-watch-may-june-2022/ “CEPR Sanctions Watch, May-June 2022”] Center for Economic and Policy Research. July 8, 2022. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220907145545/https://cepr.net/cepr-sanctions-watch-may-june-2022/ Archived] 2022-09-07</ref><br />
<br />
==== 2010s ====<br />
[[File:Activist No Su-hui shouts Long Live Reunification at Panmunjom.jpg|thumb|In 2012, south Korean pro-reunification activist Roh Su-hui, who had been in DPRK without southern approval, shouted "Long live national reunification, by our nation itself!" before stepping over the divide back into south Korea and being tackled and carried away by south Korean authorities.]]<br />
Kim Jong-il passed away on December 17, 2011.<ref name=":9" /> Following this, Kim Jong-un was named supreme commander of the military.<ref>[https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2022/04/11/680112/North-Korea-Kim-Jong-un-10th-Anniversary-Celebrations-Choe-Ryong-hae “‘North Korea Marks 10 Years of Kim Jong-Un’s Leadership with Week-Long Events.’”] PressTV News, 11 Apr. 2022, Accessed 10 Apr. 2023.</ref><br />
<br />
A period of mourning ensued in DPRK following Kim Jong-il's death. Chinese President [[Hu Jintao]] also reached out in solidarity to DPRK after the announcement of Kim Jong Il's death, and [[Republic of Cuba|Cuba]] declared a period of mourning from Dec. 20-22, during which flags would be flown at half-mast. A [[Liberation News]] article from the time notes that the [[Imperial core|Western]] [[Imperialism|imperialist]] media took the opportunity at this time to make insinuations and accusations to portray north Koreans as "brainwashed" via the West's media commentary about the traditional mourning rituals Koreans publicly engaged in at the time. Liberation News points out that this portrayal is part of the West's continued campaign to [[Manufacturing consent|manufacture consent]] for the overthrow of DPRK's leadership, using disingenuous concern over the so-called "[[cult of personality]]" as a pretext.<ref name=":8" /> <br />
<br />
In 2012, a [[Left–right political spectrum|left-wing]] south Korean activist named [[Roh Su-hui]] (Korean: 노수희; also spelled Ro Su Hui and Noh Su-hui), member of the [[Pan-National Alliance for Korea's Reunification]] (Korean: 조국통일범민족연합; abbreviated 범민련; "Pomminryon"), was arrested at Panmunjom after having entered into DPRK months before without approval from the southern regime. He had travelled to DPRK in order to attend a memorial service marking the 100th day since the death of Kim Jong-Il. At Panmunjom, he was waved farewell by a crowd of people from the northern side, who waved Korean unification flags and flowers. Officials of the DPRK accompanied him to Panmunjom to see him off. Before stepping over the border, Roh shouted "Long live national reunification, by our nation itself!" (Korean: "우리민족끼리 조국통일 만세!") holding up a unification flag and flowers. After crossing the border, south Korean authorities seized him, and a struggle ensued where he was tackled to the ground, then lifted and carried away by the southern authorities, who bound his arms and hands with rope as they brought him into custody. He was sentenced to four years in prison and to have his suffrage stripped for three years after release. Another activist, Won Jin Wook, received a three-year prison sentence for communicating with DPRK officials to arrange the trip.<ref>AP Archive. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtiCNzuVp4Y “SKorean Activist No Su-Hui Arrested as He Returns from Unauthorised Trip to the North.”] ''YouTube'', 31 July 2015, Accessed 9 Apr. 2023. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230328191034/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtiCNzuVp4Y Archived] 2023-03-28.</ref><ref>[https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1145933/south-korean-activists-jailed-visit-north “South Korean Activists Jailed for Visit to North.”] ''[[South China Morning Post]]'', 8 Feb. 2013, Accessed 9 Apr. 2023. [https://web.archive.org/web/20201214161836/https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1145933/south-korean-activists-jailed-visit-north Archived] 2020-12-14.</ref><ref>[https://committeeforreleaseofvicechairman.blogspot.com/ “International Committee for the Release of Mr Ro Su Hu.”] ''Blogspot.com'', 2023, Accessed 9 Apr. 2023. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230409065234/https://committeeforreleaseofvicechairman.blogspot.com/ Archived] 2023-04-09.</ref><br />
<br />
[[Park Geun-hye]], daughter of dictator Park Chung-hee, was in office as the 11th president of south Korea from 2013–2017 until she was impeached and convicted on corruption charges following public demonstrations, commonly known as the Candlelight Revolution or Candlelight Demonstrations. She became the first south Korean president to be removed from power by impeachment, and was sentenced to 24 years in prison, but received a pardon and was released in 2021 after serving just under 5 years.<ref>Hyonhee Shin (2021-12-31). [https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/skoreas-disgraced-ex-president-park-freed-after-nearly-5-years-prison-2021-12-31/ "S.Korea's disgraced ex-president Park freed after nearly 5 years in prison"] ''Reuters''.</ref> Park Geun-hye's presidency was followed by [[Moon Jae-in]] (in office 2017–2022). <br />
<br />
According to a 2017 article by CNN, 49 countries, including [[Republic of Cuba|Cuba]], [[Islamic Republic of Iran|Iran]], and [[Syrian Arab Republic|Syria]] have violated sanctions and have traded with DPRK.<ref>Rishi Iyengar (2017-12-06). [https://money.cnn.com/2017/12/06/news/north-korea-sanctions-countries-violation/index.html "Report: 49 countries have been busting sanctions on North Korea"] ''[[CNN]]''. [https://web.archive.org/web/20210508065837/https://money.cnn.com/2017/12/06/news/north-korea-sanctions-countries-violation/index.html Archived] from the original on 2021-05-08.</ref> In 2017, sanctions imposed by the UN caused thousands of DPRK workers who had been working abroad to be forced to return to DPRK as well as led to the closure of numerous DPRK companies and joint ventures.<ref>[https://www.asianews.it/news-en/North-Korean-workers-leave-China-because-of-UN-sanctions-41942.html “North Korean Workers Leave China because of UN Sanctions.”] Asianews.it. 2017. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220909073331/https://www.asianews.it/news-en/North-Korean-workers-leave-China-because-of-UN-sanctions-41942.html Archived] 2022-09-09.</ref> According to Nodutdol, in 2018, 3,968 people in the DPRK, who were mostly children under the age of 5, died as a result of shortages and delays to UN aid programs caused by sanctions.<ref name=":6" /><br />
<br />
Talks between General secretary [[Kim Jong-un]] and Former U.S. [[President of the United states|President]] [[Donald Trump]] began on June of 2019 to discuss disarmament and potential reunification with the [[Republic of Korea]].<br />
<br />
==== 2020s ====<br />
In January 2020 when south Korean President [[Moon Jae-In]] expressed interest in developing tourism to north Korea, the US ambassador Harry Harris blocked this effort, claiming that "independent" tourism plans would have to undergo U.S. consultation. The U.S. ambassador emphasized that the items inside South Korean tourists' luggage could violate sanctions.<ref name=":6" /><br />
<br />
The 13th and current president of south Korea is [[Yoon Suk-yeol]] of the conservative People Power Party, who took office in 2022. His presidency has been surrounded with criticism, with numerous protests drawing thousands of participants calling for his resignation and his approval rating frequently falling below 30%.<ref>[https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_editorial/1063998.html "Rekindled candlelight rallies amid near collapse of Korean politics."] Hankyoreh. Oct.24,2022. [https://web.archive.org/web/20221030111216/http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_editorial/1063998.html Archived] 2022-10-30.</ref> On August 13, 2022, thousands of south Korean unionists and their progressive supporters rallied in downtown Seoul to protest against joint US-south Korea war game exercises. In a video uploaded by [[Press TV]], Oh Eun-Jung of the National Teachers Union was quoted as saying "The threat of nuclear war is growing on the Korean peninsula, conservative forces of Yoon Suk-yeol in south Korea and those in the U.S. are frantically conducting aggressive war drills in the sky, the land, and the sea, and are about to start large-scale military exercises, aimed at the invasion of north Korea. We must stamp out this behavior of anti-reunification forces." In the same video, construction worker Lee Seung-Woo stated, "We not only oppose the war exercises, but we want the U.S. Forces Korea, which is actually controlling and interfering with the Korean peninsula to leave this land. We believe that only then will the eighty million Koreans from both north and south be able to live peacefully."<ref>Frank Smith. [https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2022/08/13/687322/South-Korean-unionists-protest-US-South-Korea-war-games “‘South Korean Unionists Protest US-South Korea War Games.’”] PressTV News. August 13, 2022. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220826124551/https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2022/08/13/687322/South-Korean-unionists-protest-US-South-Korea-war-games Archived] 2022-08-28.</ref><br />
<br />
In September 2022, a statement on the nuclear force policy of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea was carried by DPRK's [[Korean Central News Agency]] (KCNA), noting that while the government considers nuclear weapons a last resort, it would deploy them to prevent aggression that seriously threatens the security of the state and people. The statement stressed that DPRK "does not threaten or use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear countries," and warned it would forcefully respond to aggression, or to nations threatening the DPRK by "colluding with other nuclear-armed states."<ref>[https://www.rt.com/news/562473-north-korea-nuclear-doctrine/ “North Korea Clarifies Nuclear Doctrine.”] RT International. September 9, 2022. [https://web.archive.org/web/20221026142625/https://www.rt.com/news/562473-north-korea-nuclear-doctrine/ Archived] 2022-10-26.<br />
<br />
</ref><br />
<br />
== Culture ==<br />
The folk song "Arirang" (Korean: 아리랑) is regarded as a representative folk song of Korea, sung throughout the nation and presenting many different orally transmitted versions. Arirang typically contains a gentle and lyrical melody. Arirang songs speak about leaving and reunion, sorrow, joy and happiness. The various categories differ according to the lyrics and melody used. While dealing with diverse universal themes, the simple musical and literary composition invites improvisation, imitation and singing in unison, encouraging its acceptance by different musical genres. Both DPRK and south Korea have submitted the song to the [[UNESCO]] Intangible Cultural Heritage list. DPRK's submission states that Arirang folk songs reinforce social relations, thus contributing to mutual respect and peaceful social development, and help people to express their feelings and overcome grief. They function as an important symbol of unity and occupy a place of pride in the performing arts, cinema, literature and other works of contemporary art. South Korea's submission notes that Arirang is a popular subject and motif in diverse arts and media, including cinema, musicals, drama, dance and literature, describing it as an evocative hymn with the power to enhance communication and unity among the Korean people, whether at home or abroad.<ref>[https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/arirang-folk-song-in-the-democratic-people-s-republic-of-korea-00914 “UNESCO - Arirang Folk Song in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.”] Unesco.org. 2023.</ref><ref>[https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/arirang-lyrical-folk-song-in-the-republic-of-korea-00445 “UNESCO - Arirang, Lyrical Folk Song in the Republic of Korea.”] Unesco.org. 2023.</ref><br />
<br />
== Languages ==<br />
<br />
=== Korean language ===<br />
[[Korean language|Korean]] is the official language of both north and south Korea. <br />
<br />
There are regional dialects and accents of Korean spoken throughout the Korean Peninsula. In general they are largely mutually intelligible with standardized forms of Korean. Additionally, despite the division of the country into north and south, the language has not diverged to the point of unintelligibility, although certain vocabulary, spelling, and pronunciation differences do exist. Notably, in the north, a preference for using native Korean words is shown, while in the south, foreign loanwords show a higher prevalence of use.<br />
<br />
Korean is also the official language of [[Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture]] in [[Jilin Province]], China (along with [[Mandarin]]). Other large groups of Korean speakers are found in China, the United States, Japan, former [[Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (1922–1991)|Soviet Union]] and elsewhere.<br />
<br />
=== Jeju language ===<br />
The [[Jeju language]], which is closely related to Korean, is an endangered language whose main community of speakers come from Jeju Island. While often classified as a divergent dialect of the Korean language, the variety is referred to as a language in local government and increasingly in both South Korean and foreign academia. Jeju language is not mutually intelligible with the mainland dialects of South Korea. Most people in Jeju Island now speak a variety of Korean with a Jeju substratum, and efforts to revitalize the endangered language are ongoing. <br />
<br />
=== North and South Korean Sign Language ===<br />
A form of [[Korean Sign Language]] (KSL) is used in both north and south Korea. Following the division of the country, the heterogeneity of sign language has accelerated. Researchers Lee and Choi compared the handshapes of north and south Korean Sign Languages, and found in 2017 that there was 15% both hands agreement, 21% dominant hand agreement, 23% nondominant hand agreement, and 71% disagreement.<ref>Choi Sangbae, Ko Eunji. [https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jasl/29/3/29_51/_pdf/-char/ja "Contrastive Linguistic Study of South and North Korean Sign Language and Japanese Sign Language at the Level of Phoneme and Lexis."] 2020. Kongju National University. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230325065228/https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jasl/29/3/29_51/_pdf/-char/ja Archived] 2023-03-25.</ref> A YouTube channel called Sonmal Sueo (Korean: 손말수어) is dedicated to presenting the differences between north and south Korean signs to promote communication and understanding.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/@sonmalsueo3478/featured Sonmal Sueo 손말수어]. YouTube.</ref><br />
<br />
== References ==<br />
[[Category:Asian countries]]</div>
Verda.Majo
https://en.prolewiki.org/index.php?title=File:Japanese_Troops_Detraining_to_attack_Korean_Rebels_by_F._A._McKenzie.png&diff=64464
File:Japanese Troops Detraining to attack Korean Rebels by F. A. McKenzie.png
2024-03-22T07:58:13Z
<p>Verda.Majo: </p>
<hr />
<div>Japanese troops detraining to attack Korean rebels circa 1907, photographed by F. A. McKenzie in "Tragedy of Korea."</div>
Verda.Majo
https://en.prolewiki.org/index.php?title=File:Company_of_Korean_rebels_circa_1907_by_F.A._McKenzie.png&diff=64463
File:Company of Korean rebels circa 1907 by F.A. McKenzie.png
2024-03-22T07:54:25Z
<p>Verda.Majo: </p>
<hr />
<div>A photo of anti-Japanese Korean rebels circa 1907, photographed by F.A. McKenzie, appearing in the book "Tragedy of Korea."</div>
Verda.Majo
https://en.prolewiki.org/index.php?title=Unconverted_long-term_prisoners&diff=64446
Unconverted long-term prisoners
2024-03-21T18:12:29Z
<p>Verda.Majo: /* "Conversion" statements */ typo correction</p>
<hr />
<div>[[File:Unconverted long-term prisoners in south Korea.jpg|thumb|A demonstration calling for a second repatriation of unconverted long-term prisoners in south Korea. The sign reads "Call for repatriation of non-converted long-term prisoners" ("비전향장기수 송환 촉구").<ref>장동욱 (Jang Dong-wook). [http://www.saramilbo.com/5940 “비전향장기수 2차 송환 촉구.”] ("Call for second repatriation of non-converted long-term prisoners.") 사람일보. (Saram Ilbo.) 2006-09-02. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240311145007/http://www.saramilbo.com/5940 Archived] 2024-03-11.</ref>]]<br />
'''Unconverted long-term prisoners''' is a term which refers to [[Political prisoner|political prisoners]] imprisoned in [[Republic of Korea|south Korea]], generally on charges of "anti-state" activities or views in support of [[communism]] or [[Democratic People's Republic of Korea|DPRK]].<ref name=":1">[https://www.amnesty.org/es/documents/asa25/033/1993/en/ “South Korea: Unfair Trial and Torture: Long-Term Political Prisoners.”] [[Amnesty International]], September 30, 1993.</ref><ref name=":6">"National reunification prizes awarded to unconverted long-term prisoners", [[Korean Central News Agency]], 2000-09-04. [https://web.archive.org/web/20191124030603/http://www.kcna.co.jp/item/2000/200009/news09/04.htm Archived] 2019-11-19.</ref> The term commonly refers to people who were mostly arrested from the 1950s to 1980s and imprisoned and tortured for decades and who refused to sign a "conversion" statement renouncing communist or [[Left–right political spectrum|left-wing]] ideology, which had been a condition for their release.<ref>Amnesty International, [https://www.refworld.org/reference/annualreport/amnesty/1999/en/24250 Amnesty International Report 1999 - Korea, -, 1 January 1999]. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240311065515/https://www.refworld.org/reference/annualreport/amnesty/1999/en/24250 Archived] 2024-03-11.</ref> In the 1990s, some of the prisoners began being released. Some chose to remain in south Korea while others sought to be repatriated to DPRK.<ref name=":0">Kim Dong-won. ''Repatriation'' (2003). Documentary. URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xu2mEvU29Q</ref><br />
<br />
== Imprisonment and torture ==<br />
The individuals arrested by the southern regime on charges of anti-state activities faced unfair trials,<ref name=":1" /> torture,<ref name=":1" /> and isolation,<ref name=":2">[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/286070.stm "Solitary: Tough test of survival instinct."] [[British Broadcasting Corporation|BBC]] News. February 25, 1999. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240311083202/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/286070.stm Archived] 2024-03-11.</ref> with some of them being imprisoned for over 40 years.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":8">[https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/news/1995/nov/15/worlds-longest-held-political-prisoner-released/ "World’s Longest Held Political Prisoner Released."] Prison Legal News, 1995-11-15. [https://web.archive.org/web/20231001182401/https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/news/1995/nov/15/worlds-longest-held-political-prisoner-released/ Archived] 2023-10-01.</ref><ref name=":3">[https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/388611.html “Truth Commission Confirms Yushin-Era Violations on Prisoners’ Freedom of Conscience.”] Hankyoreh, 2009-11-19. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240311105516/https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/388611.html Archived] 2024-03-11.</ref> While some of the prisoners were arrested for actual acts of espionage,<ref name=":4">Kang Jin-kyu (2016-08-07). [https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2016/08/07/politics/Spies-who-cant-come-in-from-the-cold/3022316.html "Spies who can't come in from the cold"] ''Korea JoongAng Daily''. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230208033225/https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2016/08/07/politics/Spies-who-cant-come-in-from-the-cold/3022316.html Archived] 2023-02-08.</ref> others have been described as [[Prisoner of conscience|prisoners of conscience]], with organizations such as [[Amnesty International]] stating in a 1993 document that some of the prisoners were "held solely for peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of expression and association" while also stating that prisoners "appear to have been tortured during interrogation" and were "convicted largely on the basis of these coerced confessions after an unfair trial" and raising concerns that they had been denied lawyers during their interrogations.<ref name=":1" /><br />
<br />
In 2009, south Korean news outlet Hankyoreh reported that south Korea's Truth and Reconciliation Commission released a statement which concluded that the conversion tactics which had been used on left-wing prisoners during the Yushin era of the 1970s constituted state violence and that acts of brutality were used to convert left-wing prisoners.<ref name=":3" /><br />
<br />
=== "Conversion" statements ===<br />
Until 1998, the prisoners were pressured to sign statements of "conversion" renouncing communist ideology as a condition of being released. Many prisoners refused to sign, later becoming referred to as "unconverted" prisoners.<ref name=":0" /> The requirement to sign a conversion statement was substituted in 1998 with a "Pledge to Obey the Law" which was eventually discontinued in 2003.<ref name=":3" /><br />
<br />
Among those who did sign the "conversion" statement as a condition of release, there are accounts such as that of [[Park Hee-sung]], who said that his so-called "conversion" was the result of physical torture, and that he meant none of it,<ref name=":4" /> or the case of [[Kim Young-sik]], who commented on his own experience with torture in the 2003 documentary [[Repatriation (film)|''Repatriation'']], "torturing you and forcing you to renounce your belief, can you really call that conversion?"<ref name=":0" /> Kim Young-sik was also quoted in a 2018 article saying of this forced conversion via torture, "I'm still very angry [...] How could they torture me to force me to give up an ideology that I believe is correct?"<ref name=":7">Kim, Hyung-jin. [https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/southern-exposure-the-north-koreans-longing-to-be-sent-home-20180523-p4zh0h.html “Southern Exposure: The North Koreans Longing to Be Sent Home.”] The Sydney Morning Herald. May 24, 2018. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240311103437/https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/southern-exposure-the-north-koreans-longing-to-be-sent-home-20180523-p4zh0h.html Archived] 2024-03-11. </ref><br />
<br />
Former prisoner [[Ahn Hak-sop]] recounted similar methods of pressure to try to get him to renounce his beliefs, including bribery and torture, in an interview with [[Liberation School]]: "First they tried to make theoretical arguments against the DPRK. But they couldn’t defend their beliefs to me. After that, they tried to bribe me with property. After that, there was torture."<ref name=":5" /><br />
<br />
=== Torture ===<br />
The methods of torture recounted by various victims include waterboarding,<ref name=":7" /> being forced to eat off the floor with hands cuffed behind their backs,<ref name=":7" /> being spun while hanging from the ceiling,<ref name=":7" /> beatings,<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":9">Kristof, Nicholas D. [https://www.nytimes.com/1995/08/20/world/free-in-seoul-after-44-years-and-still-defiant.html?pagewanted=all "Free in Seoul after 44 Years, and Still Defiant."] [[The New York Times]]. Aug. 20, 1995. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240311152015/https://www.nytimes.com/1995/08/20/world/free-in-seoul-after-44-years-and-still-defiant.html?pagewanted=all Archived] 2024-03-11.</ref> prolonged solitary confinement,<ref name=":2" /> water being thrown in the room in winter,<ref name=":5" /> being doused with cold water in winter while being beaten,<ref name=":13">Ri In Mo. [https://archive.org/details/my-life-and-faith-eng/page/n2/mode/1up "My Life and Faith."] Foreign Languages Publishing House, Pyongyang, Korea. 1997.</ref> convicts being beaten until unable to walk properly and then "made to crawl back to their prison cells, beaten with clubs and kicked on the way",<ref name=":13" /> being force-fed salt water through a hose forced into their throat,<ref name=":13" /> clothing and bedding being taken away,<ref name=":5" /> starvation,<ref name=":9" /> prisoners being "expected to wash themselves with their own urine",<ref name=":9" /> confiscation of medications (resulting in death in some cases),<ref name=":13" /> and denial of medical and dental care.<ref name=":1" /> The 1993 Amnesty International document noted that the long-term prisoners were often kept in poor conditions and that some were suffering ill health due to their long term imprisonment and a reported lack of adequate medical care. The document also mentions that those who refused to sign the conversion statement generally suffered even worse treatment than the other prisoners.<ref name=":1" /> An article from 1999 by the BBC states that "Life inside was almost entirely spent in dark and cold cells and medical attention was scarce. Torture sometimes took the form of being locked up with a particularly sadistic prisoner."<ref name=":2" /><br />
<br />
In the memoirs of former prisoner [[Ri In Mo]], the author writes that some prisoners committed suicide. He writes about a prisoner whose medications were confiscated, being told that he would get his medications back if he converted. The prisoner went on multiple hunger strikes, then hanged himself with a torn strip of blanket, having said he would rather kill himself than die of disease.<ref name=":13" /><br />
<br />
According to a 1995 [[Prison Legal News]] article, unconverted prisoner [[Kim Sun Myung]], who had been in captivity for over 43 years, had been beaten, starved, threatened with execution, watched his fellow prisoners die, was kept in solitary confinement for decades, and was denied medical care by prison doctors as he went blind from cataracts. Commenting with regard to the torture upon his release, Kim said: "They say that when you hammer steel, it only gets harder. Well, when you hit people, you just turn them into enemies, and they become stronger."<ref name=":8" /><br />
<br />
== Repatriation movement ==<br />
[[File:Repatriation demonstration for unconverted long-term prisoners vop.co.kr.jpg|thumb|Members of the preparatory group for the 20th anniversary of the repatriation of non-converted prisoners hold a press conference in front of the government complex in Seoul to urge the second repatriation (2020).<ref>Photo by 김철수 (Kim Cheoulsu). [https://www.vop.co.kr/A00001510809.html <nowiki>민중의소리 (Voice of the People). 인도적조치 비전향장기수 송환하라[포토] (Repatriate non-converted long-term prisoners for humanitarian measures [Photo]).</nowiki>] 2020-09-08.</ref>]]<br />
Of the former prisoners who sought repatriation to DPRK, some were eventually able to be repatriated, notably 63 of them in the year 2000.<ref name=":7" /> However, others remained in the south, being denied their requests for repatriation.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":4" /> The 63 individuals who were repatriated in September of 2000 were celebrated in [[Pyongyang]] and awarded [[National Reunification Prize|National Reunification Prizes]].<ref name=":6" /> At the time, the prisoners ranged in age from 66 to 90 years old.<ref name=":10">[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/907307.stm "Korean communists go home."] BBC News, 2 September, 2000. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240311153647/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/907307.stm Archived] 2024-03-11.</ref><br />
<br />
A Liberation School interview with a former prisoner, Ahn Hak-sop, reveals that many who participated in the repatriation in the year 2000 and many of those who remained in south Korea made their decisions based on their impression at the time that there was going to be more freedom of movement between ROK and DPRK thereafter. Ahn, who chose to remain in the south when the 2000 repatriation happened, said one of his reasons was that he "thought it was a temporary situation." Anh also notes regarding two prisoners released alongside him who were repatriated, that "[T]hose comrades went to the North because they thought that shortly there would be free movement between the two states. They went to the North to study and thought they would come back later." Regarding his own intention to stay in the south temporarily, Anh elaborated: "[T]here were young [[Progressivism|progressive]] people here in the South, and they asked me to stay. [...] We have to keep struggling here for the withdrawal of US army, the peace treaty, and peaceful reunification. I decided to stay here to fight for these goals. In 1952, I came here to liberate the southern half of the peninsula, and I need to stay here and continue that struggle."<ref name=":5">Liberation School (Jul 27, 2022). [https://www.liberationschool.org/interview-with-ahn-hak-sop/ "Still fighting for Korea’s liberation: An interview with Ahn Hak-sop"] ''Liberation School''. [https://web.archive.org/web/2/https://www.liberationschool.org/interview-with-ahn-hak-sop/ Archived] from the original.</ref><br />
<br />
Those who oppose or criticize the repatriation of these former prisoners generally do so on grounds of demanding that DPRK repatriate people to the south as well.<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":10" /><br />
<br />
== Persecution and surveillance ==<br />
The unconverted long-term prisoners who were released have faced various difficulties while living in south Korea, ranging from ongoing health issues from their imprisonment, to not being given social security numbers, living in poverty, and being subjected to state surveillance. In some cases, their families have also suffered persecution during and after their relative's imprisonment.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":7" /><ref name=":9" /><br />
<br />
Giving examples of the forms of persecution and surveillance he faced, former prisoner Anh Hak-sop explained, "[T]here are security police who follow me. Whenever there is a problem with the North and South, they raid my house and stand guard outside my property. One time at a demonstration, [[Conservatism|conservative]] forces attacked me. The police did nothing to protect me. Every week or every other week, the police come to my house and ask about my activities, who has visited my house, and so on. Once every other month I need to report to them about what I did, who I met, and who visited me. Every two years I need to go to court."<ref name=":5" /><br />
<br />
[[Kang Yong-ju]], a citizen activist who had been involved in the 1980 [[May 18 uprising|Gwangju Uprising]] as a student, is an unconverted long-term prisoner who was arrested in 1985, on charges of connection to a "spy ring" which have been regarded as unfounded<ref>[https://www.refworld.org/reference/countryrep/amnesty/1998/en/93950 "Long-Term Prisoners Still Held under the National Security Law."] Amnesty International. May 1, 1998. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240316184146/https://www.refworld.org/reference/countryrep/amnesty/1998/en/93950 Archived] 2023-03-16.</ref> and alleged to have been fabricated by the [[Chun Doo-hwan]] regime.<ref name=":11">Bak Gwang-yeon. [https://english.khan.co.kr/khan_art_view.html?artid=201802222015297&code=710100 "Kang Yong-ju, Free from the Shackles of 'Security Surveillance'."] [[The Kyunghyang Shinmun]], 2018-02-22. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240316182453/https://english.khan.co.kr/khan_art_view.html?artid=201802222015297&code=710100 Archived] 2024-03-16.</ref> He refused to sign a statement renouncing his views, and was thus imprisoned by the south Korean regime for 14 years, being released in 1999.<ref>Kim Min-kyung. [https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/824966.html “Prosecutors Request Prison Time for Unconverted Political Prisoner.”] Hankyoreh, 2017-12-25. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240316183657/https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/824966.html Archived] 2024-03-16.</ref> In the years following his release, Kang was subjected to the Security Surveillance Act until a court decision in 2018 finally prohibited the extension of further surveillance on Kang.<ref name=":11" /><br />
<br />
A column in Hankyoreh describes the surveillance program which Kang had been subjected to in the following manner:<blockquote>Being subject to security surveillance means that you must report your every move, every three months. If you move to a new house, you have to report that, and if the police suddenly call you in the middle of the night, you have to pick up the phone. If you want to travel, you have to provide advance notice of the destination and length of your trip and your travel companions. The police can ban you not only from meeting or contacting other people but also from attending public gatherings and demonstrations. Not only your family and relatives but even your [[landlord]], coworkers, church parishioners and apartment security staff can be asked to provide information about you or may be subject to surveillance themselves. Even though you have already finished your prison sentence, your life as a convict continues for the rest of your life.<ref name=":12">Lee Myung-soo. [https://www.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/792186.html <nowiki>“[Column] Kang Yong-Ju Must Not Be Treated like a Convict for the Rest of His Life.”</nowiki>] Hankyoreh, 2017-04-25. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240316183604/https://www.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/792186.html Archived] 2024-03-16.</ref></blockquote>The column also notes that security surveillance must be renewed every two years, but if the Justice Minister believes that there is a risk of recidivism, "the state can continue to monitor an individual’s private life until the day they die."<ref name=":12" /><br />
<br />
== Media ==<br />
Former prisoner Ri In Mo, who was repatriated to DPRK in 1993, wrote a memoir titled ''My Life and Faith'' (Korean title: 신념과 나의 한생) in which he recounted his life story. The book includes his youth during the anti-Japanese national liberation struggle as well as his 34 years of imprisonment in south Korea.<ref name=":13" /><br />
<br />
A documentary about the unconverted long-term prisoners called ''Repatriation'' (Korean title: 송환) was released in 2003 by south Korean director Kim Dong Won. After several of the unconverted long-term prisoners had moved to his neighborhood after their release, the director developed a close relationship with them and began a film project that "spanned 12 years and 800 hours of videotaping".<ref>[https://asiasociety.org/kim-dong-wons-film-north-korean-prisoners-held-south-korea “Kim Dong Won’s Film on North Korean Prisoners Held in South Korea.”] Asia Society. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220725151533/https://asiasociety.org/kim-dong-wons-film-north-korean-prisoners-held-south-korea Archived] 2022-07-25.</ref> Another film by the same director, titled ''The 2nd Repatriation'' (Korean title: 2차 송환),<ref>[https://indieground.kr/indie/movieLibraryView.do?seq=4374&type=D "2차 송환."] 독립영화 라이브러리, Indieground. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240321041311/https://indieground.kr/indie/movieLibraryView.do?seq=4374&type=D Archived] 2023-03-021.</ref> was released in 2022 and follows the lives of the former prisoners, such as Kim Young-sik, who remained in south Korea but who have been urging for a second repatriation.<ref>[https://eng.jeonjufest.kr/db/movieView.asp?idx=4781&sEP_NUM=23 "The 2nd Repatriation."]전주국제영화제. The 23rd JEONJU International Film Festival. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220924153321/https://eng.jeonjufest.kr/db/movieView.asp?idx=4781&sEP_NUM=23 Archived] 2022-09-24.</ref><ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nq-z7JGcWUQ "【第十三屆台灣國際紀錄片影展】當代風景|第二次遣返 The 2nd Repatriation."] YouTube.</ref><br />
<br />
== See also ==<br />
<br />
* [[Repatriation (film)]]<br />
<br />
== References ==<br />
<references /></div>
Verda.Majo
https://en.prolewiki.org/index.php?title=Unconverted_long-term_prisoners&diff=64445
Unconverted long-term prisoners
2024-03-21T17:15:55Z
<p>Verda.Majo: correction of image caption (removed the word "2nd" as the sign doesn't actually say "2nd", though its mentioned in the sourced article)</p>
<hr />
<div>[[File:Unconverted long-term prisoners in south Korea.jpg|thumb|A demonstration calling for a second repatriation of unconverted long-term prisoners in south Korea. The sign reads "Call for repatriation of non-converted long-term prisoners" ("비전향장기수 송환 촉구").<ref>장동욱 (Jang Dong-wook). [http://www.saramilbo.com/5940 “비전향장기수 2차 송환 촉구.”] ("Call for second repatriation of non-converted long-term prisoners.") 사람일보. (Saram Ilbo.) 2006-09-02. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240311145007/http://www.saramilbo.com/5940 Archived] 2024-03-11.</ref>]]<br />
'''Unconverted long-term prisoners''' is a term which refers to [[Political prisoner|political prisoners]] imprisoned in [[Republic of Korea|south Korea]], generally on charges of "anti-state" activities or views in support of [[communism]] or [[Democratic People's Republic of Korea|DPRK]].<ref name=":1">[https://www.amnesty.org/es/documents/asa25/033/1993/en/ “South Korea: Unfair Trial and Torture: Long-Term Political Prisoners.”] [[Amnesty International]], September 30, 1993.</ref><ref name=":6">"National reunification prizes awarded to unconverted long-term prisoners", [[Korean Central News Agency]], 2000-09-04. [https://web.archive.org/web/20191124030603/http://www.kcna.co.jp/item/2000/200009/news09/04.htm Archived] 2019-11-19.</ref> The term commonly refers to people who were mostly arrested from the 1950s to 1980s and imprisoned and tortured for decades and who refused to sign a "conversion" statement renouncing communist or [[Left–right political spectrum|left-wing]] ideology, which had been a condition for their release.<ref>Amnesty International, [https://www.refworld.org/reference/annualreport/amnesty/1999/en/24250 Amnesty International Report 1999 - Korea, -, 1 January 1999]. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240311065515/https://www.refworld.org/reference/annualreport/amnesty/1999/en/24250 Archived] 2024-03-11.</ref> In the 1990s, some of the prisoners began being released. Some chose to remain in south Korea while others sought to be repatriated to DPRK.<ref name=":0">Kim Dong-won. ''Repatriation'' (2003). Documentary. URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xu2mEvU29Q</ref><br />
<br />
== Imprisonment and torture ==<br />
The individuals arrested by the southern regime on charges of anti-state activities faced unfair trials,<ref name=":1" /> torture,<ref name=":1" /> and isolation,<ref name=":2">[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/286070.stm "Solitary: Tough test of survival instinct."] [[British Broadcasting Corporation|BBC]] News. February 25, 1999. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240311083202/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/286070.stm Archived] 2024-03-11.</ref> with some of them being imprisoned for over 40 years.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":8">[https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/news/1995/nov/15/worlds-longest-held-political-prisoner-released/ "World’s Longest Held Political Prisoner Released."] Prison Legal News, 1995-11-15. [https://web.archive.org/web/20231001182401/https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/news/1995/nov/15/worlds-longest-held-political-prisoner-released/ Archived] 2023-10-01.</ref><ref name=":3">[https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/388611.html “Truth Commission Confirms Yushin-Era Violations on Prisoners’ Freedom of Conscience.”] Hankyoreh, 2009-11-19. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240311105516/https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/388611.html Archived] 2024-03-11.</ref> While some of the prisoners were arrested for actual acts of espionage,<ref name=":4">Kang Jin-kyu (2016-08-07). [https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2016/08/07/politics/Spies-who-cant-come-in-from-the-cold/3022316.html "Spies who can't come in from the cold"] ''Korea JoongAng Daily''. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230208033225/https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2016/08/07/politics/Spies-who-cant-come-in-from-the-cold/3022316.html Archived] 2023-02-08.</ref> others have been described as [[Prisoner of conscience|prisoners of conscience]], with organizations such as [[Amnesty International]] stating in a 1993 document that some of the prisoners were "held solely for peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of expression and association" while also stating that prisoners "appear to have been tortured during interrogation" and were "convicted largely on the basis of these coerced confessions after an unfair trial" and raising concerns that they had been denied lawyers during their interrogations.<ref name=":1" /><br />
<br />
In 2009, south Korean news outlet Hankyoreh reported that south Korea's Truth and Reconciliation Commission released a statement which concluded that the conversion tactics which had been used on left-wing prisoners during the Yushin era of the 1970s constituted state violence and that acts of brutality were used to convert left-wing prisoners.<ref name=":3" /><br />
<br />
=== "Conversion" statements ===<br />
Until 1998, the prisoners were pressured to sign statements of "conversion" renouncing communist ideology as a condition of being released. Many prisoners refused to sign, later becoming referred to as "unconverted" prisoners.<ref name=":0" /> The requirement to sign a conversion statement was substituted in 1998 with a "Pledge to Obey the Law" which was eventually discontinued in 2003.<ref name=":3" /><br />
<br />
Among those who did sign the "conversion" statement as a condition of release, there are accounts such as that of [[Park Hee-sung]], who said that his so-called "conversion" was the result of physical torture, and that he meant none of it,<ref name=":4" /> or the case of [[Kim Young-sik]], who commented on his own experience with torture in the 2003 documentary [[Repatriation (film)|''Repatriation'']], "torturing you and forcing you to renounce your belief, can you really call that conversion?"<ref name=":0" /> Kim Young-sik was also quoted in a 2018 article saying of this forced conversion via torture, "I'm still very angry [...] How could they torture me to force me to give up an ideology that I believe is correct?"<ref name=":7">Kim, Hyung-jin. [https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/southern-exposure-the-north-koreans-longing-to-be-sent-home-20180523-p4zh0h.html “Southern Exposure: The North Koreans Longing to Be Sent Home.”] The Sydney Morning Herald. May 24, 2018. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240311103437/https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/southern-exposure-the-north-koreans-longing-to-be-sent-home-20180523-p4zh0h.html Archived] 2024-03-11. </ref><br />
<br />
Former prisoner [[Anh Hak-sop]] recounted similar methods of pressure to try to get him to renounce his beliefs, including bribery and torture, in an interview with [[Liberation School]]: "First they tried to make theoretical arguments against the DPRK. But they couldn’t defend their beliefs to me. After that, they tried to bribe me with property. After that, there was torture."<ref name=":5" /><br />
<br />
=== Torture ===<br />
The methods of torture recounted by various victims include waterboarding,<ref name=":7" /> being forced to eat off the floor with hands cuffed behind their backs,<ref name=":7" /> being spun while hanging from the ceiling,<ref name=":7" /> beatings,<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":9">Kristof, Nicholas D. [https://www.nytimes.com/1995/08/20/world/free-in-seoul-after-44-years-and-still-defiant.html?pagewanted=all "Free in Seoul after 44 Years, and Still Defiant."] [[The New York Times]]. Aug. 20, 1995. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240311152015/https://www.nytimes.com/1995/08/20/world/free-in-seoul-after-44-years-and-still-defiant.html?pagewanted=all Archived] 2024-03-11.</ref> prolonged solitary confinement,<ref name=":2" /> water being thrown in the room in winter,<ref name=":5" /> being doused with cold water in winter while being beaten,<ref name=":13">Ri In Mo. [https://archive.org/details/my-life-and-faith-eng/page/n2/mode/1up "My Life and Faith."] Foreign Languages Publishing House, Pyongyang, Korea. 1997.</ref> convicts being beaten until unable to walk properly and then "made to crawl back to their prison cells, beaten with clubs and kicked on the way",<ref name=":13" /> being force-fed salt water through a hose forced into their throat,<ref name=":13" /> clothing and bedding being taken away,<ref name=":5" /> starvation,<ref name=":9" /> prisoners being "expected to wash themselves with their own urine",<ref name=":9" /> confiscation of medications (resulting in death in some cases),<ref name=":13" /> and denial of medical and dental care.<ref name=":1" /> The 1993 Amnesty International document noted that the long-term prisoners were often kept in poor conditions and that some were suffering ill health due to their long term imprisonment and a reported lack of adequate medical care. The document also mentions that those who refused to sign the conversion statement generally suffered even worse treatment than the other prisoners.<ref name=":1" /> An article from 1999 by the BBC states that "Life inside was almost entirely spent in dark and cold cells and medical attention was scarce. Torture sometimes took the form of being locked up with a particularly sadistic prisoner."<ref name=":2" /><br />
<br />
In the memoirs of former prisoner [[Ri In Mo]], the author writes that some prisoners committed suicide. He writes about a prisoner whose medications were confiscated, being told that he would get his medications back if he converted. The prisoner went on multiple hunger strikes, then hanged himself with a torn strip of blanket, having said he would rather kill himself than die of disease.<ref name=":13" /><br />
<br />
According to a 1995 [[Prison Legal News]] article, unconverted prisoner [[Kim Sun Myung]], who had been in captivity for over 43 years, had been beaten, starved, threatened with execution, watched his fellow prisoners die, was kept in solitary confinement for decades, and was denied medical care by prison doctors as he went blind from cataracts. Commenting with regard to the torture upon his release, Kim said: "They say that when you hammer steel, it only gets harder. Well, when you hit people, you just turn them into enemies, and they become stronger."<ref name=":8" /><br />
<br />
== Repatriation movement ==<br />
[[File:Repatriation demonstration for unconverted long-term prisoners vop.co.kr.jpg|thumb|Members of the preparatory group for the 20th anniversary of the repatriation of non-converted prisoners hold a press conference in front of the government complex in Seoul to urge the second repatriation (2020).<ref>Photo by 김철수 (Kim Cheoulsu). [https://www.vop.co.kr/A00001510809.html <nowiki>민중의소리 (Voice of the People). 인도적조치 비전향장기수 송환하라[포토] (Repatriate non-converted long-term prisoners for humanitarian measures [Photo]).</nowiki>] 2020-09-08.</ref>]]<br />
Of the former prisoners who sought repatriation to DPRK, some were eventually able to be repatriated, notably 63 of them in the year 2000.<ref name=":7" /> However, others remained in the south, being denied their requests for repatriation.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":4" /> The 63 individuals who were repatriated in September of 2000 were celebrated in [[Pyongyang]] and awarded [[National Reunification Prize|National Reunification Prizes]].<ref name=":6" /> At the time, the prisoners ranged in age from 66 to 90 years old.<ref name=":10">[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/907307.stm "Korean communists go home."] BBC News, 2 September, 2000. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240311153647/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/907307.stm Archived] 2024-03-11.</ref><br />
<br />
A Liberation School interview with a former prisoner, Ahn Hak-sop, reveals that many who participated in the repatriation in the year 2000 and many of those who remained in south Korea made their decisions based on their impression at the time that there was going to be more freedom of movement between ROK and DPRK thereafter. Ahn, who chose to remain in the south when the 2000 repatriation happened, said one of his reasons was that he "thought it was a temporary situation." Anh also notes regarding two prisoners released alongside him who were repatriated, that "[T]hose comrades went to the North because they thought that shortly there would be free movement between the two states. They went to the North to study and thought they would come back later." Regarding his own intention to stay in the south temporarily, Anh elaborated: "[T]here were young [[Progressivism|progressive]] people here in the South, and they asked me to stay. [...] We have to keep struggling here for the withdrawal of US army, the peace treaty, and peaceful reunification. I decided to stay here to fight for these goals. In 1952, I came here to liberate the southern half of the peninsula, and I need to stay here and continue that struggle."<ref name=":5">Liberation School (Jul 27, 2022). [https://www.liberationschool.org/interview-with-ahn-hak-sop/ "Still fighting for Korea’s liberation: An interview with Ahn Hak-sop"] ''Liberation School''. [https://web.archive.org/web/2/https://www.liberationschool.org/interview-with-ahn-hak-sop/ Archived] from the original.</ref><br />
<br />
Those who oppose or criticize the repatriation of these former prisoners generally do so on grounds of demanding that DPRK repatriate people to the south as well.<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":10" /><br />
<br />
== Persecution and surveillance ==<br />
The unconverted long-term prisoners who were released have faced various difficulties while living in south Korea, ranging from ongoing health issues from their imprisonment, to not being given social security numbers, living in poverty, and being subjected to state surveillance. In some cases, their families have also suffered persecution during and after their relative's imprisonment.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":7" /><ref name=":9" /><br />
<br />
Giving examples of the forms of persecution and surveillance he faced, former prisoner Anh Hak-sop explained, "[T]here are security police who follow me. Whenever there is a problem with the North and South, they raid my house and stand guard outside my property. One time at a demonstration, [[Conservatism|conservative]] forces attacked me. The police did nothing to protect me. Every week or every other week, the police come to my house and ask about my activities, who has visited my house, and so on. Once every other month I need to report to them about what I did, who I met, and who visited me. Every two years I need to go to court."<ref name=":5" /><br />
<br />
[[Kang Yong-ju]], a citizen activist who had been involved in the 1980 [[May 18 uprising|Gwangju Uprising]] as a student, is an unconverted long-term prisoner who was arrested in 1985, on charges of connection to a "spy ring" which have been regarded as unfounded<ref>[https://www.refworld.org/reference/countryrep/amnesty/1998/en/93950 "Long-Term Prisoners Still Held under the National Security Law."] Amnesty International. May 1, 1998. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240316184146/https://www.refworld.org/reference/countryrep/amnesty/1998/en/93950 Archived] 2023-03-16.</ref> and alleged to have been fabricated by the [[Chun Doo-hwan]] regime.<ref name=":11">Bak Gwang-yeon. [https://english.khan.co.kr/khan_art_view.html?artid=201802222015297&code=710100 "Kang Yong-ju, Free from the Shackles of 'Security Surveillance'."] [[The Kyunghyang Shinmun]], 2018-02-22. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240316182453/https://english.khan.co.kr/khan_art_view.html?artid=201802222015297&code=710100 Archived] 2024-03-16.</ref> He refused to sign a statement renouncing his views, and was thus imprisoned by the south Korean regime for 14 years, being released in 1999.<ref>Kim Min-kyung. [https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/824966.html “Prosecutors Request Prison Time for Unconverted Political Prisoner.”] Hankyoreh, 2017-12-25. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240316183657/https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/824966.html Archived] 2024-03-16.</ref> In the years following his release, Kang was subjected to the Security Surveillance Act until a court decision in 2018 finally prohibited the extension of further surveillance on Kang.<ref name=":11" /><br />
<br />
A column in Hankyoreh describes the surveillance program which Kang had been subjected to in the following manner:<blockquote>Being subject to security surveillance means that you must report your every move, every three months. If you move to a new house, you have to report that, and if the police suddenly call you in the middle of the night, you have to pick up the phone. If you want to travel, you have to provide advance notice of the destination and length of your trip and your travel companions. The police can ban you not only from meeting or contacting other people but also from attending public gatherings and demonstrations. Not only your family and relatives but even your [[landlord]], coworkers, church parishioners and apartment security staff can be asked to provide information about you or may be subject to surveillance themselves. Even though you have already finished your prison sentence, your life as a convict continues for the rest of your life.<ref name=":12">Lee Myung-soo. [https://www.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/792186.html <nowiki>“[Column] Kang Yong-Ju Must Not Be Treated like a Convict for the Rest of His Life.”</nowiki>] Hankyoreh, 2017-04-25. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240316183604/https://www.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/792186.html Archived] 2024-03-16.</ref></blockquote>The column also notes that security surveillance must be renewed every two years, but if the Justice Minister believes that there is a risk of recidivism, "the state can continue to monitor an individual’s private life until the day they die."<ref name=":12" /><br />
<br />
== Media ==<br />
Former prisoner Ri In Mo, who was repatriated to DPRK in 1993, wrote a memoir titled ''My Life and Faith'' (Korean title: 신념과 나의 한생) in which he recounted his life story. The book includes his youth during the anti-Japanese national liberation struggle as well as his 34 years of imprisonment in south Korea.<ref name=":13" /><br />
<br />
A documentary about the unconverted long-term prisoners called ''Repatriation'' (Korean title: 송환) was released in 2003 by south Korean director Kim Dong Won. After several of the unconverted long-term prisoners had moved to his neighborhood after their release, the director developed a close relationship with them and began a film project that "spanned 12 years and 800 hours of videotaping".<ref>[https://asiasociety.org/kim-dong-wons-film-north-korean-prisoners-held-south-korea “Kim Dong Won’s Film on North Korean Prisoners Held in South Korea.”] Asia Society. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220725151533/https://asiasociety.org/kim-dong-wons-film-north-korean-prisoners-held-south-korea Archived] 2022-07-25.</ref> Another film by the same director, titled ''The 2nd Repatriation'' (Korean title: 2차 송환),<ref>[https://indieground.kr/indie/movieLibraryView.do?seq=4374&type=D "2차 송환."] 독립영화 라이브러리, Indieground. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240321041311/https://indieground.kr/indie/movieLibraryView.do?seq=4374&type=D Archived] 2023-03-021.</ref> was released in 2022 and follows the lives of the former prisoners, such as Kim Young-sik, who remained in south Korea but who have been urging for a second repatriation.<ref>[https://eng.jeonjufest.kr/db/movieView.asp?idx=4781&sEP_NUM=23 "The 2nd Repatriation."]전주국제영화제. The 23rd JEONJU International Film Festival. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220924153321/https://eng.jeonjufest.kr/db/movieView.asp?idx=4781&sEP_NUM=23 Archived] 2022-09-24.</ref><ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nq-z7JGcWUQ "【第十三屆台灣國際紀錄片影展】當代風景|第二次遣返 The 2nd Repatriation."] YouTube.</ref><br />
<br />
== See also ==<br />
<br />
* [[Repatriation (film)]]<br />
<br />
== References ==<br />
<references /></div>
Verda.Majo
https://en.prolewiki.org/index.php?title=Unconverted_long-term_prisoners&diff=64440
Unconverted long-term prisoners
2024-03-21T05:11:10Z
<p>Verda.Majo: Added information from the memoir of Ri In Mo, added a "Media" section</p>
<hr />
<div>[[File:Unconverted long-term prisoners in south Korea.jpg|thumb|A demonstration calling for a second repatriation of unconverted long-term prisoners in south Korea. The sign reads "Call for second repatriation of non-converted long-term prisoners" ("비전향장기수 2차 송환 촉구").<ref>장동욱 (Jang Dong-wook). [http://www.saramilbo.com/5940 “비전향장기수 2차 송환 촉구.”] ("Call for second repatriation of non-converted long-term prisoners.") 사람일보. (Saram Ilbo.) 2006-09-02. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240311145007/http://www.saramilbo.com/5940 Archived] 2024-03-11.</ref>]]<br />
'''Unconverted long-term prisoners''' is a term which refers to [[Political prisoner|political prisoners]] imprisoned in [[Republic of Korea|south Korea]], generally on charges of "anti-state" activities or views in support of [[communism]] or [[Democratic People's Republic of Korea|DPRK]].<ref name=":1">[https://www.amnesty.org/es/documents/asa25/033/1993/en/ “South Korea: Unfair Trial and Torture: Long-Term Political Prisoners.”] [[Amnesty International]], September 30, 1993.</ref><ref name=":6">"National reunification prizes awarded to unconverted long-term prisoners", [[Korean Central News Agency]], 2000-09-04. [https://web.archive.org/web/20191124030603/http://www.kcna.co.jp/item/2000/200009/news09/04.htm Archived] 2019-11-19.</ref> The term commonly refers to people who were mostly arrested from the 1950s to 1980s and imprisoned and tortured for decades and who refused to sign a "conversion" statement renouncing communist or [[Left–right political spectrum|left-wing]] ideology, which had been a condition for their release.<ref>Amnesty International, [https://www.refworld.org/reference/annualreport/amnesty/1999/en/24250 Amnesty International Report 1999 - Korea, -, 1 January 1999]. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240311065515/https://www.refworld.org/reference/annualreport/amnesty/1999/en/24250 Archived] 2024-03-11.</ref> In the 1990s, some of the prisoners began being released. Some chose to remain in south Korea while others sought to be repatriated to DPRK.<ref name=":0">Kim Dong-won. ''Repatriation'' (2003). Documentary. URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xu2mEvU29Q</ref><br />
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== Imprisonment and torture ==<br />
The individuals arrested by the southern regime on charges of anti-state activities faced unfair trials,<ref name=":1" /> torture,<ref name=":1" /> and isolation,<ref name=":2">[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/286070.stm "Solitary: Tough test of survival instinct."] [[British Broadcasting Corporation|BBC]] News. February 25, 1999. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240311083202/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/286070.stm Archived] 2024-03-11.</ref> with some of them being imprisoned for over 40 years.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":8">[https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/news/1995/nov/15/worlds-longest-held-political-prisoner-released/ "World’s Longest Held Political Prisoner Released."] Prison Legal News, 1995-11-15. [https://web.archive.org/web/20231001182401/https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/news/1995/nov/15/worlds-longest-held-political-prisoner-released/ Archived] 2023-10-01.</ref><ref name=":3">[https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/388611.html “Truth Commission Confirms Yushin-Era Violations on Prisoners’ Freedom of Conscience.”] Hankyoreh, 2009-11-19. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240311105516/https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/388611.html Archived] 2024-03-11.</ref> While some of the prisoners were arrested for actual acts of espionage,<ref name=":4">Kang Jin-kyu (2016-08-07). [https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2016/08/07/politics/Spies-who-cant-come-in-from-the-cold/3022316.html "Spies who can't come in from the cold"] ''Korea JoongAng Daily''. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230208033225/https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2016/08/07/politics/Spies-who-cant-come-in-from-the-cold/3022316.html Archived] 2023-02-08.</ref> others have been described as [[Prisoner of conscience|prisoners of conscience]], with organizations such as [[Amnesty International]] stating in a 1993 document that some of the prisoners were "held solely for peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of expression and association" while also stating that prisoners "appear to have been tortured during interrogation" and were "convicted largely on the basis of these coerced confessions after an unfair trial" and raising concerns that they had been denied lawyers during their interrogations.<ref name=":1" /><br />
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In 2009, south Korean news outlet Hankyoreh reported that south Korea's Truth and Reconciliation Commission released a statement which concluded that the conversion tactics which had been used on left-wing prisoners during the Yushin era of the 1970s constituted state violence and that acts of brutality were used to convert left-wing prisoners.<ref name=":3" /><br />
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=== "Conversion" statements ===<br />
Until 1998, the prisoners were pressured to sign statements of "conversion" renouncing communist ideology as a condition of being released. Many prisoners refused to sign, later becoming referred to as "unconverted" prisoners.<ref name=":0" /> The requirement to sign a conversion statement was substituted in 1998 with a "Pledge to Obey the Law" which was eventually discontinued in 2003.<ref name=":3" /><br />
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Among those who did sign the "conversion" statement as a condition of release, there are accounts such as that of [[Park Hee-sung]], who said that his so-called "conversion" was the result of physical torture, and that he meant none of it,<ref name=":4" /> or the case of [[Kim Young-sik]], who commented on his own experience with torture in the 2003 documentary [[Repatriation (film)|''Repatriation'']], "torturing you and forcing you to renounce your belief, can you really call that conversion?"<ref name=":0" /> Kim Young-sik was also quoted in a 2018 article saying of this forced conversion via torture, "I'm still very angry [...] How could they torture me to force me to give up an ideology that I believe is correct?"<ref name=":7">Kim, Hyung-jin. [https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/southern-exposure-the-north-koreans-longing-to-be-sent-home-20180523-p4zh0h.html “Southern Exposure: The North Koreans Longing to Be Sent Home.”] The Sydney Morning Herald. May 24, 2018. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240311103437/https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/southern-exposure-the-north-koreans-longing-to-be-sent-home-20180523-p4zh0h.html Archived] 2024-03-11. </ref><br />
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Former prisoner [[Anh Hak-sop]] recounted similar methods of pressure to try to get him to renounce his beliefs, including bribery and torture, in an interview with [[Liberation School]]: "First they tried to make theoretical arguments against the DPRK. But they couldn’t defend their beliefs to me. After that, they tried to bribe me with property. After that, there was torture."<ref name=":5" /><br />
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=== Torture ===<br />
The methods of torture recounted by various victims include waterboarding,<ref name=":7" /> being forced to eat off the floor with hands cuffed behind their backs,<ref name=":7" /> being spun while hanging from the ceiling,<ref name=":7" /> beatings,<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":9">Kristof, Nicholas D. [https://www.nytimes.com/1995/08/20/world/free-in-seoul-after-44-years-and-still-defiant.html?pagewanted=all "Free in Seoul after 44 Years, and Still Defiant."] [[The New York Times]]. Aug. 20, 1995. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240311152015/https://www.nytimes.com/1995/08/20/world/free-in-seoul-after-44-years-and-still-defiant.html?pagewanted=all Archived] 2024-03-11.</ref> prolonged solitary confinement,<ref name=":2" /> water being thrown in the room in winter,<ref name=":5" /> being doused with cold water in winter while being beaten,<ref name=":13">Ri In Mo. [https://archive.org/details/my-life-and-faith-eng/page/n2/mode/1up "My Life and Faith."] Foreign Languages Publishing House, Pyongyang, Korea. 1997.</ref> convicts being beaten until unable to walk properly and then "made to crawl back to their prison cells, beaten with clubs and kicked on the way",<ref name=":13" /> being force-fed salt water through a hose forced into their throat,<ref name=":13" /> clothing and bedding being taken away,<ref name=":5" /> starvation,<ref name=":9" /> prisoners being "expected to wash themselves with their own urine",<ref name=":9" /> confiscation of medications (resulting in death in some cases),<ref name=":13" /> and denial of medical and dental care.<ref name=":1" /> The 1993 Amnesty International document noted that the long-term prisoners were often kept in poor conditions and that some were suffering ill health due to their long term imprisonment and a reported lack of adequate medical care. The document also mentions that those who refused to sign the conversion statement generally suffered even worse treatment than the other prisoners.<ref name=":1" /> An article from 1999 by the BBC states that "Life inside was almost entirely spent in dark and cold cells and medical attention was scarce. Torture sometimes took the form of being locked up with a particularly sadistic prisoner."<ref name=":2" /><br />
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In the memoirs of former prisoner [[Ri In Mo]], the author writes that some prisoners committed suicide. He writes about a prisoner whose medications were confiscated, being told that he would get his medications back if he converted. The prisoner went on multiple hunger strikes, then hanged himself with a torn strip of blanket, having said he would rather kill himself than die of disease.<ref name=":13" /><br />
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According to a 1995 [[Prison Legal News]] article, unconverted prisoner [[Kim Sun Myung]], who had been in captivity for over 43 years, had been beaten, starved, threatened with execution, watched his fellow prisoners die, was kept in solitary confinement for decades, and was denied medical care by prison doctors as he went blind from cataracts. Commenting with regard to the torture upon his release, Kim said: "They say that when you hammer steel, it only gets harder. Well, when you hit people, you just turn them into enemies, and they become stronger."<ref name=":8" /><br />
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== Repatriation movement ==<br />
[[File:Repatriation demonstration for unconverted long-term prisoners vop.co.kr.jpg|thumb|Members of the preparatory group for the 20th anniversary of the repatriation of non-converted prisoners hold a press conference in front of the government complex in Seoul to urge the second repatriation (2020).<ref>Photo by 김철수 (Kim Cheoulsu). [https://www.vop.co.kr/A00001510809.html <nowiki>민중의소리 (Voice of the People). 인도적조치 비전향장기수 송환하라[포토] (Repatriate non-converted long-term prisoners for humanitarian measures [Photo]).</nowiki>] 2020-09-08.</ref>]]<br />
Of the former prisoners who sought repatriation to DPRK, some were eventually able to be repatriated, notably 63 of them in the year 2000.<ref name=":7" /> However, others remained in the south, being denied their requests for repatriation.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":4" /> The 63 individuals who were repatriated in September of 2000 were celebrated in [[Pyongyang]] and awarded [[National Reunification Prize|National Reunification Prizes]].<ref name=":6" /> At the time, the prisoners ranged in age from 66 to 90 years old.<ref name=":10">[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/907307.stm "Korean communists go home."] BBC News, 2 September, 2000. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240311153647/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/907307.stm Archived] 2024-03-11.</ref><br />
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A Liberation School interview with a former prisoner, Ahn Hak-sop, reveals that many who participated in the repatriation in the year 2000 and many of those who remained in south Korea made their decisions based on their impression at the time that there was going to be more freedom of movement between ROK and DPRK thereafter. Ahn, who chose to remain in the south when the 2000 repatriation happened, said one of his reasons was that he "thought it was a temporary situation." Anh also notes regarding two prisoners released alongside him who were repatriated, that "[T]hose comrades went to the North because they thought that shortly there would be free movement between the two states. They went to the North to study and thought they would come back later." Regarding his own intention to stay in the south temporarily, Anh elaborated: "[T]here were young [[Progressivism|progressive]] people here in the South, and they asked me to stay. [...] We have to keep struggling here for the withdrawal of US army, the peace treaty, and peaceful reunification. I decided to stay here to fight for these goals. In 1952, I came here to liberate the southern half of the peninsula, and I need to stay here and continue that struggle."<ref name=":5">Liberation School (Jul 27, 2022). [https://www.liberationschool.org/interview-with-ahn-hak-sop/ "Still fighting for Korea’s liberation: An interview with Ahn Hak-sop"] ''Liberation School''. [https://web.archive.org/web/2/https://www.liberationschool.org/interview-with-ahn-hak-sop/ Archived] from the original.</ref><br />
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Those who oppose or criticize the repatriation of these former prisoners generally do so on grounds of demanding that DPRK repatriate people to the south as well.<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":10" /><br />
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== Persecution and surveillance ==<br />
The unconverted long-term prisoners who were released have faced various difficulties while living in south Korea, ranging from ongoing health issues from their imprisonment, to not being given social security numbers, living in poverty, and being subjected to state surveillance. In some cases, their families have also suffered persecution during and after their relative's imprisonment.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":7" /><ref name=":9" /><br />
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Giving examples of the forms of persecution and surveillance he faced, former prisoner Anh Hak-sop explained, "[T]here are security police who follow me. Whenever there is a problem with the North and South, they raid my house and stand guard outside my property. One time at a demonstration, [[Conservatism|conservative]] forces attacked me. The police did nothing to protect me. Every week or every other week, the police come to my house and ask about my activities, who has visited my house, and so on. Once every other month I need to report to them about what I did, who I met, and who visited me. Every two years I need to go to court."<ref name=":5" /><br />
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[[Kang Yong-ju]], a citizen activist who had been involved in the 1980 [[May 18 uprising|Gwangju Uprising]] as a student, is an unconverted long-term prisoner who was arrested in 1985, on charges of connection to a "spy ring" which have been regarded as unfounded<ref>[https://www.refworld.org/reference/countryrep/amnesty/1998/en/93950 "Long-Term Prisoners Still Held under the National Security Law."] Amnesty International. May 1, 1998. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240316184146/https://www.refworld.org/reference/countryrep/amnesty/1998/en/93950 Archived] 2023-03-16.</ref> and alleged to have been fabricated by the [[Chun Doo-hwan]] regime.<ref name=":11">Bak Gwang-yeon. [https://english.khan.co.kr/khan_art_view.html?artid=201802222015297&code=710100 "Kang Yong-ju, Free from the Shackles of 'Security Surveillance'."] [[The Kyunghyang Shinmun]], 2018-02-22. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240316182453/https://english.khan.co.kr/khan_art_view.html?artid=201802222015297&code=710100 Archived] 2024-03-16.</ref> He refused to sign a statement renouncing his views, and was thus imprisoned by the south Korean regime for 14 years, being released in 1999.<ref>Kim Min-kyung. [https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/824966.html “Prosecutors Request Prison Time for Unconverted Political Prisoner.”] Hankyoreh, 2017-12-25. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240316183657/https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/824966.html Archived] 2024-03-16.</ref> In the years following his release, Kang was subjected to the Security Surveillance Act until a court decision in 2018 finally prohibited the extension of further surveillance on Kang.<ref name=":11" /><br />
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A column in Hankyoreh describes the surveillance program which Kang had been subjected to in the following manner:<blockquote>Being subject to security surveillance means that you must report your every move, every three months. If you move to a new house, you have to report that, and if the police suddenly call you in the middle of the night, you have to pick up the phone. If you want to travel, you have to provide advance notice of the destination and length of your trip and your travel companions. The police can ban you not only from meeting or contacting other people but also from attending public gatherings and demonstrations. Not only your family and relatives but even your [[landlord]], coworkers, church parishioners and apartment security staff can be asked to provide information about you or may be subject to surveillance themselves. Even though you have already finished your prison sentence, your life as a convict continues for the rest of your life.<ref name=":12">Lee Myung-soo. [https://www.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/792186.html <nowiki>“[Column] Kang Yong-Ju Must Not Be Treated like a Convict for the Rest of His Life.”</nowiki>] Hankyoreh, 2017-04-25. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240316183604/https://www.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/792186.html Archived] 2024-03-16.</ref></blockquote>The column also notes that security surveillance must be renewed every two years, but if the Justice Minister believes that there is a risk of recidivism, "the state can continue to monitor an individual’s private life until the day they die."<ref name=":12" /><br />
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== Media ==<br />
Former prisoner Ri In Mo, who was repatriated to DPRK in 1993, wrote a memoir titled ''My Life and Faith'' (Korean title: 신념과 나의 한생) in which he recounted his life story. The book includes his youth during the anti-Japanese national liberation struggle as well as his 34 years of imprisonment in south Korea.<ref name=":13" /><br />
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A documentary about the unconverted long-term prisoners called ''Repatriation'' (Korean title: 송환) was released in 2003 by south Korean director Kim Dong Won. After several of the unconverted long-term prisoners had moved to his neighborhood after their release, the director developed a close relationship with them and began a film project that "spanned 12 years and 800 hours of videotaping".<ref>[https://asiasociety.org/kim-dong-wons-film-north-korean-prisoners-held-south-korea “Kim Dong Won’s Film on North Korean Prisoners Held in South Korea.”] Asia Society. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220725151533/https://asiasociety.org/kim-dong-wons-film-north-korean-prisoners-held-south-korea Archived] 2022-07-25.</ref> Another film by the same director, titled ''The 2nd Repatriation'' (Korean title: 2차 송환),<ref>[https://indieground.kr/indie/movieLibraryView.do?seq=4374&type=D "2차 송환."] 독립영화 라이브러리, Indieground. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240321041311/https://indieground.kr/indie/movieLibraryView.do?seq=4374&type=D Archived] 2023-03-021.</ref> was released in 2022 and follows the lives of the former prisoners, such as Kim Young-sik, who remained in south Korea but who have been urging for a second repatriation.<ref>[https://eng.jeonjufest.kr/db/movieView.asp?idx=4781&sEP_NUM=23 "The 2nd Repatriation."]전주국제영화제. The 23rd JEONJU International Film Festival. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220924153321/https://eng.jeonjufest.kr/db/movieView.asp?idx=4781&sEP_NUM=23 Archived] 2022-09-24.</ref><ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nq-z7JGcWUQ "【第十三屆台灣國際紀錄片影展】當代風景|第二次遣返 The 2nd Repatriation."] YouTube.</ref><br />
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== See also ==<br />
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* [[Repatriation (film)]]<br />
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== References ==<br />
<references /></div>
Verda.Majo
https://en.prolewiki.org/index.php?title=Korea&diff=64376
Korea
2024-03-19T16:29:41Z
<p>Verda.Majo: /* Prehistory */ added another source</p>
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<div>{{Infobox country|name=Korea|native_name=조선|image_flag=Korean Unification Flag.png|image_map=Korea.png|capital=[[Pyongyang]]|largest_city=[[Seoul]]|official_languages=Korean|area_km2=223,155|population_estimate=77,000,000|population_estimate_year=2017|map_width=250}}<br />
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'''Korea''' is a nation in [[East Asia]] consisting of the Korean Peninsula and nearby islands, including the island of [[Jeju Island|Jeju]]. In the present day, Korea is split between two governments, one located in the north and the other in the south. The [[Democratic People's Republic of Korea]] (DPRK), commonly called North Korea, is located in the northern portion of the peninsula. Meanwhile, the [[United States of America|US]]-occupied [[Republic of Korea]] (ROK), commonly called South Korea, is located in the southern portion of the peninsula. The division of the peninsula in 1945 was originally meant only to be temporary, but has persisted to the present day due to the continued occupation of the South and uncompromising policy of aggression toward the DPRK by the United States. <br />
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In the past, Korea was a single nation for at least 1,000 years with a continuous society, language and political system.<ref>Jay Hauben (2011-08-20). [http://www.jejuweekly.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=1865 "People's Republic of Korea: Jeju, 1945-1946"] ''The Jeju Weekly''.</ref> [[Empire of Japan (1868–1947)|Japan]] forced Korea to open its ports in 1876 and annexed it in 1905. From 1910 to 1945, Korea was a colony of the Empire of Japan.<ref>{{Citation|author=Ki-baik Lee|year=2019|title=Korea|title-url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Korea/Korea-under-Japanese-rule|chapter=Korea since c. 1400|section=Korea under Japanese rule|publisher=Encyclopedia Britannica|chapter-url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Korea/Korea-since-c-1400}}</ref> Under Japanese colonial rule, Korean language and culture were banned, and the Korean people faced conditions of forced labor and sexual [[slavery]].<ref>{{Web citation|author=Derek Ford|newspaper=[[Liberation School]]|title=Chongryon: The struggle of Koreans in Japan|date=2019-01-30|url=https://www.liberationschool.org/the-chongryon-movement-the-struggle-of-koreans-in-japan/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220814225352/https://www.liberationschool.org/the-chongryon-movement-the-struggle-of-koreans-in-japan/|archive-date=2022-08-14|retrieved=2022-08-27}}</ref> <br />
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The DPRK's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ri Yong Ho, stated to the [[United Nations|UN]] General Assembly in 2017 that the essence of the situation of the Korean peninsula is a confrontation between the DPRK and the US, where the DPRK tries to defend its national dignity and sovereignty against the hostile policy and nuclear threats of the US, and clarified that the DPRK "do[es] not have any intention at all to use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against the countries that do not join in the U.S. military actions against the DPRK."<ref>Ri Yong Ho, DPRK Minister for Foreign Affairs. [https://gadebate.un.org/sites/default/files/gastatements/72/kp_en.pdf "Statement by H.E. Mr. RI YONG HO, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea at the General Debate of the 72 Session of the United Nations General Assembly."] New York, 23rd September 2017. gadebate.un.org. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220709114619/https://gadebate.un.org/sites/default/files/gastatements/72/kp_en.pdf Archived] 2022-08-28.</ref><br />
[[File:Provinces of Korea.png|thumb|395x395px|Provinces of Korea.]]<br />
The [[People's Democracy Party]] (PDP), a revolutionary [[Communist party|workers' party]] in South Korea, stated in a 2020 article that the Korean reunification and peace struggle is contingent on the withdrawal of U.S. troops, that the U.S. troops are "occupation forces in South Corea and invading army to North Corea" and therefore U.S. military withdrawal from South Korea is "the most desperate and preferred struggle task for the whole Corean nation to solve." The PDP added that as long as the U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea and war exercises are conducted against North Korea, "the prospect for peace is bound to be dark."<ref>People's Democracy Party and Liberation School. [https://www.liberationschool.org/korean-war-70-years/ “70 Years Too Long: The Struggle to End the Korean War – Liberation School.”] ''Liberation School – Revolutionary Marxism for a New Generation of Fighters'', 25 June 2020. [https://web.archive.org/web/2/https://www.liberationschool.org/korean-war-70-years/ Archived].</ref> <br />
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The Korean Peninsula is bordered by [[People's Republic of China|China]] to the northwest and [[Russia (disambiguation)|Russia]] to the northeast. It is separated from [[Japan]] to the east by the Korea Strait and the Sea of Japan (East Sea). <br />
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== Etymology ==<br />
The English name "Korea" derives from the Korean kingdom of Goryeo, also transcribed as Koryŏ (Korean: 고려), which lasted from 918 to 1392. It is commonly considered that during the Goryeo period, the individual identities of Goguryeo, Baekje, and Silla were successfully merged into a single entity that became the basis of modern-day Korean identity.<br />
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In the modern Korean language, the word used to refer to Korea differs in usage between DPRK and the south. In DPRK, Korea is referred to as ''Choson'' (Korean: 조선; Hanja: 朝鮮), while in the south, Korea is referred to as ''Hanguk'' (Korean: 한국; Hanja: 韓國). Each of these names has roots in both modern and ancient Korean history.<ref>[https://tongiltours.com/part-1-study-in-north-korea-kim-il-sung-university “How to Speak the North Korean Language: Part 1”] Tongil Tours. March 10, 2017. [https://web.archive.org/web/20221025103531/https://tongiltours.com/part-1-study-in-north-korea-kim-il-sung-university Archived] 2022-10-25.<br />
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</ref> Therefore, among the liberation movement in Korea during the imperial Japanese occupation period, the names ''Choson'' and ''Hanguk'' both came to be regarded as potential choices for the future name of the post-liberation country. <br />
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In south Korea, it is common to refer to DPRK as "Bukhan" (북한; 北韓), meaning "North ''Han'' (Korea)". Meanwhile, it is common for people in DPRK to refer to south Korea as "Namchoson" (남조선; 南朝鮮), "South ''Choson'' (Korea)". In some contexts, the word ''cheuk'' (측; 側), meaning "side" is used, forming ''bukcheuk'', "north side" and ''namcheuk'', "south side", to speak more neutrally about each other.<ref>이진욱. [https://www.nocutnews.co.kr/news/4910375 “언론은 왜 북한을 '북측’이라고 할까?”] 노컷뉴스. 노컷뉴스. January 22, 2018. [https://web.archive.org/web/20221025120530/https://www.nocutnews.co.kr/news/4910375 Archived] 2022-10-25.</ref><br />
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The name Choson derives from a Korean dynasty which ruled from 1392 to 1897. However, in October of 1897, the monarch of Korea declared an end to the Choson Kingdom, founding a new regime known as the ''Daehanjeguk'' or "Great Han Empire" (Korean: 대한제국; Hanja: 大韓帝國) in 1897, with himself as emperor. The name "Daehan" was formed in reference to the three states that existed in Korea in the past, Mahan, Byunhan, and Jinhan. However, with the Japanese annexation of Korea in 1910, the name for Korea was reverted back to "Choson" during the period of Japanese [[imperialism]].<ref name=":4">[https://615tv.net/432?category=1051910 <nowiki>“[1조] 북한의 국호에 민주주의를 유지하는 이유는?”</nowiki>] 주권방송. The615tv. July 29, 2022. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220904010957/https://615tv.net/432?category=1051910 Archived] 2022-09-04.<br />
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</ref> <br />
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Therefore, an argument emerged that the future name of the country should be "Daehan" (Korean: 대한; Hanja: 大韓) as it had been the name of the country just prior to the Japanese colonial period, and "Choson" had been the name revived by the Japanese. However, the independence movement activists affiliated with socialism preferred "Choson" to "Daehan" because, for the general public, the name Choson was a more familiar country name than "Daehan Empire" which had only lasted for about 10 years, and "Daehan" was the name of the country that fell to Japanese annexation, making it an undesirable name.<ref name=":4" /><br />
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Eventually, the government that formed in south Korea came to be called ''Daehanminguk'' (Korean: 대한민국; Hanja: 大韓民國), which literally means “The Great Han Republic”, or, since “Han” here refers to Korea, “The Great Korean Republic”, with the name ''Hanguk'' being a short version of this name. Meanwhile in north Korea, people continued using ''Choson'', the word for Korea that had been used during the early 20th century Japanese [[Colonialism|colonial]] period and the 14th – 19th century Choson Dynasty.<ref>[https://tongiltours.com/part-2-korea-south-korean-hanguk “How to Speak the North Korean Language: Part 2”] Tongil Tours. March 19, 2017. [https://web.archive.org/web/20221025103547/https://tongiltours.com/part-2-korea-south-korean-hanguk Archived] 2022-10-25.</ref><br />
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== History ==<br />
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=== Early history ===<br />
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==== Prehistory ====<br />
The prehistory of the Korean nation began in [[Manchuria]] and the Korean Peninsula when people started settling there 700,000 years ago. Korea's Neolithic age began around 8,000 BCE. People started farming, cultivating cereals such as millet, and used polished stone tools. They started settling down permanently in places and formed clan societies.<ref name=":10" /><br />
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Korea's predominant foundation myth consists of the legend of Dangun, who is considered to be the founder of Korea. According to the narrative, he is the son of a heavenly prince who wanted to live on earth, and a bear who became a human woman. Dangun is considered to have established his capital in the city of [[Pyongyang]] (later moving it to Asadal, or originally establishing it in Asadal by some accounts)<ref name=":11">Violet Kim. [https://www.korea.net/NewsFocus/Culture/view?articleId=121092 "Dangun, Father of Korea: Korea’s Foundation Tale Lends Itself to Many Interpretations."] Korea.net. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230825142733/https://www.korea.net/NewsFocus/Culture/view?articleId=121092 Archived] 2023-08-25.</ref> and called his kingdom Joseon, and is considered to have ruled for 1,500 years, then became a mountain god.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/outline-of-korean-history "The Outline of Korean History."] Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1977. Pyongyang, Korea.</ref> In both north and south Korea, National Foundation Day (Korean: 개천절; Hanja: 開天節; <abbr>lit.</abbr> "opening of heavens celebration" or "the day the sky opened") is observed on October 3, marking the founding of Korea by Dangun, which according to the predominant narrative, occurred in 2333 B.C.<ref>Shaffer, David. [https://gwangjunewsgic.com/arts-culture/korean-myths/korea-is-created/ “The Heavens Open: Korea Is Created.”] Gwangju News. October 7, 2021. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230825142446/https://gwangjunewsgic.com/arts-culture/korean-myths/korea-is-created/ Archived] 2023-08-25.</ref> According to an article on south Korea's Ministry of Culture website, "despite inconsistencies between historical accounts, ultimately Dangun is still considered the founder of this nation."<ref name=":11" /><br />
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==== Ancient history ====<br />
[[File:Tongmyong mausoleum.png|thumb|Mausoleum of King Tongmyŏng]]<br />
Over time, clan leaders started merging many clans into one, and these groups very gradually developed into early states. Eventually, Gojoseon emerged as the first recognizable state of the Korean people. It was eventually followed by other states and groups of states on the Korean Peninsula, such as the Three Kingdoms, Unified Silla and Balhae, the Koryo dynasty, and the Choson dynasty.<ref name=":10">[https://www.korea.net/AboutKorea/History/The-Beginnings-of-the-Countrys-History “The Beginnings of Korea’s History (Prehistoric Times – Gojoseon) : Korea.net : The Official Website of the Republic of Korea.”] Korea.net. 2021. [https://web.archive.org/web/20221012230807/https://www.korea.net/AboutKorea/History/The-Beginnings-of-the-Countrys-History Archived] 2022-10-12.<br />
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</ref><ref>[https://www.korea.net/AboutKorea/History/Joseon “Joseon Dynasty : Korea.net : The Official Website of the Republic of Korea.”] Korea.net. 2021. </ref><br />
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King Tongmyong established the Koguryŏ Kingdom (37 BCE–668 CE).<ref>{{Web citation|newspaper=[[Rodong Sinmun]]|date=2023-03-04|url=http://www.rodong.rep.kp/en/index.php?MTJAMjAyMy0wMy0wNC1IMDAyQDdAMUBAMEA3==|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230819014817/http://www.rodong.rep.kp/en/index.php?MTJAMjAyMy0wMy0wNC1IMDAyQDdAMUBAMEA3==|archive-date=2023-08-19}}</ref><br />
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The first unified Korean state was the Koryŏ Kingdom, which existed from 918 to 1392. By then, [[Buddhism]] was already widespread in Korea. In the early 13th century, Korea suffered a [[Great Mongol Nation (1206–1368)|foreign invasion]].<ref>{{Web citation|newspaper=[[Rodong Sinmun]]|title=Phalmandaejanggyong|date=2023-05-28|url=http://rodong.rep.kp/en/index.php?MTJAMjAyMy0wNS0yOC1IMDAxQDdAMUBAMEAz==|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230819015445/http://rodong.rep.kp/en/index.php?MTJAMjAyMy0wNS0yOC1IMDAxQDdAMUBAMEAz==|archive-date=2023-08-19}}</ref><br />
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==== Joseon dynasty ====<br />
[[File:Pukgwan monument.png|thumb|238x238px|1708 monument commemorating Jong Mun-bu's victory against Japanese invaders]]<br />
The Joseon dynasty was founded in 1392 and lasted until 1897, a period of just over 500 years. It was followed by the relatively short-lived Korean Empire (1897-1910), which ended with the Japanese colonial period.<br />
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The government and public systems of the Joseon dynasty were organized according to principles of [[Neo-Confucianism]], the official state ideology. Unlike the Goryeo dynasty, in which agricultural lands were privately controlled by aristocrats and local clans, the Joseon dynasty installed a centralized government that was responsible for overseeing the legal administration, the military, and the performance of national rituals.<ref>[https://www.museum.go.kr/site/eng/showroom/list/759?showroomCode=DM0045 “Medieval and Early Modern History.”] National Museum of Korea. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230826041616/https://www.museum.go.kr/site/eng/showroom/list/759?showroomCode=DM0045 Archived] 2023-08-26.</ref><br />
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[[Sejong]], the fourth king of the [[Feudalism|feudal]] Joseon dynasty, invented the Korean writing system in 1444.<ref>{{Web citation|newspaper=[[Rodong Sinmun]]|title=Korean Characters Hunminjongum, Treasure and Pride of Nation|date=2023-04-27|url=http://www.rodong.rep.kp/en/index.php?MTJAMjAyMy0wNC0yNy1IMDA3QDdAMUBAMEA1==|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230819015659/http://www.rodong.rep.kp/en/index.php?MTJAMjAyMy0wNC0yNy1IMDA3QDdAMUBAMEA1==|archive-date=2023-08-19}}</ref> Koreans had used the traditional [[Chinese Characters|Chinese characters]] for a writing system for many centuries. The invention of the Korean writing system contributed to increasing literacy and enhancing communication between the people and the government.<ref name=":13" /> In the modern day, the Korean writing system's invention is commemorated throughout Korea on Korean Alphabet Day, observed in north Korea on January 15th (the day the alphabet was created) and in south Korea on October 9 (the day the alphabet was proclaimed).<ref>[https://www.joongang.co.kr/article/16065452#home “북한 한글날은 '조선글날’인 1월15일…왜?” ("Why is north Korea's Hangeul day, 'Chosongul day', on January 15?")] 중앙일보. 중앙일보. The JoongAng. October 9, 2014. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230826043741/https://www.joongang.co.kr/article/16065452 Archived] 2023-08-26.</ref> <br />
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Joseon maintained friendly relations with the [[Ming dynasty (1368–1644)|Ming dynasty]] of China. The two countries exchanged royal envoys every year and engaged in cultural and economic exchanges. Joseon also accepted Japan's request for bilateral trade by opening the ports of Busan, Jinhae, and Ulsan. In 1443, Joseon signed the Gyehae Treaty with the clan of Tsushima Island for limited bilateral trade. Joseon also traded with other Asian countries such as Ryukyu, Siam, and Java. Throughout the 14th and 15th centuries, Joseon maintained good relations with Japan. However, in the 16th century, Japan called for a larger share of the bilateral trade, but Joseon refused to comply with the request, resulting in a war that lasted for 7 years, referred to as the Japanese invasions of Korea of 1592–1598 or the Imjin War.<ref name=":13">[https://www.korea.net/AboutKorea/History/Joseon "Joseon Dynasty."] Korea.net. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230110182550/https://www.korea.net/AboutKorea/History/Joseon Archived] 2023-01-10.</ref><br />
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Jong Mun-bu's volunteer army defeated Japanese pirates invading northern Korea in the 16th century.<ref>{{Web citation|newspaper=[[Rodong Sinmun]]|title=A Historic Relic, Monument to Great Victory in Pukgwan|date=2023-02-19|url=http://www.rodong.rep.kp/en/index.php?MTJAMjAyMy0wMi0xOS1IMDA3QDdAMUBAMEA5==|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230819015136/http://www.rodong.rep.kp/en/index.php?MTJAMjAyMy0wMi0xOS1IMDA3QDdAMUBAMEA5==|archive-date=2023-08-19}}</ref><br />
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By the mid-19th century, the western powers had forced the [[Qing dynasty (1636–1912)|Qing dynasty]] of China and Japan to open their doors and then asked the same of Joseon, but Joseon rejected such requests, facing naval attacks by the [[French Republic|French]] in 1866 and by the USA in 1871, as well as by Japan in 1875. Ultimately, Joseon was forced to sign an unequal treaty with Japan in 1876 under military threat.<ref name=":14">[https://www.korea.net/AboutKorea/History/The-Fall-Joseon "The Fall of Joseon: Imperial Japan’s Annexation of Korea."] Korea.net. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220912184320/https://www.korea.net/AboutKorea/History/The-Fall-Joseon Archived] 2022-09-12.</ref><br />
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Throughout the 1800s, a series of [[Peasantry|peasant]] rebellions arose throughout Korea, reflecting the economic and social problems experienced by the peasantry. Additionally, in the 1860s, the ideology of Donghak (Korean: 동학; "Eastern learning") was developed and gained a following among academics. Donghak ideology was characterized by egalitarian tendencies and reflected an anxiety about the looming threat of western aggression, and displayed a reformist attitude toward the prevailing Confucian ideology and governance of Joseon. Donghak ideology and leaders had an influence on subsequent peasant uprisings, although the uprisings were ultimately driven by the peasantry's own impetus.<ref>Bae Hang-seob, [https://oak.go.kr/repository/journal/18654/NRF003_2013_v16n2_399.pdf "Foundations for the Legitimation of the Tonghak Peasant Army and Awareness of a New Political Order."] Acta Koreana Volume 16, Number 2, December 2013: 399-430. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230826102104/https://oak.go.kr/repository/journal/18654/NRF003_2013_v16n2_399.pdf Archived] 2023-08-26.</ref><br />
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The [[Peasant Revolution of 1894]], also called the Kabo Peasants' War (Korean: 갑오농민전쟁) or the Donghak Peasant Revolution (Korean: 동학농민혁명), was noteworthy in that it passed beyond the previous sporadic protests at the county and prefecture levels and reached the national level, resulting in an approximately year-long, nation-wide rebellion. The experience of the rebellion had extensive influence on the course of Korea's modern development and the people's consciousness, influencing the March 1st independence movement and the anti-Japanese armed struggle which developed in the following decades.<ref>[http://www.1894.or.kr/eng/?menu=185 “Definition and Meaning.”] Donghak Peasant Revolution Foundation. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230826124441/http://www.1894.or.kr/eng/?menu=185 Archived] 2023-08-26.</ref> The Donghak ideology would go on to form the basis of [[Chondoism]] (Korean: 천도교), a religion espoused in both north and south Korea today and the religion of DPRK's [[Chondoist Chongu Party]] (Korean: 천도교청우당), one of the three parties in DPRK's [[Supreme People's Assembly]].<ref>[https://www.youngpioneertours.com/chondoism/ “What Is Chondoism?”] Young Pioneer Tours. May 2, 2019. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230528120001/https://www.youngpioneertours.com/chondoism/ Archived] 2023-05-28.</ref><br />
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The [[First Sino-Japanese War]] (Korean: 청일 전쟁; Hanja: 淸日戰爭), a conflict between the Qing Dynasty and the Empire of Japan from 1894–1895, grew out of conflict between the two countries for supremacy in Korea at the time, with the war being declared after a series of escalating tensions, including the Donghak Peasant Rebellion which saw the Joseon government request the Qing government's assistance to suppress the rebels. The arrival of the Chinese troops in Korea caused the Japanese to send 8,000 troops of their own to Korea, as they considered this to be a violation of their agreements with China in regard to Korea.<ref>[https://www.britannica.com/event/First-Sino-Japanese-War-1894-1895 “First Sino-Japanese War.”] ''Encyclopædia Britannica''.</ref><br />
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Over time, imperialist powers vied with each other to pillage Joseon's resources, and in 1897, Joseon changed its name to the Korean Empire and pushed ahead with reforms and an open-door policy. Japan soon won major victories in its wars against the Qing dynasty and [[Russian Empire (1721–1917)|Russia]], emerged as a strong power in Northeast Asia, and took steps to annex Joseon. Many Koreans resisted this, but in August 1910, the Korean Empire was formally annexed by the Empire of Japan.<ref name=":14" /><br />
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=== Japanese colonialism ===<br />
The USA was the first Western state which set up diplomatic relations with the feudal Korean kingdom, and King Kojong, alarmed by the increasing threats of Japanese imperialism, sent emissaries to Washington twice, in 1896 and 1905, requesting Statesian assistance, in accordance with the duty the US had assumed under an 1882 Korea-US Treaty. The USA and Japan made a secret agreement dividing Korea and the [[Republic of the Philippines|Philippines]] between themselves, known as the Katsura-Taft Agreement. The USA, [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland|Britain]] and other Western powers at one time pursued the strategy of alliance with Japan, from the ulterior motive of backing, encouraging and using the bellicose Japanese militarist forces as a deterrent to the rapidly growing national liberation forces and the influence of communism in Asia, but that their alliance was fraught with contradictions due to their competing colonial interests. With the Japanese attack on the US naval base at Pearl Harbor in 1941, it became pointless for the Western empires to continue to regard Korea as a colony of Japan now that Japan, formerly their imperialist collaborator and ally, was at war against them, nullifying the treaties and agreements it had concluded with them, and therefore the US and British found themselves rehashing their policy on Korea to fit the new situation.<ref name=":0">Ryo Sung Chol. "KOREA -- The 38th Parallel North." Foreign Languages Publishing House. Pyongyang, Korea. 1995. [https://www.koryography.com/wp-content/images/1548.pdf PDF]. [https://web.archive.org/web/20200926235752/https://www.koryography.com/wp-content/images/1548.pdf Archive].</ref><br />
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In 1894, [[Qing dynasty (1636–1912)|China]] and Japan went to war over control of Korea. The Japanese established a military base in the Korean capital city of Hanseong (now Seoul) and murdered Empress [[Myeongseong]], who had sought [[Russian Empire (1721–1917)|Russian]] protection against the Japanese. In 1896, Japan offered to divide Korea with Russia along the 38th parallel, the same line along which the [[United States imperialism|U.S. imperialists]] later split Korea after Japan's defeat in 1945. Russia rejected the proposal along with another proposal giving [[Manchuria]] to Russia and Korea to Japan. After negotiations failed, the Japanese attacked a Russian fleet at Port Arthur and took control of Korea in 1905. The Japanese killed 29,000 Korean rebels in the first three years of occupation and disbanded the Korean army in 1907. After the first few years of colonial rule, most of the resistance fighters fled to Manchuria. Japan formally annexed Korea in 1910.<br />
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In the late 19th and early 20th century, Korea had been developing capitalist elements which were gradually growing and coming into conflict with the feudal system. The feudal ruling circles had been making efforts to prevent the feudal relations from being broken and to prevent the development of capitalist elements. From this process, a socio-political movement to oppose the feudal system and introduce a capitalist system gained in strength. However, Korea's internal development toward capitalism was affected by the imposition of Japanese colonial rule. The Japanese imperialist policies toward Korea altered Korea's development, developing it into a semi-feudal colony that was made into a source of raw materials and labor for imperialist Japan, as well as a market for Japanese commodities and capital investment and a military base for further incursion into the continent.<ref name=":15">Kim Han Gil. [https://archive.org/details/ModernHistoryOfKorea/ "Modern History of Korea."] Foreign Languages Publishing House, Pyongyang, Korea, 1979.</ref><br />
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The Japanese developed Korea's economy for their own purposes, and 60% of Korean rice was exported to Japan. The land that remained under Korean ownership was controlled by feudal [[Landlord|landlords]] who later became the south Korean [[bourgeoisie]]. All industrial goods made in Korea were exported to Japan, and Japanese workers were paid three times as much as Koreans. The Japanese sent one eighth of the Korean population to other parts of their empire to work as slaves.<ref name=":16" /><br />
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The industrial development of Korea under Japanese rule was geared toward generating colonial [[Superprofit|superprofits]], securing exclusive possession of all the key branches of industry and putting a curb on the development of Korean national industry. As is noted by Kim Han Gil in ''Modern History of Korea'', during the colonial period, Korean industry developed as an "appendage" to Japanese industry, with Korean capitalist forces remaining relatively small, and with traditional handicrafts brought to total ruin:<blockquote>Korean industry was made to turn out mainly raw materials and half-finished goods for Japanese industry and the productive forces were so distributed as to facilitate their colonial plunder. Korean industry was nothing more than an appendage to Japanese industry. <br />
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The Japanese imperialists' policy of monopolizing industries arrested the normal development of national industry. Factories and enterprises run by Koreans were few and most of them were small.<br />
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Tyrannical Japanese imperialist colonial rule not only hindered the normal development of national industry but brought the traditional handicraft to total ruin. <br />
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Such being the situation, the Korean capitalist forces were very weak in general, and, on top of it, they were split into compradore and non-compradore capitalists.<ref name=":15" /></blockquote>Korea's comprador capitalists were made up of comparatively big capitalists who were in collusion with the Japanese imperialists and rendering active support to them, along with other reactionary groups such as landlords. Non-comprador capitalists were mainly composed of middle and small entrepreneurs, who typically felt themselves under the thumb of the Japanese imperialists and comprador capitalists and therefore were discontent with Japanese imperialist colonial rule. In addition, the urban small-propertied class found themselves in a precarious situation, due to the predatory policy of the Japanese imperialists and the pressure exercised by the comprador capitalists, causing them constant insecurity. Hence, most of them were also opposed to Japanese imperialism.<ref name=":15" /><br />
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In the countryside, the Japanese imperialists left the feudal land ownership and tenancy system in place, but introduced commodity-money relations and modern trade connections, turning it into a semi-feudal system. This enabled them to plunder the countryside through means of both feudal and capitalist exploitation. In addition to this, they seized large amounts of land. By 1927, the absolute majority of the big landlords were Japanese, accounting for 81% of the landlords owning over 200 hectares of land. Landlords exacted farm rent amounting to 50 to 90% of the total output from the peasants and had [[Tenant farmer|tenant farmers]] pay various taxes and levies. Landless and "landshort" peasants constituted the majority of the peasantry, with rich peasants being relatively few in number. The combined colonial, feudal, and capitalist oppression converging upon the peasantry caused high anti-Japanese and anti-feudal sentiments among them, leading them to take an active part in the anti-imperialist, anti-feudal struggle.<ref name=":15" /><br />
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Labor conditions under colonial rule saw most workers working for 12 hours or more every day, with many forced to work 14 to 16 hours, while receiving wages consisting of less than half or one-third of those paid to Japanese workers. Due to the peasantry suffering from increasing impoverishment from the colonial policies imposed in the countryside, more and more of them flowed to towns looking for work. Therefore, capitalists could easily obtain cheap labor, which contributed to wages being low. Workers found it hard to meet their minimum expenses and were also charged with various fines. Female and child labor became subject to especially harsh exploitation. Labor protections were absent and workers' concerns were suppressed. When a worker was disabled by a labor accident, they were discharged immediately without compensation.<ref name=":15" /><br />
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Additionally, under Japanese rule, all Korean political organizations were banned. Koreans were forced to speak Japanese, have Japanese names, and follow [[Shintoism]].<ref name=":16">{{Citation|author=Stephen Gowans|year=2018|title=Patriots, Traitors and Empires: The Story of Korea’s Struggle for Freedom|chapter=The Empire of Japan|page=25–29|pdf=https://ipfs.io/ipfs/bafykbzaced4iiga4ngtxusr2civjxewbili5jne2sbpefbx2s3im2kphattzc?filename=Stephen%20Gowans%20-%20Patriots%2C%20Traitors%20and%20Empires_%20The%20Story%20of%20Korea%E2%80%99s%20Struggle%20for%20Freedom-Baraka%20Books%20%282018%29.pdf|city=Montreal|publisher=Baraka Books|isbn=9781771861427|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=8435F6FF91279531705764823FDC2A7F}}</ref> Patriotic Groups (Korean: 애국반; Hanja: 愛國班) were neighborhood cells which functioned as the local arm of the Korean Federation of National Power, the single ruling party of colonial Korea. They typically consisted of groups of 10 households led by a Patriotic Group leader, who would monitor and control others within the Patriotic Group. This included rationing food and goods, enforcing mandatory State Shinto prayer times and shrine visits, "volunteering" laborers upon the colonial government’s request, arranging marriages, holding mandatory Japanese language classes, and spying on "ideological criminals". Patriotic Group leaders were among the first to be targeted for reprisals following Korean Independence in August 1945, with many of their homes set on fire.<ref>[https://encykorea.aks.ac.kr/Article/E0073853 “애국반(愛國班).”] Encyclopedia of Korean Culture.Aks.ac.kr. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230314133948/https://encykorea.aks.ac.kr/Article/E0073853 Archived] 2023-03-14.</ref><ref>[https://exposingimperialjapan.com/yoko-versus-hoshiko-a-1944-morality-play-pitting-good-korean-woman-yoko-who-is-kind-and-considerate-against-bad-korean-woman-hoshiko-the-selfish-corrupt-patriotic-group-leader-harbori/ “‘Yōko versus Hoshiko’, a 1944 Morality Play Pitting ‘Good Korean Woman’ Yōko, Who Is Kind and Considerate, against ‘Bad Korean Woman’ Hoshiko, the Selfish, Corrupt Patriotic Group Leader Harboring Liberal and Hedonistic British/American Thoughts Who ‘Needs to Be Shot’ for Betraying Imperial Japan.”] Exposing Imperial Japan. September 21, 2022. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230314133325/https://exposingimperialjapan.com/yoko-versus-hoshiko-a-1944-morality-play-pitting-good-korean-woman-yoko-who-is-kind-and-considerate-against-bad-korean-woman-hoshiko-the-selfish-corrupt-patriotic-group-leader-harbori/ Archived] 2023-03-14.<br />
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</ref><ref>[http://contents.history.go.kr/front/tg/view.do?treeId=0106&levelId=tg_004_2520&ganada=&pageUnit=10 “애국반 - 교과서 용어해설 | 우리역사넷.”] History.go.kr. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230314134446/http://contents.history.go.kr/front/tg/view.do?treeId=0106&levelId=tg_004_2520&ganada=&pageUnit=10 Archived] 2023-03-14.</ref><br />
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In 1937, Kim Il Sung summarized the conditions experienced by Koreans during the 27 years of occupation and under the intensifying repressive wartime conditions:<blockquote>Twenty-seven years have elapsed since the Japanese imperialists occupied Korea.<br />
<br />
During this period they have turned our country into a source of raw materials and labour, a market for their commodities and a military base for aggression against the continent.<br />
<br />
Owing to their ferocious colonial policy, the Korean people have been deprived of their national rights and freedom and are suffering untold sorrow as a ruined people. Our people are not only subjected to double and treble oppression and exploitation by the Japanese imperialists and their lackeys in a manner reminiscent of mediaeval times, but threatened with the danger of being deprived of their beautiful written and spoken language.<br />
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The Sino-Japanese War unleashed by the Japanese imperialists is driving our people into an even more terrible plight. With an eye to ensuring "safety in the rear," the Japanese imperialists have greatly expanded their fascist, colonial, repressive machinery-troops, police, prisons, gallows and all-and concocted a new set of Draconian laws. In this way, they have turned our beautiful land of 3,000 ri into a living hell on earth. They are cracking down on the revolutionary forces with fury, while suppressing and slaughtering innocent people as never before. [...]They have openly instituted compulsory conscription and grain deliveries in order to meet the ever-increasing demand for manpower and materials in their aggressive war against the continent. Thus, our precious young and middle-aged people are being forcibly rounded up to become bullet shields for the Japanese imperialists and our country’s abundant natural wealth is being ruthlessly plundered.<ref name=":17">Kim Il Sung. "The Tasks of Korean Communists." Treatise Published in Sogwang, Organ of the Korean People's Revolutionary Army, November 10, 1937. Collected Works Volume 1. [https://www.marxists.org/archive/kim-il-sung/cw/01.pdf <nowiki>[PDF]</nowiki>] </ref></blockquote>Analyzing the conditions at the time, Kim Il Sung described Korea as a semi-feudal colonial society where, due to Japanese colonialist rule, capitalist development was extremely backward and feudal relations of production were predominant. With such conditions, he evaluated that the basic tasks of the Korea revolution at the time were to carry out the task of anti-imperialist national liberation to overthrow Japanese colonial rule, while at the same time, carrying out and anti-feudal democratic revolution to eliminate feudal relations and pave the way for the country's development along democratic lines. Stressing the interrelation of these tasks, he wrote: "Japanese imperialism maintains its colonial system of rule in Korea with the help of its agents, the comprador capitalists and the feudal landlords, and the landlords retain the feudal relations of exploitation under its patronage. Therefore, the struggle against Japanese imperialism and the struggle against feudalism must be waged as an integral whole." Thus he regarded that the task of Korean communists at the time was carrying out an anti-imperialist anti-feudal democratic revolution, regarding these as prerequisites for national and class liberation and social progress, regarding the broad anti-imperialist democratic forces as the motive force of the revolution at that stage. Although the anti-imperialist struggle was broad and would include the peasantry, petty bourgeoisie, and national capitalists, the working class was regarded as being the leading class for the anti-imperialist anti-feudal democratic revolution and in the future socialist revolution and the period of building socialism and communism.<ref name=":17" /><br />
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=== Struggle for independence ===<br />
Koreans engaged in persistent struggles to regain their independence, including armed struggle against the Japanese. They organized numerous clandestine organizations to fight the Japanese. In March 1919, Korean leaders announced the Declaration of Independence. This is known as the March 1st Movement.<ref>[https://www.korea.net/AboutKorea/History/Independence-Movement “Independence Movement : Korea.net : The Official Website of the Republic of Korea.”] Korea.net. 2021.<br />
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The revolutionary tradition of the anti-Japanese struggle still has heavy influence on DPRK's guiding ideology today. The anti-Japanese struggle influenced the development of the [[Juche]] idea and is intimately linked with the history of Korean socialism, the Korean independence movement, and the life of [[Kim Il-sung]]. Therefore, the revolutionary tradition of the anti-Japanese struggle remains important in the DPRK, as both a source of inspiration as well as important material for study.<ref name=":7">[https://615tv.net/376 <nowiki>“[기획연재1] 김일성 주석의 항일운동 역사.”</nowiki>] 2022. 주권방송. April 5, 2022. [https://web.archive.org/web/20221020065905/https://615tv.net/376 Archived] 2022-10-20.</ref><br />
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In 1926, Kim Il Sung and other communist youths formed the [[Down-with-Imperialism Union]], which set as its immediate task the destruction of Japanese imperialism and achievement of Korea's liberation and independence, with the ultimate aim of building socialism and communism in Korea and destroying all imperialists and building communism throughout the world. By August of 1927 the DIU was reorganized into the [[Anti-Imperialist Youth League]] (AIYL) and the [[Young Communist League of Korea]] (YCLK). Conducting students' strikes, students' and popular masses' struggle to boycott Japanese goods and their struggle against the Japanese imperialists, they gradually grew into a leading force of the Korean communist movement and the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle. By 1930, amid a context of strikes, demonstrations, and sporadic violent struggle of workers, peasants, and student youth, Kim Il Sung defined the armed struggle as the main form of struggle necessary to further develop the anti-Japanese struggle.<ref name=":15" /> <br />
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At a meeting in 1930, Kim Il-sung established the line and strategy of the anti-Japanese revolution and argued that national liberation can be achieved only when all Koreans emerge under the banner of organized armed struggle. Kim Il-sung criticized the existing anti-Japanese movement at the time for the fact that some of the upper classes were only studying words and fighting, and were alienated from the masses.<ref name=":7" /> Subsequently, on July 6, 1930, the first unit of the [[Korean Revolutionary Army]] (KRA) was formed with the core members of the AIYL and YCLK.<ref name=":15" /><br />
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Those recruited into the KRA were tempered through mass struggles, and upon joining the KRA, were trained politically to be communists in addition to being trained militarily. Small groups of KRA members would be formed and sent to various urban and rural areas where they would conduct political and military activities in preparation of forming a guerrilla army. Schools and mass organizations were set up to help educate, rally, and organize the peasant masses, with KRA members taking an active part in the work. The youth who graduated from these schools were sent to different rural areas to conduct organizational and political work for the revolutionization of the rural areas.<br />
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In March 1932, Kim II Sung formed a small guerrilla unit with those active in the revolutionary struggle since the DIU as its core and gradually expanded its ranks, while giving general guidance to the work of forming guerrilla ranks in different parts. In the areas along the Tuman River in east Manchuria, small guerrilla units and groups were formed with KRA members and other young communists, workers, peasants and youths who had gained experience in the struggle. ''Modern History of Korea'' notes that the struggle to obtain arms was very arduous, stating that "at times a pistol, a bullet or a gram of gunpowder cost human lives. Members of small guerrilla groups, the YCLK, the Anti-Imperialist Youth League, the Children's Vanguard and the Women's Association, and even children and old people took part in the struggle. By their self-sacrificing struggle they took weapons from the Japanese imperialist army of aggression, the Japanese and Manchurian police and the vicious pro-Japanese landlords and officials." Additionally, revolutionaries manufactured weapons themselves using the basic tools and materials they had available to them.<ref name=":15" /><br />
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The Anti-Japanese People's Guerrilla Army (AJPGA) was formed on April 25, 1932. ''Modern History of Korea'' notes that it was not only an armed force fighting Japanese imperialism, but was also a political army, a propagandist and organizer that educated the masses and roused them to revolutionary struggle. Its founding marked the declaration of war upon the Japanese imperialists as well as signaled a repudiation of the movements within Korea who had sought outside assistance for Korea's national liberation.<ref name=":15" /><br />
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A struggle was also waged to establish guerrilla bases, as, with no state backing or outside help, a base was needed to make it possible to organize and conduct military and political activity and logistical work as a whole. A base was also considered necessary in order to progress with preparations for the founding of a communist party and the revolutionary movement as a whole, while waging armed struggle. A policy of setting up bases in the form of a liberated area was adopted. The mountainous area along the Tuman River was determined as the most suitable site, and a struggle was fought there to establish a liberated area, beginning with politico-ideological work being conducted among the masses to raise their anti-imperialist revolutionary consciousness and the expansion of revolutionary organizations into the area, and ties were formed between the people and the guerrilla units. The creation of a guerrilla base was promoted and guerrilla units active in different areas engaged he enemy forces, in cooperation with paramilitary organizations, to neutralize the enemy militarily, leading eventually to a wide area along the Tuman River being secured. Patriotic-minded people began coming to the area and a revolutionary government was established, with barracks, schools, publishing houses, arms repair shops, sewing shops and others being set up in the liberated areas.<ref name=":15" /><br />
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The [[Battle of Pochonbo]] is an important battle in the history of the liberation of Korea from Japanese occupation. The battle was fought from 3-4 June 1937 by a unit from the guerilla army, who crossed into Korea from China, crept through the forests, rested beside Samjiyon Lake before starting their final advance. Kim Il-sung became a wanted man to the Japanese after the battle, and a hero to the resistance movement and to Korean patriots.<ref>[https://koryogroup.com/travel-guide/pochonbo-battle-site-monument-north-korea-travel-guide-needs-photos “Pochonbo Battle Site & Monument | North Korea Travel Guide - Koryo Tours.”] Koryogroup.com. May 18, 2020. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230314132053/https://koryogroup.com/travel-guide/pochonbo-battle-site-monument-north-korea-travel-guide-needs-photos Archived] 2023-03-14.</ref><br />
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The [[Workers' and Peasants' Red Army|Red Army]] entered Korea on 8 August 1948 and continued fighting until the Japanese surrendered on 15 August. US forces did not arrive in Korea until 8 September.<ref name=":12">{{Citation|author=Stephen Gowans|year=2018|title=Patriots, Traitors and Empires: The Story of Korea’s Struggle for Freedom|chapter=The US Occupation|page=79–80|pdf=https://ipfs.io/ipfs/bafykbzaced4iiga4ngtxusr2civjxewbili5jne2sbpefbx2s3im2kphattzc?filename=Stephen%20Gowans%20-%20Patriots%2C%20Traitors%20and%20Empires_%20The%20Story%20of%20Korea%E2%80%99s%20Struggle%20for%20Freedom-Baraka%20Books%20%282018%29.pdf|city=Montreal|publisher=Baraka Books|isbn=9781771861427|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=8435F6FF91279531705764823FDC2A7F}}</ref><br />
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According to the blog ''Exposing Imperial Japan,'' which translates Japanese colonial era news articles, the 1000+ Shinto shrines that were built in colonial Korea were all destroyed following Japan's surrender, starting with the Pyongyang shrine which was set on fire on August 15, 1945, the day Imperial Japan surrendered. A statue of Kim Il-sung now stands on the former site of Pyongyang shrine.<ref>[https://exposingimperialjapan.com/imperial-japan-built-shinto-shrines-all-over-korea-in-every-eup-and-myeon-enlisting-patriotic-groups-to-cultivate-the-worship-of-gods-and-faith-in-the-emperor-among-koreans-and-realize-the-fusi/ “Imperial Japan Built Shinto Shrines All over Korea in Every Eup and Myeon, Enlisting Patriotic Groups to ‘Cultivate the Worship of Gods and Faith in the Emperor’ among Koreans and Realize ‘the Fusion of the Japanese-Korean Family Based on Divine Will’.”] Exposing Imperial Japan. October 6, 2022. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230314135238/https://exposingimperialjapan.com/imperial-japan-built-shinto-shrines-all-over-korea-in-every-eup-and-myeon-enlisting-patriotic-groups-to-cultivate-the-worship-of-gods-and-faith-in-the-emperor-among-koreans-and-realize-the-fusi/ Archived] 2023-03-14. <br />
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=== Division into north and south ===<br />
[[File:The Japanese flag in front of the Japanese Government-General of Korea building in Seoul is replaced with the U.S. flag..png|thumb|The Japanese flag in front of the Japanese Government-General of Korea building in Seoul is replaced with the U.S. flag.]]<br />
After the surrender of the Japanese empire at the end of the [[Second World War]], Korea was divided as a temporary measure by the outside powers of the United States and [[Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (1922–1991)|Soviet Union]] to assist in the transition away from Japanese colonial rule and the re-establishment of Korea's independence. The line was agreed upon between the Soviet Union and the United States only as a temporary boundary of military operations, and never as a line for the division of Korea. <br />
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The United States did not liberate south Korea from Japanese colonial forces, but rather ordered the Japanese forces to remain in place until the U.S. Army landed in Korea nearly a month later.<ref name=":8">Kim, Crystal. [https://www.liberationnews.org/north-koreans-mourn-death-of-html/ “North Koreans Mourn Death of Leader Kim Jong Il.”] Liberation News, 22 Dec. 2011, Accessed 10 Apr. 2023. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230410044940/https://www.liberationnews.org/north-koreans-mourn-death-of-html/ Archived] 2023-04-10.</ref> Upon arriving in south Korea, the U.S. forces immediately began dismantling Korean people's committees and placing property back into the hands of Japanese collaborators and re-appointing Japanese collaborators as police, who helped to arrest and dismantle the people's committees. The U.S. occupation forces also struck down the food supply management system of the people's committees, demanding a "free market" of rice. As a result, [[Landlord|landlords]], [[police]], other government officials, and [[Bourgeoisie|businessmen]] engaged in hoarding and speculation and selling the grain to Japan on the black market, causing food shortages and hunger in cities. As the situation continued, U.S. rice rations eventually fell to half of the ration size that had been received under the Japanese colonial administration during World War II, and newspapers published accounts of [[famine]] and starvation, further disaster only being averted by eventual shipments of U.S. grains as emergency relief. By 1946, the deteriorating food situation forced the Americans to revive the old Japanese rice collection system, which resulted in farmers being arrested and beaten for not meeting their quotas.<ref>Kim Jinwung. [https://www.kci.go.kr/kciportal/ci/sereArticleSearch/ciSereArtiView.kci?sereArticleSearchBean.artiId=ART001085494 A ''Policy of Amateurism: The Rice Policy of the U.S. Army Military''.] Government in Korea, 1945-1948. Korea Journal, Summer 2007.</ref> <br />
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In the northern zone, the Soviets allowed Koreans to govern themselves through a system of people's committees, and assisted Koreans with the re-appropriation of land from Japanese colonizers. The Soviets then left after three years of assisting north Korea in this way.<ref name=":8" /> In the south, General [[Douglas MacArthur]] ruled as a dictator and established English as the official language. <br />
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While the Soviets left Korea in late 1948,<ref name=":12" /> the United States failed to withdraw its troops from the south and instead promoted the installation of a pro-US, right wing regime rather than promoting the reunification of Korea. This resulted in opposition among the southern masses, the [[Jeju Uprising|Jeju uprising]] and massacre, the escalation of the [[Korean War]], and the continued division of the Korean nation and continued occupation of the south by US forces which persists to the present day.<br />
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In the words of author Ryo Sung Chol, "The strife among the great powers for hegemony in the world in the complicated military and political situation towards the close of World War II forced the tragedy of national split upon the Korean people before their rejoicing over liberation subsided."<ref name=":0" /><br />
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On February 20, 1948, the day after the US-led UN proposition of the resolution on the US-sponsored separate election in the south, the Central Committee of the Democratic National United Front of North Korea made public its appeal to the entire Korean people at its 24th conference. The appeal indicated that it was clear what kind of election would take place in south Korea, where democratic parties and organizations had been forced underground and democrats were being arrested, imprisoned, tortured and murdered, and called for a general election across the whole of Korea after the withdrawal of the foreign armies. It called for holding elections to the People’s Assembly throughout Korea by secret ballot on the principles of universal, direct and equal vote. The People’s Assembly elected in that way would approve the constitution and establish a democratic government, and Kim Il Sung put forward the line of convening a joint conference of political parties and social organizations of north and south Korea.<ref name=":0" /><br />
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=== Establishment of DPRK and ROK ===<br />
Faced with the serious menace of division of the nation by the United States, Kim Kyu Sik, Kim Ku and other nationalists in south Korea supported the policy of establishing a unified government of north and south Korea in order to prevent national division, and resolutely and finally parted from [[Far-right politics|extreme rightist]] [[Syngman Rhee]] and the reactionaries of the “Korean Democratic Party” who advocated a separate election. Kim Ku opposed election under UN observation, claiming that “the United Nations is an extraneous body with no right to interfere in the internal affairs of Korea”. Kim Kyu Sik also opposed it for the reason that a separate election would mean “the permanent division of the country”. According to author Ryo Sung Chol, seven public figures, including Kim Ku and Kim Kyu Sik, who led 12 political parties and social organizations including the Korean Independence Party, complied with the proposal for a north-south political conference as opposed to a separate election.<ref name=":0" /> <br />
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In April 1948 there was held in [[Pyongyang]] a joint conference of 16 political parties and 40 social organizations of north and south Korea for the first time since liberation, with the participation of 695 representatives of the north and 216 the south, including Kim Kyu Sik, Hong Myong Hui and Kim Ku, who had crossed the 38th parallel to be present. The joint conference adopted a decision calling for opposition to the separate election, the withdrawal of foreign troops and the founding of a unified democratic state, and issued a manifesto. They officially called for the simultaneous withdrawal of the troops of the USSR and the United States, pointing out that "We, the Korean people, are mature enough to settle our problems by ourselves without foreign interference, and our country has many cadres prepared to settle them" as well as laid out a plan of action for peaceful reunification of Korea and the formation of a unified, democratic government. The manifesto was signed by 42 political parties and social organizations of north and south Korea which opposed the division of the country and people.<ref name=":0" /> [[File:Actors re-enact the massacre of residents branded as communist insurgents during the Jeju Uprising and Massacre, for its 70th anniversary.jpg|thumb|319x319px|People in south Korea re-enact the massacre of residents branded as communist insurgents during the [[Jeju Uprising|Jeju massacre]], which occurred from 1948-1949 and claimed the lives of 10% of Jeju's population. Many residents of Jeju had protested the division of Korea and the separate elections held in the south, and virtually the entire population of the island was brutally punished by the right wing southern regime as a result.]]Meanwhile, in south Korea, general strikes and popular uprisings, such as the [[Jeju Uprising|Jeju uprising]], arose in opposition to the US-led separate elections. The south Korean government's militant suppression of the Jeju uprising in turn sparked the [[Yeosu-Suncheon rebellion]] in [[South Jeolla Province|South Jeolla]] province, which occurred from October to November in 1948, when members of a south Korean military regiment in Yeosu refused to transfer to Jeju Island to suppress the Jeju islanders. The guerrilla-style rebellion was led by 2,000 left-leaning soldiers who opposed the U.S.-backed dictator Syngman Rhee and the regime's crackdown on Jeju. In the wake of such resistance, the Rhee regime instituted the [[Anti-communism|anti-communist]] [[National Security Law]] (Korean: 국가보안법) on December 1, 1948. This law has since been the south Korean regime's legal tool to restrict freedom of expression and to enforce anti-communist policies in the country. Under this ambiguously formulated law, thousands of opposition politicians, dissidents, journalists, students and artists have been arrested, imprisoned, tortured and executed.<ref>[http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/332032.html “439 Civilians Confirmed Dead in Yeosu-Suncheon Uprising of 1948.”] Jan. 8, 2009. Hankyoreh. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220906021316/http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/332032.html Archived] 2022-09-06.</ref><ref>[https://asia.fes.de/news/korea-national-security-act “Exhibition Sheds Light on the History of South Korea’s National Security Act.”] Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) – Foundation for social democracy. Asia.fes.de. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230328071745/https://asia.fes.de/news/korea-national-security-act Archived] 2023-03-28.</ref><br />
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According to Ryo, at the UN, the Australian delegate demanded that the separate election be suspended because it was clear that all the political parties in south Korea except the ultra-right party would boycott it. The Canadian delegate warned that it had been an illegal and indiscreet act for the US-led "Little Assembly" on Korea to have accepted the US draft resolution, and that it would create a new and grave situation. Regardless of these statements at the UN and the clear and widespread opposition by the Korean people themselves, on May 10, 1948 the United States carried out the separate election.<ref name=":0" /><br />
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After the US-occupied southern regime under extreme rightist Syngman Rhee was declared in August 1948, the [[socialist state|socialist]] DPRK, led by [[Kim Il-sung]], was declared in the north in September, 1948.<br />
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Syngman Rhee and his regime are widely recognized to be responsible for the killing of 30,000 Jeju islanders from 1948-49, resulting in the death of about 10% of the island's total population. The massacre was a result of severe crack-down against Jeju islanders who protested against the division of the country and police oppression by Syngman Rhee’s administration and the US military who held an operational control over the South Korean military and police.<ref name=":1">The Association for Bereaved Families of the Jeju 4.3 Victims, Bereaved Family Association of Korean War and 252 South Korean NGOs (2020-01-20). [https://www.jejudarktours.org/en/news/letter-251-south-korean-ngos-against-syngman-rhee-day/ "Letter from 252 South Korean NGOs against Syngman Rhee Day"] ''Jeju Dark Tours''. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220818105837/https://www.jejudarktours.org/en/news/letter-251-south-korean-ngos-against-syngman-rhee-day/ Archived] from the original on 2022-08-19.</ref><br />
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=== Fatherland Liberation War ===<br />
{{Main article|Korean War}}<br />
The period that is referred to by bourgeois historians as the Korean War is considered to have occurred between 1950 and 1953. However, the 1950 start date of the war conforms to the imperialist narrative that the war began with an unprovoked attack from the North that took the US and Southern forces by surprise. However, considering the tens of thousands of people being killed in Korea throughout the 1940s by US, UN, and Southern forces, the continuous resistance in the South to the division of the country, and the numerous skirmishes that regularly occurred along the border between North and South, some consider it more accurate to frame the 1950-1953 period as an escalation of a war that was already in progress, rather than the sudden outbreak narrative favored by the bourgeois states. <br />
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Author William Blum writes of this period of escalation: <blockquote>The two sides had been clashing across the Parallel for several years. What happened on that fateful day in June could thus be regarded as no more than the escalation of an ongoing civil war. The North Korean Government has claimed that in 1949 alone, the South Korean army or police perpetrated 2,617 armed incursions into the North to carry out murder, kidnapping, pillage and arson for the purpose of causing social disorder and unrest, as well as to increase the combat capabilities of the invaders. At times, stated the Pyongyang government, thousands of soldiers were involved in a single battle with many casualties resulting. [...] Seen in this context, the question of who fired the first shot on 25 June 1950 takes on a much reduced air of significance. As it is, the North Korean version of events is that their invasion was provoked by two days of bombardment by the South Koreans, on the 23rd and 24th, followed by a surprise South Korean attack across the border on the 25th against the western town of Haeju and other places. Announcement of the Southern attack was broadcast over the North's radio later in the morning of the 25th.<ref name=":2">Blum, William. ''[https://www.cia.gov/library/abbottabad-compound/13/130AEF1531746AAD6AC03EF59F91E1A1_Killing_Hope_Blum_William.pdf Killing Hope: US Military & CIA Interventions Since World War II].'' Zed Books London, 2004.</ref></blockquote>According to Blum, citing Joseph C. Goulden's ''Korea: The Untold Story of the War'', "On 26 June, the United States presented a resolution before the UN Security Council condemning North Korea for its 'unprovoked aggression'. The resolution was approved, although there were arguments that 'this was a fight between Koreans' and should be treated as a civil war, and a suggestion from the Egyptian delegate that the word 'unprovoked' should be dropped in view of the longstanding hostilities between the two Koreas."<ref name=":2" /><br />
[[File:South Korean soldiers walk among dead political prisoners, Taejon, South Korea.jpg|thumb|July 1950 U.S. Army file photograph once classified "top secret", South Korean soldiers walk among dead political prisoners, Taejon (Daejeon), South Korea.]]<br />
During the Korean War period, between 1950 and 1953, Syngman Rhee's government indiscriminately and arbitrarily killed civilians without any legal evidence, on the pretense that they may have cooperated with the North Korean People's Army. During this process, around 1 million people were massacred, including people who were against the Rhee administration. According to a letter signed by 252 Korean NGOs, including The Association for Bereaved Families of the Jeju 4.3 Victims and the Bereaved Family Association of Korean War, Rhee engaged in "the mass killing of civilians, fraudulent elections, illegal amendment of the Constitution and several cases of enforced disappearance and torture leading to the death of his opponents", crimes and corruption which he was not held legally responsible for in his lifetime, but which were later investigated and confirmed by South Korean national investigation committees.<ref name=":1" /><br />
[[File:Prisoners lie on the ground before execution by South Korean troops near Daejon, South Korea, July 1950. Photo by U.S. Army Maj. Abbott.jpg|thumb|July 1950 U.S. Army file photograph once classified "top secret," prisoners lie on the ground before their execution by South Korean troops in Taejon (Daejeon), South Korea. Photo by U.S. Army Maj. Abbott.]]<br />
The atrocities committed by the US-backed Southern forces during this period were continuously covered up and dismissed as communist propaganda throughout the war. Western journalists, many of them leftists, who attempted to expose the atrocities committed by the US-backed regime had their passports revoked, some of them for decades, effectively exiling them from their native countries for their truthful reporting. An article that details the fates of some of these persecuted journalists notes that "The atrocities committed by the US-led UN forces are beyond dispute [...] Almost as shameful as the atrocities in Korea were the extreme steps taken to silence and eventually to punish those who sought to expose them."<ref>Ewing, K. D., Mahoney, J., & Moretta, A. (2018). [https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/files/94544925/Ewing_Korean_2017_Article.pdf "Civil Liberties and the Korean War."] Modern Law Review, 81(3), 395-421. <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2230.12339</nowiki> [https://web.archive.org/web/2/https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/files/94544925/Ewing_Korean_2017_Article.pdf Archive].</ref> Mass killings committed by Southern forces in Daejeon, now known as the [[Daejeon massacre]], were falsely attributed to the Northern army in US Army reports. An article in the Asia-Pacific Journal says of this false reporting, "Such myths survived a half-century, in part because those who knew the truth were cowed into silence."<ref name=":3">Charles J. Hanley & Jae-Soon Chang (July 2, 2008). [https://apjjf.org/-Charles-J.-Hanley/2827/article.html "Summer of Terror: At least 100,000 said executed by Korean ally of US in 1950"] ''The Asia-Pacific Journal''. [https://web.archive.org/web/2/https://apjjf.org/-Charles-J.-Hanley/2827/article.html Archived] from the original on 2022-08-26.</ref> Silencing tactics persisted for decades under the succession of right-wing authoritarian regimes in South Korea, where people who tried to speak out or bring light to atrocities committed by the South were harassed by police, or found themselves arrested and beaten.<ref name=":3" /><ref>Kim, Hun Joon. (2014). ''The Massacres at Mt. Halla: Sixty Years of Truth Seeking in South Korea''. Cornell University Press.</ref> One author who wrote about the Jeju massacre 30 years after it had occurred was arrested by the [[National Intelligence Service|Korean intelligence agency]] and tortured for three days and told not to write about the massacre again. He was then released with no charges, so a trial could be avoided so as not to further expose the public to the truth of the massacre.<ref>Darryl Coote (2012.11.20). [http://www.jejuweekly.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=2841 "My Dinner With Hyun Ki Young"] ''The Jeju Weekly''. [https://web.archive.org/web/2/http://www.jejuweekly.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=2841 Archived] 2022-08-26.</ref> Given the facts of such widespread and systematic suppression of the truth by the US-backed Southern regime and the US itself, who regularly dismissed reporting of their own crimes as "communist propaganda", many of which later proved to be indisputably truthful accounts of US and Southern regime crimes, caution must be taken in interpreting anti-communist narratives of the Korean War.<br />
[[File:Thatched huts go up in flames after B-26 bombers unload napalm bombs on a village near Hanchon, North Korea, on May 10, 1951 (AP photo).png|thumb|Thatched huts go up in flames after B-26 bombers unload napalm bombs on a village near Hanchon, North Korea, on May 10, 1951.]]<br />
During the Korean War, U.S. troops killed large numbers of Korean civilians and engaged in copious firebombing with [[napalm]], and, as was eventually revealed through declassified documents, had at certain times a policy of deliberately firing on South Korean refugee groups approaching its lines.<ref>Youkyung Lee (2014-08-07). [https://apnews.com/article/108b4bd1dc854caeaf5f9349fcd5a176 "S. Korean who forced US to admit massacre has died"] ''Associated Press''. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220726115036/https://apnews.com/article/108b4bd1dc854caeaf5f9349fcd5a176 Archive]. </ref> During the war, the United States dropped "635,000 tons of bombs in Korea (not counting 32,557 tons of napalm), compared to 503,000 tons in the entire Pacific Theater in World War II" and "at least 50 percent of eighteen out of the North's twenty-two major cities were obliterated."<ref>Bruce Cumings (2010). [https://archive.org/details/koreanwarhistory0000cumi/ ''The Korean War: A History'': '"The Most Disproportionate Result:"] The Air War' (pp. 159-160). New York: Modern Library. <small>ISBN 978-0-679-64357-9</small></ref><br />
<br />
In the words of the United States Air Force General Curtis LeMay, commander of the U.S.'s Strategic Air Command, "[W]e went over there and fought the war and eventually burned down every town in North Korea anyway, some way or another, and some in South Korea, too. We even burned down Pusan—an accident, but we burned it down anyway. The Marines started a battle down there with no enemy in sight. Over a period of three years or so, we killed off—what—twenty percent of the population of Korea as direct casualties of war, or from starvation and exposure?"<ref>Richard H. Kohn and Joseph P. Harahan (1988). ''Strategic Air Warfare: an interview with generals Curtis E. LeMay, Leon W. Johnson, David A. Burchinal, and Jack J. Catton'' (p. 88). <small>[https://media.defense.gov/2010/Sep/29/2001329790/-1/-1/0/AFD-100929-052.pdf <nowiki>[PDF]</nowiki>]</small> Washington, D.C.: Office of Air Force History, United States Air Force. <small>ISBN 0-912799-56-0</small></ref><br />
[[File:Pyongyang after U.S. Air Force bombing.jpg|thumb|Pyongyang after U.S. Air Force bombing.]]<br />
U.S. Naval Captain Walter Karig, in his book ''Battle Report: The War in Korea,'' a compilation from official sources, wrote: "[W]e killed civilians, friendly civilians, and bombed their homes; fired whole villages with the occupants--women and children and ten times as many hidden Communist soldiers--under showers of napalm, and the pilots came back to their ships stinking of vomit twisted from their vitals by the shock of what they had to do."<ref>Walter Karig; Malcolm W Cagle; Frank A Manson; et al (1952). ''Battle Report: The War in Korea'' (pp. 111-112). New York: Rinehart.</ref><br />
<br />
US sanctions on DPRK began in conjunction with the 1950 escalation of the war, with the US imposing an export ban on DPRK and forbidding financial transactions by or on behalf of DPRK. This began with U.S. President [[Harry S. Truman]] ordering naval blockade of Korean coast and imposing a total trade embargo against north Korea in June of 1950. This was followed by the Trading with the Enemy Act in December 1950, to terminate all US economic contacts with north Korea and freezing north Korea's assets.<ref name=":5">Gary Clyde Hufbauer (PIIE), Jeffrey J. Schott (PIIE), Kimberly Ann Elliott (PIIE) and Barbara Oegg (PIIE). [https://www.piie.com/commentary/speeches-papers/case-50-1-and-93-1 “US and UN v. North Korea: Case 50-1 and 93-1.”] 2016. Peterson Institute for International Economics. May 1, 2008. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220909082604/https://www.piie.com/commentary/speeches-papers/case-50-1-and-93-1 Archived] 2022-09-09. </ref><br />
<br />
After three years, an armistice agreement was signed that stopped the active fighting. The armistice was signed on 27 July 1953. The signed armistice established the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), the de facto new border between the two nations, put into force a cease-fire, and finalized repatriation of prisoners of war. The DMZ runs close to the 38th parallel and has continued to separate north and south Korea since the Korean Armistice Agreement was signed in 1953.<br />
<br />
=== Post-war ===<br />
After the armistice agreement, the US continued to prohibit all US economic contacts with DPRK in line with its general strategic controls against socialist countries.<ref name=":5" /><br />
<br />
At a meeting in 1957, the U.S. informed the north Korean representatives that the United Nations Command no longer considered itself bound by paragraph 13d of the armistice, and in 1958 the U.S. abrogated paragraph 13d of the armistice by introducing nuclear weapons into south Korea.<ref>[https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,809583,00.html "Korea: The End of 13d"] (1957-07-01). ''Time Magazine''. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220728030416/https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,809583,00.html Archived] 2022-07-28.</ref><ref>Lee Jae-Bong (2009-02-07). [https://apjjf.org/-Lee-Jae-Bong/3053/article.html "US Deployment of Nuclear Weapons in 1950s South Korea & North Korea's Nuclear Development: Toward Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula"] ''The Asia-Pacific Journal''. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220819105903/https://apjjf.org/-Lee-Jae-Bong/3053/article.html Archived] 2022-18-19.</ref> The armistice has never been replaced with a peace treaty and the two sides remain technically at war, with the U.S. occupying the south and retaining operational control over the south Korean military in wartime, and regularly engaging in provocative joint military exercises with south Korea aimed at "decapitating" DPRK's government,<ref>Flounders, Sara. [https://www.workers.org/2022/08/66398/ “Faced with U.S. ‘Decapitation Drill’/DPRK Korea Missile Launch Is Self-Defense.”] Workers World. August 26, 2022. [https://web.archive.org/web/20221014032939/https://www.workers.org/2022/08/66398/ Archived] 2022-10-14.</ref> while enforcing strict [[economic sanctions]] against DPRK as a form of siege warfare. <br />
<br />
The years following the Korean war, DPRK carried out its [[Chollima]] policy. The Chollima policy encouraged people to produce and innovate more in order to speed up the reconstruction of the country. In line with this policy, the DPRK concentrated its economy on [[heavy industry]] in the years following the war and it economically outperformed its southern counterpart until the early 1970s.<ref>[https://www.north-korea-travel.com/political-history-of-north-korea.html “Political History of North Korea | KTG® Tours | Information and North Korea Tours.”] North-Korea-Travel.com. </ref><br />
<br />
==== 1960s ====<br />
In 1960, south Korea's right-wing dictator Syngman Rhee resigned and fled the country due to mass protests across the nation after the body of a student killed by police was found floating in the harbor. As a result of the protests against him, he fled to [[Honolulu]], [[Hawaii]], where he remained in exile until his death. <br />
<br />
After Rhee's resignation, president [[Yun Bo-seon]] briefly governed in a somewhat more democratic but still bourgeois government. After thirteen months this administration was overthrown by the south Korean Army in the May 16 coup led by [[Park Chung-hee]], former Japanese collaborator and the father of future president [[Park Geun-hye]] (who served as the 11th president of South Korea from 2013 to 2017, until she was impeached and convicted on related corruption charges). <br />
<br />
Park Chung-hee ruled as a military dictator for 18 years and sent 320,000 troops to support the [[Republic of Vietnam (1955–1975)|South Vietnamese]] puppet state in the [[Vietnam War]].<br />
<br />
The Korean DMZ conflict was a series of low-level armed clashes between north Korean forces and the forces of south Korea and the United States, largely occurring between 1966 and 1969 at the Korean DMZ. <br />
<br />
The 2003 documentary [[Repatriation (film)|''Repatriation'']] tells the story of and interviews several north and south Korean supporters of DPRK who had been arrested as spies, most of them during the 1960s, and who were subsequently imprisoned and tortured in the south for decades for refusing to give up their loyalty to DPRK. The documentary follows their struggle to be repatriated to DPRK after their release from prison in the 1990s.<br />
<br />
==== 1970s ====<br />
In 1972, the [[Supreme People's Assembly]] elected Kim Il-sung as President of the DPRK.<br />
<br />
In south Korea, the fourth republic was founded on the approval of the Yushin Constitution in the 1972 constitutional referendum, codifying the ''de facto'' dictatorial powers held by President Park Chung-hee. <br />
<br />
An [[Amnesty International]] mission from 1975, conducted when Park Chung-hee was in power, found that torture was "frequently" used by south Korea's law enforcement agencies, "both in an attempt to extract false confessions, and as a means of intimidation." Systematic harassment of citizens by law enforcement agencies was also found to be "commonplace" by the investigation. The report states that detention without charge of journalists, lawyers, churchmen and academics was frequent. The mission also found that lawyers would be detained on house arrest and prevented from coming to trials to present defenses for their clients, and bodies of likely torture victims burned before they could be examined.<ref>[https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/asa25/001/1975/en/ "Report of the Mission to the Republic of Korea 1975."] [[Amnesty International]]. June 1, 1975. Index Number: ASA 25/001/1975. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230315081755/https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/asa25/001/1975/en/ Archived] 2023-03-15.</ref><br />
<br />
The Fourth Republic entered a period of political instability under Park's successor, Choi Kyu-hah, and the escalating martial law declared after Park's death.<br />
<br />
Choi was unofficially overthrown by [[Chun Doo-hwan]] in a coup d'état of December Twelfth in December 1979, and began the armed suppression of the [[May 18 uprising|Gwangju Democratization Movement]] against martial law.<br />
<br />
==== 1980s ====<br />
[[File:Gwangju protest.png|thumb|Mass protest in Gwangju in May 1980.]]<br />
During Chun Doo-hawn's presidency in south Korea, he perpetrated the largest massacre of Korean civilians since the Korean war. In May 1980, protests against martial law began in [[Gwangju]], which were met with special warfare troops. Estimates vary as to the amount of casualties, but they range from 165 at the most conservative, to over 300. Some also claim that up to 2,300 civilians were killed in the Gwangju massacre, in response to the May 18 uprising also known as the Gwangju uprising.<ref>K. J. Noh (2020-12-02). [https://www.hamptonthink.org/read/south-korean-dictator-dies-western-media-resurrects-a-myth "South Korean Dictator Dies, Western Media Resurrects a Myth"] ''Hampton Institute''. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220519190752/https://www.hamptonthink.org/read/south-korean-dictator-dies-western-media-resurrects-a-myth Archived] from the original on 2022-05-19. Retrieved 2022-06-02.</ref> Chun Doo-hawn's administration faced growing opposition from the democratization movement of the Gwangju Uprising, and the June Democracy Movement of 1987 resulted in the election of [[Roh Tae-woo]] in the December 1987 presidential election. Roh's election was the first direct presidential election in 16 years. The fifth republic was dissolved three days after the election upon the adoption of a new constitution that laid the foundations for the relatively stable (although bourgeois and rife with corruption scandals) democratic system of the current sixth Republic of Korea.<br />
<br />
In 1988, south Korea and the US eased isolation of north Korea by opening bilateral dialogue and allowing limited export of goods to the North for humanitarian purposes. Some travel restrictions were also lifted on a case-by-case basis. However, in that same year, DPRK was added to the [[U.S. State Department]] [[State Sponsors of Terrorism|"State Sponsors of Terrorism"]] list.<ref name=":6">[https://nodutdol.org/sanctions-of-empire/ "제국의 제재 - Sanctions of Empire."] Nodutdol. October 20, 2020. [https://nodutdol.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Sanctions-of-Empire.pdf PDF]. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220520095404/https://nodutdol.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Sanctions-of-Empire.pdf Archive].</ref><br />
<br />
On March 25, 1989, south Korean pastor and activist [[Moon Ik-hwan]], representing the National Federation of Democratic Movements (Korean: 전국민족민주운동연합; Hanja: 全國民族民主運動聯合; abbreviated 전민련), travelled to DPRK and met with Kim Il-sung to discuss Korean reunification. He and some other individuals had travelled there after Kim Il-sung had invited the leaders of all south Korean political parties as well as some religious figures to attend an inter-Korean dialogue. On April 2, pastor Moon and his party held two talks with President Kim Il-Sung and issued a joint statement with the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland. Pastor Moon and his party returned home to south Korea on April 13 after completing their 10-day visit to DPRK. As soon as they returned to south Korea, the government executed a prior arrest warrant and arrested and imprisoned them on charges under the National Security Act, such as receiving orders, infiltrating and escaping, meeting and communication, and encouraging praise of an anti-state group.<ref>[https://encykorea.aks.ac.kr/Article/E0075760 “문익환목사방북사건(文牧師訪北事件).”] Encyclopedia of Korean Culture.</ref><ref>[https://archive.md/jNpJH “Moon Ik Hwan Dies; Dictators’ Foe Was 76 - New York Times.”] Jan 20, 1994. ''Archive.md.'' Accessed 12 Apr. 2023.</ref><br />
<br />
In 1989, Pyongyang held the [[World Festival of Youth and Students, 1989|World Festival of Youth and Students]]. A south Korean activist named [[Lim Su-kyung]] (Korean: 임수경; also romanized as Lim Soo-kyung or Rim Su Gyong) took part in the festival, although this was illegal for her to do under south Korean law. She attended the festival representing the student organization Jeondaehyop (전대협, an abbreviation of 전국대학생대표자협의회), now known as Hanchongryun (한총련, abbreviation of 한국대학총학생회연합). In the north, she was celebrated for her decision to take part in the festival, and dubbed the "Flower of Reunification" (Korean: 통일의 꽃) in the north's media. Upon her return to the south, she was arrested and ended up in a Seoul prison, sentenced to 5 years. Later in life, she became a politician in the south.<ref>네이버 지식백과. [https://terms.naver.com/entry.naver?docId=1216785&mobile&cid=40942&categoryId=31778 “임수경방북사건.”] 두산백과. Naver.com. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230328081613/https://terms.naver.com/entry.naver?docId=1216785&mobile&cid=40942&categoryId=31778 Archived] 2023-03-28.</ref><br />
<br />
==== 1990s ====<br />
A unified team under the name Korea (KOR) competed in 1991 World Table Tennis Championships and FIFA World Youth Championship with athletes from both north and south Korea.<ref>이환우. [http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2018/07/103_243225.html “Unified Teams Date back to 1991.”] The Korea Times, 29 Jan. 2018, Accessed 10 Apr. 2023.</ref> In 1991, the team used the Unification Flag and the anthem "Arirang".<br />
<br />
[[Kim Jong-il]] became Supreme Commander of the [[Korean People's Army]] in 1991.<br />
<br />
In 1990, south Korean pastor Moon Ik-hwan had been released from prison in consideration of his poor health and old age. After his release, he resumed his pro-unification and democratization activism despite receiving warnings that he may be re-imprisoned by the south Korean authorities for such activities. A 1991 Amnesty International report on his activities stated that since his release, he was reported to have delivered speeches at at least 100 meetings of students and dissidents and to have participated in other political activities. In December 1990, police warned him to stop speaking to gatherings of students and dissidents about his visit to DPRK and about DPRK's ideology. In January of 1991 he was placed under house arrest to prevent him from attending the inauguration meeting for the preparatory committee of the south Korean headquarters of [[Pomminnyon]] (Pan-National Alliance for Reunification of Korea). He later became chairperson of the preparatory committee. On June 6 of 1991, Reverend Moon Ik-hwan was rearrested on the grounds that he had violated the terms of his parole by engaging in political activities and that his health had improved.<ref>[https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/asa25/032/1991/en/ "South Korea: Prisoner of conscience: Reverend Moon Ik-hwan."] September 30, 1991. Index Number: ASA 25/032/1991. Amnesty International. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220714020953/https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/asa25/032/1991/en/ Archived] 2022-07-14.</ref><br />
<br />
In 1992, the [[Pyongyang Declaration]], titled "Let Us Defend and Advance the Cause of Socialism" was published on April 20. The declaration was a joint-communique in which various communist bloc and fraternal parties which remained after the fall of the Soviet Union declared their intention to continue to defend and advance the socialist cause. At the time of its original signing, 70 political parties signed the declaration, with its number of signatories increasing over time into the hundreds, reaching 300 as of 2017.<ref>[https://kcnawatch.xyz/newstream/1546674832-39763653/pyongyang-declaration-signed-by-more-than-300-political-parties-of-world/ "Pyongyang Declaration Signed by More than 300 Political Parties of World."] [[Naenara]] accessed via [[KCNA Watch]]. 2017-04-21. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230929065855/https://kcnawatch.xyz/newstream/1546674832-39763653/pyongyang-declaration-signed-by-more-than-300-political-parties-of-world/ Archived] 2023-09-29.</ref> The document declares its signatories' firm conviction to defend and advance the socialist cause and explains that the path of socialism is an untrodden one and, therefore, the advance of socialism is inevitably accompanied by trials and difficulties. It asserts that although facing setbacks and attacks from the collusion of imperialists and reactionaries, socialism represents the future of mankind and that all parties striving for socialism should firmly maintain independence and firmly build up their own forces and that each party should work out lines and policies which "tally with the actual situation of the country where it is active and with the demands of its people and implement them by relying on the popular masses". It says that socialist cause is a national one and, at the same time, a common cause of mankind, and that "socialism is carved out and built with a country or national state as a unit." It states that all parties should cement the ties of comradely unity, cooperation and solidarity on the principles of independence and equality and defend the cause of socialism, not give up their revolutionary principles under any circumstances, and concludes with the statement that the socialist cause shall not perish.<ref>[https://www.youngpioneertours.com/pyongyang-declaration/ "What was the Pyongyang declaration of 1992?"] Young Pioneer Tours. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230929065726/https://www.youngpioneertours.com/pyongyang-declaration/ Archived] 2023-09-29.</ref><br />
<br />
In July 1994, [[Kim Il-sung]] passed away. <br />
<br />
Kim Jong-il became the General Secretary of the party on October 8, 1997.<ref name=":9">[https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2011-12/19/content_14287241.htm “DPRK Top Leader Kim Jong-Il Passes Away|Asia-Pacific|Chinadaily.com.cn.”] ''Chinadaily.com.cn.'' Accessed 10 Apr. 2023. [https://web.archive.org/web/20221020162831/http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2011-12/19/content_14287241.htm Archived] 2022-10-20.</ref><br />
<br />
The period of economic crisis, floods, and famine in DPRK known as the [[Arduous March]] lasted from 1994 to 1998. The thriving north Korean economy, which had exceeded south Korea's in production of electricity, coal, fertilizer, machine tools and steel even into the 1980s, was brought to a halt in the 1990s with the overthrow of the Soviet Union and a string of natural disasters. Factors such as the fall of the Soviet Union and worldwide economic shifts in its wake, unprecedented natural disasters, DPRK only having 15% arable land,<ref name=":8" /> and [[economic sanctions]] imposed on DPRK compounded at this time, contributing to the severity of the crisis.<ref>[https://www.north-korea-travel.com/north-korean-history.html “North Korean History 1980s & 1990s | KTG® Tours.”] North-Korea-Travel.com.</ref> <br />
<br />
Beginning in 1997, the period known as the [[Asian financial crisis]] or the [[International Monetary Fund|IMF]] crisis affected several Asian countries, with south Korea being among some of the most heavily impacted, with the crisis resulting in the bankruptcy of major south Korean companies and the imposition of [[austerity]] measures. The generation of people who entered the job market in this period are sometimes called the "IMF generation" and have faced a pattern of worsened economic conditions and struggling with job security.<ref>[https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2019/11/17/economy/IMF-generation-feels-job-shortage/3070390.html “‘IMF Generation’ Feels Job Shortage.”] November 17, 2019. [https://web.archive.org/web/20211207004114/https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2019/11/17/economy/IMF-generation-feels-job-shortage/3070390.html Archived] Dec. 7, 2021.</ref><ref>[https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/tech/2021/05/693_33603.html “A Familiar Story.”] Koreatimes. The Korea Times. October 30, 2008. [https://web.archive.org/web/20221101044751/https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/tech/2021/05/693_33603.html Archived] 2022-11-01.</ref><br />
<br />
In south Korea in the late 1990s, amnesty was declared for certain elderly and ill political prisoners who had been held in prison for decades, facing torture and solitary confinement for refusing to renounce communism and their support for DPRK. Some of these prisoners then began a movement to be repatriated to DPRK, with some of them being allowed to return while others remained in south Korea, some willingly and some unwillingly, with many of the participants mistakenly believing that more repatriations and further freedom of movement between north and south would follow.<ref>Liberation School (Jul 27, 2022). [https://www.liberationschool.org/interview-with-ahn-hak-sop/ "Still fighting for Korea’s liberation: An interview with Ahn Hak-sop"] ''Liberation School''. [https://web.archive.org/web/2/https://www.liberationschool.org/interview-with-ahn-hak-sop/ Archived] from the original.</ref> This series of events is detailed in the 2003 documentary [[Repatriation (film)|''Repatriation'']], which follows the release of several of these political prisoners and the different events in their lives afterward.<br />
<br />
DPRK's hopes for direct talks with the United States, a formal peace treaty ending the Korean War and normalized relations with the U.S. seemed potentially realizable in the last years of the [[Bill Clinton|Clinton]] administration (which lasted from 1993 to 2001). The United States and DPRK signed the General Framework Agreement, which provided that DPRK would seal its heavy water nuclear energy reactors in return for normalized diplomatic relations with the U.S. government and assistance constructing light water nuclear reactor facilities. Pursuant to the agreement, DPRK stopped its nuclear program at this time.<ref name=":8" /><br />
<br />
==== 2000s ====<br />
[[File:President Kim Dae-jung and Chairman Kim Jong-il join hands at Inter-Korean summit.jpg|thumb|250x250px|President Kim Dae-jung and Chairman Kim Jong-il join hands at the 2000 Inter-Korean summit, which resulted in the 6.15 Inter-Korean Joint Declaration.]]<br />
The south Korean policy towards DPRK from the late 1990s to mid 2000s is known as the period of "Sunshine Policy" and is primarily associated with the south Korean [[Kim Dae-jung]] administration (1998–2003) and the [[Roh Moo-hyun]] administration (2003–2008). <br />
<br />
During this time, a notable attitude of reconciliation between north and south Korea was expressed by south Korean leadership toward DPRK, and on June 13-15, 2000 the leaders of south and north Korea met for the first time since the war. South Korean president Kim Dae-jung and DPRK leader Kim Jong-il signed an agreement calling for family reunions, economic cooperation, social and cultural exchanges and follow-up governmental contacts between the north and south to ease tensions. This is known as the June 15th North–South Joint Declaration or the [[6.15 Inter-Korean Joint Declaration]].<br />
<br />
In 2002, [[George W. Bush|President Bush's]] State of the Union address singled out [[Islamic Republic of Iran|Iran]], [[Republic of Iraq|Iraq]] and DPRK as the so-called "[[Axis of Evil|axis of evil]]" for their supposed pursuit of weapons of mass destruction. The next year, the U.S. military invaded Iraq. It was in this context that the DPRK, under the leadership of Kim Jong Il, tested highly publicized nuclear weapons. Liberation News notes that "This was not an act of international terrorism, but a maneuver to bring the United States back to the negotiation table, which worked."<ref name=":8" /> <br />
<br />
Since the beginning of the DPRK nuclear tests in 2003, the Bush and [[Barack Obama|Obama]] administrations respectively lifted some sanctions to facilitate negotiations around DPRK denuclearization. However, they then reinstated them when the negotiations failed to produce the results desired by the US.<ref name=":5" /><ref name=":6" /> Following the country’s 2006 nuclear test, the US, EU, and others added more stringent sanctions, which have periodically intensified since then. Sanctions now target [[Petroleum politics|oil]] imports, and cover most finance and trade, and the country’s [[key minerals]] sector.<ref>Galant, Michael. [https://cepr.net/cepr-sanctions-watch-may-june-2022/ “CEPR Sanctions Watch, May-June 2022”] Center for Economic and Policy Research. July 8, 2022. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220907145545/https://cepr.net/cepr-sanctions-watch-may-june-2022/ Archived] 2022-09-07</ref><br />
<br />
==== 2010s ====<br />
[[File:Activist No Su-hui shouts Long Live Reunification at Panmunjom.jpg|thumb|In 2012, south Korean pro-reunification activist Roh Su-hui, who had been in DPRK without southern approval, shouted "Long live national reunification, by our nation itself!" before stepping over the divide back into south Korea and being tackled and carried away by south Korean authorities.]]<br />
Kim Jong-il passed away on December 17, 2011.<ref name=":9" /> Following this, Kim Jong-un was named supreme commander of the military.<ref>[https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2022/04/11/680112/North-Korea-Kim-Jong-un-10th-Anniversary-Celebrations-Choe-Ryong-hae “‘North Korea Marks 10 Years of Kim Jong-Un’s Leadership with Week-Long Events.’”] PressTV News, 11 Apr. 2022, Accessed 10 Apr. 2023.</ref><br />
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A period of mourning ensued in DPRK following Kim Jong-il's death. Chinese President [[Hu Jintao]] also reached out in solidarity to DPRK after the announcement of Kim Jong Il's death, and [[Republic of Cuba|Cuba]] declared a period of mourning from Dec. 20-22, during which flags would be flown at half-mast. A [[Liberation News]] article from the time notes that the [[Imperial core|Western]] [[Imperialism|imperialist]] media took the opportunity at this time to make insinuations and accusations to portray north Koreans as "brainwashed" via the West's media commentary about the traditional mourning rituals Koreans publicly engaged in at the time. Liberation News points out that this portrayal is part of the West's continued campaign to [[Manufacturing consent|manufacture consent]] for the overthrow of DPRK's leadership, using disingenuous concern over the so-called "[[cult of personality]]" as a pretext.<ref name=":8" /> <br />
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In 2012, a [[Left–right political spectrum|left-wing]] south Korean activist named [[Roh Su-hui]] (Korean: 노수희; also spelled Ro Su Hui and Noh Su-hui), member of the [[Pan-National Alliance for Korea's Reunification]] (Korean: 조국통일범민족연합; abbreviated 범민련; "Pomminryon"), was arrested at Panmunjom after having entered into DPRK months before without approval from the southern regime. He had travelled to DPRK in order to attend a memorial service marking the 100th day since the death of Kim Jong-Il. At Panmunjom, he was waved farewell by a crowd of people from the northern side, who waved Korean unification flags and flowers. Officials of the DPRK accompanied him to Panmunjom to see him off. Before stepping over the border, Roh shouted "Long live national reunification, by our nation itself!" (Korean: "우리민족끼리 조국통일 만세!") holding up a unification flag and flowers. After crossing the border, south Korean authorities seized him, and a struggle ensued where he was tackled to the ground, then lifted and carried away by the southern authorities, who bound his arms and hands with rope as they brought him into custody. He was sentenced to four years in prison and to have his suffrage stripped for three years after release. Another activist, Won Jin Wook, received a three-year prison sentence for communicating with DPRK officials to arrange the trip.<ref>AP Archive. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtiCNzuVp4Y “SKorean Activist No Su-Hui Arrested as He Returns from Unauthorised Trip to the North.”] ''YouTube'', 31 July 2015, Accessed 9 Apr. 2023. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230328191034/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtiCNzuVp4Y Archived] 2023-03-28.</ref><ref>[https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1145933/south-korean-activists-jailed-visit-north “South Korean Activists Jailed for Visit to North.”] ''[[South China Morning Post]]'', 8 Feb. 2013, Accessed 9 Apr. 2023. [https://web.archive.org/web/20201214161836/https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1145933/south-korean-activists-jailed-visit-north Archived] 2020-12-14.</ref><ref>[https://committeeforreleaseofvicechairman.blogspot.com/ “International Committee for the Release of Mr Ro Su Hu.”] ''Blogspot.com'', 2023, Accessed 9 Apr. 2023. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230409065234/https://committeeforreleaseofvicechairman.blogspot.com/ Archived] 2023-04-09.</ref><br />
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[[Park Geun-hye]], daughter of dictator Park Chung-hee, was in office as the 11th president of south Korea from 2013–2017 until she was impeached and convicted on corruption charges following public demonstrations, commonly known as the Candlelight Revolution or Candlelight Demonstrations. She became the first south Korean president to be removed from power by impeachment, and was sentenced to 24 years in prison, but received a pardon and was released in 2021 after serving just under 5 years.<ref>Hyonhee Shin (2021-12-31). [https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/skoreas-disgraced-ex-president-park-freed-after-nearly-5-years-prison-2021-12-31/ "S.Korea's disgraced ex-president Park freed after nearly 5 years in prison"] ''Reuters''.</ref> Park Geun-hye's presidency was followed by [[Moon Jae-in]] (in office 2017–2022). <br />
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According to a 2017 article by CNN, 49 countries, including [[Republic of Cuba|Cuba]], [[Islamic Republic of Iran|Iran]], and [[Syrian Arab Republic|Syria]] have violated sanctions and have traded with DPRK.<ref>Rishi Iyengar (2017-12-06). [https://money.cnn.com/2017/12/06/news/north-korea-sanctions-countries-violation/index.html "Report: 49 countries have been busting sanctions on North Korea"] ''[[CNN]]''. [https://web.archive.org/web/20210508065837/https://money.cnn.com/2017/12/06/news/north-korea-sanctions-countries-violation/index.html Archived] from the original on 2021-05-08.</ref> In 2017, sanctions imposed by the UN caused thousands of DPRK workers who had been working abroad to be forced to return to DPRK as well as led to the closure of numerous DPRK companies and joint ventures.<ref>[https://www.asianews.it/news-en/North-Korean-workers-leave-China-because-of-UN-sanctions-41942.html “North Korean Workers Leave China because of UN Sanctions.”] Asianews.it. 2017. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220909073331/https://www.asianews.it/news-en/North-Korean-workers-leave-China-because-of-UN-sanctions-41942.html Archived] 2022-09-09.</ref> According to Nodutdol, in 2018, 3,968 people in the DPRK, who were mostly children under the age of 5, died as a result of shortages and delays to UN aid programs caused by sanctions.<ref name=":6" /><br />
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Talks between General secretary [[Kim Jong-un]] and Former U.S. [[President of the United states|President]] [[Donald Trump]] began on June of 2019 to discuss disarmament and potential reunification with the [[Republic of Korea]].<br />
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==== 2020s ====<br />
In January 2020 when south Korean President [[Moon Jae-In]] expressed interest in developing tourism to north Korea, the US ambassador Harry Harris blocked this effort, claiming that "independent" tourism plans would have to undergo U.S. consultation. The U.S. ambassador emphasized that the items inside South Korean tourists' luggage could violate sanctions.<ref name=":6" /><br />
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The 13th and current president of south Korea is [[Yoon Suk-yeol]] of the conservative People Power Party, who took office in 2022. His presidency has been surrounded with criticism, with numerous protests drawing thousands of participants calling for his resignation and his approval rating frequently falling below 30%.<ref>[https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_editorial/1063998.html "Rekindled candlelight rallies amid near collapse of Korean politics."] Hankyoreh. Oct.24,2022. [https://web.archive.org/web/20221030111216/http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_editorial/1063998.html Archived] 2022-10-30.</ref> On August 13, 2022, thousands of south Korean unionists and their progressive supporters rallied in downtown Seoul to protest against joint US-south Korea war game exercises. In a video uploaded by [[Press TV]], Oh Eun-Jung of the National Teachers Union was quoted as saying "The threat of nuclear war is growing on the Korean peninsula, conservative forces of Yoon Suk-yeol in south Korea and those in the U.S. are frantically conducting aggressive war drills in the sky, the land, and the sea, and are about to start large-scale military exercises, aimed at the invasion of north Korea. We must stamp out this behavior of anti-reunification forces." In the same video, construction worker Lee Seung-Woo stated, "We not only oppose the war exercises, but we want the U.S. Forces Korea, which is actually controlling and interfering with the Korean peninsula to leave this land. We believe that only then will the eighty million Koreans from both north and south be able to live peacefully."<ref>Frank Smith. [https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2022/08/13/687322/South-Korean-unionists-protest-US-South-Korea-war-games “‘South Korean Unionists Protest US-South Korea War Games.’”] PressTV News. August 13, 2022. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220826124551/https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2022/08/13/687322/South-Korean-unionists-protest-US-South-Korea-war-games Archived] 2022-08-28.</ref><br />
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In September 2022, a statement on the nuclear force policy of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea was carried by DPRK's [[Korean Central News Agency]] (KCNA), noting that while the government considers nuclear weapons a last resort, it would deploy them to prevent aggression that seriously threatens the security of the state and people. The statement stressed that DPRK "does not threaten or use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear countries," and warned it would forcefully respond to aggression, or to nations threatening the DPRK by "colluding with other nuclear-armed states."<ref>[https://www.rt.com/news/562473-north-korea-nuclear-doctrine/ “North Korea Clarifies Nuclear Doctrine.”] RT International. September 9, 2022. [https://web.archive.org/web/20221026142625/https://www.rt.com/news/562473-north-korea-nuclear-doctrine/ Archived] 2022-10-26.<br />
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</ref><br />
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== Culture ==<br />
The folk song "Arirang" (Korean: 아리랑) is regarded as a representative folk song of Korea, sung throughout the nation and presenting many different orally transmitted versions. Arirang typically contains a gentle and lyrical melody. Arirang songs speak about leaving and reunion, sorrow, joy and happiness. The various categories differ according to the lyrics and melody used. While dealing with diverse universal themes, the simple musical and literary composition invites improvisation, imitation and singing in unison, encouraging its acceptance by different musical genres. Both DPRK and south Korea have submitted the song to the [[UNESCO]] Intangible Cultural Heritage list. DPRK's submission states that Arirang folk songs reinforce social relations, thus contributing to mutual respect and peaceful social development, and help people to express their feelings and overcome grief. They function as an important symbol of unity and occupy a place of pride in the performing arts, cinema, literature and other works of contemporary art. South Korea's submission notes that Arirang is a popular subject and motif in diverse arts and media, including cinema, musicals, drama, dance and literature, describing it as an evocative hymn with the power to enhance communication and unity among the Korean people, whether at home or abroad.<ref>[https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/arirang-folk-song-in-the-democratic-people-s-republic-of-korea-00914 “UNESCO - Arirang Folk Song in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.”] Unesco.org. 2023.</ref><ref>[https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/arirang-lyrical-folk-song-in-the-republic-of-korea-00445 “UNESCO - Arirang, Lyrical Folk Song in the Republic of Korea.”] Unesco.org. 2023.</ref><br />
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== Languages ==<br />
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=== Korean language ===<br />
[[Korean language|Korean]] is the official language of both north and south Korea. <br />
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There are regional dialects and accents of Korean spoken throughout the Korean Peninsula. In general they are largely mutually intelligible with standardized forms of Korean. Additionally, despite the division of the country into north and south, the language has not diverged to the point of unintelligibility, although certain vocabulary, spelling, and pronunciation differences do exist. Notably, in the north, a preference for using native Korean words is shown, while in the south, foreign loanwords show a higher prevalence of use.<br />
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Korean is also the official language of [[Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture]] in [[Jilin Province]], China (along with [[Mandarin]]). Other large groups of Korean speakers are found in China, the United States, Japan, former [[Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (1922–1991)|Soviet Union]] and elsewhere.<br />
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=== Jeju language ===<br />
The [[Jeju language]], which is closely related to Korean, is an endangered language whose main community of speakers come from Jeju Island. While often classified as a divergent dialect of the Korean language, the variety is referred to as a language in local government and increasingly in both South Korean and foreign academia. Jeju language is not mutually intelligible with the mainland dialects of South Korea. Most people in Jeju Island now speak a variety of Korean with a Jeju substratum, and efforts to revitalize the endangered language are ongoing. <br />
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=== North and South Korean Sign Language ===<br />
A form of [[Korean Sign Language]] (KSL) is used in both north and south Korea. Following the division of the country, the heterogeneity of sign language has accelerated. Researchers Lee and Choi compared the handshapes of north and south Korean Sign Languages, and found in 2017 that there was 15% both hands agreement, 21% dominant hand agreement, 23% nondominant hand agreement, and 71% disagreement.<ref>Choi Sangbae, Ko Eunji. [https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jasl/29/3/29_51/_pdf/-char/ja "Contrastive Linguistic Study of South and North Korean Sign Language and Japanese Sign Language at the Level of Phoneme and Lexis."] 2020. Kongju National University. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230325065228/https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jasl/29/3/29_51/_pdf/-char/ja Archived] 2023-03-25.</ref> A YouTube channel called Sonmal Sueo (Korean: 손말수어) is dedicated to presenting the differences between north and south Korean signs to promote communication and understanding.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/@sonmalsueo3478/featured Sonmal Sueo 손말수어]. YouTube.</ref><br />
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== References ==<br />
[[Category:Asian countries]]</div>
Verda.Majo
https://en.prolewiki.org/index.php?title=Juche&diff=64359
Juche
2024-03-18T19:12:27Z
<p>Verda.Majo: /* Independence */ made a link</p>
<hr />
<div>[[File:Flag of the Workers' Party of Korea.png|thumb|Flag of the [[Workers' Party of Korea]], the ruling party of the [[Democratic People's Republic of Korea|DPRK.]]|350x350px]]<br />
'''''Juche''''',<ref group="lower-alpha">Korean: 주체/主體, <small>lit.</small> 'subject'; usually left untranslated or translated as "self-reliance"</ref> also called the '''Juche idea''', is the official ideology of the [[Democratic People's Republic of Korea|DPRK]].<ref name="North Korea: State of Paranoia">{{Textcite|author=Paul French|year=2014|title=North Korea: state of paranoia|pdf=|publisher=Zed Books|isbn=978-1-78032-947-5|lg=|doi=}}</ref> Juche is predominantly translated into English as "self-reliance" or "independence," but a more accurate and comprehensive translation is "subjecthood."<ref name=":0">Riley Seungyoon Park and Cambria York. "Socialist Education in Korea: Selected Works of Kim Il-sung." 2022. Iskra Books, Madison, Wisconsin. Peacelandbread.com. [https://www.peacelandbread.com/_files/ugd/ec1faf_74d445f950b944939edeb30d225968c1.pdf PDF].</ref> <br />
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The "subject" that Juche refers to is the masses of the people, who form the driving element of [[Historical materialism|socio-historical development]]. While the Juche idea acknowledges that social movement is ultimately governed by the universal laws of the [[Materialism|material]] world, it asserts that the development of the social movement can be caused and developed by the volitional action and role of the subject—the [[Working class (disambiguation)|working masses]] of the people—who can creatively and consciously transform nature and society to their benefit when they become aware of their own role in socio-historical development. The Juche idea also consists of the assertion that it is only by seizing state power and the [[means of production]] and establishing a [[Socialism|socialist]] system that the working masses can free themselves from [[exploitation]] and "create history consciously as true masters of society and their own destiny."<ref name=":1">Kim Jong Il. [https://www.marxists.org/archive/kim-jong-il/works/On-The-Juche-Idea.pdf "On the Juche Idea."] Treatise Sent to the National Seminar on the Juche Idea Held to Mark the 70th Birthday of the Great Leader Comrade Kim Il Sung. March 31, 1982. Marxists.org.</ref> <br />
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Juche [[philosophy]] focuses on popular sovereignty and self-reliance to advance revolution in the conditions of the Korean people. This theoretical premise forms the core strategic goal of the Juche idea in upholding the sovereignty and independence of the DPRK from [[Imperialism|imperialist]] aggression. In general, the Juche idea upholds political and economical self-reliance and achieving a rich material and cultural life for the people through revolutionary leadership strengthened by a relationship with the masses.<ref name="Juche Idea: Answers to Hundred Questions">{{Textcite|author=DPRK Foreign Languages Publishing House|year=2014|title=Juche Idea: answers to 100 questions|pdf=https://www.bannedthought.net/Korea-DPRK/Ideology/JucheIdea-AnswersToHundredQuestions-2012.pdf|lg=|doi=}}</ref> <br />
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In the foreword to the book ''Socialist Education in Korea'', [[Derek Ford]] and [[Curry Malott]] write that the "mobilization of Juche allows for endless tactical flexibility in foreign, economic, and social policy even today" and argue its success by noting that Koreans played a key role in defeating [[Empire of Japan (1868–1947)|Japanese imperialism]], forced the [[Korean War|U.S. to sign an armistice in 1953]], and survived the [[Cold War]], the [[Reform and Opening Up|opening up of China]], the [[Overthrow of the Soviet Union|dissolution of the Soviet Union]], and the overthrow and collapse of the [[Eastern Bloc|European Socialist Bloc countries]], and have "managed to rebuild their country from rubble" while navigating these "endlessly complex geopolitical challenges".<ref name=":0" /> <br />
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== Etymology ==<br />
[[File:Tower of the Juche Idea.png|alt=The Tower of the Juche Idea in Pyongyang, DPRK. The word Juche, 주체, is visible on the tower. In front, a statue of a worker, a farmer, and an intellectual hold up a hammer, sickle, and brush, symbol of the Workers' Party of Korea.|thumb|393x393px|The [[Tower of the Juche Idea]] in [[Pyongyang]], DPRK. The word Juche, "주체", is visible on the tower. In front, a statue of a worker, a farmer, and an intellectual hold up a hammer, sickle, and brush, symbol of the Worker's Party of Korea.]]<br />
The word Juche (Korean: 주체; Hanja: 主體) is a Sino-Korean word that can be defined in English as "subject", "main agent", or "principal agent". It is used to refer to the philosophical concept of the entity perceiving or acting upon an object or environment, a being who has a unique consciousness, or an entity that has a relationship with another entity that exists outside itself.<br />
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Juche is also frequently referred to as the "Juche idea" (Korean: 주체사상, or ''juche sasang''). ''Juche sasang'' literally means "subject idea" or "subject thought." The word ''sasang'' (Korean: 사상; Hanja: 思想) is a Sino-Korean word that means "thought", "idea" and also relates to the concepts of "ideology" and "philosophy". The characters that form the word ''sasang'' are also found in the Chinese term that is commonly referred to in English as [[Mao Zedong Thought]].<br />
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In some contexts, the Juche idea may be contrasted with the concept of ''sadae'' (Korean: 사대; Hanja: 事大), meaning "subservience". Sadae is a [[Confucianism|Confucian]] concept based on filial piety that describes a reciprocal hierarchical relationship between a senior and a junior, such as a tributary relationship. The term is also used as a descriptive label for bilateral foreign relations between [[History of China|Imperial China]] and Joseon dynasty [[Korea]]. A more modern usage of the term can also refer to a sycophantic or self-effacing diplomacy towards a stronger nation. This second meaning is sometimes translated into English as "flunkeyism", "toadyism", or "sycophancy" (Korean: 사대주의; Hanja: 事大主義).<br />
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==Overview==<br />
The Juche idea is a world outlook and an attitude centered on man, which aims to enable and enhance man's ability to understand the world accurately and to consciously transform the world to man's benefit.<ref>{{Web citation|newspaper=Korean Association of Social Scientists, Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism Course: Juche Idea.|title=The Juche Idea Is a Philosophical Thought That Centres on Man|url=http://www.kass.org.kp/index.php/course/view/48?lang=eng&search=|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230923134541/http://www.kass.org.kp/index.php/course/view/48?lang=eng&search=|archive-date=2023-09-23|quote=The Juche philosophy gave new viewpoints on the essence of the world and law of its development that the world is dominated and transformed by man and the world develops by man's active role and in the direction of serving man and in keeping with the development of man. It also clarified the new viewpoint and attitude that one should proceed from man's interest on the basis of Juche-oriented viewpoint on the world and that one should approach the world with his activities as a main. <br />
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The Juche philosophy newly elucidated the viewpoint and attitude to the world, centreing on man and thus gives a great weapon that enables man to shape his destiny successfully by correctly understanding and transforming the world. Herein lies the essential feature of the Juche idea as the revolutionary world outlook of our times and its scientific accuracy, revolutionary character, originality and advantage.}}</ref> The Juche idea holds that the popular masses are the driving force of history, and that humanity's goal is striving for independence from social subjugation and natural restrictions. As is explained in the work ''Juche Idea: Answers to Hundred Questions'', the Juche idea is an ideology "that the masses of the people are the master of the [[revolution]] and [[Socialist construction|construction]]" and that the revolution can emerge victorious when they are educated, organized and mobilized. It is an ideology which holds that "man is the master of his destiny and he has the power to carve out his destiny."<ref name=":3">[https://archive.org/details/juche-questions/mode/2up "Juche Idea: Answers to Hundred Questions."] Foreign Languages Publishing House. Pyongyang, Korea, Juche 101 (2012).</ref><br />
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The Juche idea raises the question of man's relationship to the world, and man's role in transforming the world. The assertion of the Juche idea with respect to this question is often summarized as "man is the master of everything and decides everything" (Korean: "사람은 모든것의 주인이며 모든것을 결정한다").<ref name=":8">[https://www.kass.org.kp/index.php/course/view/50?lang=eng&search= "Man is the Master of Everything and Decides Everything."] Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism Course: Juche Idea. Korean Association of Social Scientists. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230925111807/http://www.kass.org.kp/index.php/course/view/50?lang=eng&search= Archived] 2023-09-05.</ref><ref name=":9">[https://www.kass.org.kp/index.php/course/view/50 "사람은 모든것의 주인이며 모든것을 결정한다."] 김일성-김정일주의강좌: 주체사상. 조선사회과학자협회. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220705062245/http://www.kass.org.kp/index.php/course/view/50 Archived] 2022-06-05.</ref> It should be noted that this assertion does not make the claim that the material world itself is centered on man. As [[Kim Jong-il|Kim Jong Il]] has clarified, it has been established by the [[Dialectical materialism|materialist dialectic]] that the world consists of matter which moves, changes, and develops in accordance with its own laws. Thus, the philosophy of Juche "does not assert that the material world itself is centred on man," but rather that man "is the transformer of the world and that the world is reshaped by man, not that all changes in the world are brought about by man."<ref name=":4">Kim Jong Il. [https://www.marxists.org/archive/kim-jong-il/works/On-Some-Questions-In-Understanding-The-Juche-Philosophy.pdf "On Some Questions in Understanding the Juche Philosophy."]</ref><br />
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According to Juche, man transforms the world, within the objective laws of material reality, by applying his consciousness and creativity in order to achieve increasing independence from natural and social restrictions. It is this pursuit of independence which causes man (considered primarily as the working masses) to become the driving force of history, which manifests as [[class struggle]] in [[class society]]. Furthermore, the Juche idea emphasizes that an attitude which centers the interests of man should be adopted in man's activities, and asserts that man's consciousness of his role in transforming the world should be enhanced.<br />
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== Concepts ==<br />
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=== Man-centered philosophy ===<br />
As Kim Jong Il describes, the centering of man and man's interests is what characterizes the Juche idea's usefulness for enhancing man's active transformation of the world: "By casting a new light on the outlook of the world, on the viewpoint and attitude towards the world, with man as the main consideration, the Juche philosophy provided the working class and other working masses with a powerful weapon to transform the world and shape their own destiny."<ref name=":4" /><br />
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=== Man as a social being ===<br />
Within Juche, "man" is considered primarily as the social collective of the working masses, rather than purely as individual, biological man. In the context of Juche, the popular masses are not determined by their class background, only by their ideological basis.<ref name="Juche Idea: Answers to Hundred Questions" /> The category of "man" in Juche excludes the reactionary exploiter class.<ref>[https://www.kass.org.kp/index.php/course/view/677?lang=eng&search= "Man, Main Category of Juche Philosophy."] Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism Course: Juche Idea. Korean Academy of Social Sciences. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230923134133/http://www.kass.org.kp/index.php/course/view/677?lang=eng&search= Archived] 2023-09-23.</ref><br />
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The Juche idea concerns itself with defining humans as social beings who possess independence, creativity, and consciousness. According to the Juche idea, these three qualities are what enable human beings to approach the world "not fatalistically but revolutionarily, not passively but actively, and to reshape the world not blindly but purposefully and consciously." Juche further asserts that it is correct for human beings to consciously transform nature and society in ways that benefit them, while also acknowledging the material limits and objective laws of reality. Kim Jong-Il said in regard to this that the Juche viewpoint and attitude are revolutionary because they enable people to transform the world "with a high degree of awareness that they are masters of the world and their own destiny."<ref name=":1" /><br />
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Importantly, these qualities of man are considered not to be purely natural, but rather are characteristics of social man, brought out in man by his existence within a social context. Although Juche acknowledges the biological nature of human beings, "man" as discussed within Juche refers to man within the context of social relations.<ref>{{Citation|year=Juche 101 (2012)|title=Juche Idea: Answers to Hundred Questions|title-url=https://archive.org/details/juche-questions|quote=As seen above, independence, creativity and consciousness constitute the essential features of man that distinguish him from animals. It is important to note that these qualities are not gifted, but social qualities that only man can acquire while living and developing in social relationship.|city=Pyongyang|publisher=Foreign Languages Publishing House}}</ref><br />
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==== Independence ====<br />
In Juche philosophy, independence is considered to be the most important attribute that defines what kind of being man is. It is described as "a quality of man to remove the restrictions of nature, oppose all manner of subjugation in society and make everything serve him."<ref name=":3" /><br />
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In ''Man's Destiny and Juche Idea'', an explanation is given which describes that man's demand for independence is more precious than physical life, and that man's display of creativity and consciousness are for the sake of independence: "If man loses independence and lives at others’ beck and call, he is alive physically but he is dead as a social being. Man’s display of creativity and consciousness is not for the sake of themselves but for the sake of independence. History has recorded lots of people who dedicated their lives to the fight against tyranny and oppression, a demonstration that independence is more precious than physical life."<ref name=":5">[https://archive.org/details/juche-destiny/ "Man's Destiny and Juche Idea."] Foreign Languages Publishing House. Pyongyang, Korea, Juche 101 (2012).</ref><br />
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Juche philosophy considers independence to be the "life and soul" of man because man's socio-political integrity can be maintained only with independence. As ''Exposition of the Principles of Juche Idea'' states, "if man is subjugated by others without independence, he is as same as the dead, though he is in life. Independence, therefore, is the life and soul of man."<ref name=":6">[https://archive.org/details/Juche_exposition/1-what_is_the_view_of_the_juche_idea_on_the_world/ "Exposition of the Principles of Juche Idea."] Foreign Languages Publishing House. Pyongyang, Korea, Juche 103 (2014).</ref> ''Juche Idea: Answers to Hundred Questions'' explains: "The physical life is what keeps man alive as a biological organism, whereas the social and political integrity is what keeps him alive as a social being."<ref name=":3" /><br />
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The [[Korean Association of Social Scientists]] explains that because man has independence "as his life and soul," independence therefore "becomes life and soul of a country and nation, the people’s collective." Following this, if the people’s independence is to be realized, it is important to first realize independence of a country and nation, "the basic unit of carving out destiny."<ref>[https://www.kass.org.kp/index.php/course/view/635?lang=eng "Philosophical Meaning and Socio-Political Meaning of Independence."] Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism Course: Juche Idea. Korean Association of Social Scientists. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230815081746/http://www.kass.org.kp/index.php/course/view/635?lang=eng Archived] 2023-08-15.</ref><br />
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==== Creativity ====<br />
In Juche philosophy, creativity is an attribute of social man, by which man transforms nature and society to make them more useful and beneficial to him by changing the old into the new. It may also be described as scientific and technical knowledge, experience and skill obtained by man in social practice. With creativity, man develops the method of his activities with the passage of time.<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":6" /><br />
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This is contrasted with other beings, which are not considered to have creativity as is discussed within the Juche idea, as "creativity" in Juche philosophy is a trait which is brought out in social man by his existence within social relations. This concept can be contrasted with the activities of animals such as bees or birds, who do in one sense of the word create things in the form of hives and nests. However, as is pointed out in ''Expositions of the Principles of Juche Idea'', this is not considered the same as man's quality of creativity as defined in Juche philosophy, because "they cannot transform the existing forms to make new things. This is proved by the fact that their method is the same even after the change of conditions and environment with the passage of time." In contrast, man's creativity causes him to develop new methods and new creations based on both changing conditions and on the new methods and creations which he continues to develop over time. An example of this is given with the case of man engaging in hunting and gathering for food, then developing farming, and then continuously building on the creative developments in farming by new farming methods and advancements in science and technology.<ref name=":6" /><br />
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''Man's Destiny and Juche Idea'' explains that since man is a creative being and the social movement for shaping destiny of human beings assumes creative character, "destiny control without creation is inconceivable." The work explains that man who wants to realize his aspirations and demand for independence can successfully shape his destiny only by the creative method, enhancing and positively enlisting his creativity and constantly transforming nature and society to meet the specific conditions. The work further explains how the "inexhaustible creative ability" of the masses is key in "waging a dynamic struggle for destiny control":<blockquote>In order to carve out one’s destiny and the destiny of one’s country and nation, it is necessary to strictly rely on the masses of the people possessing inexhaustible creative ability. The popular masses are a decisive force propelling social progress and only when one relies on them strictly and enlists their creativity can one wage a dynamic struggle for destiny control. Whatever outstanding talent and ability an individual has, they are no match for the strength of the masses. It is not an individual but the popular masses who possess in a comprehensive way all knowledge and experience accumulated by humankind through the struggle for carving out destiny in the long historical period.<ref name=":5" /></blockquote>It is also noted in the above work, in respect to how man's creativity may be applied to actions, that the creative method is to find solutions of one's own that suit one's actual realities, always starting from the specific conditions and settings, and, when introducing other's experience, adopt it by tailoring it to meet one's own needs. As is stated in ''Juche Idea: Answers to Hundred Questions'', "Creativity ensures the realization of independence. Man can translate independence into reality as he has creativity. The fuller he gives play to creativity the better he can put independence into practice."<ref name=":3" /><br />
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==== Consciousness ====<br />
According to Juche philosophy, consciousness is an attribute of social man, which determines all his endeavours to understand and reshape the world and himself. Because man has consciousness, man is able to understand the world and the laws of its motion and development, and therefore can harness nature and develop society as he desires. Consciousness enables man to be aware of his demands and interests, as well as of the surrounding world, enabling man to make strenuous effort for the realization of those demands and interests. Because he has consciousness, man is able to make active analysis and judgment of new problems and situations that arise in the process of his practical activities, and enables man to take proper measures and steps in conformity with the new conditions. Thus he is able to carry out his planned practical activities to the end by overcoming difficulties and ordeals encountered in the process.<ref>[https://www.kass.org.kp/index.php/course/view/626?lang=eng&search= "Consciousness."] Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism Course: Juche Idea. Korean Association of Social Scientists. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230926104138/http://www.kass.org.kp/index.php/course/view/626?lang=eng&search= Archived] 2023-09-26.</ref><br />
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Ideological consciousness is considered to reflect man's desire and interests, and therefore has an active effect on man's conduct. In particular, within the Juche idea, consciousness of independence and class interests is considered to play a decisive role in the masses' revolutionary movement for independence. The masses' revolutionary ability cannot find full expression without consciousness, particularly consciousness of their class interests and independence. It is considered that masses with a low level of consciousness in regard to their class interests and in regard to independence will be less able to transform nature and society to meet their needs, therefore hampering their ability to rise to the revolutionary struggle even in the face of oppression and exploitation. It is considered necessary to have a firm consciousness of independence in order to be able to take an indomitable attitude towards the revolution, actively participate in it with a strong will, and struggle to the end, overcoming all difficulties and trials.<ref name=":1" /><br />
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In ''On the Juche Idea'', Kim Jong Il explains that without the regulation of ideological consciousness, man's independent and creative activities would be "inconceivable", stating:<blockquote>If a man is to be an independent creative being, he must have the consciousness of independence. This consciousness means the awareness of one’s being the master of one’s own destiny and signifies the will to shape one’s destiny by one’s own initiative. Only when a man has the consciousness of independence can he conduct conscious activity to conquer nature and actively struggle against the oppressors who encroach and trample upon his independence. Man’s endeavour to acquire a scientific understanding of the world and transform it actively is none other than the manifestation of his consciousness; man’s role in transforming nature and society, after all, is the role of his ideological consciousness.<ref name=":1" /></blockquote>In the same work, Kim Jong Il goes on to describe the relationship between consciousness and material conditions in a revolutionary movement:<blockquote>Material factors, too, play a great part in the revolutionary movement. But the existence of material conditions does not give rise to the revolution automatically. How to make use of these material conditions depends on people’s conscious activity. Whether these material conditions are prepared quickly or not depends on man’s activity. The revolution can be pushed forward only by the active struggle of the revolutionaries and the popular masses. Fundamentally speaking, a revolution does not always break out when all the necessary conditions exist, nor is it carried out always in favourable circumstances. Waiting with folded arms for all conditions to ripen is tantamount to refusing to make a revolution. Primary importance, therefore, should be given to the ideological factor in the revolutionary struggle and construction work, and on this basis strenuous efforts should be made to create all the necessary conditions.<ref name=":1" /></blockquote>In other words, while material factors are considered to play a large role in a revolution, the consciousness of the masses is considered to be the decisive factor, as how to make use of the material conditions depends on people's conscious activity. It is also noted in the same work that the role of ideological consciousness steadily increases with the development of the revolutionary movement; the communist revolutionary movement is described as requiring a high degree of consciousness from people, as the socialist and communist societies are built by the purposeful and conscious efforts of the popular masses. Meanwhile, the role of ideological consciousness is enhanced after the seizure of political power and the establishment of the socialist system by the working class, and socialism and communism are considered to "provide the conditions for increasing the role of people's ideological consciousness to the full."<ref name=":1" /><br />
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=== Man as master ===<br />
One of the starting points of the Juche idea is that the master of the revolution is the popular masses, and that the revolution can emerge victorious when they are educated, organized and mobilized.<ref name=":3" /><br />
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The concept of man as master of everything means that man dominates the world in accordance with his will and demand. In the Juche philosophy, the concept master "indicates whether the world dominates man or man dominates the world in accordance with his will and demand. In other words, the concept master contains the philosophical meaning of whether man is in the position of dominating the world or being dominated by the world."<ref>[https://www.kass.org.kp/index.php/course/view/676?lang=eng&search= "Meaning of Master, Philosophical Concept."] Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism Course: Juche Idea. Korean Academy of Social Sciences. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230923133128/http://www.kass.org.kp/index.php/course/view/676?lang=eng&search= Archived] 2023-09-23.</ref><br />
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This assertion is made in contrast to the view that man is a "powerless" being dominated by instinct, isolated from the world and with no social character, a view described by Kim Jong Il as a reactionary and bourgeois philosophy which "negates a scientific understanding of the world and revolutionary changes, inspires sorrow, pessimism and ultra-egoism."<ref name=":4" /><br />
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The term "domination" in Juche philosophy does not refer to oppressive domination such as class domination or colonial domination, but to "controlling and utilizing all objects of the world in keeping with man’s independent interests and demand". It refers to man's transformation of the world for it to serve him, as opposed to the concept that man serves the surrounding world.<ref>[https://www.kass.org.kp/index.php/course/view/680?lang=eng&search= "Meaning of Domination, Philosophical Concept."] Korean Association of Social Scientists. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230924043630/http://www.kass.org.kp/index.php/course/view/680?lang=eng&search= Archived] 2023-09-23.</ref><br />
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As the work ''Exposition of the Principles of Juche Idea'' notes, it is incorrect to take a metaphysical view of how man dominates the world. The work explains that "it is wrong to understand in a metaphysical way that man dominates the world. At present, man does not dominate all things and phenomena in the world. The scope of man’s domination over the world is small in comparison with the vast scope of nature." The work goes on to note that society has objective laws that act independently of man's will, and it is only when man correctly understands and uses these laws that man can "dominate society according to his demand."<ref name=":6" /><br />
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=== Meaning of destiny ===<br />
The concept of destiny which is discussed in Juche philosophy refers to the situation or circumstances of people, matters of life and death, and the direction of development.<ref name=":8" /><ref name=":9" /> References to "carving out destiny" refers to "the process of fulfilling the people’s basic aspiration and demand."<ref name=":5" /> <br />
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"Destiny" (Korean: 운명; Hanja: 運命) in the context of Juche philosophy does not refer to a superstitious or religious concept of destiny. It is differentiated from concepts such as inevitable or predestined fate (Korean: 숙명; Hanja: 宿命), or the concept of one's fortune (Korean: 팔자; Hanja: 八字).<ref name=":8" /><ref name=":9" /> In contrast with concepts of predestined fate or fortune in which man has no ability to change the outcome, the Juche idea emphasizes man's ability to understand the laws of nature and therefore become capable of consciously transforming the world and society for his benefit, therefore becoming the "master of his destiny". As stated in ''Man's Destiny and Juche Idea'', "With the discovery of this great truth, man who had long been a slave to [[mysticism]], [[fatalism]] and [[supernatural]] [[god]] could exalt his dignity and worth as the master of his destiny."<ref name=":5" /><br />
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=== Views on nationalism ===<br />
The Juche idea holds that [[nationalism]] came about to satisfy the need for a nation to defend its interests during its course of development. Juche understands a nation to be a type of social community which holds common kinship and decent, a distinct language, residential area and culture. Every nation is composed of various classes and strata, and there is no one who has ever been outside of a nation. Because everyone is both part of a nation and [[Social class|class]], everybody is born with both a national and class identity.<ref name=":10">{{Citation|author=Kim Jong-il|year=Juche 91 (2002)|title=On having a correct understanding of Nationalism|title-url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/kim-jong-il/works/On-Having-A-Correct-Understanding-Of-Nationalism.pdf|trans-lang=Korean}}</ref> <br />
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Class and national identities and their respective interests cannot be separated from each other. Although class contradictions exist in every society, all classes within a nation have common national interests in defending the homeland and achieving independence. Because nationalism emerged alongside the development of a nation, it is inherently progressive under most circumstances. However, under capitalist society, the bourgeoisie disguises their class interests for collective national interests to further reactionary ideology.<ref name=":10" /> <br />
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=== Historical outlook ===<br />
The historical outlook of the Juche idea holds that the working masses are the subject of history and the motive force of social progress, and that history develops through the struggle of the working masses to transform nature and society, as they defend and realize independence from all natural and social restrictions. In class society, the exploiting classes attempt to prevent this historical advance, forming a struggle between "the creators of history and the reactionaries of history, between the masters of revolution and the targets of revolution".<ref name=":1" /> Through these struggles, society develops and advances. <br />
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In Juche philosophy, it is recognized that man lives and conducts his activity in the world, and that the world consists of material which changes and develops as the result of the motion of material, and that nature is both the object of man's labor as well as the material source of his life. However, a distinction is made between the development of nature and socio-historical development in that the developments of nature have no volitional "subject"; in nature, motion takes place spontaneously through the interaction of material elements which exist objectively. In contrast, social movement is considered to be caused and developed by the volitional role of the subject--the working masses of the people.<br />
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The working masses transform nature through their labor, producing all social wealth by their hands and advancing history through their creative activity and struggle, changing the societies unfavorable to them. While the working masses are considered as the subject and motive force of history throughout various forms of society, their positive action on socio-historical progress increases as they transform nature and society, strengthening their position, and as they become more aware of their role as the motive force of history. In socialist society, the working masses undergo a radical change in their status and destiny, and their position and role are enhanced due to the revolutionary leadership and struggle of the working class.<br />
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As explained by Kim Jong Il, "Only by seizing state power and the means of production in their own hands and by establishing a socialist system can the working masses free themselves from exploitation and oppression and create history consciously as true masters of society and their own destiny." He explains that when the whole society is reshaped completely on the pattern of the advanced working class under its leadership, "the position of the popular masses, the subject of history, would be remarkably stronger, and their role in pushing forward the historical progress and revolutionary development incomparably higher."<ref name=":1" /><br />
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=== Relation to other philosophical ideas ===<br />
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==== Idealism and metaphysics ====<br />
Juche holds it as fact that the world consists of material which moves and develops in accordance with its own laws, rather than consisting of consciousness or ideas.<ref name=":4" /> ''Exposition of the Principles of Juche Idea'' indicates that thanks to the scientific world outlook of Marxism, the exploited working masses "got free from religious illusion and idealistic fiction".<ref name=":6" /><br />
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Juche philosophy emphasizes the importance of considering man as a social being living in social relations rather than purely as a biological being. As explained in ''Exposition of the Principles of Juche Idea'', "the view that regarded man as the being dominated by instinct had been used for defending capitalist society where the law of jungle prevailed, causing corruption among the working masses."<ref name=":6" /> This purely biological characterization of man, which fails to distinguish man as existing within social relations or to identify social man's key traits as defined in Juche, is criticized because it can be used to "defend exploiter society governed by the law of the jungle",<ref name=":5" /> as well as potentially leading to [[Racism|racist]] theories and racial discrimination.<ref name=":4" /><br />
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==== Dialectical materialism ====<br />
Juche philosophy regards the dialectical materialist view as the scientific view of the material world. As Kim Jong Il has stated regarding this view:<blockquote>It has already been established by materialistic dialectic that the world consists of material, not consciousness or ideas, and that it moves, changes and develops in accordance with its own laws, not by any supernatural force. It is an undeniable fact that the world is, in essence, a material entity, a material integrity, and that it moves, changes and develops in accordance with its inherent laws.<ref name=":4" /></blockquote>''Exposition of the Principles of Juche Idea'' explains the influence of Marxism in freeing people from idealism and in instructing people to "understand and approach the world as it is" and to behave "according to the law of the change and development of the objective material world":<blockquote>As a scientific world outlook that reflects the world as it is in an objective way, Marxist world outlook had big influence on the development of history and the shaping of people’s destiny. Thanks to Marxism, the exploited working masses got free from religious illusion and idealistic fiction and came to understand that their misfortunes come not from their fate or revelation of God but from the exploitation of the capitalist class and the capitalist system that defends it. And they were awakened that the way for happiness free from the exploitation and oppression is to fight against capital. <br />
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It is the world outlook that instructs to understand and approach the world as it is, in other words, to behave according to the law of the change and development of the objective material world on the basis of its correct cognition.<ref name=":6" /></blockquote>Within Juche, it is considered that although this view provides a correct scientific understanding of the world, it does not inherently cause man to actively transform nature and society in accordance with his will or in accordance with man's interests. It is the Juche philosophy which asserts it is able to fulfill this task by emphasizing man's role in taking responsibility for shaping the world and asserting that the world should be shaped according to man's interests. Therefore, it is asserted that "in order to lead a true life, [man] must not only cognize the objective law and behave according to it but also transform nature and society in an active way on its basis. Dialectical materialism cannot enable people to fulfill the responsibility and role for their life. Moreover, it does not directly show the road of shaping man’s destiny. It is the man-centred world outlook that shows the road of shaping man’s destiny directly and scientifically."<ref name=":6" /><br />
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The work ''Man's Destiny and Juche Idea'' summarizes the view held in Juche philosophy, which is that the Juche idea raises a separate question from what is dealt with by Marx: "As the origin of the world was explained materialistically by Marxism, the Juche idea newly raises the relationship between the world and man, the position and role of man in the world, as the fundamental question of philosophy and gives a scientific answer to it."<ref name=":5" /><br />
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==== Marxism–Leninism ====<br />
The Korean Association of Social Scientists (KASS) states that although the Juche idea is an idea connected with [[Marxism–Leninism|Marxism-Leninism]], Juche is a new, original revolutionary idea which "gave answers to the demands of a historical age different from one of Marx and Lenin, and was evolved and systematized with its own peculiar principles."<ref>[https://kcnawatch.xyz/newstream/1565258143-198061077/what-is-the-ideological-and-mental-source-of-the-juche-idea-and-its-premise/ "What is the ideological and mental source of the Juche idea and its premise?"] Korean Association of Social Scientists. 2009-04-14. Accessed via KCNA Watch. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230923132720/https://kcnawatch.xyz/newstream/1565258143-198061077/what-is-the-ideological-and-mental-source-of-the-juche-idea-and-its-premise/ Archived] 2023-09-23.</ref> [[Kim Il-sung]] developed the ideology which was originally viewed as a variant of Marxism–Leninism until it became recognized as a theoretical advancement. Kim Jong-il officially broke the Marxist-Leninist continuity of Juche, claiming it to be something unique entirely. It incorporates the [[Historical materialism|historical materialist]] ideas of Marxism–Leninism and strongly emphasizes the relationship between the [[individual]], the [[nation state]] and its [[sovereignty]].<br />
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Kim Jong-il states this about the unique Juche characteristic of Socialism in Korea and how it is not merely Marxism-Leninism, <blockquote>"In the early years of revolutionary activity, the leader (Kim Il-Sung) was well versed in Marxism-Leninism. But he did not confine himself to applying Marxism-Leninism to the Korean Revolution but pioneered a new phase of revolutionary theory from a steadfast Juche-oriented standpoint and resolved the problems arising in the revolutionary practice from a unique angle."<ref>[https://www.marxists.org/archive/kim-jong-il/works/On-The-Juche-Idea.pdf On the Juche Idea - Kim Jong-Il, page 7]</ref></blockquote>Kim Jong-il stated that the historical achievements of Marxism–Leninism must be acknowledged but also states that it has limitations when it comes to the specifics of post-revolution socialist construction in the present day context, and states that, "the present historical condition is fundamentally different from what it was when the founders of Marxism–Leninism were active" and while Lenin certainly advanced Marxism, "is now clear to everybody that one cannot build socialism properly by drawing on a theory that was put forward based on prediction and supposition a century ago." Kim Jong-il adds, <blockquote>"Although Marxism-Leninism has limitations and failed to clarify the specific ways for building socialism, those parties that are building socialism can prevent the degeneration of their class character if they correctly maintain the revolutionary principle of Marxism-Leninism [...] As for the mistakes revealed in socialist construction in some countries, their parties which allowed dogmatism and revisionism, not Marxism-Leninism and its founders, are to blame for them."<ref name=":2">[[Library:On some problems of the ideological foundation of socialism|On some problems of the ideological foundation of socialism]]</ref></blockquote>While the achievements of Marxism–Leninism are recognized in the Juche outlook, it is considered that Marxism–Leninism does not provide all the answers necessary for socialist construction in the modern conditions or the specific conditions of Korea, and that it is limited by its historical age.<blockquote>The Juche idea must not be viewed as a simple inheritance and development of Marxism-Leninism; it must be viewed as a new and original idea. That we should see originality in context with derivations in understanding means that the Juche idea is not an ideology, which contrasts with Marxism-Leninism and that the historical achievements of Marxism-Leninism must be acknowledged. We acknowledge the historical achievements of the dialectical materialism of Marxism, as it smashed the reactionary idealistic and metaphysical outlook on the world, but do not view it as the perfect philosophy of the working class. We appraise the historical achievements of Marxism-Leninism as it proved the inevitability of the fall of capitalism and the triumph of socialism and clarified the and theory on building a classless ideal society free of exploitation and oppression, but we do not see it as a perfect communist revolutionary theory. As a matter of course we have so far not spoken much about the limitations of Marxism-Leninism. But today when its limitations are more and more evident, it is necessary to bring them home to our officials. Only then can they fully understand the originality and superiority of the Juche idea, the revolutionary idea of the leader, and make firmer their conviction of our style socialism based on the Juche idea. – Kim Jong-Il<ref name=":2" /></blockquote><br />
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==== Individualism vs. collectivism ====<br />
In Juche, the individual's demand for independence is considered to be the demand of man as an equal member of the social collective rather than as a single, isolated individual who exists outside of social relations. <br />
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The individual's demand for independence as described in Juche is considered to be fundamentally different from concepts such as "individualistic greed" or concepts found in existentialism, which is regarded as a bourgeois philosophy. Arguments centering on the isolated individual's autonomy and freedom of will is considered to be "sophism to rationalize individual egoism and liberalism and to defend capitalist system," as is described in the work ''Expositions of the Principles of Juche Idea''. Such claims are described as "bourgeois self-indulgence with which one decides and behaves as he wishes according to his pure will, negating all effects of social environments."<ref name=":6" /><br />
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In addition, Juche philosophy argues that the demands of an individual can be better realized only through collectivism, which is considered to be more capable of properly combining the demands of the individual and the collective, to realize the demands of both.<ref name=":6" /><br />
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== History ==<br />
The development of the Juche idea is intertwined with the historical experience of Korea. The Juche idea's development has been influenced by Korea's [[Anti-colonialism|anti-colonial]], [[Anti-imperialism|anti-imperialist]] struggle against imperial Japan and the imperialist USA, as well as by Korea's position as a country "sandwiched between big countries",<ref name=":7">Kim Jong Il. [https://www.marxists.org/archive/kim-jong-il/works/Worshipping-Big-Power-And-Depending-On-Foreign-Forces-Is-The-Way-To-National-Ruin.pdf "Worshipping Big Powers and Depending on Foreign Forces is the Way to National Ruin."] Talk to Students at Kim Il Sung University. April 5, 1961.</ref> given its physical position bordering longstanding world powers such as China and Russia, its proximity to Japan which was formerly an imperial power which targeted Korea, and which now serves the imperialist US, and the US-occupied south Korea. Korea has thus had a long historical experience of being a location in which world power struggles have taken place, with the Juche idea being birthed amidst the anti-colonial struggle against Japan, and the nation of DPRK being born amidst the confrontation against US imperialism which continues today. Stemming from these historical experiences and particular circumstances of Korea, one of the major points emphasized in Juche is the concept of independence from great powers and the avoidance of sycophancy and extreme dependence on foreign powers, and prioritizing the importance of focusing on the material conditions of Korea, centering Korean realities in their own revolution rather than simply following the ideas of others while neglecting to consider the specific situation of Korea. <br />
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In the foreword to the book ''Socialist Education in Korea'', Derek Ford and Curry Malott contextualize the development of the Juche idea, describing its origins in the anti-Japanese struggle in Korea, and its further development in the context of the [[Sino-Soviet split]]. They write:<blockquote>In response to those who wanted to build the anti-colonial struggle and the future independent Korea by relying on outside forces or self-styled leaders parroting theories from elsewhere, Kim Il-Sung formulated the slogan “The people are my God,” which encapsulates “the spirit of approaching everything with the masses of the people at the centre and boundlessly treasuring them.” As Kim Jong-Il recounts, Kim Il-Sung “clarified the truth that a revolution should be carried out not by anyone’s approval or instruction but by one’s own conviction and on one’s own responsibility that all problems arising in the revolution should be solved in an independent and creative way.” [...] By making Juche official policy, the WPK and state apparatuses fastened the country’s direction around “the principle of solving for oneself all the problems of the revolution and construction in conformity with the actual conditions of one’s country, mainly by one’s own efforts.” Juche was formulated against “dogmatism and flunkeyism towards great powers” as a dynamic doctrine organized around “independence in politics, self-sustenance in the economy, and self-defense in national defense.”<ref name=":0" /></blockquote><br />
=== Anti-imperialist struggle ===<br />
The development of the Juche idea has been influenced by Korea's anti-colonial, anti-imperialist struggle, including the struggle against imperial Japan's colonial domination of Korea, and the struggle against the imperialist USA.<br />
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The revolutionary tradition of the anti-Japanese struggle still has heavy influence on DPRK's guiding ideology today. During Japan's colonial domination, Koreans were banned from politically organizing and were subjected to extensive cultural erasure and conditions of slavery. Koreans were given Japanese names, forced to practice Japanese religion, and speak Japanese. All industrial goods made in Korea were exported to Japan, and Japanese workers were paid three times as much as Koreans. The Japanese sent one eighth of the Korean population to other parts of their empire to work as slaves.<ref>Stephen Gowans (2018). ''Patriots, Traitors and Empires: The Story of Korea’s Struggle for Freedom'': 'The Empire of Japan' (pp. 25–29). <small>[https://ipfs.io/ipfs/bafykbzaced4iiga4ngtxusr2civjxewbili5jne2sbpefbx2s3im2kphattzc?filename=Stephen%20Gowans%20-%20Patriots%2C%20Traitors%20and%20Empires_%20The%20Story%20of%20Korea%E2%80%99s%20Struggle%20for%20Freedom-Baraka%20Books%20%282018%29.pdf <nowiki>[PDF]</nowiki>]</small> Montreal: Baraka Books. <small><nowiki>ISBN 9781771861427</nowiki></small> <small>[LG]</small></ref> The anti-Japanese struggle influenced the development of the Juche idea and is intimately linked with the history of Korean socialism, the Korean independence movement, and the life of Kim Il-sung. Therefore, the revolutionary tradition of the anti-Japanese struggle remains important in the DPRK, as both a source of inspiration as well as important material for study.<ref>[https://615tv.net/376 <nowiki>“[기획연재1] 김일성 주석의 항일운동 역사.”</nowiki>] 2022. 주권방송. April 5, 2022. [https://web.archive.org/web/20221020065905/https://615tv.net/376 Archived] 2022-10-20.</ref> <br />
<br />
In response to Korea's colonial oppression by Japan and as part of the Korean peoples' struggles for independence, the [[Down-with-Imperialism Union]] (DIU) was formed by Kim Il Sung along with other young communists in 1926. The DIU set as its immediate task the destruction of Japanese imperialism and achievement of Korea’s liberation and independence, with the ultimate aim of building socialism and communism in Korea and, further, destroying all imperialists and building communism throughout the world. The programme which is based on the ideals of anti-imperialism and independence and of maintaining independence in the revolution and construction formed the basis of the programme of the WPK. As is noted in Ro Myong Sim's article "Historical Roots of the Workers' Party of Korea", the young communists of the new generation brought up by the DIU became the backbone of the WPK, and that, thanks to the "precious traditions and experiences of party building established and gained in the period of the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle", the Workers' Party of Korea, the "Juche-type revolutionary party", was founded soon after Korea's liberation in 1945.<ref>Ro Myong Sim. [https://exploredprk.com/articles/historical-roots-of-the-workers-party-of-korea/ "Historical Roots of the Workers’ Party of Korea."] Explore DPRK. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230928053620/https://exploredprk.com/articles/historical-roots-of-the-workers-party-of-korea/ Archived] 2023-09-28.</ref><br />
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Shortly after Korea's liberation from Japan, the US occupation of Korea began, along with the USA's attempt to eradicate socialism from Korea as a whole. US imperialism caused violent destruction throughout Korea during the [[Korean War|Fatherland Liberation War]] in an attempt to annihilate DPRK's existence and prevent the spread of socialism in Korea. The imperialist US still currently occupies the southern half of Korea and conducts antagonistic military exercises aimed at the "decapitation" of DPRK's leadership<ref>Flounders, Sara. [https://www.workers.org/2022/08/66398/ “Faced with U.S. ‘Decapitation Drill’ DPRK Korea Missile Launch Is Self-Defense.”] [[Workers World]]. August 26, 2022. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230604132236/https://www.workers.org/2022/08/66398/ Archived] 2023-06-04.</ref> while also attempting to thwart DPRK's economic growth and sabotage its international relations through escalating [[economic sanctions]] programs that are designed to prevent economic growth, international travel, and inter-Korean cooperation.<ref>[https://nodutdol.org/sanctions-of-empire/ "제국의 제재 - Sanctions of Empire."] Nodutdol. October 20, 2020. [https://nodutdol.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Sanctions-of-Empire.pdf PDF]. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220520095404/https://nodutdol.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Sanctions-of-Empire.pdf Archive].</ref> This direct and ongoing confrontation with US imperialism throughout the entirety of DPRK's existence as a nation has influenced DPRK's ideological developments and its focus on forming its own lines and policies from the standpoint of Juche, which keeps focus on Korea's specific material conditions and particular circumstances.<br />
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=== Relation to great powers ===<br />
In addition to past and ongoing confrontations with colonialism and imperialism, the development of the Juche idea is influenced by Korea's historical experience as a country "sandwiched between big countries" which has caused Korea to have periods of history and ideological trends in which the "worship of big countries" became, in the words of Kim Jong Il, an "ideological malady" that has "long caused harm to the liberation struggle, the communist movement and the construction of a new society." In order for Korea to put itself on a successful path to revolution, Kim Il-sung put forward a policy of rejecting sycophancy and dogmatism and establishing a Juche orientation for the revolutionary movement.<ref name=":7" /> <br />
<br />
=== Relation to other socialist nations ===<br />
Along with Korea's anti-imperialist struggle and Korea's position between influential world powers, the development of the Juche idea has also been influenced by DPRK's focus on their own particular circumstances in revolution and socialist construction, rather than mechanically following the ideological lines of its neighboring socialist countries, China and the Soviet Union. Although DPRK at times received help from each nation and has maintained friendly, peaceful relations with them, the Juche idea was emphasized to avoid extreme dependence on either country's applications of Marxism–Leninism. This was to avoid dogmatic and mechanical application of their ideas and to prioritize the importance of focusing on the material conditions within Korea.<br />
Providing context for the role of Juche in Korea in respect to the advances of Marxism–Leninism in the Soviet Union, [[Kim Jong-il|Kim Jong-Il]] said in a 1990 speech:<blockquote>In the past, many countries, while building socialism guided by Marxism-Leninism, applied the propositions of Marxism-Leninism advanced long before as they were, and imitated the Soviet experience in a mechanical manner. [...] As a matter of fact, we cannot deny the historic exploits and experience of the Soviet Union which built socialism for the first time in the world. However, the experience of the Soviet Union in socialist construction is, in every point, the reflection of the then historical conditions and the concrete situation of the Soviet Union. [...] In our country, once a backward, colonial semi-feudal society, we could not literally accept the Marxist theory which had been advanced on the premises of the socio-historical conditions of the developed European capitalist countries, or the Leninist theory presented in the situation of Russia where capitalism was developed to the secondary grade. We had had to find a solution to every problem arising in the revolution by racking our own brains and with our own efforts to suit our country’s socio-historical conditions. Immediately after liberation we started building a new society under the situation in which our country was divided into north and south and we were in direct confrontation with the US imperialists; this situation urgently required us to solve every problem from the standpoint of Juche. Such a requirement of the developing revolution was fulfilled satisfactorily by the great leader who, on the basis of the Juche idea, put forward original lines and policies suited to our people’s aspirations and the specific situation of our country.<ref>Kim Jong Il. [https://www.marxists.org/archive/kim-jong-il/works/Socialism-Of-Our-Country-Is-A-Socialism-Of-Our-Style-As-The-Embodiment-Of-The-Juche-Idea.pdf "Socialism of Our Country is a Socialism of Our Style as the Embodiment of the Juche Idea."] Speech Delivered to the Senior Officials of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea. December 27, 1990. Marxists.org.</ref> </blockquote><br />
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== See also ==<br />
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* [[Workers' Party of Korea]]<br />
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==References==<br />
<references /><br />
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=== Notes ===<br />
<references group="lower-alpha" /><br />
[[Category:Ideology of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea]]<br />
[[Category:State ideologies]]<br />
[[Category:Left-wing ideologies]]<br />
[[Category:Communist ideologies]]<br />
[[Category:Pages to be protected]]</div>
Verda.Majo
https://en.prolewiki.org/index.php?title=Template:History_calendar/03/18&diff=64355
Template:History calendar/03/18
2024-03-18T16:48:53Z
<p>Verda.Majo: added declaration of the Paris Commune. My first time making a calendar entry, hopefully I did it correctly!</p>
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<div>'''1871'''<br />
{{history calendar/calendar event|year=1871|month=03|day=18|event=Declaration of the [[Paris Commune]].}}</div>
Verda.Majo
https://en.prolewiki.org/index.php?title=United_States_Army_Military_Government_in_Korea&diff=64275
United States Army Military Government in Korea
2024-03-17T09:36:55Z
<p>Verda.Majo: adding more information and sources</p>
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<div>[[File:The Japanese flag in front of the Japanese Government-General of Korea building in Seoul is replaced with the U.S. flag..png|alt=A side-by-side of two black and white photos. The first is of the Japanese flag in front of the Japanese Government General of Korea building being lowered, with US military watching. In the second picture, the US flag is raised on the same flag pole, with the US military personnel saluting it.|thumb|The Japanese flag in front of the Japanese Government-General of Korea building in Seoul is replaced with the U.S. flag.<ref>[http://jeju43peace.org/historytruth/fact-truth/factstruth_article2/ "Liberation from Japan in 1945."] Jeju 4.3 Peace Foundation. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230604195550/http://jeju43peace.org/historytruth/fact-truth/factstruth_article2/ Archived] 2023-06-04.</ref>]]<br />
'''The United States Army Military Government in Korea''' ('''USAMGIK''') was the [[United States of America|United States]]' occupying authority in the southern part of [[Korea]] from September 8, 1945 until August 15, 1948.<ref name=":0">Heo Ho-joon. [https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_international/1086487 "‘My mission is suppression’: Jeju blood on the hands of the US military government."] Hankyoreh, 2023-04-04. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240316154019/https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_international/1086487 Archived] 2024-03-16.</ref><br />
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Prior to the arrival of U.S. forces in Korea, Koreans had established various organizations for self-government, such as numerous [[People's Committees (Korea)|People's Committees]] throughout the country as well as declaring the short-lived [[People's Republic of Korea (1945–1946)|People's Republic of Korea]] (PRK). These forms of self-government had grown out of Korea's [[National liberation|independence struggle]], and were able to come out into the open and further expand after [[Empire of Japan (1868–1947)|imperial Japan]]'s defeat. However, USAMGIK did not recognize the authority of the PRK nor the People's Committees and proceeded to outlaw and dismantle them, and created new local councils under conservative control<ref>Kim Jinwung. "A Policy of Amateurism: The Rice Policy of the U.S. Army Military. Government in Korea, 1945-1948." Korea Journal, Summer 2007. ([https://kj.accesson.kr/assets/pdf/8153/journal-47-2-208.pdf PDF])</ref> as well as rehired officers from the Japanese colonial era.<ref>[http://jeju43peace.org/historytruth/fact-truth/factstruth_article3/ "Who ruled over the Korean Peninsula?"] Jeju 4.3 Peace Foundation. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230330235013/http://jeju43peace.org/historytruth/fact-truth/factstruth_article3/ Archived] 2023-03-30.</ref><ref>{{Citation|author=Wonhyuk Cho|year=2017|title=Change and Continuity in Police Organizations: Institution, Legitimacy, and Democratization.|page=157-8|quote=For example, the U.S. military government decided to utilize former colonial police officers, who served the interests of the Japanese colonial regime, to deal with the shortage of police-trained manpower and to manage postcolonial social instability (Meade, 1951). Out of 25,000 police officials in 1946, more than a half of the officers were former colonial officers. Due to the organizational and behavioral similarities between the colonial and postcolonial police, the populace’s deep-seated hatred toward colonial police remained intact.|pdf=https://s-space.snu.ac.kr/bitstream/10371/134789/1/7.pdf|publisher=The Korean Journal of Policy Studies, GSPA, Seoul National University|volume=Vol. 32, No. 1 (2017), pp. 149-174.}}</ref><br />
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[[Richard D. Robinson]], a historian<ref>[https://aib.msu.edu/fellow/47/Richard-D-Robinson "AIB Fellow - Richard D. Robinson."] Academy of International Business (AIB). September 2009. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240317093352/https://aib.msu.edu/fellow/47/Richard-D-Robinson Archived] 2024-03-17.</ref> who at the time of USAMGIK's occupation was the chief of the Public Opinion Section of the Department of Information of the USAMGIK,<ref name=":1">Robinson, Richard. Cited in Mark J. Scher (1973) [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/14672715.1973.10406346 "U.S. policy in Korea 1945–1948: A Neocolonial model takes shape."] Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars, 5:4, 17-27, DOI: 10.1080/14672715.1973.10406346. <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.1080/14672715.1973.1040634</nowiki></ref> has been quoted describing the occupation as "incredibly bungled by an incompetent and corrupt administration"<ref>Robinson, Richard. Cited in Chung, Yong Wook. [https://kj.accesson.kr/assets/pdf/8518/journal-60-2-14.pdf "From Occupation to War; Cold War Legacies of US Army Historical Studies of the Occupation and Korean War."] Korea Journal, vol. 60, no. 2 (summer 2020): 14–54. doi: 10.25024/kj.2020.60.2.14 © The Academy of Korean Studies, 2020.</ref> and has further been quoted describing the situation as follows:<blockquote>It was safe to say that for the most part the local People's Committees in these early days were of the genuine [[grassroots]] [[Democracy|democratic]] variety and represented a spontaneous urge of the people to govern themselves. [...] They resented orders from the Military Government to turn the administration of local government over to American Army officers and their appointed Korean counterparts, many of whom were considered to be Japanese collaborators. It seemed like a reversion to what had gone before. Bloodshed ensued in many communities as local People's Committees defied the Military Government and refused to abandon government offices. Koreans and Americans met in pitched battles, and not a few Koreans met violent death in the struggle.<ref name=":1" /></blockquote><br />
<br />
Ahn Hak-sop, a former officer in the [[Korean People's Army]] who was captured in 1952 and endured decades of torture as a political prisoner in [[Republic of Korea|south Korea]], spoke about the USAMGIK's occupation in a 2019 interview with [[Liberation School]]:<blockquote>In September of 1945, Koreans went out to greet the US Army, but the US Army shot at them. After the Moscow Committee, the US Army said explicitly that they were there to block the [[Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (1922–1991)|Soviet Union]]. But in 1948, the Soviet Union withdrew all of their troops. But the US Army didn’t withdraw. In almost every town, there was a People’s Committee for self-rule, but the US Army crushed the People’s Committees with tanks and soldiers.<ref>Ahn Hak-sop, Derek Ford. [https://www.liberationschool.org/interview-with-ahn-hak-sop/ "Still fighting for Korea’s liberation: An interview with Ahn Hak-sop."] Liberation School, 2023-07-27. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240117180755/https://www.liberationschool.org/interview-with-ahn-hak-sop/ Archived] 2024-01-17.</ref></blockquote>The "Jeju 4•3 Incident Investigation Report" published in 2003 by south Korea's government assigns responsibility for the [[Jeju Uprising|Jeju massacre]] not only to dictator [[Syngman Rhee]] but also to the USAMGIK authorities.<ref name=":0" /><ref>"The Jeju 4·3 Incident Investigation Report." The National Committee for Investigation of the Truth about the Jeju April 3 Incident, Jeju 4·3 Peace Foundation, 2003.</ref><br />
<br />
== References ==<br />
<references /></div>
Verda.Majo
https://en.prolewiki.org/index.php?title=Republic_of_Korea&diff=64274
Republic of Korea
2024-03-17T08:39:43Z
<p>Verda.Majo: /* Suppressed criticism in official U.S. military history of Korean War and U.S. occupation of Korea */ created more page links</p>
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<div>{{Infobox country|name=Republic of Korea|population_estimate_year=2019|population_estimate=51,709,098|area_km2=100,363|established_date1=1948 August 15|established_event1=First Republic|image_map=Statesian neocolonial occupation of Korea.svg|map_width=260|official_languages=Korean|leader_name3=Kim Jin-pyo|native_name=대한민국|image_flag=Flag of South Korea.svg|leader_title3=Speaker of the National Assembly|leader_name2=Han Duck-soo|leader_title2=Prime Minister|leader_name1=[[Yoon Suk-yeol]]|leader_title1=President|image_coat=ROK emblem.svg|capital=Seoul|government_type=Unitary corporatocratic republic|currency=Korean Republic won (₩) (KRW)|official_website=https://www.korea.net/|mode_of_production=[[Capitalism]]}}<br />
The so-called '''Republic of Korea''' ('''ROK'''), also known as '''Capitalist Korea''' or '''South Korea''', is a [[Bourgeois state|bourgeois liberal republic]] that serves as a [[United States of America|U.S.]] puppet state<ref>{{Citation|author=Stephen Gowans|year=2018|title=Patriots, Traitors and Empires: The Story of Korea’s Struggle for Freedom|chapter=The Empire of Japan|page=45|pdf=https://ipfs.io/ipfs/bafykbzaced4iiga4ngtxusr2civjxewbili5jne2sbpefbx2s3im2kphattzc?filename=Stephen%20Gowans%20-%20Patriots%2C%20Traitors%20and%20Empires_%20The%20Story%20of%20Korea%E2%80%99s%20Struggle%20for%20Freedom-Baraka%20Books%20%282018%29.pdf|city=Montreal|publisher=Baraka Books|isbn=9781771861427|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=8435F6FF91279531705764823FDC2A7F}}</ref> and [[Neocolonialism|colony]]<ref name=":23" /> located on the southern portion of the [[Korea|Korean Peninsula]]. The northern part of the peninsula is governed by the [[Democratic People's Republic of Korea|Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)]], also known as People's Korea. <br />
<br />
According to the south Korean [[People's Democracy Party]] (민중민주당), writing in a 2020 [[Liberation School]] article, "south Korea is a complete colony occupied by the U.S. military, is politically oppressed by the U.S., and is economically subordinate to [[Imperialism|imperialist]] countries, including the U.S. After the military coup of 1961, the rule of fascist military dictatorships continued for 30 years, and since then a pro-US [[Neoliberalism|neoliberal]] regime has operated in the country. It is severely exploiting the [[Proletariat|workers]], [[Peasantry|farmers]], and all the people."<ref name=":23">People's Democracy Party and Liberation School. [https://www.liberationschool.org/korean-war-70-years/ “70 Years Too Long: The Struggle to End the Korean War – Liberation School.”] ''Liberation School – Revolutionary Marxism for a New Generation of Fighters'', 25 June 2020. [https://web.archive.org/web/2/https://www.liberationschool.org/korean-war-70-years/ Archived].<br />
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</ref><br />
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According to the same party, the Korean reunification and peace struggle is contingent on the withdrawal of U.S. troops, and therefore U.S. military withdrawal from south Korea is "the most desperate and preferred struggle task for the whole Korean nation to solve.<ref name=":23" /> <br />
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Since its inception, the ROK has been riddled with corruption and political scandals. All four living former south Korean presidents have been sentenced to prison for various crimes ranging from abuse of authority to bribery and embezzlement.<ref name="aei">{{Web citation|date=2018-10-09|title=South Korea's troubling history of jailing ex-presidents|url=https://www.aei.org/foreign-and-defense-policy/asia/south-koreas-troubling-history-of-jailing-ex-presidents/|newspaper=American Enterprise Institute}}</ref><ref>{{Web citation|date=2021-02-10|title=Former South Korean president sentenced to prison|url=https://www.dw.com/en/former-south-korean-president-sentenced-to-prison/a-55779280|newspaper=Deutsche Welle}}</ref><ref>{{Web citation|date=2013-08-22|title=Ex-president Roh Tae-woo to pay remainder of massive fine|newspaper=The Chosunilbo}}</ref><ref>{{Web citation|date=2017-02-07|title=South Korea: President's impeachment on a background of political scandal|url=http://perspective.usherbrooke.ca/bilan/servlet/BMAnalyse?codeAnalyse=2320|newspaper=Perspective Monde}}</ref><ref name="bbcsource">{{Web citation|date=2018-10-05|title=South Korea ex-leader jailed for 15 years|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-45756561|newspaper=[[BBC|BBC News]]}}</ref><br />
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==History==<br />
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=== Early history and Japanese occupation ===<br />
{{Main article|Korea}}<br />
Some of Korea's major historical periods leading up to the contemporary period include the period of Gojoseon (2333 B.C.-108 B.C.), the Three Han States Period, the Three Kingdoms Period, the North-South States Period (668-918), the Goryeo Dynasty (918–1392), the Joseon Dynasty (1392–1897), the relatively short-lived Korean Empire (1897–1910), and the Japanese colonial occupation period (1910–1945).<ref name=":29">Shin, Michael D.; Lee, Injae; Miller, Owen; Park, Jinhoon; Yi, Hyon-hye. [https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781107098466 "Korean History in Maps: from prehistory to the Twenty-first Century."] Cambridge University Press, 3rd printing, 2016.</ref><ref>[http://nationalatlas.ngii.go.kr/pages/page_3083.php "Territorial History of Korea."] National Atlas of Korea: Comprehensive Edition (2022). National Geography Information Institute, Ministry of Land Infrastructure and Transport.</ref><br />
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Throughout its history, Korea has been faced with various foreign attacks and disturbances. For example, Korea faced invasion by Japan during the [[Imjin Wars]] of the 1590s<ref name=":29" /> and disturbances such as imperialist [[gunboat diplomacy]] in the 1800s.<ref>Bullimore, Kim. [https://redflag.org.au/node/6486 "Understanding US aggression against North Korea."] [[Redflag]], [[Socialist Alternative (Australia)|Socialist Alternative]], 2018-08-21. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220526084730/https://redflag.org.au/node/6486 Archived] 2022-05-26.</ref> As independent scholar Jay Hauben observed in The Jeju Weekly, Korea "remained independent despite 500 years of efforts of bigger powers to dominate it" until it was subjected to Japanese rule in 1910.<ref name=":14" /><br />
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During the Japanese occupation era, which lasted until Japan's defeat in 1945, Korea's economy was developed to serve the interests of the Japanese empire, with Korean industry developing as an "appendage" of Japanese industry, hindering the normal development of Korea's national industry.<ref>Kim Han Gil. [https://archive.org/details/ModernHistoryOfKorea/ "Modern History of Korea."] Foreign Languages Publishing House, Pyongyang, Korea, 1979.</ref> The southern part of the Korean peninsula was predominantly agricultural, and was considered the "rice bowl" of the country as it supplied a greater portion of the food for Korea. As a colonial economy, it was tightly controlled in the interest of creating a rice surplus for Japan.<ref name=":15">Kim Jinwung. A ''Policy of Amateurism: The Rice Policy of the U.S. Army Military''. Government in Korea, 1945-1948. Korea Journal, Summer 2007.https://kj.accesson.kr/assets/pdf/8153/journal-47-2-208.pdf</ref><br />
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As [[Kim Il-sung|Kim Il Sung]] summarized, during the colonial period, Japan turned Korea into "a source of raw materials and labour, a market for their commodities and a military base for aggression against the continent."<ref>Kim Il Sung. "The Tasks of Korean Communists." Treatise Published in Sogwang, Organ of the Korean People's Revolutionary Army, November 10, 1937. Collected Works Volume 1. ([https://www.marxists.org/archive/kim-il-sung/cw/01.pdf PDF])</ref> Additionally, under colonial rule, Koreans were subjected to kidnapping and slavery in the form of forced labor and sexual slavery (the latter are known as [[comfort women]]), on top of facing extensive political repression and cultural erasure.<ref name=":30" /><br />
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A [[Liberation School]] article explains that as economic and anti-colonial demands mounted under the occupation, resistance to Japanese colonialism grew and [[Communism|communists]] and [[Anarchism|anarchists]] "began meeting in the borderlands of Russia, China, and Korea." On March 1, 1919 a massive Korean independence protest movement was launched. Since 1931, nationalist and communist guerrillas struggled in the mountains of Manchuria against the Japanese, and Kim Il-Sung emerged as a particularly effective leader during this period.<ref name=":30">Ford, Derek. [https://www.liberationschool.org/the-chongryon-movement-the-struggle-of-koreans-in-japan/ “Chongryon: The Struggle of Koreans in Japan – Liberation School.”] ''Liberation School – Revolutionary Marxism for a New Generation of Fighters'', 30 Jan. 2019.</ref><br />
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===US occupation===<br />
[[File:The Japanese flag in front of the Japanese Government-General of Korea building in Seoul is replaced with the U.S. flag..png|thumb|314x314px|U.S. forces lower the Japanese flag in Seoul and replace it with the U.S. flag.]]<br />
After [[Kim Il-sung]] liberated Korea from the Japanese Empire, in an "outburst of meetings and organizing" that "came out into the open all over Korea" after Japanese surrender, activists throughout the Korean peninsula began to plan and organize to replace Japanese rule and dominance. Groups of local people gathered in most villages and cities and sought ways to replace the police and pro-Japanese administrators with people who had resisted Japanese rule.<ref name=":14" /> A left-leaning nationwide organization established by Koreans known as the Alliance for National government as well as many local People's Committees enjoyed widespread popular support throughout the country. However, the [[United States Army Military Government in Korea|U.S. Military Government in Korea]] (USAMGIK) did not recognize the new state declared by the People’s Committees, and Korea was divided across the 38th parallel by two American officers who had never been to Korea.<ref>{{Citation|author=Don Oberdorfer, Robert Carlin|year=2014|title=The Two Koreas: A Contemporary History|chapter=|section=|page=5|quote=|pdf=|city=|publisher=|isbn=9780465031238|doi=|lg=|mia=|title-url=|chapter-url=|trans-title=|trans-lang=}}</ref> The U.S. occupation of the southern half of Korea was announced in Proclamation No. 1 by General of the Army Douglas MacArthur on Sept. 7, 1945, with the statement that “All powers of Government over the territory of Korea south of 38 degrees north latitude and the people thereof will be for the present exercised under my authority.”<ref>{{News citation|newspaper=Jeju 4.3 Peace Foundation|title=Liberation from Japan in 1945|date=2018|url=http://jeju43peace.org/historytruth/fact-truth/factstruth_article2/}}</ref><br />
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In "A Policy of Amateurism: The Rice Policy of the U.S. Army Military''"'', Kim Jinwung writes:<blockquote>When news arrived that the United States was planning to occupy southern Korea, [<nowiki/>[[Lyuh Woon-hyung|Yeo Un-hyeong]]'s<ref group="Notes">여운형, name romanized as Yeo Unhyeong, Yŏ Unhyŏng, or Lyuh Woon-hyung.</ref> Committee for the Preparation of Korean Independence] called a national convention in Seoul on September 6 to give his regime the stamp of legitimacy. Yeo and his followers wanted to quicken the process of establishing a new government before the Americans arrived. Yeo proclaimed the establishment of the [[People's Republic of Korea (1945–1946)|Korean People’s Republic]], with a cabinet that included distinguished nationalists of all political persuasions, right and left. But the body was clearly influenced by the left, with Communists playing key roles.<ref name=":15" /></blockquote>However, the U.S. refused to recognize this organization, and General [[John R. Hodge]], the Commanding General of U.S. Army Forces in Korea, outlawed the people’s committees and created new local councils under conservative control.<ref name=":15" /> In an article titled "People's Republic of Korea: Jeju, 1945-1946", Jay Hauben describes the situation:<blockquote>On Sept. 8, 21 US warships arrived in Incheon to supervise in the name of the Allies the surrender of the Japanese Governor-General of Korea and the 200,000 Japanese military personnel and their equipment and property south of the 38th parallel. US General John Hodge commanded the US landing. The US party was met by an English speaking committee of the PRK [People's Republic of Korea] to welcome it to Korea in the name of the people and newly emerging government of Korea. General Hodge refused to meet with them. His mission was to head the United States Military Government In Korea (USAMGIK) and he would not accept that there was already a newly forming government of Korea.<ref name=":14" /></blockquote>Due to the People’s Committees enjoying such widespread popular support, the USAMGIK resorted to dissolving the committees by force so that the U.S. could effectively rule the country.<ref name=":0">{{News citation|newspaper=Jeju 4.3 Peace Foundation|title=Who ruled over the Korean Peninsula?|date=2018|url=http://jeju43peace.org/historytruth/fact-truth/factstruth_article3/|retrieved=2022-07-23}}</ref> As noted by Hauben, "The USAMGIK had as its mission to prevent a Korean government friendly to socialism or communism or leftism in general. That mission required that the left leaning majority of the Korean people had to be diverted."<ref name=":14" /><br />
[[File:1946 South Korean opinion poll about socialism, communism, and capitalism.png|thumb|An opinion poll appearing in the Dong-A Ilbo newspaper on August 13, 1946 showed a majority of respondents favoring socialism and less than 15% supporting capitalism.|341x341px]]<br />
In August 1946, the newspaper Dong-A Ilbo published the results of various opinion polls seeking information about the kind of government the people of Korea wanted. Of those surveyed, when asked about which system they agreed with, 14% of respondents answered "capitalism" (1,189 people), 70% answered "socialism" (6,037 people), 7% answered "communism" (574 people), and 8% responded "do not know" (653 people).<ref>[https://db.history.go.kr/id/dh_003_1946_08_13_0070 "1946년 8월 13일 軍政廳輿論局, 朝鮮國民이 어떠한 종류의 政府를 요망하는지 여론을 조사" ("August 13, 1946. Surveys the public opinion on what kind of military service the people of the military and government demand.")] 동아일보 1946년 08월 13일. (Dong-A Ilbo, August 13, 1946). 자료대한민국사 제3권. (Source Korea History Vol. 3). Korean History Database. 국사편찬위원회. (National Institute of Korean History). [https://web.archive.org/web/20220825114505/https://db.history.go.kr/id/dh_003_1946_08_13_0070 Archived] 2022-08-25.</ref><ref>[https://newslibrary.naver.com/viewer/index.naver?articleId=1946081300209203003&editNo=1&printCount=1&publishDate=1946-08-13&officeId=00020&pageNo=3&printNo=7053&publishType=00020 "軍政廳輿論局調査(군정청여론국조사)."] Dong-A Ilbo August 13, 1946. Page 3. Naver 뉴스 라이브러리 (Naver News Library).</ref><br />
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Following General MacArthur's Proclamation No. 1, the USAMGIK became the official ruling body of south Korea (in the eyes of the U.S.), from 1945 to 1948, until the establishment of the Republic of Korea on Aug. 15, 1948. Through this series of events, the Korean Peninsula was divided along the 38th parallel, the south was occupied by the United States, the People's Committees were suppressed, many Japanese colonial era collaborator police and officials were placed back into positions of power, and a [[Fascism|fascist]] dictatorship led by Harvard graduate [[Syngman Rhee]] was installed.<ref>{{News citation|journalist=|date=|title=Syngman Rhee|url=https://www.doopedia.co.kr/doopedia/master/master.do?_method=view&MAS_IDX=101013000746262|newspaper=Doopedia|archive-url=|archive-date=|retrieved=}}</ref> <br />
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==== Suppressed criticism in official U.S. military history of Korean War and U.S. occupation of Korea ====<br />
In the work ''From Occupation to War: Cold War Legacies of US: Army Historical Studies of the Occupation and Korean War'', Seoul National University professor [[Chung Yong Wook]] writes that "a divergent understanding" of this era "was repressed or rooted out by force in the US and around the ‘free world'" due to the official U.S. history of the war being written in the context of the emerging Cold War. Military historian [[Richard D. Robinson|Richard Robinson]], who wrote a work critical of the U.S. role in Korea, ''Betrayal of a Nation'', was unable to find a publisher for his work and it remained in manuscript form. [[I.F. Stone]]'s work ''The Hidden History of the Korean War'' (1952) which was also critical of U.S. conduct in Korea was removed from many libraries. Professor Chung notes that "military historians were not, in essence, allowed to criticize information given to them, nor did they have leeway in interpreting and critiquing facts, they were left only to describe ''sanitized'' history" at all stages of the information-gathering and history-writing process.<ref>Chung, Yong Wook. From Occupation to War; Cold War Legacies of US Army Historical Studies of the Occupation and Korean War. Korea Journal, vol. 60, no. 2 (summer 2020): 14–54. doi: 10.25024/kj.2020.60.2.14 © The Academy of Korean Studies, 2020. URL: https://kj.accesson.kr/assets/pdf/8518/journal-60-2-14.pdf [https://web.archive.org/web/20220725044626/https://kj.accesson.kr/assets/pdf/8518/journal-60-2-14.pdf Archive URL]. Suppression of counter-narratives ("Abstract" p. 15, PDF p.1); "sanitized history" (p. 20, PDF p. 7)</ref><br />
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According to Richard Robinson, who had been working as a historian for the military during the occupation, the official American military history of the occupation is "highly prejudiced and inaccurate" adding that the official U.S. histories were "written upon explicit orders not even to imply criticism of anything American" and says that "if the truth were known, the American occupation of south Korea was incredibly bungled by an incompetent and corrupt administration—all in the name of American democracy."<ref name=":5">Robinson, Richard. Cited in Chung, Yong Wook. ''From Occupation to War; Cold War Legacies of US Army Historical Studies of the Occupation and Korean War''. Korea Journal, vol. 60, no. 2 (summer 2020): 14–54. doi: 10.25024/kj.2020.60.2.14 © The Academy of Korean Studies, 2020 URL: https://kj.accesson.kr/assets/pdf/8518/journal-60-2-14.pdf</ref> Robinson had his work suppressed as he expressed criticism of the U.S. military government's failures in Korea and eventually was compelled to leave the country.<ref name=":5" /><ref>{{News citation|author=김환균|newspaper=미디어오늘 (Media Today)|title='미국의 배반'이 미국에서 금서가 된 이유. (Why "American Betrayal" is Banned Reading in the U.S.)|date=2004-08-09|url=http://www.mediatoday.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=25874|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220724050252/http://www.mediatoday.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=25874|archive-date=2022-07-24|retrieved=2022-07-24}}</ref><br />
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==== USAMGIK disregards People's Committee's rice management, establishes rice "free market" ====<br />
During Japanese colonial rule, the Japanese placed rigid controls on the people of Korea to build up a food surplus. When the U.S. forces arrived in south Korea, they found that "Japanese control over rice had been loosened or altogether abolished" and that instead, "the [[People's Republic of Korea (1945–1946)|Korean People’s Republic]] (KPR) and people’s committees managed food stocks, and according to American accounts, 'after the Koreans drove the Japanese police out, [the leaders of the KPR and people’s committees] took over the rice collection machinery and were operating it successfully when the Americans arrived.'"<ref name=":15" /> As the Americans largely did not acknowledge the authority of the People's Committees and were trying to establish an [[Anti-communism|anti-communist]] government in south Korea, they struck down the management system that had been operating under the People's Committees and replaced it with a "free market" in rice. In Ordinance 19, USAMGIK describes this as "giving to every man, woman and child within the country equal opportunity to enjoy his just and fair share of great wealth which this beautiful nation has been endowed".<ref>Office of the Military Governor, United States Army Forces in Korea. [https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/USAMGIK_Ordinance_19 Ordinance Number 19]. 1945-10-30. </ref><ref name=":15" /> <br />
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In "A Policy of Amateurism: The Rice Policy of the U.S. Army Military''"'', Kim Jinwung describes the results of the free market policy of the USAMGIK:<blockquote>The immediate effect of the free market policy was a steep rise in the price of rice and resultant hoarding and speculation. Poor distribution of food led to food shortages and hunger in cities, despite a bumper harvest in 1945. Additionally, the rice-based south Korean economy inevitably began to suffer from massive inflation. It was quite natural then that the black-market should grow and prosper; it was expected that the lure of black market prices would stimulate the flow of rice into the black market. The result was that “rice disappeared almost entirely from the market.” Through its free market policy, the U.S. military government lost the main strength of the south Korean economy—its ability to extract large surpluses of grain—and caused in its stead spiraling inflation, near starvation in early 1946, and a general economic breakdown. The price of a bushel of rice increased from 9.4 yen in September 1945 to 2,800 yen in September 1946. Landlords, police and other government officials, and wealthy individuals engaged in speculation on a wholesale basis.<ref name=":15" /></blockquote>In the wake of this policy, USAMGIK was "flooded with complaints and petitions from Koreans demanding that price control and rationing be resumed and that the American military government take drastic action to stop rice hoarding."<ref name=":15" /> However, it seemed to many that USAMGIK was "reluctant to move against the principal hoarders" due to them being Korean businessmen who the government who had been relying on for advice.<ref name=":15" /> By 1946, the U.S. rescinded the free market and implemented rice rationing. A U.S. summation of the U.S. army military government activities in Korea stated that public attention was "focused on the threat of hunger" at this time.<ref>Commander-in-Chief, United States Army Forces, Pacific. ''[https://www8.cao.go.jp/okinawa/okinawasen/pdf/b0604002_09/b0604002_09.pdf Summation of United States Military Government Activities in Korea, No. 6].'' March 1946. </ref> As the situation continued, U.S. rice rations eventually fell to half of the ration size that had been received under the Japanese colonial administration during World War II, and newspapers published accounts of famine and starvation, further disaster only being averted by eventual shipments of U.S. grains as emergency relief. In addition, "the deteriorating food situation forced the Americans to revive the old Japanese rice collection system" which was unpopular with farmers.<ref name=":15" /> The USAMGIK eventually formed local boards composed of local police officials, elders, businessmen, and landlords approved by the USAMGIK to manage the collection of rice quotas, but created no system for appeal to adjust the quotas. Under this program, many farmers were arrested or faced violence for not meeting their quotas.<ref name=":15" /> <br />
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==== Re-appointment of Japanese colonial officials under U.S. occupation ====<br />
The USAMGIK had a policy of rehiring officers from the Japanese colonial era, which it tried to justify by the need to implement effective governance. This failure to prosecute officers who had collaborated with the Japanese and re-instatement of their power increased public resentment against the U.S. regime.<ref name=":0" /> Instead of fully enjoying their independence, people were being victimized by the same oppressive police officers and corrupt public officials as under Japanese colonial authority.<ref name=":1">{{News citation|newspaper=Jeju 4.3 Peace Foundation|title=Jeju’s political climate following liberation|date=2018|url=http://jeju43peace.org/historytruth/fact-truth/factstruth_article4/}}</ref> The U.S. occupiers created an army staffed by former Japanese officers and rebuilt the [[Korean National Police]] (KNP) of the Japanese occupation era.<ref name=":110">{{Citation|author=Stephen Gowans|year=2018|title=Patriots, Traitors and Empires: The Story of Korea’s Struggle for Freedom|chapter=The War Against Communists of the South|page=95–99|pdf=https://ipfs.io/ipfs/bafykbzaced4iiga4ngtxusr2civjxewbili5jne2sbpefbx2s3im2kphattzc?filename=Stephen%20Gowans%20-%20Patriots%2C%20Traitors%20and%20Empires_%20The%20Story%20of%20Korea%E2%80%99s%20Struggle%20for%20Freedom-Baraka%20Books%20%282018%29.pdf|city=Montreal|publisher=Baraka Books|isbn=9781771861427|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=8435F6FF91279531705764823FDC2A7F}}</ref><br />
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==== Conflict between occupation forces and people's committees ====<br />
Richard Robinson, the chief of the Public Opinion Section of the Department of Information of the USAMGIK, who had been present in Korea and contributing to the official U.S. military historical record at the time, later gave his observations about the People's Committees and the USAMGIK's policy of rehiring officers from the Japanese colonial era:<blockquote>It was safe to say that for the most part the local People's Committees in these early days were of the genuine grassroots democratic variety and represented a spontaneous urge of the people to govern themselves. . . . They resented orders from the Military Government to turn the administration of local government over to American Army officers and their appointed Korean counterparts, many of whom were considered to be Japanese collaborators. It seemed like a reversion to what had gone before. Bloodshed ensued in many communities as local People's Committees defied the Military Government and refused to abandon government offices. Koreans and Americans met in pitched battles, and not a few Koreans met violent death in the struggle.<ref name=":4">Robinson, Richard. Cited in Mark J. Scher (1973) ''U.S. policy in Korea 1945–1948: A Neocolonial model takes shape.'' Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars, 5:4, 17-27, DOI: 10.1080/14672715.1973.10406346. <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.1080/14672715.1973.1040634</nowiki> URL: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/14672715.1973.10406346</ref></blockquote>Robinson then gives an example of an incident which he refers to as "typical" of this period. According to Robinson, in the small community of Namwon in North Jeolla province, the Japanese had turned over considerable property to the local People's Committee just prior to the arrival of the Americans. The U.S. military government then demanded the property, but the People's Committee refused to turn it over to the U.S. military government. Robinson states that five leaders of the Committee were arrested by the local Korean police, adding that "the police chief was captured and beaten by Committee members and the police station attacked by a large crowd of irate citizens." He says that the station was guarded by American troops, and that when the Koreans refused to disband, "the Americans advanced with fixed bayonets," resulting in two Koreans being killed and several injured.<ref name=":4" /><br />
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Within a year of the U.S. occupation, uprisings began in 80 cities and hundreds of villages. After the suppression of the People's Republic of Korea, widespread [[Strike action|strikes]] and protests began followed by a guerrilla movement. By December 1947, the KNP had arrested over 21,000 leftists, and the amount of political prisoners was more than under the Japanese occupation. By 1948, resistance forces controlled most of the inland villages in south Korea. The KNP arrested so many people that it ran out of space in prisons and forced an additional 70,000 people, including 30,000 communists, into concentration camps. By 1950, the south Korean government and U.S. occupation forces killed between 100,000 and 200,000 dissidents.<ref name=":110" /><br />
===First Republic (1948–1960) ===<br />
[[File:Syngman Rhee.jpg|thumb|264x264px|Syngman Rhee (Korean: 이승만), president of the ROK First Republic from 1948-1960, was described as an "extreme rightist" in a 1948 [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] report.<ref name=":20">{{News citation|newspaper=Wilson Center Digital Archive|title=March 18, 1948 Central Intelligence Agency, ORE 15/48, 'The Current Situation in Korea'|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220729051304/https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/220065.pdf?v=d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e|retrieved=2022-07-29|Archive=History and Public Policy Program Digital Archive, Record Group 263, Records of the Central Intelligence Agency|url=https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/220065.pdf?v=d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e}}</ref>]]After rejecting [[Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (1922–1991)|Soviet]] proposals for all-Korean elections, the United States created a UN committee of [[Canada]], [[Commonwealth of Australia|Australia]], the [[Republic of the Philippines|Philippines]], and the defeated [[Kuomintang]] from [[People's Republic of China|China]] to supervise elections in the southern zone. Koreans from all parts of the nation organized a National Unity Conference in [[Pyongyang]] that met three weeks before the US-sponsored elections. Many [[Left-wing politics|leftist]] parties and some [[Right-wing politics|right-wing]] parties boycotted the elections. The Korean National Police and right-wing thugs attacked communists, while people who did not vote would lose their land and ration cards. [[Syngman Rhee]] won the rigged elections and took power as the first president of the south. During the elections, [[Kim Sok-won]] led a parade in Seoul of 2,500 Koreans who had collaborated with the Japanese.<br />
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The First Republic was the government of south Korea from August 1948 to April 1960. Syngman Rhee ruled for the entire existence of the first republic. The first republic was characterized by Rhee's authoritarianism and corruption, limited economic development, strong anti-communism, and by the late 1950s, by growing political instability and public opposition to Rhee.<br />
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Prior to being flown in to Korea by the OSS (precursor to the CIA), Rhee had been living in the United States for over thirty-five years, earning an M.A. at Harvard and a Ph.D. at Princeton.<ref name=":21">{{Citation|author=Max Hastings|year=1988|title=The Korean War|title-url=https://archive.org/details/koreanwar00hast_0/page/32/mode/2up|chapter=Origins of a Tragedy|page=32, 33-34|quote=Syngman Rhee was born in 1875, the son of a genealogical scholar. He failed the civil service exams several times before becoming a student of English. Between 1899 and 1904 he was imprisoned for political activities. On his release, he went to the United States, where he studied for some years, earning an M.A. at Harvard and a Ph.D. at Princeton—the first Korean to receive an American doctorate. After a brief return to his homeland in 1910, Rhee once more settled in America. He remained there for the next thirty-five years, lobbying relentlessly for American support for Korean independence, financed by the contributions of Korean patriots. (p.32)}}</ref> According to Max Hastings, in ''The Korean War'':<blockquote>Rhee's backing from the Military Government was a decisive force in his rise to power. [...] There is no murkier episode in the history of the American occupation than the return of Rhee to Seoul. The Military Government firmly denied not only complicity but prior knowledge of this. Yet all the evidence now suggests that General Hodge and his staff participated in a carefully orchestrated conspiracy to bring back Rhee, despite the refusal of the State Department to grant him a passport. A former deputy director of the wartime OSS, Preston Goodfellow, prevailed upon the State Department to provide Rhee with documentation. There appears to have been at least a measure of corruption in this transaction. Rhee got to know Goodfellow during the war, when the Korean mendaciously suggested to the American that he could provide agents for operations behind the Japanese lines. After the war it seems almost certain that Goodfellow assisted and raised money for Rhee in return for the promise of commercial concessions in Korea when the doctor gained power. Rhee flew to Seoul in one of MacArthur's aircraft. Despite the vigorous denials of the U.S. Army in the Far East, it seems likely that he met secretly with both the Supreme Commander and Hodge during his stopover in Tokyo. Rhee, it is apparent, was their nominee for the leadership of a Korean civilian government.<ref name=":21" /></blockquote>A 1948 CIA report wrote that "there is every prospect that Rhee's accession to power will be followed by intra-party cleavages and by the ruthless suppression of all non-Rhee Rightist, Moderate, and Leftist opposition," characterizing Rhee as an "imported expatriate politician" and "extreme rightist" and demagogue "bent on autocratic rule", who would be an "unpopular" figure who would play into communist propaganda due to his extreme rightist orientation, and stating that the U.S. throwing their full support behind him could potentially be "a source of future embarrassment to US policy in the Far East."<ref name=":20" /><br />
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During the First Republic, the number of U.S. troops decreased, but many intelligence officers and combat specialists continued to occupy south Korea. Resistance against the occupation continued to grow, reaching 3,500 to 6,000 guerrilla fighters by early 1949. Rhee created the National Guidance League to make leftists to reject reunification and forced 300,000 people to join. He also created the [[National Security Law]], which still exists today and criminalizes recognition of the DPRK as a legitimate state. Almost 190,000 people, including members of the National Assembly, were arrested under this law up to December 1949.<ref name=":1102">{{Citation|author=Stephen Gowans|year=2018|title=Patriots, Traitors and Empires: The Story of Korea’s Struggle for Freedom|chapter=The Political Partition of Korea|page=115–116|pdf=https://ipfs.io/ipfs/bafykbzaced4iiga4ngtxusr2civjxewbili5jne2sbpefbx2s3im2kphattzc?filename=Stephen%20Gowans%20-%20Patriots%2C%20Traitors%20and%20Empires_%20The%20Story%20of%20Korea%E2%80%99s%20Struggle%20for%20Freedom-Baraka%20Books%20%282018%29.pdf|city=Montreal|publisher=Baraka Books|isbn=9781771861427|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=8435F6FF91279531705764823FDC2A7F}}</ref><br />
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==== Jeju People's Committee ====<br />
After liberation from Japanese colonization, the Jeju People’s Committee was formed with the head of the Farmers' Guild and the Fishermens' Guild as its leaders. According to the Jeju 4.3 Peace Foundation, "In every aspect, the Jeju People’s Committee was the only political party and the only government in Jeju" after liberation from the Japanese. E. Grant Meade, a USAMGIK officer, said, “The Jeju People’s Committee was the only political party in the island and the only organization acting like a government.”<ref name=":1" /> The committees had the respect and support from most villagers. Committee members were known in their communities from their long years as school teachers, union leaders and for resistance to Japanese abuses or for their organizing work in Japan. When the USAMGIK arrived on Jeju, it found that the Jeju People’s Committee and all the village and county People’s Committees were functioning successfully as a de facto government with popular support. The USAMGIK did not disturb or challenge this de facto government. This was unusual because the USAMGIK had as its mission to insure that a right leaning government hostile to socialism emerged in Korea.<ref name=":14">{{News citation|author=Jay Hauben|newspaper=The Jeju Weekly|title=People's Republic of Korea: Jeju, 1945-1946|date=2011-08-20|url=http://www.jejuweekly.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=1865|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220723035033/http://www.jejuweekly.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=1865|archive-date=2022-07-23|retrieved=2022-07-23}}</ref> Unlike in the mainland, where the People's Committees were immediately disregarded and systematically dismantled by the USAMGIK, the People's Committee on Jeju Island remained intact for a longer period, serving as the island's main governmental body until 1948 when it, too, was violently dismantled in conjunction with the process of the Republic of Korea being officially established that year.<br />
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==== Jeju Uprising and Massacre ====<br />
{{Main article|Jeju Uprising}}[[File:Northwest Youth League logo 백골부대 정신을 계승한 서북청년단 기.jpg|thumb|262x262px|Banner of the Northwest Youth League, a right-wing paramilitary group who assisted government forces in the mass murder of Jeju islanders in the name of anti-communism.<ref name=":7">{{News citation|author=Lauren Flenniken|newspaper=The Jeju Weekly|title=The Northwest Youth League|date=2011-04-10|url=http://www.jejuweekly.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=1435|retrieved=2022-07-25|quote=Despite the Northwest Youth League lacking legal backing to exercise their power, President Rhee and the KDP allowed the group to use aggressive force against supposed Communists without restrictions. [...] Professor Bruce Cumings of the University of Chicago states that at the time, Jeju’s local government and police were comprised mostly of mainlanders who “worked together with ultra-rightest party terrorists,” otherwise known as the Northwest Youth League.}}</ref>]]<br />
In 1948, in a series of events known variously as the Jeju Uprising, the Jeju 4.3 Incident, and the Jeju Massacre, an uprising occurred on Jeju Island, followed by a scorched earth style retaliation undertaken by government forces and right-wing paramilitary groups to root out communist influence on the island. The Jeju massacre was the second largest massacre in south Korea's modern history,<ref name=":8">{{News citation|author=Song Jung Hee|newspaper=The Jeju Weekly|title=Islanders still mourn April 3 massacre|date=2010-03-31|url=http://www.jejuweekly.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=657}}</ref> the death toll listed by the Jeju 4.3 Peace Foundation being approximately 30,000 people, or one-tenth of the island's population.<ref name=":9">{{News citation|newspaper=Jeju 4.3 Peace Foundation|title=Background to the Jeju 4·3 Uprising and Massacre|date=2018|url=http://jeju43peace.org/historytruth/fact-truth/factstruth-article1/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220723024308/http://jeju43peace.org/historytruth/fact-truth/factstruth-article1/|archive-date=2022-07-23}}</ref> <br />
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Although the People’s Committees in other regions were either dissolved by the USAMGIK or operated under different names, the Jeju People’s Committee remained intact and enjoyed strong support. This was largely due to the pro-Japanese faction being relatively weak in Jeju. Many people who had fought for independence against the Japanese returned to their hometowns and became members of the People’s Committee in Jeju.<ref name=":1" /> However, Many Jeju islanders resisted the division of the Korean Peninsula and strongly protested the first election that was scheduled for May 10, 1948, that would confirm the formation of the Republic of Korea south of the 38th parallel. Their resistance to the division of the peninsula and the establishment of the Southern regime triggered a brutal suppression by government forces. <br />
<br />
According to The Jeju 4·3 Incident Investigation Report, "In around the middle of November 1948, uncompromising repression operations were carried out. Under these operations, a curfew was imposed on the residents of the upland areas and if anyone broke it, he or she was executed without exception. From the middle of November 1948 to February 1949, for about four months, the anti-guerrilla expeditions burned down the upland villages and killed the residents collectively. [...] During this period, the casualties were the highest and most of the upland villages were literally burnt to the ground."<ref>{{Citation|author=Jeju 4·3 Peace Foundation|year=2003|title=The Jeju 4·3 Incident Investigation Report|page=469|pdf=https://jeju43peace.or.kr/cmm/fms/FileDown.do?atchFileId=FILE_00000000000071265Cu0&fileSn=0|publisher=The National Committee for Investigation<br />
of the Truth about the Jeju April 3 Incident}}</ref> A combination of government forces and violent far-right paramilitary groups, notably the far-right anti-communist Northwest Youth League, carried out these attacks.<ref name=":7" /><br />
[[File:Jeju 4.3 Camellia flower.png|thumb|The camellia flower can be seen in the island of Jeju as a symbol of the 4.3 incident's victims. '''Above:''' A camellia flower pin. '''Below:''' Camellia flowers forming the shape of Jeju Island.]]<br />
<br />
===== Death toll of Jeju massacre and long-term imprisonment of Jeju islanders =====<br />
Because the facts of the Jeju massacre were officially suppressed for over fifty years, only coming to light in January 2000 when a Special Act was decreed by the south Korean Government calling for an official investigation of the incident, an official death toll could not be established until that time. Additionally, discoveries of mass grave execution sites, such as the mass grave uncovered in 2008 near Jeju Airport, illustrate the difficulty of calculating the massacre's true toll.<ref name=":8" /> According to a report by the National Commission on the Jeju April 3 Incident, 25,000 to 30,000 people were killed or simply vanished, with upwards of 4,000 more fleeing to Japan as the government sought to quell the uprising. As the island’s population was at most 300,000 at the time, the official toll was one-tenth of the inhabitants. However, some Jeju people claim that as many as 40,000 islanders were killed in the suppression.<ref name=":8" /> Some estimates claim as many as 60,000 people may have been killed by the end of these events.<ref>{{News citation|journalist=|date=2000-06-18|title=Ghosts of Cheju|url=|newspaper=Newsweek|archive-url=https://www.newsweek.com/ghosts-cheju-160665|archive-date=|retrieved=2021-21-30}}</ref> The 30,000 death figure, or one in every 10 Jeju residents at the time, is a common figure given for how many people lost their lives during this period, and is the one cited on the Jeju 4.3 Peace Foundation website.<ref name=":9" /> <br />
<br />
One result of the decades-long suppression of the facts of the massacre is the long-term imprisonment of Jeju islanders arrested on suspicion of being communists during the conflict. Many of those arrested on these charges died in captivity. Others remained in prison for up to 20 years, and those who had been released were not cleared of their criminal records, and were ostracized by the community or disadvantaged in their job applications for having criminal records. Decades after being arrested, some of the remaining victims had their names legally cleared of the charges in 2019, due to a ruling that found that the military court of the time did not follow proper legal procedures, made groundless charges, and that there were no court records found from the time explaining why those arrested were given such harsh sentences.<ref>{{News citation|author=Lee Suh-yoon|newspaper=The Korea Times|title=Jeju massacre victims get their names cleared in court|date=2019-01-17|url=https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2019/01/251_262242.html|quote=The suit was filed by 18 plaintiffs who were jailed after being branded as communist insurgents ― with around 2,500 others ― during the ideological conflict that flared up on the southern island after Korea's independence from Japan. Many died in captivity. Even after surviving the massacre and imprisonment, the plaintiffs were ostracized by the community or disadvantaged in their job applications for having criminal records. [...] The plaintiffs demanded a retrial in 2017, saying they were arrested and imprisoned for up to 20 years without fair procedure. There were no court records found from the time explaining why the plaintiffs were given such harsh sentences.}}</ref><br />
<br />
==== Fatherland Liberation War (1950–1953) ====<br />
<blockquote>''See also: [[Korean War]], [[List of atrocities commited by the United States of America#Korean War|List of atrocities committed by the United States of America#Korean War]]''</blockquote>This period is generally referred to in English as the "Korean War", in DPRK as the "Fatherland Liberation War" (Korean: 조국해방전쟁), and in south Korea as the "6.25 War" (Korean: 6·25 전쟁). In China it is sometimes referred to as the "Korean War", and some specific battles are referred to as the "War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea" (Chinese: 抗美援朝战争). This period is also referred to by some in English as "The Forgotten War" or "The Unknown War." <br />
<br />
In the U.S., the war was initially described as a "police action" as the United States never formally declared war on its opponents.<ref>Truman, Harry S. (29 June 1950). "The President's News Conference of June 29, 1950. Teachingamericanhistory.org. [https://web.archive.org/web/20101226063925/http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?document=594 Archive link].</ref> According to the U.S. Department of State's Office of the Historian, "When north Korea invaded south Korea in June 1950, the United States sponsored a "police action"—a war in all but name—under the auspices of the United Nations. The Department of State coordinated U.S. strategic decisions with the other 16 countries contributing troops to the fighting. In addition, the Department worked closely with the government of Syngman Rhee, encouraging him to implement reform so that the UN claim of defending democracy in Korea would be accurate." The U.S. Department of State's description of the war notes that "The Korean War was difficult to fight and unpopular domestically" and that "The American public tired of a war without victory."<ref>A Short History of the Department of State. "NSC-68 and the Korean War." Office of the Historian, Foreign Service Institute, U.S. Department of State. URL: https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/short-history/koreanwar [https://web.archive.org/web/20220725043544/https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/short-history/koreanwar Archive link].</ref><br />
<br />
The People's Democracy Party (PDP) of south Korea characterizes the conditions that led to the Korean War as follows:<blockquote>Objectively, there were 2,617 attacks from the South to the North during the year of 1949 under pro-U.S. and far-right Rhee Seung-man regime. Therefore, it cannot be viewed that the war broke out exactly on June 25th, 1950. The U.S. military government forcefully dissolved the people’s committees that were formed as independent South Corean people’s organizations and exhaustively massacred and oppressed the national liberation movement forces and patriotic and democratic forces after the U.S. army came into South Corea in September 1945 as an occupation force. <br />
<br />
All the people except the minimum of pro-U.S. and far-right forces held the “Joint Meeting of Representatives of Political Parties and Social Organizations in the North and South of Korea” in April 1948, in Pyongyang, and decided to immediately withdraw the U.S. military and to establish a unified government by the Corean nation’s power and initiative.<br />
<br />
However, the single government of the South was established by the U.S. and the intervention of the UN, which was under the domination of the U.S. Then, North Corea had to establish their own government. The condition for an outbreak of the Corean War had developed.<ref name=":23" /></blockquote>The PDP stated that the U.S. had become the head of imperialist forces after World War II, and Korea was the first country it invaded. The PDP characterizes the war as a battle between the Korean nation and U.S. imperialism, and also notes that "it was the first war that U.S. imperialism fought against a small country and lost."<ref name=":23" /><br />
<br />
Alan Winnington, a British correspondent in China and Korea for the ''Daily Worker,'' provides a description of the apparent ignorance of U.S. soldiers at the outset of the war, by interviewing POWs caught by the People's Army. Winnington writes:<blockquote>I asked every prisoner I met: “Why are you fighting in Korea?” Not one could give a clear answer. Most said: “I don’t know.” Some said: “It’s something to do with the United Nations, they told us.”<br />
<br />
A few had heard of Rhee. None knew of Kim Ir Sen. With one or two exceptions, Privates—nearly all teen-agers—said they had joined the army to “see the world”, “get out of the draft” or “save some money”. Their general view of the Korean war was summed up by Edward Sorea, nineteen-year-old Private of San Bernardino, California. He said: “I just wanted to travel. It was peace-time. Who in hell thought there would be a war? One drops on you from out of a clear sky.” <br />
<br />
You cannot find one American soldier who is concerned whether America wins the war or not—rather you meet many who want the Koreans to win quickly so that they can “get back home". “Win or lose”, they say, “American people have nothing to gain". Soldiers like that make bad fighters—just how bad can be seen by taking a trip down the main road from Kumchon, near the 38th Parallel, to Yongdong, near Taegu, in the South.<ref name=":24">{{Web citation|author=Alan Winnington|newspaper=The Daily Worker|title=I Saw The Truth In Korea: Facts and photographs that will shock Britain|date=September 1950|url=https://www.docdroid.net/8z73fQZ/i-saw-the-truth-in-korea-readingt-ver-pdf|quote=The Daily Worker sent me to Korea to get the facts at first hand and report them to the British public. And so I arrived in Korea on July 16 and stayed for five weeks. <br />
<br />
Of course, before I went I knew that the Americans were bombing heavily and fighting badly. I knew that Syngman Rhee's troops only existed as scattered units and there was no longer a “South Korean Army”; that effectively this was a war between America and Korea. These facts were common knowledge in the world, but I admit I was mentally unprepared for all I found. <br />
<br />
After all, five years ago we and the Russians were allies of the Americans in the war against the Nazis. Since then, Roosevelt and his colleagues have gone and atomic diplomacy has taken their place. But still, what I saw Americans doing in Korea shook me to my heels. I suppose all my life I’ve been listening to propaganda about America being a civilised nation and some of this must have sunk in. Somehow, I never quite thought of Americans doing exactly what the Nazis did until I saw it with my own eyes. <br />
<br />
We still talk of Coventry as an example of malicious and futile bombing, but the Americans have gone far ahead of the Nazis in what they politely term “Saturation Bombing”. The American style of waging war in Korea is on the same pattern as the Nazis but, bearing in mind the size of the country, even more savage and just as stupid. <br />
<br />
Wonsan is a much smaller town than Coventry, not nearly as large as the London suburb; of Walthamstow. During its first heavy raid in July, B.29 Superfortresses flung 500 tons of high explosive bombs into the town—sixty tons more than Coventry got on that terrible night ten years ago. No targets were aimed at. MacArthur’s communiqué admitted that there was “heavy cloud" which “prevented the evaluation of the effect of the raid”. Actually, visibility was nil at the time, for it was raining hard. In Coventry there were 1,000 casualties that night. During the first raid on Wonsan there were 1,249 killed and the northern half of the town was wiped out In August the raid was repeated, wiping out the other half. No other military objective was claimed than that this town was a rail centre. A thousand tons of bombs; a town obliterated; over 4,000 casualties in all; tens of thousands made homeless and bereaved—all to damage a rail -track. Does it make sense? This is bombing in the fashion that no British town ever met. I saw Coventry and I was in London all through the ‘blitz and I saw Wonsan after these raids. It was far worse than the worst the Nazis ever did.}}</ref></blockquote>Winnington contrasts the apparent cluelessness and lack of resolve of American troops with his observations of the attitudes of Koreans:<blockquote>[T]he ghastly destruction of homes and lives that has gone with it has made the whole nation furious. Even former apologists of America are now their bitter enemies.<br />
<br />
On roads you can meet men by the hundred who tell you: “My home was bombed in . . . so I sent my wife and children to relatives in the country and I’m oil to volunteer.” In Wonsan, the wife and children of a worker, Wan Wun Chu, were killed in a raid while he was at work. “They are dead and I cannot call them back,” he said. “If I die it is little now. But I would give my last drop of blood to get revenge and drive those murdering dogs from our country. They tell me my place is in production and I will work my fingers to the bone to produce more for the army.”<br />
<br />
Every village I visited proudly told me not only how many men had gone into the army but also how many volunteers were waiting to be accepted. There is no lack of the finest quality fighting men; men who were bred in the countless thousands of mountains that cover Korea; volunteers who know why they want to win.<ref name=":24" /></blockquote>Winnington sums up his 1950 assessment of the Korean War's outbreak by saying "Korea has repudiated Syngman Rhee and the Americans. All the Korean people want Korea to be reunited and ruled by Koreans. No regime can exist that has been repudiated by the people and this war can only be won by the Koreans just as the war in China could only be won by the people. This is one of the iron facts of the twentieth century. [...] In China the pattern was the same; America supported the most corrupt and hated enemies of the people, led by Chiang Kai-shek, backed them with more than ‘$6 billion, sent them military aid and advisers—and produced their great fiasco. [...] It is America which has invaded Korea. To defend the interests of Morgan and Rockefeller, of Dupont and the steel barons, to restore the land to the feudal landlords, to drive the people back to penury, to maintain a war base against the peaceful Soviet Union."<ref name=":24" /><br />
<br />
===== Support for DPRK among south Koreans during the war =====<br />
[[File:CIA document pages 1 and 2.jpg|thumb|1950 CIA document stating that more than 50% of Seoul students were actively aiding communists, many volunteering for the Northern Army, and that the working class of Seoul generally supported the North.<ref name=":6" />]]<br />
The Korean War and the following decades were characterized by massive arrest campaigns and mass killings to suppress communists as well as anyone else suspected of opposing the highly unpopular Southern regime. In 1950, when the DPRK attempted to reunify the country, Rhee's forces retreated and killed at least another 60,000 supposed communist sympathizers.<ref>{{Citation|author=Kim Dong-Choon|year=2004|title=Forgotten war, forgotten massacres--the Korean War (1950-1953) as licensed mass killings|chapter=|section=|page=|quote=|pdf=https://www.academia.edu/6417696|city=|publisher=Journal of Genocide Research|isbn=|doi=|lg=|mia=|title-url=|chapter-url=|trans-title=|trans-lang=}}</ref> <br />
<br />
In a 1950 CIA memorandum, after the Northern Army had taken over Seoul, Central Intelligence Director and U.S. Navy Rear Admiral R.H. Hillenkoeter reported that "over 50% of Seoul's students are actively aiding the Communist invaders, with many voluntarily enlisting in the Northern Army" and that among Seoul's population, "the working class generally supports the Northern Koreans, while merchants are neutral and the intelligentsia continue to be pro-Southern," adding that the streets of Seoul were "crowded [...] with youths engaging in Communist demonstrations.<ref name=":6">{{News citation|author=R.H. Hillenkoeter, Director of Central Intelligence|newspaper=CIA Memorandum|title=The Korean Situation|date=1950-7-19|url=https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/1950-07-19b.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220723030500/https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/1950-07-19b.pdf|archive-date=2022-07-23|quote=Past failure of the Republic of Korea to win the support of its restless student class may lie behind reports that over 50% of Seoul's students are actively aiding the Communist invaders, with many voluntarily enlisting in the Northern Army. Apparently attracted by the glamor of a winning army, the morale of these recruits may suffer rapidly if the going gets tough. Among others elements of Seoul's population, the working class generally supports the Northern Koreans, while merchants are neutral and the intelligentsia continue to be pro-Southern. A former Seoul policeman reports that North Korean troops and police are rather inconspicuous in Seoul. Commercially, the city is nearly "dead"; stores are closed except for two department stores and some greengrocers. The streets, however, are crowded, especially with youths engaging in Communist demonstrations.}}</ref><br />
<br />
The People's Democratic Party of south Korea, interviewed in 2020, said that "almost all workers and peasants in the South rejected the U.S. military" and added that "According to North Corea’s data, about 400,00 peoples in the South voluntarily enlisted in the North Corean military when the Corean war started."<ref name=":23" /> <br />
<br />
According to Kim Sin Gyu, a north Korean correspondent present in Seoul at the time: "When the city was first liberated, the citizens of Seoul welcomed the Korean People's Army. I remember hearing people say, 'We heard the north Korean communist soldiers were a monstrous rabble, with the horns of devils and red faces. But seeing them now, they are the same as us. The soldiers are young and brave and handsome.'"<ref name=":11">''Korea: The Unknown War.'' TV Documentary Series. Episode 2: "An Arrogant Display of Strength." Thames Television, 1988. Aired on WGBH Boston, 1990. (URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVCuku3Ldi0)</ref><br />
<br />
Alan Winnington, a ''Daily Worker'' correspondent present in Korea in 1950, wrote:<blockquote>Every evening, the countryside of Korea, especially in the South, boils with life. Hundreds of thousands of peasants and townfolk converge on roads and in a matter of hours have repaired the bomb damage of the previous day by the sheer weight of limitless, willing human labour. While that is going on, hundreds of thousands of others are resuming their trek south from where they stopped at dawn; managing countless oxcarts over remote by-ways; carrying loads of food and munitions on their backs. All these reconstruction and transport workers are volunteers, unpaid, providing their own food and materials, with their own militia to protect them from stray enemy troops, self-supporting, familiar with the terrain and determined to put an end to foreign occupation of their country. <br />
<br />
[...] In places where I checked the figures, I found that practically every available man and many of the women had taken part in one or other side of the Civilian War Service. Below the Parallel, in Koyang County near Seoul, in twelve days 54,085 men had volunteered out of a total population of only 180,000. During the advance of the People’s Army in this area, the local People’s Committee had mobilised 1,000 oxcarts in a single night for a transport emergency. I personally never met a peasant—except old and infirm—who had not helped the army in some way. And in cities, every evening you can see the reconstruction workers gathering in their thousands with spades, crowbars and ropes. At least half of these are women, who refuse to be kept out of even the heaviest and most dangerous work of rescue and fire-fighting during the raids.<ref name=":24" /> </blockquote><br />
<br />
===== U.S. war crimes =====<br />
<blockquote>''See also: [[List of atrocities commited by the United States of America#Korean War|List of atrocities committed by the United States of America#Korean War]]''</blockquote>During the Korean War, U.S. troops killed large numbers of Korean civilians and engaged in copious firebombing with napalm, and, as was eventually revealed through declassified documents, had at certain times a policy of deliberately firing on south Korean refugee groups approaching its lines.<ref name=":12">{{News citation|author=Youkyung Lee|newspaper=Associated Press|title=S. Korean who forced US to admit massacre has died|date=2014-08-07|url=https://apnews.com/article/108b4bd1dc854caeaf5f9349fcd5a176|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220726115036/https://apnews.com/article/108b4bd1dc854caeaf5f9349fcd5a176|quote=On July 26, 1950, outside the central South Korean village of No Gun Ri, hundreds of civilians from nearby villages, ordered south by U.S. troops, were stopped by a dug-in battalion of the U.S. 7th Cavalry Regiment, and then were attacked without warning by U.S. warplanes. Survivors fled under a railroad overpass, where for the next three days they were fired on by 7th Cavalry troops. [...] in January 2001 the Army acknowledged the No Gun Ri killings but assigned no blame, calling it a “deeply regrettable accompaniment to a war.” [...] In 2006 it emerged that among incriminating documents omitted from the 2001 U.S. report was a declassified letter from the U.S. ambassador in South Korea, dated the day the No Gun Ri killings began, saying the Army had adopted a policy of firing on refugee groups approaching its lines.}}</ref> In an article of the Asia-Pacific Journal, Kim Dong choon writes that "Few are aware that the Korean authorities as well as US and allied forces massacred hundreds of thousands of south Korean civilians at the dawn of the Korean War".<ref>{{News citation|author=Kim Dong choon|newspaper=The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus|title=The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Korea: Uncovering the Hidden Korean War. The Other War: Korean War Massacres.|date=2010-03-01|url=https://apjjf.org/-Kim-Dong-choon/3314/article.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220726125030/https://apjjf.org/-Kim-Dong-choon/3314/article.html|archive-date=2022-07-26|retrieved=2022-07-26}}</ref> There were also incidents of U.S. pilots ignoring their orders to stay within Korea and flying beyond its borders, strafing military targets in China and the Soviet Union.<ref name=":11" /><br />
<br />
According to U.S. Naval Captain Walter Karig, in his book ''Battle Report: The War in Korea'':<blockquote>[W]e killed civilians, friendly civilians, and bombed their homes; fired whole villages with the occupants--women and children and ten times as many hidden Communist soldiers--under showers of napalm, and the pilots came back to their ships stinking of vomit twisted from their vitals by the shock of what they had to do.<ref>Walter Karig; Malcolm W Cagle; Frank A Manson; et al (1952). ''Battle Report: The War in Korea'' (pp. 111-112). New York: Rinehart.</ref></blockquote>United States Air Force General Curtis LeMay, commander of the U.S.'s Strategic Air Command, gave a similar description of the U.S. military's conduct in Korea, saying:<blockquote>[W]e went over there and fought the war and eventually burned down every town in North Korea [...] some way or another, and some in south Korea, too. We even burned down Pusan—an accident, but we burned it down anyway. The Marines started a battle down there with no enemy in sight. Over a period of three years or so, we killed off—what—twenty percent of the population of Korea as direct casualties of war, or from starvation and exposure?<ref>Richard H. Kohn and Joseph P. Harahan (1988). ''[https://media.defense.gov/2010/Sep/29/2001329790/-1/-1/0/AFD-100929-052.pdf Strategic Air Warfare: an interview with generals Curtis E. LeMay, Leon W. Johnson, David A. Burchinal, and Jack J. Catton]'' (p. 88). Washington, D.C.: Office of Air Force History, United States Air Force. <small>ISBN 0-912799-56-0</small></ref></blockquote>In a 1950 pamphlet entitled "I Saw the Truth in Korea", written by Alan Winnington, correspondent in China and Korea for the ''Daily Worker'', Winnington describes the actions of U.S. forces in Korea, documenting massacres with photographs and describing the aftermath of bombings:<blockquote>[F]ive years ago we and the Russians were allies of the Americans in the war against the Nazis. Since then, Roosevelt and his colleagues have gone and atomic diplomacy has taken their place. But still, what I saw Americans doing in Korea shook me to my heels. I suppose all my life I’ve been listening to propaganda about America being a civilised nation and some of this must have sunk in. Somehow, I never quite thought of Americans doing exactly what the Nazis did until I saw it with my own eyes. [...] A thousand tons of bombs; a town obliterated; over 4,000 casualties in all; tens of thousands made homeless and bereaved—all to damage a rail-track. Does it make sense? This is bombing in the fashion that no British town ever met. I saw Coventry and I was in London all through the ‘blitz and I saw Wonsan after these raids. It was far worse than the worst the Nazis ever did.<ref name=":24" /></blockquote>In addition to the U.S. military's practice of fire-bombing civilian targets and firing on refugees, many south Korean civilian casualties occurred due to the American soldiers' inability to tell apart North and south Koreans. As described by an anonymous U.S. officer on the U.S. Defense Department radio program called "Time for Defense", "What makes it so difficult over here is that you can't tell the damn north Koreans from the south Koreans, and that's caused a lot of slaughter" ([[:File:Anonymous U.S. officer describes Korean war.mp4|audio file]]).<ref>''Korea: The Unknown War.'' TV Documentary Series. Episode 2: "An Arrogant Display of Strength." Thames Television, 1988. Aired on WGBH Boston, 1990. (URL: <nowiki>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVCuku3Ldi0</nowiki>)</ref> It may be argued that the policy of firing on groups of refugees was a result of this, as described in the 1988 documentary ''Korea: The Unknown War'', which observes that "American troops found it difficult to distinguish friend from foe," and that "the North Koreans had infiltrated refugee columns, and in the ensuing confusion, innocent civilians became casualties." According to the documentary, one American general allegedly commented, "If they look organized, shoot at them."<ref name=":11" /><br />
[[File:U.S. documents showing refugee policy early in Korean War.jpg|thumb|364x364px|'''Left:''' An unsigned Air Force memo from July 25, 1950 seeking alternatives on the policy of "strafing civilian refugees" which "is sure to receive wide publicity and may cause embarrassment to the U.S. Air Force and U.S. government." '''Right:''' A July 26, 1950 letter from the American embassy to the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State saying, "If refugees do appear from the north of US lines they will receive warning shots, and if they then persist in advancing they will be shot."]]<br />
One example of the U.S. policy of firing on groups of refugees is the incident of the Nogeun-ri massacre, also written as No Gun Ri (Korean: 노근리). The incident was little-known outside Korea until publication of an Associated Press story in 1999 in which U.S. veterans corroborated survivors' accounts, and details gradually became more widely known. In July 1950, American soldiers shot "hundreds of helpless civilians under a railroad bridge".<ref name=":13">{{News citation|author=Sang-Hun Choe, Charles J. Hanley and Martha Mendoza|newspaper=Washington Post|title=U.S. Massacre of Civilians in Korean War Described|date=1999-09-30|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/daily/sept99/skorea30.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220726121945/https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/daily/sept99/skorea30.htm|retrieved=2022-07-26}}</ref> U.S. veterans spoke of 100 or 200 or "hundreds" dead and described "a preponderance of women, children and old men among the victims", while Korean witnesses said 300 were killed at the bridge and 100 in a preceding air attack. One Korean witness commented that "the American soldiers played with our lives like boys playing with flies." One of the U.S. veterans described it as "wholesale slaughter."<ref name=":13" /> <br />
<br />
Although this incident had gone unacknowledged for decades, in 2001 the U.S. Army acknowledged the killings, calling them a "regrettable accompaniment to a war." In 2006, it was revealed that among documents omitted from the 2001 U.S. report, there was a declassified letter from the U.S. ambassador in south Korea, dated the day the Nogeun-ri killings began, saying the Army had adopted a policy of firing on refugee groups approaching its lines.<ref name=":12" /> Some U.S. veterans have also described other refugee killings as well, when U.S. commanders ordered their troops to shoot civilians as a defense against disguised enemy soldiers, and declassified U.S. Air Force reports allegedly show that pilots also sometimes deliberately attacked "people in white" (referring to white peasant garb), suspecting that disguised north Korean soldiers were among them.<ref name=":13" /><br />
<br />
==== Armistice Agreement (1953) ====<br />
The armistice was signed on 27 July 1953. The signed armistice established the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), the de facto new border between the two nations, put into force a cease-fire, and finalized repatriation of prisoners of war. The DMZ runs close to the 38th parallel and has continued to separate north and south Korea since the Korean Armistice Agreement was signed in 1953.<br />
<br />
==== U.S. abrogation of armistice paragraph 13d, introduction of nuclear weapons into South ====<br />
Paragraph 13d of the agreement mandated that neither side introduce new weapons into Korea. At a meeting in 1957, the U.S. informed the north Korean representatives that the United Nations Command no longer considered itself bound by paragraph 13d of the armistice,<ref>{{News citation|newspaper=Time Magazine|title=Korea: The End of 13d|date=1957-07-01|url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,809583,00.html|archive-date=https://web.archive.org/web/20220728030416/https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,809583,00.html|quote=One afternoon last week in the stuffy green Quonset hut that is the heart of the scrubby no man's land of Panmunjom, three U.S. generals, a British brigadier and a Republic of Korea air-force officer coldly confronted 40 North Korean commissars and military men. "I have a statement to make," began Major General Homer L. Litzenberg, U.S.M.C., in a level voice. Then, while the Communists listened attentively, he told them that the U.N. Command no longer felt bound by subparagraph 13D of the Korean armistice agreement—the clause limiting introduction of new weapons into Korea.}}</ref> and in 1958 the U.S. abrogated paragraph 13d of the armistice by introducing nuclear weapons into south Korea.<ref>{{News citation|author=Lee Jae-Bong|newspaper=The Asia-Pacific Journal|title=US Deployment of Nuclear Weapons in 1950s South Korea & North Korea's Nuclear Development: Toward Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula|date=2009-02-07|url=https://apjjf.org/-Lee-Jae-Bong/3053/article.html}}</ref><br />
<br />
==== End of the First Republic ====<br />
In 1960, Rhee was forced to resign due to mass protests across the nation after the body of a student killed by police was found floating in the harbor.<ref>{{Citation|author=|year=|title=Cause of the 4.19 Revolution|chapter=|section=|page=|quote=|pdf=|city=|publisher=|isbn=|doi=|lg=|mia=|title-url=https://archive.ph/20120707225356/http://100.naver.com/100.nhn?docid=726618|chapter-url=|trans-title=|trans-lang=}}</ref> As a result of this, he fled to [[Honolulu]], [[Hawaii]], where he remained in exile until his death.<br />
<br />
===Second Republic (1960–1961)===<br />
[[File:Park Chung Hee Japan.png|thumb|Park Chung-hee, the leader of the third and early fourth republics, in a Japanese military uniform]]<br />
After Rhee's overthrow, bourgeois democracy was briefly restored under president [[Yun Bo-seon]].<ref>{{News citation|journalist=|date=|title=The Democratic Interlude|url=http://countrystudies.us/south-korea/12.htm|newspaper=Library of Congress|archive-url=|archive-date=|retrieved=}}</ref> The second republic was founded during the April Revolution mass protests against President Syngman Rhee, succeeding the first republic and establishing a parliamentary government. After thirteen months it was overthrown by the south Korean Army in the May 16 coup led by [[Park Chung-hee]]. Park had fought for the Japanese during the occupation and took the Japanese name Takagi Masao.<ref>{{Citation|author=Stephen Gowans|year=2018|title=Patriots, Traitors and Empires: The Story of Korea’s Struggle for Freedom|chapter=The Patriot|page=67|pdf=https://ipfs.io/ipfs/bafykbzaced4iiga4ngtxusr2civjxewbili5jne2sbpefbx2s3im2kphattzc?filename=Stephen%20Gowans%20-%20Patriots%2C%20Traitors%20and%20Empires_%20The%20Story%20of%20Korea%E2%80%99s%20Struggle%20for%20Freedom-Baraka%20Books%20%282018%29.pdf|city=Montreal|publisher=Baraka Books|isbn=9781771861427|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=8435F6FF91279531705764823FDC2A7F}}</ref> In 1961, the ROK declared all [[Socialist state|socialist states]] its enemies and founded the [[Korean Central Intelligence Agency|KCIA]], a brutal secret police agency that routinely imprisoned and tortured dissidents. The KCIA required [[Trade union|union]] leaders to pledge loyalty to the state.<ref name=":1103" /><br />
<br />
=== Third Republic (1963–1972) ===<br />
The Third Republic was founded on the dissolution of the Supreme Council for National Reconstruction that overthrew the Second Republic and established a military government in May 1961 when, on May 16, General [[Park Chung-hee]], the father of future president [[Park Geun-hye]] and former [[Empire of Japan (1868–1947)|Japanese]] collaborator, took power in a military coup. After serving for two years as chairman of the military junta, he was elected president in 1963, which is considered to be the start of the Third Republic. Park ruled as a military dictator for 18 years and sent 320,000 troops to support the [[Republic of Vietnam (1955–1975)|South Vietnamese]] puppet state in the [[Vietnam War]]. <br />
<br />
==== Korean DMZ conflict ====<br />
The Korean DMZ conflict was a series of low-level armed clashes between north Korean forces and the forces of south Korea and the United States, largely occurring between 1966 and 1969 at the Korean DMZ.<br />
<br />
=== Fourth Republic (1972–1981) ===<br />
[[File:Gwangju riot police.png|thumb|Riot troops attacking protestors during the Gwangju uprising]]<br />
The Fourth Republic was founded on the approval of the Yushin Constitution in the 1972 constitutional referendum, codifying the ''de facto'' dictatorial powers held by President Park Chung-hee. The Fourth Republic entered a period of political instability under Park's successor, Choi Kyu-hah, and the escalating martial law declared after Park's death. Choi was unofficially overthrown by [[Chun Doo-hwan]] in a coup d'état of December Twelfth in December 1979, and began the armed suppression of the [[May 18 uprising|Gwangju Democratization Movement]] against martial law. <br />
<br />
After Park Chung-hee's assassination on 26 October 1979, General Chun Doo-hwan took power. During his presidency he perpetrated the largest massacre of Korean civilians since the Korean war. In May 1980, protests against martial law began in [[Gwangju]], which were met with special warfare troops. Estimates vary as to the amount of casualties, but they range from 165 at the most conservative, to over 300. Some also claim that up to 2,300 civilians were killed in the Gwangju massacre, in response to the May 18 uprising also known as the Gwangju uprising.<ref>{{News citation|author=K. J. Noh|newspaper=Hampton Institute|title=South Korean Dictator Dies, Western Media Resurrects a Myth|date=2020-12-02|url=https://www.hamptonthink.org/read/south-korean-dictator-dies-western-media-resurrects-a-myth|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220519190752/https://www.hamptonthink.org/read/south-korean-dictator-dies-western-media-resurrects-a-myth|archive-date=2022-05-19|retrieved=2022-06-02}}</ref><br />
<br />
An article in ''The Nation'' states that the 10-day revolt known as the Gwangju uprising was triggered when students and other citizens protesting the military coup were attacked by airborne special forces "with a viciousness and cruelty that Koreans had not experienced since the darkest days of the Korean War." The article further states that "The armed resistance by Gwangju’s citizen militia liberated the city from the marauding troops. The townspeople, freed from decades of military rule, kept their city running, buried their dead, and transformed themselves into a self-organized system of mutual aid they now call the Gwangju Commune." On May 27 Korean Army troops were released from their usual duties on the border with DPRK to reoccupy Gwangju. The official death toll from the uprising stands at 165, but residents believe that more than 300 people were killed, with dozens still unaccounted for.<ref>Tim Shorrock and Injeong Kim. [https://www.thenation.com/article/world/two-days-in-may-that-shattered-korean-democracy/ “2 Days in May That Shattered Korean Democracy.”] The Nation. May 28, 2020. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220909162444/https://www.thenation.com/article/world/two-days-in-may-that-shattered-korean-democracy/ Archived] 2022-09-09.</ref><br />
<br />
The Fourth Republic was dissolved on the adoption of a new constitution in March 1981 and replaced with the fifth Republic of Korea.<br />
<br />
=== Fifth Republic (1981–1987) ===<br />
The fifth republic was established in March 1981 by Chun Doo-hwan. The fifth republic faced growing opposition from the democratization movement of the Gwangju Uprising, and the June Democracy Movement of 1987 resulted in the election of Roh Tae-woo in the December 1987 presidential election. The fifth republic was dissolved three days after the election upon the adoption of a new constitution that laid the foundations for the relatively stable democratic system of the current sixth Republic of Korea.<br />
<br />
=== Sixth Republic (1987–present) ===<br />
The Sixth Republic was established in 1987 with Roh Tae-woo as its first president<ref>{{News citation|newspaper=두산백과 (Doopedia)|title=제6공화국 (Sixth Republic)|url=https://terms.naver.com/entry.naver?docId=1141297&cid=40942&categoryId=33385|retrieved=2022-07-24}}</ref> and sixth president of south Korea from 1988 to 1993. Roh's election was the first direct presidential election in 16 years. His presidency was followed by Kim Young-sam (in office 1993–1998), the first civilian to hold the office in over 30 years. After this came the presidency of Kim Dae-jung (in office 1998–2003), known for his "Sunshine Policy" of engagement through dialogue and economic and cultural exchanges with north Korea.<ref>{{News citation|author=Hyonhee Shin|newspaper=Reuters|title=Vindication: Architects of South Korea's 'Sunshine' policy on North say it's paying off|date=2018-06-11|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-usa-sunshinepolicy-idUSKBN1J60PP}}</ref> This was followed by the presidencies of Roh Moo-hyun (in office 2003–2008), and Lee Myung-bak (in office 2008–2013). <br />
<br />
South Korea's next president, Park Geun-hye (in office 2013–2017), is the daughter of former dictator Park Chung-hee. Park Geun-hye was in office as the 11th president of Korea until she was impeached and convicted on corruption charges following public demonstrations, commonly known as the Candlelight Revolution or Candlelight Demonstrations. She became the first south Korean president to be removed from power by impeachment, and was sentenced to 24 years in prison, but received a pardon and was released in 2021 after serving just under 5 years.<ref>{{News citation|author=Hyonhee Shin|newspaper=Reuters|title=S.Korea's disgraced ex-president Park freed after nearly 5 years in prison|date=2021-12-31|url=https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/skoreas-disgraced-ex-president-park-freed-after-nearly-5-years-prison-2021-12-31/}}</ref> Park Geun-hye's presidency was followed by Moon Jae-in (in office 2017–2022). The 13th and current president of Korea is Yoon Suk-yeol of the conservative People Power Party.<br />
<br />
==Politics==<br />
<br />
=== Military command ===<br />
Since the [[Korean War|Korean war]] ended in 1953 with a ceasefire, the US has maintained control over the south Korean military.<ref>Swanström, N. (2021, April 27). ''Not a Sovereignty Issue: Understanding the Transition of Military Operational Control between the United States and South Korea''. Institute for Security and Development Policy. https://isdp.eu/publication/not-a-sovereignty-issue-understanding-the-transition-of-military-operational-control-between-the-united-states-and-south-korea/</ref><ref name=":16">{{News citation|author=Kathryn Botto|newspaper=Carnegie Endowment for International Peace|title=Why Doesn’t South Korea Have Full Control Over Its Military?|date=2019-08-21|url=https://carnegieendowment.org/2019/08/21/why-doesn-t-south-korea-have-full-control-over-its-military-pub-79702}}</ref><ref name=":17">Kelly, R. E. (2017, February 27). ''Why US control of the South Korean military is here to stay''. The Interpreter. <nowiki>https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/why-us-control-south-korean-military-here-stay</nowiki></ref><ref name=":18">{{News citation|author=Clint Work|newspaper=Stimson|title=No More Delays: Why It’s Time to Move Forward With Wartime OPCON Transition|date=June 21, 2022|url=https://www.stimson.org/2022/no-more-delays-why-its-time-to-move-forward-with-wartime-opcon-transition/|quote=The history and evolution of the US-ROK military command architecture reveal the inherent push and pull at the heart of the US-ROK alliance. Over time, the U.S. has encouraged the ROK to take on a more robust role in its own defense and within the alliance’s command architecture. However, U.S. officials have also been equally hesitant to relinquish too much control too quickly. Simply put, Washington has had trouble navigating the outer edges of its own authority within the alliance command structure as it simultaneously and discordantly pushes and pulls back Seoul in the process.}}</ref><ref name=":19">{{News citation|newspaper=United States Forces Korea|title=Combined Forces Command|url=https://www.usfk.mil/About/CFC/#Commanders|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220728035053/https://www.usfk.mil/About/CFC/|archive-date=2022-07-28|quote=The CFC is commanded by a four-star U.S. general, with a four-star ROK Army general as deputy commander. Throughout the command structure, binational manning is readily apparent: if the chief of a staff section is Korean, the deputy is American and vice versa. This integrated structure exists within the component commands as well as the headquarters. All CFC components are tactically integrated through continuous combined and joint planning, training and exercises.}}</ref> ''US Forces Korea'' were integrated with ROK forces into a ''Combined Forces Command'', which was in turn integrated into the [[United Nations]] Command. All three commands are headed by the same person, a four-star US general<ref name=":17" /><ref name=":19" /> (currently General Paul J. LaCamera<ref>{{Web citation|newspaper=United States Forces Korea|title=Commander UNC/CFC/USFK|url=https://www.usfk.mil/About/Leadership/Article-View/Article/1685489/commander-unccfcusfk/}}</ref> who took functions in 2021).<br />
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South Korea has operational control (referred to as OPCON) of its military under armistice conditions, but the United States would take over in wartime, and the U.S. combatant commander would be able to direct, organize, employ, assign command functions to, or suspend the duty of subordinate South Korean commanders and forces. In essence, if war breaks out on the Korean Peninsula, south Korea would supply the overwhelming majority of the fighting force, which would then be placed under U.S. operational control.<ref name=":16" /> <br />
<br />
Throughout the history of the US-ROK arrangement, the U.S. and ROK have engaged in a back-and-forth trying to determine what degree of control each party should have under this relationship, with the U.S. often showing a reluctance to relinquish control over the ROK's military, and ROK leaders at times expressing a wish to have more control over their own military, and at other times expressing acceptance of the U.S.'s authority over the ROK military in wartime.<ref name=":18" /><br />
=== NATO alliance ===<br />
[[File:Mark Esper suggesting NATO for Asia.png|thumb|Mark Esper, former [[United States Department of Defense|U.S. Secretary of Defense]] and [[Raytheon]] lobbyist, delivering a speech at Think Tank 2022, which was focused on issues facing the Korean peninsula. Esper stated, "It is said that the United States does not seek to build a, quote, "[[North Atlantic Treaty Organization|NATO]] for Asia". And I say, 'Why not?'"<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":2" />]]<br />
<br />
On February 26, 2022 (KST), former U.S. Secretary of Defense and Raytheon weapons manufacturer lobbyist, Mark Esper, delivered a speech at the 4th Think Tank 2022 Forum,<ref name=":2">{{News citation|author=Dr. William Selig|newspaper=Universal Peace Federation|title=4th Think Tank 2022 Forum Features Former U.S. Secretary of Defense|date=2022-02-26|url=https://www.upf.org/peace-and-security-reports/10012-4th-think-tank-2022-forum-featured-hon-mark-esper-former-u-s-secretary-of-defense|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220723061325/https://www.upf.org/peace-and-security-reports/10012-4th-think-tank-2022-forum-featured-hon-mark-esper-former-u-s-secretary-of-defense|archive-date=2022-07-23|retrieved=2022-07-23}}</ref> which is a think tank associated with Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon,<ref>{{News citation|newspaper=Think Tank 2022|title=Co-Founder Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon|url=http://thinktank2022.org/founder/HakJaHanMoon.php}}</ref> the wife of late millionaire<ref>{{News citation|newspaper=Celebrity Net Worth|title=Sun Myung Moon Net Worth|url=https://www.celebritynetworth.com/richest-celebrities/authors/sun-myung-moon-net-worth/|quote=Sun Myung Moon was a Korean religious leader, businessman, and media mogul who had a net worth of $900 million at the time of his death. Sun Myung Moon was best known for founding the Unification movement and authoring its conservative theology of the "Divine Principle." [...] Some considered him a cult leader.}}</ref> Rev. Sun Myung Moon, founder and self-proclaimed messiah of the generally right-wing, anti-communist [[Unification Church]].<ref>{{News citation|author=Conal Urquhart|newspaper=The Guardian|title=Sun Myung Moon, founder of the Moonies, dies in South Korea|date=2012-09-03|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/sep/03/moonies-sun-myung-moon-dies|quote=Moon saw himself as a messiah and created a church that became a worldwide movement and claims to have around 3 million members, including 100,000 in the United States. [...] He was jailed for five years by the North Korean government in 1948, but escaped in 1950 when his guards fled as United Nations troops advanced. He was an active anti-Communist throughout the cold war.}}</ref> Speaking at this event, weapons industry lobbyist Esper emphasized the need for full cooperation between the U.S., south Korea, and Japan in the face of challenges posed by north Korea and China, saying:<blockquote>It is said that the United States does not seek to build a, quote, "NATO for Asia". And I say, "Why not?" We should have lofty goals and high expectations and not let history and distance confound us. America's European allies overcame a brutal history to form a collective security arrangement to deal with [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (1917–1991)|Soviet Russia]]. There's no reason why the same can't happen in the Indo-Pacific as we increasingly face off against a recalcitrant north Korea and aggressive communist China.<ref name=":3">Esper, Mark. 4th Think Tank 2022 Forum. "Hon. Mart[sic] Esper, 27th United States Secretary of Defense keynote address." Think Tank 2022. Uploaded April 13, 2022. URL:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfKih9aabsk (NATO-related quote begins at 16:36)</ref></blockquote>Esper stated that he is a "big believer" in the quadrilateral security dialogue known as "The Quad" a strategic security dialogue between [[Commonwealth of Australia|Australia]], [[Republic of India|India]], Japan, and the United States that is maintained by talks between member countries, which Esper says is "rightly viewed as a unified response to China's rising military and economic power." He states, "I believe south Korea should be the next partner to join the Quad, transitioning it into the Quint."<ref name=":3" /><br />
<br />
The former Raytheon lobbyist and defense company Epirus Inc. board member then went on to say that "America's allies and partners need to invest at least two percent of their GDP for defense and invest in the right capabilities," listing long-range precision strike capabilities, air and missile defenses, advanced submarines, and fifth generation fighter aircraft as examples, and noting that the Republic of Korea has already met this two percent mark.<ref name=":3" /> Esper describes that these weapons investments will help the region deter Chinese and north Korean "aggression" and states that a "reinvigorated work plan with the DPRK should begin with the complete verifiable and irreversible denuclearization of the North."<ref name=":2" /><br />
<br />
In June 2022, the south Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol declared he will participate in the 3rd [[NATO Summit]] of 2022.<ref>{{News citation|newspaper=Kyodo News|title=Yoon to attend NATO summit, 1st time for S. Korean president|date=2022-06-22|url=https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2022/06/968e985e4c76-yoon-to-attend-nato-summit-1st-time-for-s-korean-president.html}}</ref> The director of the National Security Office Kim Sung-han declared not much later that south Korea will establish a "diplomatic mission" to NATO in Brussels to coincide with President Yoon Suk-yeol's participation in the Summit. According to Sung-han, this mission will make south Korea "able to increase information sharing and strengthen our networks with NATO allies and partners and establish a Europe platform that is worthy of our [global] status".<ref>{{News citation|newspaper=Korea JoongAng Daily|title=Korea to open diplomatic mission to NATO|date=2022-06-22|url=https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2022/06/22/national/politics/Korea-Nato-Summit-Yoon-Sukyeol/20220622191349616.html}}</ref><br />
<br />
=== Unconverted long-term prisoners ===<br />
[[File:Unconverted long-term prisoners in south Korea.jpg|thumb|A demonstration calling for a second repatriation of unconverted long-term prisoners in south Korea. The sign reads "Call for second repatriation of non-converted long-term prisoners" ("비전향장기수 2차 송환 촉구").]]<br />
''Main article: [[Unconverted long-term prisoners]]''<br />
<br />
Unconverted long-term prisoners is a term which refers to political prisoners imprisoned in south Korea, generally on charges of "anti-state" activities or views in support of communism or DPRK. While in prison, many of them were held in solitary confinement and subjected to extensive torture while being pressured to sign a "conversion" statement renouncing communist or left-wing ideology.<ref>{{News citation|newspaper=BBC News|title=Solitary: Tough test of survival instinct|date=1999-02-25|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/286070.stm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220725155633/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/286070.stm}}</ref> In the 1990s, some of the unconverted prisoners began being released. Some chose to remain in south Korea while others sought to be repatriated to DPRK.<ref name=":10">Kim Dong-won. ''Repatriation'' (2003). Documentary. URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xu2mEvU29Q</ref> Some were able to return to DPRK, notably 63 of them in the year 2000,<ref name=":28">[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/907307.stm "Korean communists go home."] BBC News, 2 September, 2000. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240311153647/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/907307.stm Archived] 2024-03-11.</ref><ref>{{News citation|newspaper=파이낸셜 뉴스 (Financial News)|title=북한, 비전향장기수 북송 21주년 맞아 생존 장기수들 조명 (North Korea celebrates 21st anniversary of repatriation of non-converted long-term prisoners to North Korea)|date=2021-09-06|url=https://www.fnnews.com/news/202109061041393026}}</ref> but others remained in the South, being denied their requests for repatriation.<ref>{{News citation|author=Kang Jin-kyu|newspaper=Korea JoongAng Daily|title=Spies who can't come in from the cold|date=2016-08-07|url=https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2016/08/07/politics/Spies-who-cant-come-in-from-the-cold/3022316.html}}</ref> <br />
Those who returned to the DPRK were met with celebrations and awards,<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20191124030603/http://www.kcna.co.jp/item/2000/200009/news09/04.htm "National reunification prizes awarded to unconverted long-term prisoners"], [[Korean Central News Agency]], 2000-09-04. Archived 2019-11-19.</ref> while those remaining in south Korea faced difficulties including ongoing health issues from their long imprisonment, living in poverty, not being given social security numbers,<ref name=":10" /> and being subjected to ROK state surveillance under the Security Surveillance Act.<ref name=":22">{{Web citation|author=Liberation School|newspaper=Liberation School|title=Still fighting for Korea’s liberation: An interview with Ahn Hak-sop|date=Jul 27, 2022|url=https://www.liberationschool.org/interview-with-ahn-hak-sop/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/2/https://www.liberationschool.org/interview-with-ahn-hak-sop/}}</ref> <br />
<br />
Many who participated in the repatriation in the year 2000 and many of those who remained in south Korea made their decisions based on their impression at the time that there was going to be more freedom of movement between ROK and DPRK thereafter. In an interview with [[Liberation School]], former prisoner Ahn Hak-sop, who chose to remain in the South when the 2000 repatriation happened, said one of his reasons was that he "thought it was a temporary situation." Anh also notes regarding two prisoners released alongside him, that "Those comrades went to the North because they thought that shortly there would be free movement between the two states. They went to the North to study and thought they would come back later." Regarding his own intention to stay in the south temporarily, Anh elaborated: "[T]here were young progressive people here in the South, and they asked me to stay. [...] We have to keep struggling here for the withdrawal of US army, the peace treaty, and peaceful reunification. I decided to stay here to fight for these goals. In 1952, I came here to liberate the southern half of the peninsula, and I need to stay here and continue that struggle."<ref name=":22" /><br />
<br />
Those who oppose or criticize the repatriation of these former prisoners generally do so on grounds of demanding that DPRK start repatriating people back to the south as well.<ref name=":28" /><br />
<br />
=== National Security Law ===<br />
The National Security Law is a south Korean law enforced since 1948 with the avowed purpose "to secure the security of the State and the subsistence and freedom of nationals, by regulating any anticipated activities compromising the safety of the State." Behaviors or speeches in favor of the DPRK or communism can be punished by the National Security Law. In an article from The Diplomat, it was referred to as a "Cold War holdover" that "allows the government to selectively prosecute anyone who 'praises, incites or propagates the activities of an anti-government organization'" which the article describes as "a deliberately vague clause that broadly implies the north Korean state and its sympathizers." The article continues, explaining "Under Article 7, individuals have been prosecuted and imprisoned for merely possessing north Korean publications or satirically tweeting north Korean propaganda. In recent years this clause has been harshly criticized by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, who claim the government abuses the law to repress dissenting voices."<ref>{{News citation|author=Meredith Shaw and Joseph Yi.|newspaper=The Diplomat|title=Will Yoon Suk-yeol Finally Reform South Korea’s National Security Law?|date=2022-03-15|url=https://thediplomat.com/2022/03/will-yoon-suk-yeol-finally-reform-south-koreas-national-security-law/}}</ref><br />
<br />
=== Anti-imperialist, anti-U.S., and pro-unification struggle in south Korea ===<br />
[[File:Unification Vanguard of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions Anti-US Demonstration.png|thumb|318x318px|The Unification Vanguard of the [[Korean Confederation of Trade Unions]] unfurls large banners reading "This land is our land, YANKEE GO HOME" and "Stop practicing for a war of aggression" in an August 2022 demonstration against US-ROK joint military exercises.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXCK3s-vic8 "23기 민주노총 중앙통일선봉대 활동영상" ("23rd KCTU Central Unification Vanguard Activity Video")]. 민주노총 (Confederation of Trade Unions). Aug 14, 2022. YouTube.</ref><ref>김준. (Kim Jun). [http://worknworld.kctu.org/news/articleView.html?idxno=500588 "쌍용훈련 재개 예고에 23기 중앙통선대, 포항 한미연합상륙훈련장 지휘소 기습점거투쟁" ("23rd Central Telecommunication Battalion, Pohang ROK-U.S. Combined Amphibious Training Center Command Post, Surprise Occupation Struggle to Announce Resumption of Ssangyong Training").] 노동과세계. 2022.08.12. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220828050027/http://worknworld.kctu.org/news/articleView.html?idxno=500588 Archived] 2022-08-28.</ref>]]<br />
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According to the People's Democracy Party (PDP), a revolutionary workers' party in south Korea, the continued U.S. military occupation of south Korea is the primary barrier to peaceful reunification of the Korean peninsula. The PDP, co-authoring a 2020 ''Liberation School'' article, writes:<blockquote>The peace of the Corean Peninsula is possible only after the withdrawal of the U.S. troops. The U.S. troops are occupation forces in South Corea and invading army to North Corea. So their withdrawal is the most desperate and preferred struggle task for the whole Corean nation to solve. The present war crisis escalating to a high level proves that peace in the Corean peninsula cannot be realized unless the U.S. troops are withdrawn from South Corea.<br />
<br />
As long as the U.S. troops are stationed in South Corea and war exercises are conducted against North Corea, the prospect for peace is bound to be dark. We are convinced from our historical experience that if we develop the struggles for the withdrawal of the U.S. troops into a popular uprising of the South Corean people, and if the whole Corean nation can struggle together in great unity, we can withdraw the U.S. troops from South Corea.<br />
<br />
[...] True peace is possible only without imperialism; the head of imperialism is the U.S. We have an opinion that a true peace movement should be an anti-imperialist movement and an anti-U.S. movement. We believe that the progressive and peace-loving forces of the world can and must conduct an anti-imperialist, anti-war struggle, to halt all wars in the world by U.S. troops and to withdraw all U.S. troops stationed overseas. The key is the formation of an anti-imperialist, anti-U.S. united front and anti-imperialist, anti-U.S. joint action.<ref name=":23" /></blockquote><br />
[[File:South Korean students rush the U.S. Ambassador’s official residence, 2019.png|thumb|South Korean students surprise rushing U.S. Ambassador [[Harry Harris]]' official residence in 2019, using ladders to climb over the wall, with signs saying “leave this land” and shouting "Stop interfering with our domestic affairs" and "We don’t need U.S. troops."<ref name=":26">Shin, Hyonhee. 2019. [https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-northkorea-southkorea-idUSKBN1WX0Z6 “South Korean Students Climb into U.S. Envoy’s Residence in Protest against Troop Presence.”] U.S. October 18, 2019. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230325105702/https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-northkorea-southkorea-idUSKBN1WX0Z6 Archived] 2023-03-25.</ref><ref name=":27">오마이TV. 2019. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Del06vXK8nk “순식간에 미대사관저 담장 넘어간 대학생들.”] YouTube Video. [https://web.archive.org/web/20221018101952/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Del06vXK8nk&feature=youtu.be Archive link].</ref>]]<br />
In 2019, 19 south Korean students were detained after several used a ladder to climb over the wall into the grounds of the U.S. Ambassador [[Harry Harris]]' residence in Seoul in protest against the U.S. troop presence in the country. A spokesman for the US Embassy in Seoul said that approximately 20 Korean nationals illegally entered the official residential compound of the U.S. Ambassador and attempted to forcibly enter the residence itself. In a video broadcast from inside the compound, the activists accused the United States of demanding a 500% increase in the cost of keeping some 28,500 troops in south Korea, holding a banner saying "Leave this soil, Harris" and shouted "Stop interfering with our domestic affairs!" "Get out!" and "We don’t need U.S. troops!" before being marched out of the residence by police. The students had also attempted to break into the U.S. Embassy in Seoul in 2018, before being stopped by police. A Reuters article notes that the student group also "held a forum to present their 'research findings' on the achievements of North Korean leader [[Kim Jong-un|Kim Jong Un]], lauding him as a caring and influential leader."<ref name=":26" /><ref name=":27" /> <br />
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[[Nodutdol]] (Korean: 노듯돌), an [[Anti-imperialism|anti-imperialist]], pro-unification organization of diasporic Koreans,<ref>[https://nodutdol.org/about/ “About.”] Nodutdol. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230401142208/https://nodutdol.org/about/ Archived] 2023-04-01.</ref> notes in their 2020 pamphlet "Sanctions of Empire" that Ambassador Harry Harris has been obstructive toward inter-Korean reconciliation, blocking efforts by the [[Moon Jae-in]] administration to develop tourism into the DPRK, claiming that "independent" tourism plans would have to undergo US consultation, emphasizing that the items inside south Korean tourists' luggage could violate [[Economic sanctions|sanctions]].<ref>[https://nodutdol.org/sanctions-of-empire/ "제국의 제재 - Sanctions of Empire."] [[Nodutdol]]. October 20, 2020. [https://nodutdol.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Sanctions-of-Empire.pdf PDF]. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220520095404/https://nodutdol.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Sanctions-of-Empire.pdf Archive].</ref><br />
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On Jeju Island, located off the southern tip of the Korean peninsula, a decade-long protest of the construction of a naval base has been ongoing. Activists noted in a 2013 statement that the base will only worsen the likelihood of Koreans being pulled into a US-China conflict: "Jeju naval base will be an outpost of the U.S. maritime military alliance, together with Japan, targeting China, rather than a strategic point of independent national defense. With the U.S. [[Pivot to Asia]] strategy, the chances of South Korea’s getting pulled into conflicts between the U.S. and China increase."<ref>[https://www.peoplepower21.org/english/1080148 <nowiki>“[Publication] No Naval Base on Jeju Island! - 참여연대 -.”</nowiki>] 참여연대. October 7, 2013. [https://web.archive.org/web/20210414023914/http://www.peoplepower21.org/English/1080148 Archive link].</ref> Although the base eventually completed construction, protestors continued to oppose it with demonstrations and attempted entries into it, saying that although it is nominally a south Korean base, it is "a place where cutting-edge strategic assets in the US military can stop by whenever they please according to American interests."<ref>[https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_international/820635.html “American Nuclear Submarine Enters Jeju Naval Base.”] Hankyoreh. Hani.co.kr. 2017. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230325090226/https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_international/820635.html Archived] 2023-03-25.</ref> In 2020, an activist was arrested for trespassing on the base and destroying government property.<ref>Elizabeth Shim. [https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2020/03/30/South-Korea-arrests-protester-for-infiltrating-Jeju-Naval-Base/2991585585755/ “South Korea Arrests Protester for Infiltrating Jeju Naval Base.”] UPI. March 30, 2020. [https://web.archive.org/web/20200814001452/https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2020/03/30/South-Korea-arrests-protester-for-infiltrating-Jeju-Naval-Base/2991585585755/ Archived].</ref><br />
[[File:People rally to protest against the planned South Korea-U.S. military drills in Seoul, South Korea, Aug. 13, 2022.jpg|thumb|People rally against the ROK-US military drills, Aug. 13, 2022. Banners say "Stop war exercises! No to USA!" (Korean: 전쟁연습 중단! 미국 반대!)]]<br />
On August 13, 2022, thousands of south Korean unionists and their progressive supporters rallied in downtown Seoul to protest against joint US-south Korea war game exercises. In a video uploaded by [[Press TV]], Oh Eun-Jung of the National Teachers Union was quoted as saying "The threat of nuclear war is growing on the Korean peninsula, conservative forces of Yoon Suk-yeol in south Korea and those in the U.S. are frantically conducting aggressive war drills in the sky, the land, and the sea, and are about to start large-scale military exercises, aimed at the invasion of north Korea. We must stamp out this behavior of anti-reunification forces." In the same video, construction worker Lee Seung-Woo stated, "We not only oppose the war exercises, but we want the U.S. Forces Korea, which is actually controlling and interfering with the Korean peninsula to leave this land. We believe that only then will the eighty million Koreans from both north and south be able to live peacefully."<ref>Frank Smith. [https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2022/08/13/687322/South-Korean-unionists-protest-US-South-Korea-war-games “‘South Korean Unionists Protest US-South Korea War Games.’”] PressTV News. August 13, 2022. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220826124551/https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2022/08/13/687322/South-Korean-unionists-protest-US-South-Korea-war-games Archived] 2022-08-28.</ref><br />
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The media company [[Sovereignty Broadcast]] (Korean: 주권방송), additionally going by the name 615tv on some of its social media accounts, uploads educational and informative videos its to YouTube page regarding the peace and unification struggle in Korea. According to the channel's about page, it is an internet media company that deals with peace and unification on the Korean Peninsula and various current affairs topics in Korea.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/c/The615tv/about About Sovereignty Broadcast]. Sovereignty Broadcast. YouTube.</ref><br />
<br />
=== Censorship ===<br />
Until 1973, images of [[Kim Il-sung]] were banned in south Korea. The southern secret police falsely claimed that Kim was an impostor who had not been involved in the guerrilla resistance against Japan. In 1989, the police state arrested an average of 3.3 Koreans every day under anti-communist censorship laws. Many [[Anti-capitalism|anti-capitalist]] books are banned, even some by non-[[Marxism|Marxists]]. In 2011, southern authorities deleted over 67,000 internet posts that were critical of the ROK or United States. Left-wing music such as the ''Song of the Red Flag'' (which is even used by the [[Social democracy|social democratic]] [[Labour Party (UK)|UK Labour Party]]) is also illegal under the National Security Law.<ref name=":1103">{{Citation|author=Stephen Gowans|year=2018|title=Patriots, Traitors and Empires: The Story of Korea’s Struggle for Freedom|chapter=The Anti-Communist Police State|page=136–145|pdf=https://ipfs.io/ipfs/bafykbzaced4iiga4ngtxusr2civjxewbili5jne2sbpefbx2s3im2kphattzc?filename=Stephen%20Gowans%20-%20Patriots%2C%20Traitors%20and%20Empires_%20The%20Story%20of%20Korea%E2%80%99s%20Struggle%20for%20Freedom-Baraka%20Books%20%282018%29.pdf|city=Montreal|publisher=Baraka Books|isbn=9781771861427|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=8435F6FF91279531705764823FDC2A7F}}</ref><br />
<br />
=== Government-sanctioned prostitution and sex trafficking victims ===<br />
[[File:Women who were encouraged by the South Korean government to work as prostitutes near US military bases hold a press conference outside of the Seoul High Court in the Seocho neighborhood.jpg|thumb|Women who were encouraged by the South Korean government to work as prostitutes near US military bases hold a press conference outside of the Seoul High Court in the Seocho neighborhood following a court ruling on their case on Feb. 8, 2018.]]<br />
As described in a 2019 article by journalist [[Tim Shorrock]], "between the end of the Korean War and the early 1990s, more than one million Korean women were caught up in a state-controlled prostitution industry" that was operated by and for the benefit of the U.S. military. They worked in special zones surrounding U.S. bases, in areas licensed by the south Korean government, reserved exclusively for American troops, and monitored and policed by the U.S. Army. Shorrock explains that the system was designed to strengthen the U.S.-south Korean alliance and boost the morale of U.S. military personnel, and for south Korea to bring in foreign currency, with prostitution for this purpose being encouraged as a woman’s patriotic duty to the state. These zones, called ''kijichon'' (Korean: 기지촌; "military camp town"), were established around 31 U.S. Army, Air Force, and Navy bases in South Korea. Shorrock writes that "in Gyonggi province, which extends from south of Seoul up to the DMZ and was home to the majority of U.S. bases, some 10,000 sex workers were registered every year from 1953 to the late 1980s."<ref name=":25">[[Tim Shorrock|Shorrock, Tim]]. 2019. [https://newrepublic.com/article/155707/united-states-military-prostitution-south-korea-monkey-house “Welcome to the Monkey House.”] The New Republic. December 2, 2019. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230322174621/https://newrepublic.com/article/155707/united-states-military-prostitution-south-korea-monkey-house Archived] 2023-03-22.</ref><br />
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In 2018, Lee Beom-gyun, a judge on an appellate court in Seoul, agreed that the south Korean government had actively encouraged prostitution to boost ties with the United States. Lee ruled that the Korean state "operated and managed" the military camp towns to contribute to the "maintenance of a military alliance essential for national security" and abetted the industry "through patriotic education praising prostitutes as 'patriots who bring in foreign currency.'" He concluded that the government had violated the human rights of its citizens and denounced the practice of segregating "camp town prostitutes in forced internment facilities or through the indiscriminate administration of penicillin, which carries serious physical side effects."<ref name=":25" /><ref>[http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_international/831625.html “Court Finds That South Korean Government Encouraged Prostitution near US Military Bases.”] 2018. Hani.co.kr. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230325113713/http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_international/831625.html Archived] 2023-03-25.</ref><br />
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The 2019 article describes one sex worker's experience in this system:<blockquote>One former sex worker starkly laid out the conditions faced by many ''kijichon'' women in a documentary film produced by Durebang. “A pimp sold me to a U.S. camp town,” she recalled. “Inside a warehouse, I was raped. The police sent me to the Monkey House, where American medics gave us injections” of penicillin and other drugs to prevent the spread of STDs. After her release, she was required to wear a plastic badge showing she’d been tested—“cunt tags,” she called them. All sex workers and bar owners were required to hang these registration certificates on the walls of their establishments as well.<ref name=":25" /></blockquote>Choi Hee-shin, a community organizer who grew up in Dongducheon, which surrounds the U.S. Camp Casey, was quoted in the same 2019 article saying, “Lots of people are ashamed of what happened in the camp towns, and want to forget," further stating, "But people like me, we can't forget. The U.S.-South Korean alliance depended on these comfort women."<br />
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According to Wellesley Professor Katharine H.S. Moon in ''Sex Among Allies'', a history of military prostitution in south Korea, the "overwhelming majority" of prostitutes in the camp towns were either orphans or abandoned children. Moon estimates in her book that at the peak of U.S. troop strength in the 1980s, the ''kijichon'' economy contributed 5 percent of South Korea’s gross domestic product. Once they were recruited to the camp towns, women found themselves trapped by debt. They carried out their sex work in rooms they had to rent from the bar owners. They also had to buy all their supplies, including their bed, their clothes, and the phonographs they set up to entertain their American clients.<br />
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Shorrock explains that many of the Koreans who seek justice for camp-town sex workers refer to them as [[comfort women]], a term which commonly refers to women whom the Japanese Imperial Army kidnapped and forced to work in military brothels called "comfort stations" during the Second World War. However, the Korean public has generally refrained from treating the kijichon women as victims of imperialism in the manner of the comfort women. Park Jeong-mi, a professor at Chungbuk National University, argues that this sentiment is unfair, and in her research she has found a direct historical link between the Japanese and American systems, as the U.S. military government created an administrative state that was dominated by Koreans who had collaborated with Japan's colonial rulers. The shift from Japanese- to American-coerced sex work was an easy transition, she said: "High-ranking Korean officials who served under Japanese colonial rule were familiar with the comfort station system." Under U.S. pressure, Park said, the south Korean government licensed the bars and clubs that hired the women who entertained the U.S. troops, likening those establishments to de facto brothels.<ref name=":25" /><br />
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=== Sexism ===<br />
Women are only paid half as much as men for the same job.<ref name=":1222">{{Citation|author=[[Vijay Prashad]]|year=2008|title=The Darker Nations: A People's History of the Third World|chapter=Singapore|page=248|pdf=https://cloudflare-ipfs.com/ipfs/bafykbzaceascnzh26r5d6uitjjs2z7rflhaxlt7rboz5whzdf76qg6xxvecqq?filename=%28A%20New%20Press%20People%27s%20history%29%20Vijay%20Prashad%20-%20The%20darker%20nations_%20a%20people%27s%20history%20of%20the%20third%20world-The%20New%20Press%20%282008%29.pdf|publisher=The New Press|isbn=9781595583420|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=9B40B96E830128A7FE0E0E887C06829F}}</ref><br />
<br />
==Rising anti-capitalism==<br />
In recent years, the term '''"'''[[Hell Joseon]]" or "Hell Korea" (Korean: 헬조선) has become popular to describe the social anxiety and discontent surrounding high unemployment and poor working conditions.<ref>[http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/739886.html Lashing out at “Hell Joseon”, young’uns drive ruling party’s election beatdown]</ref><ref>[https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/young-south-koreans-call-their-country-hell-and-look-for-ways-out/2016/01/30/34737c06-b967-11e5-85cd-5ad59bc19432_story.html Young South Koreans call their country ‘hell’ and look for ways out] by the [[Washington Post]]</ref> <br />
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south Korean media has also increasingly included narratives of class antagonism which have been popular successes for Western audiences, with films such as ''Snowpiercer'' (2013)<ref>[https://newmultitude.org/snowpiercer-class-consciousness/ THE TRAIN IS CAPITALISM- SNOWPIERCER AND CLASS CONSCIOUNESS]</ref> and ''Parasite'' (2019)<ref>[https://medium.com/incluvie/parasite-and-capitalism-what-the-film-says-about-the-pursuit-of-wealth-993fa7ce7ee1 Parasite and Capitalism: What the Film Says About the Pursuit of Wealth]</ref> and the popular TV show ''Squid Game'' (2021).<ref>[https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/squid-game-the-rise-of-anti-capitalist-entertainment/ar-AAPaOHG Squid Game & The Rise Of Anti-Capitalist Entertainment]</ref><ref>[https://www.gen-zine.com/post/thesquidgame “The Squid Game”: Anti-Capitalism and Netflix]</ref><ref>[https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/elaminabdelmahmoud/squid-game-netflix-review-lupin-international “Squid Game” Works Because Capitalism Is A Global Scourge]</ref><br />
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With increasing economic stratification, social [[alienation]], and lack of opportunity among young people entering the work force, south Korea has a rate of mental health issues and suicide that is among the highest in the developed world.<ref>{{News citation|author=Katrin Park|newspaper=Foreign Policy|title=South Korea Is No Country for Young People|date=2021-10-5|url=https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/11/05/south-korea-suicide-rates-mental-illness-squid-game/}}</ref> This undoubtedly is resulting in the development of [[class consciousness]].<br />
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The [[bourgeois media]] (in south Korea and in the US) carefully ensures that all criticism of capitalism stops just short of providing concrete solutions, lest people become interested in [[socialism]] and its [[Successes of socialism|various successes around the world]].<br />
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Labor militancy is also on the rise as 500k south Korean workers walked off in a one-day [[general strike]], protesting against rampant [[exploitation]] by the [[Gig worker|gig economy]], high costs of housing, and the highest annual working hours in the OECD.<ref>[https://therealnews.com/half-a-million-south-korean-workers-walk-off-jobs-in-general-strike HALF A MILLION SOUTH KOREAN WORKERS WALK OFF JOBS IN GENERAL STRIKE] on [https://therealnews.com/half-a-million-south-korean-workers-walk-off-jobs-in-general-strike The Real News Network]</ref><br />
<br />
== Notes ==<br />
<references group="Notes" /><br />
<br />
==References==<br />
<references /><br />
[[Category:Illegal states]]<br />
[[Category:Global north]]<br />
[[Category:Puppet states]]<br />
[[Category:Neocolonial outposts]]<br />
[[Category:Asian countries]]</div>
Verda.Majo
https://en.prolewiki.org/index.php?title=Republic_of_Korea&diff=64273
Republic of Korea
2024-03-17T08:33:08Z
<p>Verda.Majo: /* US occupation */ added a page link for John R. Hodge, changed an instance of "South" to "south"</p>
<hr />
<div>{{Infobox country|name=Republic of Korea|population_estimate_year=2019|population_estimate=51,709,098|area_km2=100,363|established_date1=1948 August 15|established_event1=First Republic|image_map=Statesian neocolonial occupation of Korea.svg|map_width=260|official_languages=Korean|leader_name3=Kim Jin-pyo|native_name=대한민국|image_flag=Flag of South Korea.svg|leader_title3=Speaker of the National Assembly|leader_name2=Han Duck-soo|leader_title2=Prime Minister|leader_name1=[[Yoon Suk-yeol]]|leader_title1=President|image_coat=ROK emblem.svg|capital=Seoul|government_type=Unitary corporatocratic republic|currency=Korean Republic won (₩) (KRW)|official_website=https://www.korea.net/|mode_of_production=[[Capitalism]]}}<br />
The so-called '''Republic of Korea''' ('''ROK'''), also known as '''Capitalist Korea''' or '''South Korea''', is a [[Bourgeois state|bourgeois liberal republic]] that serves as a [[United States of America|U.S.]] puppet state<ref>{{Citation|author=Stephen Gowans|year=2018|title=Patriots, Traitors and Empires: The Story of Korea’s Struggle for Freedom|chapter=The Empire of Japan|page=45|pdf=https://ipfs.io/ipfs/bafykbzaced4iiga4ngtxusr2civjxewbili5jne2sbpefbx2s3im2kphattzc?filename=Stephen%20Gowans%20-%20Patriots%2C%20Traitors%20and%20Empires_%20The%20Story%20of%20Korea%E2%80%99s%20Struggle%20for%20Freedom-Baraka%20Books%20%282018%29.pdf|city=Montreal|publisher=Baraka Books|isbn=9781771861427|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=8435F6FF91279531705764823FDC2A7F}}</ref> and [[Neocolonialism|colony]]<ref name=":23" /> located on the southern portion of the [[Korea|Korean Peninsula]]. The northern part of the peninsula is governed by the [[Democratic People's Republic of Korea|Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)]], also known as People's Korea. <br />
<br />
According to the south Korean [[People's Democracy Party]] (민중민주당), writing in a 2020 [[Liberation School]] article, "south Korea is a complete colony occupied by the U.S. military, is politically oppressed by the U.S., and is economically subordinate to [[Imperialism|imperialist]] countries, including the U.S. After the military coup of 1961, the rule of fascist military dictatorships continued for 30 years, and since then a pro-US [[Neoliberalism|neoliberal]] regime has operated in the country. It is severely exploiting the [[Proletariat|workers]], [[Peasantry|farmers]], and all the people."<ref name=":23">People's Democracy Party and Liberation School. [https://www.liberationschool.org/korean-war-70-years/ “70 Years Too Long: The Struggle to End the Korean War – Liberation School.”] ''Liberation School – Revolutionary Marxism for a New Generation of Fighters'', 25 June 2020. [https://web.archive.org/web/2/https://www.liberationschool.org/korean-war-70-years/ Archived].<br />
<br />
</ref><br />
<br />
According to the same party, the Korean reunification and peace struggle is contingent on the withdrawal of U.S. troops, and therefore U.S. military withdrawal from south Korea is "the most desperate and preferred struggle task for the whole Korean nation to solve.<ref name=":23" /> <br />
<br />
Since its inception, the ROK has been riddled with corruption and political scandals. All four living former south Korean presidents have been sentenced to prison for various crimes ranging from abuse of authority to bribery and embezzlement.<ref name="aei">{{Web citation|date=2018-10-09|title=South Korea's troubling history of jailing ex-presidents|url=https://www.aei.org/foreign-and-defense-policy/asia/south-koreas-troubling-history-of-jailing-ex-presidents/|newspaper=American Enterprise Institute}}</ref><ref>{{Web citation|date=2021-02-10|title=Former South Korean president sentenced to prison|url=https://www.dw.com/en/former-south-korean-president-sentenced-to-prison/a-55779280|newspaper=Deutsche Welle}}</ref><ref>{{Web citation|date=2013-08-22|title=Ex-president Roh Tae-woo to pay remainder of massive fine|newspaper=The Chosunilbo}}</ref><ref>{{Web citation|date=2017-02-07|title=South Korea: President's impeachment on a background of political scandal|url=http://perspective.usherbrooke.ca/bilan/servlet/BMAnalyse?codeAnalyse=2320|newspaper=Perspective Monde}}</ref><ref name="bbcsource">{{Web citation|date=2018-10-05|title=South Korea ex-leader jailed for 15 years|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-45756561|newspaper=[[BBC|BBC News]]}}</ref><br />
<br />
==History==<br />
<br />
=== Early history and Japanese occupation ===<br />
{{Main article|Korea}}<br />
Some of Korea's major historical periods leading up to the contemporary period include the period of Gojoseon (2333 B.C.-108 B.C.), the Three Han States Period, the Three Kingdoms Period, the North-South States Period (668-918), the Goryeo Dynasty (918–1392), the Joseon Dynasty (1392–1897), the relatively short-lived Korean Empire (1897–1910), and the Japanese colonial occupation period (1910–1945).<ref name=":29">Shin, Michael D.; Lee, Injae; Miller, Owen; Park, Jinhoon; Yi, Hyon-hye. [https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781107098466 "Korean History in Maps: from prehistory to the Twenty-first Century."] Cambridge University Press, 3rd printing, 2016.</ref><ref>[http://nationalatlas.ngii.go.kr/pages/page_3083.php "Territorial History of Korea."] National Atlas of Korea: Comprehensive Edition (2022). National Geography Information Institute, Ministry of Land Infrastructure and Transport.</ref><br />
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Throughout its history, Korea has been faced with various foreign attacks and disturbances. For example, Korea faced invasion by Japan during the [[Imjin Wars]] of the 1590s<ref name=":29" /> and disturbances such as imperialist [[gunboat diplomacy]] in the 1800s.<ref>Bullimore, Kim. [https://redflag.org.au/node/6486 "Understanding US aggression against North Korea."] [[Redflag]], [[Socialist Alternative (Australia)|Socialist Alternative]], 2018-08-21. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220526084730/https://redflag.org.au/node/6486 Archived] 2022-05-26.</ref> As independent scholar Jay Hauben observed in The Jeju Weekly, Korea "remained independent despite 500 years of efforts of bigger powers to dominate it" until it was subjected to Japanese rule in 1910.<ref name=":14" /><br />
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During the Japanese occupation era, which lasted until Japan's defeat in 1945, Korea's economy was developed to serve the interests of the Japanese empire, with Korean industry developing as an "appendage" of Japanese industry, hindering the normal development of Korea's national industry.<ref>Kim Han Gil. [https://archive.org/details/ModernHistoryOfKorea/ "Modern History of Korea."] Foreign Languages Publishing House, Pyongyang, Korea, 1979.</ref> The southern part of the Korean peninsula was predominantly agricultural, and was considered the "rice bowl" of the country as it supplied a greater portion of the food for Korea. As a colonial economy, it was tightly controlled in the interest of creating a rice surplus for Japan.<ref name=":15">Kim Jinwung. A ''Policy of Amateurism: The Rice Policy of the U.S. Army Military''. Government in Korea, 1945-1948. Korea Journal, Summer 2007.https://kj.accesson.kr/assets/pdf/8153/journal-47-2-208.pdf</ref><br />
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As [[Kim Il-sung|Kim Il Sung]] summarized, during the colonial period, Japan turned Korea into "a source of raw materials and labour, a market for their commodities and a military base for aggression against the continent."<ref>Kim Il Sung. "The Tasks of Korean Communists." Treatise Published in Sogwang, Organ of the Korean People's Revolutionary Army, November 10, 1937. Collected Works Volume 1. ([https://www.marxists.org/archive/kim-il-sung/cw/01.pdf PDF])</ref> Additionally, under colonial rule, Koreans were subjected to kidnapping and slavery in the form of forced labor and sexual slavery (the latter are known as [[comfort women]]), on top of facing extensive political repression and cultural erasure.<ref name=":30" /><br />
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A [[Liberation School]] article explains that as economic and anti-colonial demands mounted under the occupation, resistance to Japanese colonialism grew and [[Communism|communists]] and [[Anarchism|anarchists]] "began meeting in the borderlands of Russia, China, and Korea." On March 1, 1919 a massive Korean independence protest movement was launched. Since 1931, nationalist and communist guerrillas struggled in the mountains of Manchuria against the Japanese, and Kim Il-Sung emerged as a particularly effective leader during this period.<ref name=":30">Ford, Derek. [https://www.liberationschool.org/the-chongryon-movement-the-struggle-of-koreans-in-japan/ “Chongryon: The Struggle of Koreans in Japan – Liberation School.”] ''Liberation School – Revolutionary Marxism for a New Generation of Fighters'', 30 Jan. 2019.</ref><br />
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===US occupation===<br />
[[File:The Japanese flag in front of the Japanese Government-General of Korea building in Seoul is replaced with the U.S. flag..png|thumb|314x314px|U.S. forces lower the Japanese flag in Seoul and replace it with the U.S. flag.]]<br />
After [[Kim Il-sung]] liberated Korea from the Japanese Empire, in an "outburst of meetings and organizing" that "came out into the open all over Korea" after Japanese surrender, activists throughout the Korean peninsula began to plan and organize to replace Japanese rule and dominance. Groups of local people gathered in most villages and cities and sought ways to replace the police and pro-Japanese administrators with people who had resisted Japanese rule.<ref name=":14" /> A left-leaning nationwide organization established by Koreans known as the Alliance for National government as well as many local People's Committees enjoyed widespread popular support throughout the country. However, the [[United States Army Military Government in Korea|U.S. Military Government in Korea]] (USAMGIK) did not recognize the new state declared by the People’s Committees, and Korea was divided across the 38th parallel by two American officers who had never been to Korea.<ref>{{Citation|author=Don Oberdorfer, Robert Carlin|year=2014|title=The Two Koreas: A Contemporary History|chapter=|section=|page=5|quote=|pdf=|city=|publisher=|isbn=9780465031238|doi=|lg=|mia=|title-url=|chapter-url=|trans-title=|trans-lang=}}</ref> The U.S. occupation of the southern half of Korea was announced in Proclamation No. 1 by General of the Army Douglas MacArthur on Sept. 7, 1945, with the statement that “All powers of Government over the territory of Korea south of 38 degrees north latitude and the people thereof will be for the present exercised under my authority.”<ref>{{News citation|newspaper=Jeju 4.3 Peace Foundation|title=Liberation from Japan in 1945|date=2018|url=http://jeju43peace.org/historytruth/fact-truth/factstruth_article2/}}</ref><br />
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In "A Policy of Amateurism: The Rice Policy of the U.S. Army Military''"'', Kim Jinwung writes:<blockquote>When news arrived that the United States was planning to occupy southern Korea, [<nowiki/>[[Lyuh Woon-hyung|Yeo Un-hyeong]]'s<ref group="Notes">여운형, name romanized as Yeo Unhyeong, Yŏ Unhyŏng, or Lyuh Woon-hyung.</ref> Committee for the Preparation of Korean Independence] called a national convention in Seoul on September 6 to give his regime the stamp of legitimacy. Yeo and his followers wanted to quicken the process of establishing a new government before the Americans arrived. Yeo proclaimed the establishment of the [[People's Republic of Korea (1945–1946)|Korean People’s Republic]], with a cabinet that included distinguished nationalists of all political persuasions, right and left. But the body was clearly influenced by the left, with Communists playing key roles.<ref name=":15" /></blockquote>However, the U.S. refused to recognize this organization, and General [[John R. Hodge]], the Commanding General of U.S. Army Forces in Korea, outlawed the people’s committees and created new local councils under conservative control.<ref name=":15" /> In an article titled "People's Republic of Korea: Jeju, 1945-1946", Jay Hauben describes the situation:<blockquote>On Sept. 8, 21 US warships arrived in Incheon to supervise in the name of the Allies the surrender of the Japanese Governor-General of Korea and the 200,000 Japanese military personnel and their equipment and property south of the 38th parallel. US General John Hodge commanded the US landing. The US party was met by an English speaking committee of the PRK [People's Republic of Korea] to welcome it to Korea in the name of the people and newly emerging government of Korea. General Hodge refused to meet with them. His mission was to head the United States Military Government In Korea (USAMGIK) and he would not accept that there was already a newly forming government of Korea.<ref name=":14" /></blockquote>Due to the People’s Committees enjoying such widespread popular support, the USAMGIK resorted to dissolving the committees by force so that the U.S. could effectively rule the country.<ref name=":0">{{News citation|newspaper=Jeju 4.3 Peace Foundation|title=Who ruled over the Korean Peninsula?|date=2018|url=http://jeju43peace.org/historytruth/fact-truth/factstruth_article3/|retrieved=2022-07-23}}</ref> As noted by Hauben, "The USAMGIK had as its mission to prevent a Korean government friendly to socialism or communism or leftism in general. That mission required that the left leaning majority of the Korean people had to be diverted."<ref name=":14" /><br />
[[File:1946 South Korean opinion poll about socialism, communism, and capitalism.png|thumb|An opinion poll appearing in the Dong-A Ilbo newspaper on August 13, 1946 showed a majority of respondents favoring socialism and less than 15% supporting capitalism.|341x341px]]<br />
In August 1946, the newspaper Dong-A Ilbo published the results of various opinion polls seeking information about the kind of government the people of Korea wanted. Of those surveyed, when asked about which system they agreed with, 14% of respondents answered "capitalism" (1,189 people), 70% answered "socialism" (6,037 people), 7% answered "communism" (574 people), and 8% responded "do not know" (653 people).<ref>[https://db.history.go.kr/id/dh_003_1946_08_13_0070 "1946년 8월 13일 軍政廳輿論局, 朝鮮國民이 어떠한 종류의 政府를 요망하는지 여론을 조사" ("August 13, 1946. Surveys the public opinion on what kind of military service the people of the military and government demand.")] 동아일보 1946년 08월 13일. (Dong-A Ilbo, August 13, 1946). 자료대한민국사 제3권. (Source Korea History Vol. 3). Korean History Database. 국사편찬위원회. (National Institute of Korean History). [https://web.archive.org/web/20220825114505/https://db.history.go.kr/id/dh_003_1946_08_13_0070 Archived] 2022-08-25.</ref><ref>[https://newslibrary.naver.com/viewer/index.naver?articleId=1946081300209203003&editNo=1&printCount=1&publishDate=1946-08-13&officeId=00020&pageNo=3&printNo=7053&publishType=00020 "軍政廳輿論局調査(군정청여론국조사)."] Dong-A Ilbo August 13, 1946. Page 3. Naver 뉴스 라이브러리 (Naver News Library).</ref><br />
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Following General MacArthur's Proclamation No. 1, the USAMGIK became the official ruling body of south Korea (in the eyes of the U.S.), from 1945 to 1948, until the establishment of the Republic of Korea on Aug. 15, 1948. Through this series of events, the Korean Peninsula was divided along the 38th parallel, the south was occupied by the United States, the People's Committees were suppressed, many Japanese colonial era collaborator police and officials were placed back into positions of power, and a [[Fascism|fascist]] dictatorship led by Harvard graduate [[Syngman Rhee]] was installed.<ref>{{News citation|journalist=|date=|title=Syngman Rhee|url=https://www.doopedia.co.kr/doopedia/master/master.do?_method=view&MAS_IDX=101013000746262|newspaper=Doopedia|archive-url=|archive-date=|retrieved=}}</ref> <br />
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==== Suppressed criticism in official U.S. military history of Korean War and U.S. occupation of Korea ====<br />
In the work ''From Occupation to War: Cold War Legacies of US: Army Historical Studies of the Occupation and Korean War'', Seoul National University professor Chung Yong Wook writes that "a divergent understanding" of this era "was repressed or rooted out by force in the US and around the ‘free world'" due to the official U.S. history of the war being written in the context of the emerging Cold War. Military historian Richard Robinson, who wrote a work critical of the U.S. role in Korea, ''Betrayal of a Nation'', was unable to find a publisher for his work and it remained in manuscript form. I.F. Stone's work ''The Hidden History of the Korean War'' (1952) which was also critical of U.S. conduct in Korea was removed from many libraries. Professor Chung notes that "military historians were not, in essence, allowed to criticize information given to them, nor did they have leeway in interpreting and critiquing facts, they were left only to describe ''sanitized'' history" at all stages of the information-gathering and history-writing process.<ref>Chung, Yong Wook. From Occupation to War; Cold War Legacies of US Army Historical Studies of the Occupation and Korean War. Korea Journal, vol. 60, no. 2 (summer 2020): 14–54. doi: 10.25024/kj.2020.60.2.14 © The Academy of Korean Studies, 2020. URL: https://kj.accesson.kr/assets/pdf/8518/journal-60-2-14.pdf [https://web.archive.org/web/20220725044626/https://kj.accesson.kr/assets/pdf/8518/journal-60-2-14.pdf Archive URL]. Suppression of counter-narratives ("Abstract" p. 15, PDF p.1); "sanitized history" (p. 20, PDF p. 7)</ref><br />
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According to Richard Robinson, who had been working as a historian for the military during the occupation, the official American military history of the occupation is "highly prejudiced and inaccurate" adding that the official U.S. histories were "written upon explicit orders not even to imply criticism of anything American" and says that "if the truth were known, the American occupation of south Korea was incredibly bungled by an incompetent and corrupt administration—all in the name of American democracy."<ref name=":5">Robinson, Richard. Cited in Chung, Yong Wook. ''From Occupation to War; Cold War Legacies of US Army Historical Studies of the Occupation and Korean War''. Korea Journal, vol. 60, no. 2 (summer 2020): 14–54. doi: 10.25024/kj.2020.60.2.14 © The Academy of Korean Studies, 2020 URL: https://kj.accesson.kr/assets/pdf/8518/journal-60-2-14.pdf</ref> Robinson had his work suppressed as he expressed criticism of the U.S. military government's failures in Korea and eventually was compelled to leave the country.<ref name=":5" /><ref>{{News citation|author=김환균|newspaper=미디어오늘 (Media Today)|title='미국의 배반'이 미국에서 금서가 된 이유. (Why "American Betrayal" is Banned Reading in the U.S.)|date=2004-08-09|url=http://www.mediatoday.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=25874|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220724050252/http://www.mediatoday.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=25874|archive-date=2022-07-24|retrieved=2022-07-24}}</ref><br />
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==== USAMGIK disregards People's Committee's rice management, establishes rice "free market" ====<br />
During Japanese colonial rule, the Japanese placed rigid controls on the people of Korea to build up a food surplus. When the U.S. forces arrived in south Korea, they found that "Japanese control over rice had been loosened or altogether abolished" and that instead, "the [[People's Republic of Korea (1945–1946)|Korean People’s Republic]] (KPR) and people’s committees managed food stocks, and according to American accounts, 'after the Koreans drove the Japanese police out, [the leaders of the KPR and people’s committees] took over the rice collection machinery and were operating it successfully when the Americans arrived.'"<ref name=":15" /> As the Americans largely did not acknowledge the authority of the People's Committees and were trying to establish an [[Anti-communism|anti-communist]] government in south Korea, they struck down the management system that had been operating under the People's Committees and replaced it with a "free market" in rice. In Ordinance 19, USAMGIK describes this as "giving to every man, woman and child within the country equal opportunity to enjoy his just and fair share of great wealth which this beautiful nation has been endowed".<ref>Office of the Military Governor, United States Army Forces in Korea. [https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/USAMGIK_Ordinance_19 Ordinance Number 19]. 1945-10-30. </ref><ref name=":15" /> <br />
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In "A Policy of Amateurism: The Rice Policy of the U.S. Army Military''"'', Kim Jinwung describes the results of the free market policy of the USAMGIK:<blockquote>The immediate effect of the free market policy was a steep rise in the price of rice and resultant hoarding and speculation. Poor distribution of food led to food shortages and hunger in cities, despite a bumper harvest in 1945. Additionally, the rice-based south Korean economy inevitably began to suffer from massive inflation. It was quite natural then that the black-market should grow and prosper; it was expected that the lure of black market prices would stimulate the flow of rice into the black market. The result was that “rice disappeared almost entirely from the market.” Through its free market policy, the U.S. military government lost the main strength of the south Korean economy—its ability to extract large surpluses of grain—and caused in its stead spiraling inflation, near starvation in early 1946, and a general economic breakdown. The price of a bushel of rice increased from 9.4 yen in September 1945 to 2,800 yen in September 1946. Landlords, police and other government officials, and wealthy individuals engaged in speculation on a wholesale basis.<ref name=":15" /></blockquote>In the wake of this policy, USAMGIK was "flooded with complaints and petitions from Koreans demanding that price control and rationing be resumed and that the American military government take drastic action to stop rice hoarding."<ref name=":15" /> However, it seemed to many that USAMGIK was "reluctant to move against the principal hoarders" due to them being Korean businessmen who the government who had been relying on for advice.<ref name=":15" /> By 1946, the U.S. rescinded the free market and implemented rice rationing. A U.S. summation of the U.S. army military government activities in Korea stated that public attention was "focused on the threat of hunger" at this time.<ref>Commander-in-Chief, United States Army Forces, Pacific. ''[https://www8.cao.go.jp/okinawa/okinawasen/pdf/b0604002_09/b0604002_09.pdf Summation of United States Military Government Activities in Korea, No. 6].'' March 1946. </ref> As the situation continued, U.S. rice rations eventually fell to half of the ration size that had been received under the Japanese colonial administration during World War II, and newspapers published accounts of famine and starvation, further disaster only being averted by eventual shipments of U.S. grains as emergency relief. In addition, "the deteriorating food situation forced the Americans to revive the old Japanese rice collection system" which was unpopular with farmers.<ref name=":15" /> The USAMGIK eventually formed local boards composed of local police officials, elders, businessmen, and landlords approved by the USAMGIK to manage the collection of rice quotas, but created no system for appeal to adjust the quotas. Under this program, many farmers were arrested or faced violence for not meeting their quotas.<ref name=":15" /> <br />
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==== Re-appointment of Japanese colonial officials under U.S. occupation ====<br />
The USAMGIK had a policy of rehiring officers from the Japanese colonial era, which it tried to justify by the need to implement effective governance. This failure to prosecute officers who had collaborated with the Japanese and re-instatement of their power increased public resentment against the U.S. regime.<ref name=":0" /> Instead of fully enjoying their independence, people were being victimized by the same oppressive police officers and corrupt public officials as under Japanese colonial authority.<ref name=":1">{{News citation|newspaper=Jeju 4.3 Peace Foundation|title=Jeju’s political climate following liberation|date=2018|url=http://jeju43peace.org/historytruth/fact-truth/factstruth_article4/}}</ref> The U.S. occupiers created an army staffed by former Japanese officers and rebuilt the [[Korean National Police]] (KNP) of the Japanese occupation era.<ref name=":110">{{Citation|author=Stephen Gowans|year=2018|title=Patriots, Traitors and Empires: The Story of Korea’s Struggle for Freedom|chapter=The War Against Communists of the South|page=95–99|pdf=https://ipfs.io/ipfs/bafykbzaced4iiga4ngtxusr2civjxewbili5jne2sbpefbx2s3im2kphattzc?filename=Stephen%20Gowans%20-%20Patriots%2C%20Traitors%20and%20Empires_%20The%20Story%20of%20Korea%E2%80%99s%20Struggle%20for%20Freedom-Baraka%20Books%20%282018%29.pdf|city=Montreal|publisher=Baraka Books|isbn=9781771861427|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=8435F6FF91279531705764823FDC2A7F}}</ref><br />
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==== Conflict between occupation forces and people's committees ====<br />
Richard Robinson, the chief of the Public Opinion Section of the Department of Information of the USAMGIK, who had been present in Korea and contributing to the official U.S. military historical record at the time, later gave his observations about the People's Committees and the USAMGIK's policy of rehiring officers from the Japanese colonial era:<blockquote>It was safe to say that for the most part the local People's Committees in these early days were of the genuine grassroots democratic variety and represented a spontaneous urge of the people to govern themselves. . . . They resented orders from the Military Government to turn the administration of local government over to American Army officers and their appointed Korean counterparts, many of whom were considered to be Japanese collaborators. It seemed like a reversion to what had gone before. Bloodshed ensued in many communities as local People's Committees defied the Military Government and refused to abandon government offices. Koreans and Americans met in pitched battles, and not a few Koreans met violent death in the struggle.<ref name=":4">Robinson, Richard. Cited in Mark J. Scher (1973) ''U.S. policy in Korea 1945–1948: A Neocolonial model takes shape.'' Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars, 5:4, 17-27, DOI: 10.1080/14672715.1973.10406346. <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.1080/14672715.1973.1040634</nowiki> URL: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/14672715.1973.10406346</ref></blockquote>Robinson then gives an example of an incident which he refers to as "typical" of this period. According to Robinson, in the small community of Namwon in North Jeolla province, the Japanese had turned over considerable property to the local People's Committee just prior to the arrival of the Americans. The U.S. military government then demanded the property, but the People's Committee refused to turn it over to the U.S. military government. Robinson states that five leaders of the Committee were arrested by the local Korean police, adding that "the police chief was captured and beaten by Committee members and the police station attacked by a large crowd of irate citizens." He says that the station was guarded by American troops, and that when the Koreans refused to disband, "the Americans advanced with fixed bayonets," resulting in two Koreans being killed and several injured.<ref name=":4" /><br />
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Within a year of the U.S. occupation, uprisings began in 80 cities and hundreds of villages. After the suppression of the People's Republic of Korea, widespread [[Strike action|strikes]] and protests began followed by a guerrilla movement. By December 1947, the KNP had arrested over 21,000 leftists, and the amount of political prisoners was more than under the Japanese occupation. By 1948, resistance forces controlled most of the inland villages in south Korea. The KNP arrested so many people that it ran out of space in prisons and forced an additional 70,000 people, including 30,000 communists, into concentration camps. By 1950, the south Korean government and U.S. occupation forces killed between 100,000 and 200,000 dissidents.<ref name=":110" /><br />
===First Republic (1948–1960) ===<br />
[[File:Syngman Rhee.jpg|thumb|264x264px|Syngman Rhee (Korean: 이승만), president of the ROK First Republic from 1948-1960, was described as an "extreme rightist" in a 1948 [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] report.<ref name=":20">{{News citation|newspaper=Wilson Center Digital Archive|title=March 18, 1948 Central Intelligence Agency, ORE 15/48, 'The Current Situation in Korea'|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220729051304/https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/220065.pdf?v=d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e|retrieved=2022-07-29|Archive=History and Public Policy Program Digital Archive, Record Group 263, Records of the Central Intelligence Agency|url=https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/220065.pdf?v=d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e}}</ref>]]After rejecting [[Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (1922–1991)|Soviet]] proposals for all-Korean elections, the United States created a UN committee of [[Canada]], [[Commonwealth of Australia|Australia]], the [[Republic of the Philippines|Philippines]], and the defeated [[Kuomintang]] from [[People's Republic of China|China]] to supervise elections in the southern zone. Koreans from all parts of the nation organized a National Unity Conference in [[Pyongyang]] that met three weeks before the US-sponsored elections. Many [[Left-wing politics|leftist]] parties and some [[Right-wing politics|right-wing]] parties boycotted the elections. The Korean National Police and right-wing thugs attacked communists, while people who did not vote would lose their land and ration cards. [[Syngman Rhee]] won the rigged elections and took power as the first president of the south. During the elections, [[Kim Sok-won]] led a parade in Seoul of 2,500 Koreans who had collaborated with the Japanese.<br />
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The First Republic was the government of south Korea from August 1948 to April 1960. Syngman Rhee ruled for the entire existence of the first republic. The first republic was characterized by Rhee's authoritarianism and corruption, limited economic development, strong anti-communism, and by the late 1950s, by growing political instability and public opposition to Rhee.<br />
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Prior to being flown in to Korea by the OSS (precursor to the CIA), Rhee had been living in the United States for over thirty-five years, earning an M.A. at Harvard and a Ph.D. at Princeton.<ref name=":21">{{Citation|author=Max Hastings|year=1988|title=The Korean War|title-url=https://archive.org/details/koreanwar00hast_0/page/32/mode/2up|chapter=Origins of a Tragedy|page=32, 33-34|quote=Syngman Rhee was born in 1875, the son of a genealogical scholar. He failed the civil service exams several times before becoming a student of English. Between 1899 and 1904 he was imprisoned for political activities. On his release, he went to the United States, where he studied for some years, earning an M.A. at Harvard and a Ph.D. at Princeton—the first Korean to receive an American doctorate. After a brief return to his homeland in 1910, Rhee once more settled in America. He remained there for the next thirty-five years, lobbying relentlessly for American support for Korean independence, financed by the contributions of Korean patriots. (p.32)}}</ref> According to Max Hastings, in ''The Korean War'':<blockquote>Rhee's backing from the Military Government was a decisive force in his rise to power. [...] There is no murkier episode in the history of the American occupation than the return of Rhee to Seoul. The Military Government firmly denied not only complicity but prior knowledge of this. Yet all the evidence now suggests that General Hodge and his staff participated in a carefully orchestrated conspiracy to bring back Rhee, despite the refusal of the State Department to grant him a passport. A former deputy director of the wartime OSS, Preston Goodfellow, prevailed upon the State Department to provide Rhee with documentation. There appears to have been at least a measure of corruption in this transaction. Rhee got to know Goodfellow during the war, when the Korean mendaciously suggested to the American that he could provide agents for operations behind the Japanese lines. After the war it seems almost certain that Goodfellow assisted and raised money for Rhee in return for the promise of commercial concessions in Korea when the doctor gained power. Rhee flew to Seoul in one of MacArthur's aircraft. Despite the vigorous denials of the U.S. Army in the Far East, it seems likely that he met secretly with both the Supreme Commander and Hodge during his stopover in Tokyo. Rhee, it is apparent, was their nominee for the leadership of a Korean civilian government.<ref name=":21" /></blockquote>A 1948 CIA report wrote that "there is every prospect that Rhee's accession to power will be followed by intra-party cleavages and by the ruthless suppression of all non-Rhee Rightist, Moderate, and Leftist opposition," characterizing Rhee as an "imported expatriate politician" and "extreme rightist" and demagogue "bent on autocratic rule", who would be an "unpopular" figure who would play into communist propaganda due to his extreme rightist orientation, and stating that the U.S. throwing their full support behind him could potentially be "a source of future embarrassment to US policy in the Far East."<ref name=":20" /><br />
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During the First Republic, the number of U.S. troops decreased, but many intelligence officers and combat specialists continued to occupy south Korea. Resistance against the occupation continued to grow, reaching 3,500 to 6,000 guerrilla fighters by early 1949. Rhee created the National Guidance League to make leftists to reject reunification and forced 300,000 people to join. He also created the [[National Security Law]], which still exists today and criminalizes recognition of the DPRK as a legitimate state. Almost 190,000 people, including members of the National Assembly, were arrested under this law up to December 1949.<ref name=":1102">{{Citation|author=Stephen Gowans|year=2018|title=Patriots, Traitors and Empires: The Story of Korea’s Struggle for Freedom|chapter=The Political Partition of Korea|page=115–116|pdf=https://ipfs.io/ipfs/bafykbzaced4iiga4ngtxusr2civjxewbili5jne2sbpefbx2s3im2kphattzc?filename=Stephen%20Gowans%20-%20Patriots%2C%20Traitors%20and%20Empires_%20The%20Story%20of%20Korea%E2%80%99s%20Struggle%20for%20Freedom-Baraka%20Books%20%282018%29.pdf|city=Montreal|publisher=Baraka Books|isbn=9781771861427|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=8435F6FF91279531705764823FDC2A7F}}</ref><br />
<br />
==== Jeju People's Committee ====<br />
After liberation from Japanese colonization, the Jeju People’s Committee was formed with the head of the Farmers' Guild and the Fishermens' Guild as its leaders. According to the Jeju 4.3 Peace Foundation, "In every aspect, the Jeju People’s Committee was the only political party and the only government in Jeju" after liberation from the Japanese. E. Grant Meade, a USAMGIK officer, said, “The Jeju People’s Committee was the only political party in the island and the only organization acting like a government.”<ref name=":1" /> The committees had the respect and support from most villagers. Committee members were known in their communities from their long years as school teachers, union leaders and for resistance to Japanese abuses or for their organizing work in Japan. When the USAMGIK arrived on Jeju, it found that the Jeju People’s Committee and all the village and county People’s Committees were functioning successfully as a de facto government with popular support. The USAMGIK did not disturb or challenge this de facto government. This was unusual because the USAMGIK had as its mission to insure that a right leaning government hostile to socialism emerged in Korea.<ref name=":14">{{News citation|author=Jay Hauben|newspaper=The Jeju Weekly|title=People's Republic of Korea: Jeju, 1945-1946|date=2011-08-20|url=http://www.jejuweekly.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=1865|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220723035033/http://www.jejuweekly.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=1865|archive-date=2022-07-23|retrieved=2022-07-23}}</ref> Unlike in the mainland, where the People's Committees were immediately disregarded and systematically dismantled by the USAMGIK, the People's Committee on Jeju Island remained intact for a longer period, serving as the island's main governmental body until 1948 when it, too, was violently dismantled in conjunction with the process of the Republic of Korea being officially established that year.<br />
<br />
==== Jeju Uprising and Massacre ====<br />
{{Main article|Jeju Uprising}}[[File:Northwest Youth League logo 백골부대 정신을 계승한 서북청년단 기.jpg|thumb|262x262px|Banner of the Northwest Youth League, a right-wing paramilitary group who assisted government forces in the mass murder of Jeju islanders in the name of anti-communism.<ref name=":7">{{News citation|author=Lauren Flenniken|newspaper=The Jeju Weekly|title=The Northwest Youth League|date=2011-04-10|url=http://www.jejuweekly.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=1435|retrieved=2022-07-25|quote=Despite the Northwest Youth League lacking legal backing to exercise their power, President Rhee and the KDP allowed the group to use aggressive force against supposed Communists without restrictions. [...] Professor Bruce Cumings of the University of Chicago states that at the time, Jeju’s local government and police were comprised mostly of mainlanders who “worked together with ultra-rightest party terrorists,” otherwise known as the Northwest Youth League.}}</ref>]]<br />
In 1948, in a series of events known variously as the Jeju Uprising, the Jeju 4.3 Incident, and the Jeju Massacre, an uprising occurred on Jeju Island, followed by a scorched earth style retaliation undertaken by government forces and right-wing paramilitary groups to root out communist influence on the island. The Jeju massacre was the second largest massacre in south Korea's modern history,<ref name=":8">{{News citation|author=Song Jung Hee|newspaper=The Jeju Weekly|title=Islanders still mourn April 3 massacre|date=2010-03-31|url=http://www.jejuweekly.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=657}}</ref> the death toll listed by the Jeju 4.3 Peace Foundation being approximately 30,000 people, or one-tenth of the island's population.<ref name=":9">{{News citation|newspaper=Jeju 4.3 Peace Foundation|title=Background to the Jeju 4·3 Uprising and Massacre|date=2018|url=http://jeju43peace.org/historytruth/fact-truth/factstruth-article1/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220723024308/http://jeju43peace.org/historytruth/fact-truth/factstruth-article1/|archive-date=2022-07-23}}</ref> <br />
<br />
Although the People’s Committees in other regions were either dissolved by the USAMGIK or operated under different names, the Jeju People’s Committee remained intact and enjoyed strong support. This was largely due to the pro-Japanese faction being relatively weak in Jeju. Many people who had fought for independence against the Japanese returned to their hometowns and became members of the People’s Committee in Jeju.<ref name=":1" /> However, Many Jeju islanders resisted the division of the Korean Peninsula and strongly protested the first election that was scheduled for May 10, 1948, that would confirm the formation of the Republic of Korea south of the 38th parallel. Their resistance to the division of the peninsula and the establishment of the Southern regime triggered a brutal suppression by government forces. <br />
<br />
According to The Jeju 4·3 Incident Investigation Report, "In around the middle of November 1948, uncompromising repression operations were carried out. Under these operations, a curfew was imposed on the residents of the upland areas and if anyone broke it, he or she was executed without exception. From the middle of November 1948 to February 1949, for about four months, the anti-guerrilla expeditions burned down the upland villages and killed the residents collectively. [...] During this period, the casualties were the highest and most of the upland villages were literally burnt to the ground."<ref>{{Citation|author=Jeju 4·3 Peace Foundation|year=2003|title=The Jeju 4·3 Incident Investigation Report|page=469|pdf=https://jeju43peace.or.kr/cmm/fms/FileDown.do?atchFileId=FILE_00000000000071265Cu0&fileSn=0|publisher=The National Committee for Investigation<br />
of the Truth about the Jeju April 3 Incident}}</ref> A combination of government forces and violent far-right paramilitary groups, notably the far-right anti-communist Northwest Youth League, carried out these attacks.<ref name=":7" /><br />
[[File:Jeju 4.3 Camellia flower.png|thumb|The camellia flower can be seen in the island of Jeju as a symbol of the 4.3 incident's victims. '''Above:''' A camellia flower pin. '''Below:''' Camellia flowers forming the shape of Jeju Island.]]<br />
<br />
===== Death toll of Jeju massacre and long-term imprisonment of Jeju islanders =====<br />
Because the facts of the Jeju massacre were officially suppressed for over fifty years, only coming to light in January 2000 when a Special Act was decreed by the south Korean Government calling for an official investigation of the incident, an official death toll could not be established until that time. Additionally, discoveries of mass grave execution sites, such as the mass grave uncovered in 2008 near Jeju Airport, illustrate the difficulty of calculating the massacre's true toll.<ref name=":8" /> According to a report by the National Commission on the Jeju April 3 Incident, 25,000 to 30,000 people were killed or simply vanished, with upwards of 4,000 more fleeing to Japan as the government sought to quell the uprising. As the island’s population was at most 300,000 at the time, the official toll was one-tenth of the inhabitants. However, some Jeju people claim that as many as 40,000 islanders were killed in the suppression.<ref name=":8" /> Some estimates claim as many as 60,000 people may have been killed by the end of these events.<ref>{{News citation|journalist=|date=2000-06-18|title=Ghosts of Cheju|url=|newspaper=Newsweek|archive-url=https://www.newsweek.com/ghosts-cheju-160665|archive-date=|retrieved=2021-21-30}}</ref> The 30,000 death figure, or one in every 10 Jeju residents at the time, is a common figure given for how many people lost their lives during this period, and is the one cited on the Jeju 4.3 Peace Foundation website.<ref name=":9" /> <br />
<br />
One result of the decades-long suppression of the facts of the massacre is the long-term imprisonment of Jeju islanders arrested on suspicion of being communists during the conflict. Many of those arrested on these charges died in captivity. Others remained in prison for up to 20 years, and those who had been released were not cleared of their criminal records, and were ostracized by the community or disadvantaged in their job applications for having criminal records. Decades after being arrested, some of the remaining victims had their names legally cleared of the charges in 2019, due to a ruling that found that the military court of the time did not follow proper legal procedures, made groundless charges, and that there were no court records found from the time explaining why those arrested were given such harsh sentences.<ref>{{News citation|author=Lee Suh-yoon|newspaper=The Korea Times|title=Jeju massacre victims get their names cleared in court|date=2019-01-17|url=https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2019/01/251_262242.html|quote=The suit was filed by 18 plaintiffs who were jailed after being branded as communist insurgents ― with around 2,500 others ― during the ideological conflict that flared up on the southern island after Korea's independence from Japan. Many died in captivity. Even after surviving the massacre and imprisonment, the plaintiffs were ostracized by the community or disadvantaged in their job applications for having criminal records. [...] The plaintiffs demanded a retrial in 2017, saying they were arrested and imprisoned for up to 20 years without fair procedure. There were no court records found from the time explaining why the plaintiffs were given such harsh sentences.}}</ref><br />
<br />
==== Fatherland Liberation War (1950–1953) ====<br />
<blockquote>''See also: [[Korean War]], [[List of atrocities commited by the United States of America#Korean War|List of atrocities committed by the United States of America#Korean War]]''</blockquote>This period is generally referred to in English as the "Korean War", in DPRK as the "Fatherland Liberation War" (Korean: 조국해방전쟁), and in south Korea as the "6.25 War" (Korean: 6·25 전쟁). In China it is sometimes referred to as the "Korean War", and some specific battles are referred to as the "War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea" (Chinese: 抗美援朝战争). This period is also referred to by some in English as "The Forgotten War" or "The Unknown War." <br />
<br />
In the U.S., the war was initially described as a "police action" as the United States never formally declared war on its opponents.<ref>Truman, Harry S. (29 June 1950). "The President's News Conference of June 29, 1950. Teachingamericanhistory.org. [https://web.archive.org/web/20101226063925/http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?document=594 Archive link].</ref> According to the U.S. Department of State's Office of the Historian, "When north Korea invaded south Korea in June 1950, the United States sponsored a "police action"—a war in all but name—under the auspices of the United Nations. The Department of State coordinated U.S. strategic decisions with the other 16 countries contributing troops to the fighting. In addition, the Department worked closely with the government of Syngman Rhee, encouraging him to implement reform so that the UN claim of defending democracy in Korea would be accurate." The U.S. Department of State's description of the war notes that "The Korean War was difficult to fight and unpopular domestically" and that "The American public tired of a war without victory."<ref>A Short History of the Department of State. "NSC-68 and the Korean War." Office of the Historian, Foreign Service Institute, U.S. Department of State. URL: https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/short-history/koreanwar [https://web.archive.org/web/20220725043544/https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/short-history/koreanwar Archive link].</ref><br />
<br />
The People's Democracy Party (PDP) of south Korea characterizes the conditions that led to the Korean War as follows:<blockquote>Objectively, there were 2,617 attacks from the South to the North during the year of 1949 under pro-U.S. and far-right Rhee Seung-man regime. Therefore, it cannot be viewed that the war broke out exactly on June 25th, 1950. The U.S. military government forcefully dissolved the people’s committees that were formed as independent South Corean people’s organizations and exhaustively massacred and oppressed the national liberation movement forces and patriotic and democratic forces after the U.S. army came into South Corea in September 1945 as an occupation force. <br />
<br />
All the people except the minimum of pro-U.S. and far-right forces held the “Joint Meeting of Representatives of Political Parties and Social Organizations in the North and South of Korea” in April 1948, in Pyongyang, and decided to immediately withdraw the U.S. military and to establish a unified government by the Corean nation’s power and initiative.<br />
<br />
However, the single government of the South was established by the U.S. and the intervention of the UN, which was under the domination of the U.S. Then, North Corea had to establish their own government. The condition for an outbreak of the Corean War had developed.<ref name=":23" /></blockquote>The PDP stated that the U.S. had become the head of imperialist forces after World War II, and Korea was the first country it invaded. The PDP characterizes the war as a battle between the Korean nation and U.S. imperialism, and also notes that "it was the first war that U.S. imperialism fought against a small country and lost."<ref name=":23" /><br />
<br />
Alan Winnington, a British correspondent in China and Korea for the ''Daily Worker,'' provides a description of the apparent ignorance of U.S. soldiers at the outset of the war, by interviewing POWs caught by the People's Army. Winnington writes:<blockquote>I asked every prisoner I met: “Why are you fighting in Korea?” Not one could give a clear answer. Most said: “I don’t know.” Some said: “It’s something to do with the United Nations, they told us.”<br />
<br />
A few had heard of Rhee. None knew of Kim Ir Sen. With one or two exceptions, Privates—nearly all teen-agers—said they had joined the army to “see the world”, “get out of the draft” or “save some money”. Their general view of the Korean war was summed up by Edward Sorea, nineteen-year-old Private of San Bernardino, California. He said: “I just wanted to travel. It was peace-time. Who in hell thought there would be a war? One drops on you from out of a clear sky.” <br />
<br />
You cannot find one American soldier who is concerned whether America wins the war or not—rather you meet many who want the Koreans to win quickly so that they can “get back home". “Win or lose”, they say, “American people have nothing to gain". Soldiers like that make bad fighters—just how bad can be seen by taking a trip down the main road from Kumchon, near the 38th Parallel, to Yongdong, near Taegu, in the South.<ref name=":24">{{Web citation|author=Alan Winnington|newspaper=The Daily Worker|title=I Saw The Truth In Korea: Facts and photographs that will shock Britain|date=September 1950|url=https://www.docdroid.net/8z73fQZ/i-saw-the-truth-in-korea-readingt-ver-pdf|quote=The Daily Worker sent me to Korea to get the facts at first hand and report them to the British public. And so I arrived in Korea on July 16 and stayed for five weeks. <br />
<br />
Of course, before I went I knew that the Americans were bombing heavily and fighting badly. I knew that Syngman Rhee's troops only existed as scattered units and there was no longer a “South Korean Army”; that effectively this was a war between America and Korea. These facts were common knowledge in the world, but I admit I was mentally unprepared for all I found. <br />
<br />
After all, five years ago we and the Russians were allies of the Americans in the war against the Nazis. Since then, Roosevelt and his colleagues have gone and atomic diplomacy has taken their place. But still, what I saw Americans doing in Korea shook me to my heels. I suppose all my life I’ve been listening to propaganda about America being a civilised nation and some of this must have sunk in. Somehow, I never quite thought of Americans doing exactly what the Nazis did until I saw it with my own eyes. <br />
<br />
We still talk of Coventry as an example of malicious and futile bombing, but the Americans have gone far ahead of the Nazis in what they politely term “Saturation Bombing”. The American style of waging war in Korea is on the same pattern as the Nazis but, bearing in mind the size of the country, even more savage and just as stupid. <br />
<br />
Wonsan is a much smaller town than Coventry, not nearly as large as the London suburb; of Walthamstow. During its first heavy raid in July, B.29 Superfortresses flung 500 tons of high explosive bombs into the town—sixty tons more than Coventry got on that terrible night ten years ago. No targets were aimed at. MacArthur’s communiqué admitted that there was “heavy cloud" which “prevented the evaluation of the effect of the raid”. Actually, visibility was nil at the time, for it was raining hard. In Coventry there were 1,000 casualties that night. During the first raid on Wonsan there were 1,249 killed and the northern half of the town was wiped out In August the raid was repeated, wiping out the other half. No other military objective was claimed than that this town was a rail centre. A thousand tons of bombs; a town obliterated; over 4,000 casualties in all; tens of thousands made homeless and bereaved—all to damage a rail -track. Does it make sense? This is bombing in the fashion that no British town ever met. I saw Coventry and I was in London all through the ‘blitz and I saw Wonsan after these raids. It was far worse than the worst the Nazis ever did.}}</ref></blockquote>Winnington contrasts the apparent cluelessness and lack of resolve of American troops with his observations of the attitudes of Koreans:<blockquote>[T]he ghastly destruction of homes and lives that has gone with it has made the whole nation furious. Even former apologists of America are now their bitter enemies.<br />
<br />
On roads you can meet men by the hundred who tell you: “My home was bombed in . . . so I sent my wife and children to relatives in the country and I’m oil to volunteer.” In Wonsan, the wife and children of a worker, Wan Wun Chu, were killed in a raid while he was at work. “They are dead and I cannot call them back,” he said. “If I die it is little now. But I would give my last drop of blood to get revenge and drive those murdering dogs from our country. They tell me my place is in production and I will work my fingers to the bone to produce more for the army.”<br />
<br />
Every village I visited proudly told me not only how many men had gone into the army but also how many volunteers were waiting to be accepted. There is no lack of the finest quality fighting men; men who were bred in the countless thousands of mountains that cover Korea; volunteers who know why they want to win.<ref name=":24" /></blockquote>Winnington sums up his 1950 assessment of the Korean War's outbreak by saying "Korea has repudiated Syngman Rhee and the Americans. All the Korean people want Korea to be reunited and ruled by Koreans. No regime can exist that has been repudiated by the people and this war can only be won by the Koreans just as the war in China could only be won by the people. This is one of the iron facts of the twentieth century. [...] In China the pattern was the same; America supported the most corrupt and hated enemies of the people, led by Chiang Kai-shek, backed them with more than ‘$6 billion, sent them military aid and advisers—and produced their great fiasco. [...] It is America which has invaded Korea. To defend the interests of Morgan and Rockefeller, of Dupont and the steel barons, to restore the land to the feudal landlords, to drive the people back to penury, to maintain a war base against the peaceful Soviet Union."<ref name=":24" /><br />
<br />
===== Support for DPRK among south Koreans during the war =====<br />
[[File:CIA document pages 1 and 2.jpg|thumb|1950 CIA document stating that more than 50% of Seoul students were actively aiding communists, many volunteering for the Northern Army, and that the working class of Seoul generally supported the North.<ref name=":6" />]]<br />
The Korean War and the following decades were characterized by massive arrest campaigns and mass killings to suppress communists as well as anyone else suspected of opposing the highly unpopular Southern regime. In 1950, when the DPRK attempted to reunify the country, Rhee's forces retreated and killed at least another 60,000 supposed communist sympathizers.<ref>{{Citation|author=Kim Dong-Choon|year=2004|title=Forgotten war, forgotten massacres--the Korean War (1950-1953) as licensed mass killings|chapter=|section=|page=|quote=|pdf=https://www.academia.edu/6417696|city=|publisher=Journal of Genocide Research|isbn=|doi=|lg=|mia=|title-url=|chapter-url=|trans-title=|trans-lang=}}</ref> <br />
<br />
In a 1950 CIA memorandum, after the Northern Army had taken over Seoul, Central Intelligence Director and U.S. Navy Rear Admiral R.H. Hillenkoeter reported that "over 50% of Seoul's students are actively aiding the Communist invaders, with many voluntarily enlisting in the Northern Army" and that among Seoul's population, "the working class generally supports the Northern Koreans, while merchants are neutral and the intelligentsia continue to be pro-Southern," adding that the streets of Seoul were "crowded [...] with youths engaging in Communist demonstrations.<ref name=":6">{{News citation|author=R.H. Hillenkoeter, Director of Central Intelligence|newspaper=CIA Memorandum|title=The Korean Situation|date=1950-7-19|url=https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/1950-07-19b.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220723030500/https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/1950-07-19b.pdf|archive-date=2022-07-23|quote=Past failure of the Republic of Korea to win the support of its restless student class may lie behind reports that over 50% of Seoul's students are actively aiding the Communist invaders, with many voluntarily enlisting in the Northern Army. Apparently attracted by the glamor of a winning army, the morale of these recruits may suffer rapidly if the going gets tough. Among others elements of Seoul's population, the working class generally supports the Northern Koreans, while merchants are neutral and the intelligentsia continue to be pro-Southern. A former Seoul policeman reports that North Korean troops and police are rather inconspicuous in Seoul. Commercially, the city is nearly "dead"; stores are closed except for two department stores and some greengrocers. The streets, however, are crowded, especially with youths engaging in Communist demonstrations.}}</ref><br />
<br />
The People's Democratic Party of south Korea, interviewed in 2020, said that "almost all workers and peasants in the South rejected the U.S. military" and added that "According to North Corea’s data, about 400,00 peoples in the South voluntarily enlisted in the North Corean military when the Corean war started."<ref name=":23" /> <br />
<br />
According to Kim Sin Gyu, a north Korean correspondent present in Seoul at the time: "When the city was first liberated, the citizens of Seoul welcomed the Korean People's Army. I remember hearing people say, 'We heard the north Korean communist soldiers were a monstrous rabble, with the horns of devils and red faces. But seeing them now, they are the same as us. The soldiers are young and brave and handsome.'"<ref name=":11">''Korea: The Unknown War.'' TV Documentary Series. Episode 2: "An Arrogant Display of Strength." Thames Television, 1988. Aired on WGBH Boston, 1990. (URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVCuku3Ldi0)</ref><br />
<br />
Alan Winnington, a ''Daily Worker'' correspondent present in Korea in 1950, wrote:<blockquote>Every evening, the countryside of Korea, especially in the South, boils with life. Hundreds of thousands of peasants and townfolk converge on roads and in a matter of hours have repaired the bomb damage of the previous day by the sheer weight of limitless, willing human labour. While that is going on, hundreds of thousands of others are resuming their trek south from where they stopped at dawn; managing countless oxcarts over remote by-ways; carrying loads of food and munitions on their backs. All these reconstruction and transport workers are volunteers, unpaid, providing their own food and materials, with their own militia to protect them from stray enemy troops, self-supporting, familiar with the terrain and determined to put an end to foreign occupation of their country. <br />
<br />
[...] In places where I checked the figures, I found that practically every available man and many of the women had taken part in one or other side of the Civilian War Service. Below the Parallel, in Koyang County near Seoul, in twelve days 54,085 men had volunteered out of a total population of only 180,000. During the advance of the People’s Army in this area, the local People’s Committee had mobilised 1,000 oxcarts in a single night for a transport emergency. I personally never met a peasant—except old and infirm—who had not helped the army in some way. And in cities, every evening you can see the reconstruction workers gathering in their thousands with spades, crowbars and ropes. At least half of these are women, who refuse to be kept out of even the heaviest and most dangerous work of rescue and fire-fighting during the raids.<ref name=":24" /> </blockquote><br />
<br />
===== U.S. war crimes =====<br />
<blockquote>''See also: [[List of atrocities commited by the United States of America#Korean War|List of atrocities committed by the United States of America#Korean War]]''</blockquote>During the Korean War, U.S. troops killed large numbers of Korean civilians and engaged in copious firebombing with napalm, and, as was eventually revealed through declassified documents, had at certain times a policy of deliberately firing on south Korean refugee groups approaching its lines.<ref name=":12">{{News citation|author=Youkyung Lee|newspaper=Associated Press|title=S. Korean who forced US to admit massacre has died|date=2014-08-07|url=https://apnews.com/article/108b4bd1dc854caeaf5f9349fcd5a176|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220726115036/https://apnews.com/article/108b4bd1dc854caeaf5f9349fcd5a176|quote=On July 26, 1950, outside the central South Korean village of No Gun Ri, hundreds of civilians from nearby villages, ordered south by U.S. troops, were stopped by a dug-in battalion of the U.S. 7th Cavalry Regiment, and then were attacked without warning by U.S. warplanes. Survivors fled under a railroad overpass, where for the next three days they were fired on by 7th Cavalry troops. [...] in January 2001 the Army acknowledged the No Gun Ri killings but assigned no blame, calling it a “deeply regrettable accompaniment to a war.” [...] In 2006 it emerged that among incriminating documents omitted from the 2001 U.S. report was a declassified letter from the U.S. ambassador in South Korea, dated the day the No Gun Ri killings began, saying the Army had adopted a policy of firing on refugee groups approaching its lines.}}</ref> In an article of the Asia-Pacific Journal, Kim Dong choon writes that "Few are aware that the Korean authorities as well as US and allied forces massacred hundreds of thousands of south Korean civilians at the dawn of the Korean War".<ref>{{News citation|author=Kim Dong choon|newspaper=The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus|title=The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Korea: Uncovering the Hidden Korean War. The Other War: Korean War Massacres.|date=2010-03-01|url=https://apjjf.org/-Kim-Dong-choon/3314/article.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220726125030/https://apjjf.org/-Kim-Dong-choon/3314/article.html|archive-date=2022-07-26|retrieved=2022-07-26}}</ref> There were also incidents of U.S. pilots ignoring their orders to stay within Korea and flying beyond its borders, strafing military targets in China and the Soviet Union.<ref name=":11" /><br />
<br />
According to U.S. Naval Captain Walter Karig, in his book ''Battle Report: The War in Korea'':<blockquote>[W]e killed civilians, friendly civilians, and bombed their homes; fired whole villages with the occupants--women and children and ten times as many hidden Communist soldiers--under showers of napalm, and the pilots came back to their ships stinking of vomit twisted from their vitals by the shock of what they had to do.<ref>Walter Karig; Malcolm W Cagle; Frank A Manson; et al (1952). ''Battle Report: The War in Korea'' (pp. 111-112). New York: Rinehart.</ref></blockquote>United States Air Force General Curtis LeMay, commander of the U.S.'s Strategic Air Command, gave a similar description of the U.S. military's conduct in Korea, saying:<blockquote>[W]e went over there and fought the war and eventually burned down every town in North Korea [...] some way or another, and some in south Korea, too. We even burned down Pusan—an accident, but we burned it down anyway. The Marines started a battle down there with no enemy in sight. Over a period of three years or so, we killed off—what—twenty percent of the population of Korea as direct casualties of war, or from starvation and exposure?<ref>Richard H. Kohn and Joseph P. Harahan (1988). ''[https://media.defense.gov/2010/Sep/29/2001329790/-1/-1/0/AFD-100929-052.pdf Strategic Air Warfare: an interview with generals Curtis E. LeMay, Leon W. Johnson, David A. Burchinal, and Jack J. Catton]'' (p. 88). Washington, D.C.: Office of Air Force History, United States Air Force. <small>ISBN 0-912799-56-0</small></ref></blockquote>In a 1950 pamphlet entitled "I Saw the Truth in Korea", written by Alan Winnington, correspondent in China and Korea for the ''Daily Worker'', Winnington describes the actions of U.S. forces in Korea, documenting massacres with photographs and describing the aftermath of bombings:<blockquote>[F]ive years ago we and the Russians were allies of the Americans in the war against the Nazis. Since then, Roosevelt and his colleagues have gone and atomic diplomacy has taken their place. But still, what I saw Americans doing in Korea shook me to my heels. I suppose all my life I’ve been listening to propaganda about America being a civilised nation and some of this must have sunk in. Somehow, I never quite thought of Americans doing exactly what the Nazis did until I saw it with my own eyes. [...] A thousand tons of bombs; a town obliterated; over 4,000 casualties in all; tens of thousands made homeless and bereaved—all to damage a rail-track. Does it make sense? This is bombing in the fashion that no British town ever met. I saw Coventry and I was in London all through the ‘blitz and I saw Wonsan after these raids. It was far worse than the worst the Nazis ever did.<ref name=":24" /></blockquote>In addition to the U.S. military's practice of fire-bombing civilian targets and firing on refugees, many south Korean civilian casualties occurred due to the American soldiers' inability to tell apart North and south Koreans. As described by an anonymous U.S. officer on the U.S. Defense Department radio program called "Time for Defense", "What makes it so difficult over here is that you can't tell the damn north Koreans from the south Koreans, and that's caused a lot of slaughter" ([[:File:Anonymous U.S. officer describes Korean war.mp4|audio file]]).<ref>''Korea: The Unknown War.'' TV Documentary Series. Episode 2: "An Arrogant Display of Strength." Thames Television, 1988. Aired on WGBH Boston, 1990. (URL: <nowiki>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVCuku3Ldi0</nowiki>)</ref> It may be argued that the policy of firing on groups of refugees was a result of this, as described in the 1988 documentary ''Korea: The Unknown War'', which observes that "American troops found it difficult to distinguish friend from foe," and that "the North Koreans had infiltrated refugee columns, and in the ensuing confusion, innocent civilians became casualties." According to the documentary, one American general allegedly commented, "If they look organized, shoot at them."<ref name=":11" /><br />
[[File:U.S. documents showing refugee policy early in Korean War.jpg|thumb|364x364px|'''Left:''' An unsigned Air Force memo from July 25, 1950 seeking alternatives on the policy of "strafing civilian refugees" which "is sure to receive wide publicity and may cause embarrassment to the U.S. Air Force and U.S. government." '''Right:''' A July 26, 1950 letter from the American embassy to the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State saying, "If refugees do appear from the north of US lines they will receive warning shots, and if they then persist in advancing they will be shot."]]<br />
One example of the U.S. policy of firing on groups of refugees is the incident of the Nogeun-ri massacre, also written as No Gun Ri (Korean: 노근리). The incident was little-known outside Korea until publication of an Associated Press story in 1999 in which U.S. veterans corroborated survivors' accounts, and details gradually became more widely known. In July 1950, American soldiers shot "hundreds of helpless civilians under a railroad bridge".<ref name=":13">{{News citation|author=Sang-Hun Choe, Charles J. Hanley and Martha Mendoza|newspaper=Washington Post|title=U.S. Massacre of Civilians in Korean War Described|date=1999-09-30|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/daily/sept99/skorea30.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220726121945/https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/daily/sept99/skorea30.htm|retrieved=2022-07-26}}</ref> U.S. veterans spoke of 100 or 200 or "hundreds" dead and described "a preponderance of women, children and old men among the victims", while Korean witnesses said 300 were killed at the bridge and 100 in a preceding air attack. One Korean witness commented that "the American soldiers played with our lives like boys playing with flies." One of the U.S. veterans described it as "wholesale slaughter."<ref name=":13" /> <br />
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Although this incident had gone unacknowledged for decades, in 2001 the U.S. Army acknowledged the killings, calling them a "regrettable accompaniment to a war." In 2006, it was revealed that among documents omitted from the 2001 U.S. report, there was a declassified letter from the U.S. ambassador in south Korea, dated the day the Nogeun-ri killings began, saying the Army had adopted a policy of firing on refugee groups approaching its lines.<ref name=":12" /> Some U.S. veterans have also described other refugee killings as well, when U.S. commanders ordered their troops to shoot civilians as a defense against disguised enemy soldiers, and declassified U.S. Air Force reports allegedly show that pilots also sometimes deliberately attacked "people in white" (referring to white peasant garb), suspecting that disguised north Korean soldiers were among them.<ref name=":13" /><br />
<br />
==== Armistice Agreement (1953) ====<br />
The armistice was signed on 27 July 1953. The signed armistice established the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), the de facto new border between the two nations, put into force a cease-fire, and finalized repatriation of prisoners of war. The DMZ runs close to the 38th parallel and has continued to separate north and south Korea since the Korean Armistice Agreement was signed in 1953.<br />
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==== U.S. abrogation of armistice paragraph 13d, introduction of nuclear weapons into South ====<br />
Paragraph 13d of the agreement mandated that neither side introduce new weapons into Korea. At a meeting in 1957, the U.S. informed the north Korean representatives that the United Nations Command no longer considered itself bound by paragraph 13d of the armistice,<ref>{{News citation|newspaper=Time Magazine|title=Korea: The End of 13d|date=1957-07-01|url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,809583,00.html|archive-date=https://web.archive.org/web/20220728030416/https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,809583,00.html|quote=One afternoon last week in the stuffy green Quonset hut that is the heart of the scrubby no man's land of Panmunjom, three U.S. generals, a British brigadier and a Republic of Korea air-force officer coldly confronted 40 North Korean commissars and military men. "I have a statement to make," began Major General Homer L. Litzenberg, U.S.M.C., in a level voice. Then, while the Communists listened attentively, he told them that the U.N. Command no longer felt bound by subparagraph 13D of the Korean armistice agreement—the clause limiting introduction of new weapons into Korea.}}</ref> and in 1958 the U.S. abrogated paragraph 13d of the armistice by introducing nuclear weapons into south Korea.<ref>{{News citation|author=Lee Jae-Bong|newspaper=The Asia-Pacific Journal|title=US Deployment of Nuclear Weapons in 1950s South Korea & North Korea's Nuclear Development: Toward Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula|date=2009-02-07|url=https://apjjf.org/-Lee-Jae-Bong/3053/article.html}}</ref><br />
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==== End of the First Republic ====<br />
In 1960, Rhee was forced to resign due to mass protests across the nation after the body of a student killed by police was found floating in the harbor.<ref>{{Citation|author=|year=|title=Cause of the 4.19 Revolution|chapter=|section=|page=|quote=|pdf=|city=|publisher=|isbn=|doi=|lg=|mia=|title-url=https://archive.ph/20120707225356/http://100.naver.com/100.nhn?docid=726618|chapter-url=|trans-title=|trans-lang=}}</ref> As a result of this, he fled to [[Honolulu]], [[Hawaii]], where he remained in exile until his death.<br />
<br />
===Second Republic (1960–1961)===<br />
[[File:Park Chung Hee Japan.png|thumb|Park Chung-hee, the leader of the third and early fourth republics, in a Japanese military uniform]]<br />
After Rhee's overthrow, bourgeois democracy was briefly restored under president [[Yun Bo-seon]].<ref>{{News citation|journalist=|date=|title=The Democratic Interlude|url=http://countrystudies.us/south-korea/12.htm|newspaper=Library of Congress|archive-url=|archive-date=|retrieved=}}</ref> The second republic was founded during the April Revolution mass protests against President Syngman Rhee, succeeding the first republic and establishing a parliamentary government. After thirteen months it was overthrown by the south Korean Army in the May 16 coup led by [[Park Chung-hee]]. Park had fought for the Japanese during the occupation and took the Japanese name Takagi Masao.<ref>{{Citation|author=Stephen Gowans|year=2018|title=Patriots, Traitors and Empires: The Story of Korea’s Struggle for Freedom|chapter=The Patriot|page=67|pdf=https://ipfs.io/ipfs/bafykbzaced4iiga4ngtxusr2civjxewbili5jne2sbpefbx2s3im2kphattzc?filename=Stephen%20Gowans%20-%20Patriots%2C%20Traitors%20and%20Empires_%20The%20Story%20of%20Korea%E2%80%99s%20Struggle%20for%20Freedom-Baraka%20Books%20%282018%29.pdf|city=Montreal|publisher=Baraka Books|isbn=9781771861427|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=8435F6FF91279531705764823FDC2A7F}}</ref> In 1961, the ROK declared all [[Socialist state|socialist states]] its enemies and founded the [[Korean Central Intelligence Agency|KCIA]], a brutal secret police agency that routinely imprisoned and tortured dissidents. The KCIA required [[Trade union|union]] leaders to pledge loyalty to the state.<ref name=":1103" /><br />
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=== Third Republic (1963–1972) ===<br />
The Third Republic was founded on the dissolution of the Supreme Council for National Reconstruction that overthrew the Second Republic and established a military government in May 1961 when, on May 16, General [[Park Chung-hee]], the father of future president [[Park Geun-hye]] and former [[Empire of Japan (1868–1947)|Japanese]] collaborator, took power in a military coup. After serving for two years as chairman of the military junta, he was elected president in 1963, which is considered to be the start of the Third Republic. Park ruled as a military dictator for 18 years and sent 320,000 troops to support the [[Republic of Vietnam (1955–1975)|South Vietnamese]] puppet state in the [[Vietnam War]]. <br />
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==== Korean DMZ conflict ====<br />
The Korean DMZ conflict was a series of low-level armed clashes between north Korean forces and the forces of south Korea and the United States, largely occurring between 1966 and 1969 at the Korean DMZ.<br />
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=== Fourth Republic (1972–1981) ===<br />
[[File:Gwangju riot police.png|thumb|Riot troops attacking protestors during the Gwangju uprising]]<br />
The Fourth Republic was founded on the approval of the Yushin Constitution in the 1972 constitutional referendum, codifying the ''de facto'' dictatorial powers held by President Park Chung-hee. The Fourth Republic entered a period of political instability under Park's successor, Choi Kyu-hah, and the escalating martial law declared after Park's death. Choi was unofficially overthrown by [[Chun Doo-hwan]] in a coup d'état of December Twelfth in December 1979, and began the armed suppression of the [[May 18 uprising|Gwangju Democratization Movement]] against martial law. <br />
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After Park Chung-hee's assassination on 26 October 1979, General Chun Doo-hwan took power. During his presidency he perpetrated the largest massacre of Korean civilians since the Korean war. In May 1980, protests against martial law began in [[Gwangju]], which were met with special warfare troops. Estimates vary as to the amount of casualties, but they range from 165 at the most conservative, to over 300. Some also claim that up to 2,300 civilians were killed in the Gwangju massacre, in response to the May 18 uprising also known as the Gwangju uprising.<ref>{{News citation|author=K. J. Noh|newspaper=Hampton Institute|title=South Korean Dictator Dies, Western Media Resurrects a Myth|date=2020-12-02|url=https://www.hamptonthink.org/read/south-korean-dictator-dies-western-media-resurrects-a-myth|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220519190752/https://www.hamptonthink.org/read/south-korean-dictator-dies-western-media-resurrects-a-myth|archive-date=2022-05-19|retrieved=2022-06-02}}</ref><br />
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An article in ''The Nation'' states that the 10-day revolt known as the Gwangju uprising was triggered when students and other citizens protesting the military coup were attacked by airborne special forces "with a viciousness and cruelty that Koreans had not experienced since the darkest days of the Korean War." The article further states that "The armed resistance by Gwangju’s citizen militia liberated the city from the marauding troops. The townspeople, freed from decades of military rule, kept their city running, buried their dead, and transformed themselves into a self-organized system of mutual aid they now call the Gwangju Commune." On May 27 Korean Army troops were released from their usual duties on the border with DPRK to reoccupy Gwangju. The official death toll from the uprising stands at 165, but residents believe that more than 300 people were killed, with dozens still unaccounted for.<ref>Tim Shorrock and Injeong Kim. [https://www.thenation.com/article/world/two-days-in-may-that-shattered-korean-democracy/ “2 Days in May That Shattered Korean Democracy.”] The Nation. May 28, 2020. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220909162444/https://www.thenation.com/article/world/two-days-in-may-that-shattered-korean-democracy/ Archived] 2022-09-09.</ref><br />
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The Fourth Republic was dissolved on the adoption of a new constitution in March 1981 and replaced with the fifth Republic of Korea.<br />
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=== Fifth Republic (1981–1987) ===<br />
The fifth republic was established in March 1981 by Chun Doo-hwan. The fifth republic faced growing opposition from the democratization movement of the Gwangju Uprising, and the June Democracy Movement of 1987 resulted in the election of Roh Tae-woo in the December 1987 presidential election. The fifth republic was dissolved three days after the election upon the adoption of a new constitution that laid the foundations for the relatively stable democratic system of the current sixth Republic of Korea.<br />
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=== Sixth Republic (1987–present) ===<br />
The Sixth Republic was established in 1987 with Roh Tae-woo as its first president<ref>{{News citation|newspaper=두산백과 (Doopedia)|title=제6공화국 (Sixth Republic)|url=https://terms.naver.com/entry.naver?docId=1141297&cid=40942&categoryId=33385|retrieved=2022-07-24}}</ref> and sixth president of south Korea from 1988 to 1993. Roh's election was the first direct presidential election in 16 years. His presidency was followed by Kim Young-sam (in office 1993–1998), the first civilian to hold the office in over 30 years. After this came the presidency of Kim Dae-jung (in office 1998–2003), known for his "Sunshine Policy" of engagement through dialogue and economic and cultural exchanges with north Korea.<ref>{{News citation|author=Hyonhee Shin|newspaper=Reuters|title=Vindication: Architects of South Korea's 'Sunshine' policy on North say it's paying off|date=2018-06-11|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-usa-sunshinepolicy-idUSKBN1J60PP}}</ref> This was followed by the presidencies of Roh Moo-hyun (in office 2003–2008), and Lee Myung-bak (in office 2008–2013). <br />
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South Korea's next president, Park Geun-hye (in office 2013–2017), is the daughter of former dictator Park Chung-hee. Park Geun-hye was in office as the 11th president of Korea until she was impeached and convicted on corruption charges following public demonstrations, commonly known as the Candlelight Revolution or Candlelight Demonstrations. She became the first south Korean president to be removed from power by impeachment, and was sentenced to 24 years in prison, but received a pardon and was released in 2021 after serving just under 5 years.<ref>{{News citation|author=Hyonhee Shin|newspaper=Reuters|title=S.Korea's disgraced ex-president Park freed after nearly 5 years in prison|date=2021-12-31|url=https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/skoreas-disgraced-ex-president-park-freed-after-nearly-5-years-prison-2021-12-31/}}</ref> Park Geun-hye's presidency was followed by Moon Jae-in (in office 2017–2022). The 13th and current president of Korea is Yoon Suk-yeol of the conservative People Power Party.<br />
<br />
==Politics==<br />
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=== Military command ===<br />
Since the [[Korean War|Korean war]] ended in 1953 with a ceasefire, the US has maintained control over the south Korean military.<ref>Swanström, N. (2021, April 27). ''Not a Sovereignty Issue: Understanding the Transition of Military Operational Control between the United States and South Korea''. Institute for Security and Development Policy. https://isdp.eu/publication/not-a-sovereignty-issue-understanding-the-transition-of-military-operational-control-between-the-united-states-and-south-korea/</ref><ref name=":16">{{News citation|author=Kathryn Botto|newspaper=Carnegie Endowment for International Peace|title=Why Doesn’t South Korea Have Full Control Over Its Military?|date=2019-08-21|url=https://carnegieendowment.org/2019/08/21/why-doesn-t-south-korea-have-full-control-over-its-military-pub-79702}}</ref><ref name=":17">Kelly, R. E. (2017, February 27). ''Why US control of the South Korean military is here to stay''. The Interpreter. <nowiki>https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/why-us-control-south-korean-military-here-stay</nowiki></ref><ref name=":18">{{News citation|author=Clint Work|newspaper=Stimson|title=No More Delays: Why It’s Time to Move Forward With Wartime OPCON Transition|date=June 21, 2022|url=https://www.stimson.org/2022/no-more-delays-why-its-time-to-move-forward-with-wartime-opcon-transition/|quote=The history and evolution of the US-ROK military command architecture reveal the inherent push and pull at the heart of the US-ROK alliance. Over time, the U.S. has encouraged the ROK to take on a more robust role in its own defense and within the alliance’s command architecture. However, U.S. officials have also been equally hesitant to relinquish too much control too quickly. Simply put, Washington has had trouble navigating the outer edges of its own authority within the alliance command structure as it simultaneously and discordantly pushes and pulls back Seoul in the process.}}</ref><ref name=":19">{{News citation|newspaper=United States Forces Korea|title=Combined Forces Command|url=https://www.usfk.mil/About/CFC/#Commanders|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220728035053/https://www.usfk.mil/About/CFC/|archive-date=2022-07-28|quote=The CFC is commanded by a four-star U.S. general, with a four-star ROK Army general as deputy commander. Throughout the command structure, binational manning is readily apparent: if the chief of a staff section is Korean, the deputy is American and vice versa. This integrated structure exists within the component commands as well as the headquarters. All CFC components are tactically integrated through continuous combined and joint planning, training and exercises.}}</ref> ''US Forces Korea'' were integrated with ROK forces into a ''Combined Forces Command'', which was in turn integrated into the [[United Nations]] Command. All three commands are headed by the same person, a four-star US general<ref name=":17" /><ref name=":19" /> (currently General Paul J. LaCamera<ref>{{Web citation|newspaper=United States Forces Korea|title=Commander UNC/CFC/USFK|url=https://www.usfk.mil/About/Leadership/Article-View/Article/1685489/commander-unccfcusfk/}}</ref> who took functions in 2021).<br />
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South Korea has operational control (referred to as OPCON) of its military under armistice conditions, but the United States would take over in wartime, and the U.S. combatant commander would be able to direct, organize, employ, assign command functions to, or suspend the duty of subordinate South Korean commanders and forces. In essence, if war breaks out on the Korean Peninsula, south Korea would supply the overwhelming majority of the fighting force, which would then be placed under U.S. operational control.<ref name=":16" /> <br />
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Throughout the history of the US-ROK arrangement, the U.S. and ROK have engaged in a back-and-forth trying to determine what degree of control each party should have under this relationship, with the U.S. often showing a reluctance to relinquish control over the ROK's military, and ROK leaders at times expressing a wish to have more control over their own military, and at other times expressing acceptance of the U.S.'s authority over the ROK military in wartime.<ref name=":18" /><br />
=== NATO alliance ===<br />
[[File:Mark Esper suggesting NATO for Asia.png|thumb|Mark Esper, former [[United States Department of Defense|U.S. Secretary of Defense]] and [[Raytheon]] lobbyist, delivering a speech at Think Tank 2022, which was focused on issues facing the Korean peninsula. Esper stated, "It is said that the United States does not seek to build a, quote, "[[North Atlantic Treaty Organization|NATO]] for Asia". And I say, 'Why not?'"<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":2" />]]<br />
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On February 26, 2022 (KST), former U.S. Secretary of Defense and Raytheon weapons manufacturer lobbyist, Mark Esper, delivered a speech at the 4th Think Tank 2022 Forum,<ref name=":2">{{News citation|author=Dr. William Selig|newspaper=Universal Peace Federation|title=4th Think Tank 2022 Forum Features Former U.S. Secretary of Defense|date=2022-02-26|url=https://www.upf.org/peace-and-security-reports/10012-4th-think-tank-2022-forum-featured-hon-mark-esper-former-u-s-secretary-of-defense|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220723061325/https://www.upf.org/peace-and-security-reports/10012-4th-think-tank-2022-forum-featured-hon-mark-esper-former-u-s-secretary-of-defense|archive-date=2022-07-23|retrieved=2022-07-23}}</ref> which is a think tank associated with Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon,<ref>{{News citation|newspaper=Think Tank 2022|title=Co-Founder Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon|url=http://thinktank2022.org/founder/HakJaHanMoon.php}}</ref> the wife of late millionaire<ref>{{News citation|newspaper=Celebrity Net Worth|title=Sun Myung Moon Net Worth|url=https://www.celebritynetworth.com/richest-celebrities/authors/sun-myung-moon-net-worth/|quote=Sun Myung Moon was a Korean religious leader, businessman, and media mogul who had a net worth of $900 million at the time of his death. Sun Myung Moon was best known for founding the Unification movement and authoring its conservative theology of the "Divine Principle." [...] Some considered him a cult leader.}}</ref> Rev. Sun Myung Moon, founder and self-proclaimed messiah of the generally right-wing, anti-communist [[Unification Church]].<ref>{{News citation|author=Conal Urquhart|newspaper=The Guardian|title=Sun Myung Moon, founder of the Moonies, dies in South Korea|date=2012-09-03|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/sep/03/moonies-sun-myung-moon-dies|quote=Moon saw himself as a messiah and created a church that became a worldwide movement and claims to have around 3 million members, including 100,000 in the United States. [...] He was jailed for five years by the North Korean government in 1948, but escaped in 1950 when his guards fled as United Nations troops advanced. He was an active anti-Communist throughout the cold war.}}</ref> Speaking at this event, weapons industry lobbyist Esper emphasized the need for full cooperation between the U.S., south Korea, and Japan in the face of challenges posed by north Korea and China, saying:<blockquote>It is said that the United States does not seek to build a, quote, "NATO for Asia". And I say, "Why not?" We should have lofty goals and high expectations and not let history and distance confound us. America's European allies overcame a brutal history to form a collective security arrangement to deal with [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (1917–1991)|Soviet Russia]]. There's no reason why the same can't happen in the Indo-Pacific as we increasingly face off against a recalcitrant north Korea and aggressive communist China.<ref name=":3">Esper, Mark. 4th Think Tank 2022 Forum. "Hon. Mart[sic] Esper, 27th United States Secretary of Defense keynote address." Think Tank 2022. Uploaded April 13, 2022. URL:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfKih9aabsk (NATO-related quote begins at 16:36)</ref></blockquote>Esper stated that he is a "big believer" in the quadrilateral security dialogue known as "The Quad" a strategic security dialogue between [[Commonwealth of Australia|Australia]], [[Republic of India|India]], Japan, and the United States that is maintained by talks between member countries, which Esper says is "rightly viewed as a unified response to China's rising military and economic power." He states, "I believe south Korea should be the next partner to join the Quad, transitioning it into the Quint."<ref name=":3" /><br />
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The former Raytheon lobbyist and defense company Epirus Inc. board member then went on to say that "America's allies and partners need to invest at least two percent of their GDP for defense and invest in the right capabilities," listing long-range precision strike capabilities, air and missile defenses, advanced submarines, and fifth generation fighter aircraft as examples, and noting that the Republic of Korea has already met this two percent mark.<ref name=":3" /> Esper describes that these weapons investments will help the region deter Chinese and north Korean "aggression" and states that a "reinvigorated work plan with the DPRK should begin with the complete verifiable and irreversible denuclearization of the North."<ref name=":2" /><br />
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In June 2022, the south Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol declared he will participate in the 3rd [[NATO Summit]] of 2022.<ref>{{News citation|newspaper=Kyodo News|title=Yoon to attend NATO summit, 1st time for S. Korean president|date=2022-06-22|url=https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2022/06/968e985e4c76-yoon-to-attend-nato-summit-1st-time-for-s-korean-president.html}}</ref> The director of the National Security Office Kim Sung-han declared not much later that south Korea will establish a "diplomatic mission" to NATO in Brussels to coincide with President Yoon Suk-yeol's participation in the Summit. According to Sung-han, this mission will make south Korea "able to increase information sharing and strengthen our networks with NATO allies and partners and establish a Europe platform that is worthy of our [global] status".<ref>{{News citation|newspaper=Korea JoongAng Daily|title=Korea to open diplomatic mission to NATO|date=2022-06-22|url=https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2022/06/22/national/politics/Korea-Nato-Summit-Yoon-Sukyeol/20220622191349616.html}}</ref><br />
<br />
=== Unconverted long-term prisoners ===<br />
[[File:Unconverted long-term prisoners in south Korea.jpg|thumb|A demonstration calling for a second repatriation of unconverted long-term prisoners in south Korea. The sign reads "Call for second repatriation of non-converted long-term prisoners" ("비전향장기수 2차 송환 촉구").]]<br />
''Main article: [[Unconverted long-term prisoners]]''<br />
<br />
Unconverted long-term prisoners is a term which refers to political prisoners imprisoned in south Korea, generally on charges of "anti-state" activities or views in support of communism or DPRK. While in prison, many of them were held in solitary confinement and subjected to extensive torture while being pressured to sign a "conversion" statement renouncing communist or left-wing ideology.<ref>{{News citation|newspaper=BBC News|title=Solitary: Tough test of survival instinct|date=1999-02-25|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/286070.stm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220725155633/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/286070.stm}}</ref> In the 1990s, some of the unconverted prisoners began being released. Some chose to remain in south Korea while others sought to be repatriated to DPRK.<ref name=":10">Kim Dong-won. ''Repatriation'' (2003). Documentary. URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xu2mEvU29Q</ref> Some were able to return to DPRK, notably 63 of them in the year 2000,<ref name=":28">[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/907307.stm "Korean communists go home."] BBC News, 2 September, 2000. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240311153647/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/907307.stm Archived] 2024-03-11.</ref><ref>{{News citation|newspaper=파이낸셜 뉴스 (Financial News)|title=북한, 비전향장기수 북송 21주년 맞아 생존 장기수들 조명 (North Korea celebrates 21st anniversary of repatriation of non-converted long-term prisoners to North Korea)|date=2021-09-06|url=https://www.fnnews.com/news/202109061041393026}}</ref> but others remained in the South, being denied their requests for repatriation.<ref>{{News citation|author=Kang Jin-kyu|newspaper=Korea JoongAng Daily|title=Spies who can't come in from the cold|date=2016-08-07|url=https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2016/08/07/politics/Spies-who-cant-come-in-from-the-cold/3022316.html}}</ref> <br />
Those who returned to the DPRK were met with celebrations and awards,<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20191124030603/http://www.kcna.co.jp/item/2000/200009/news09/04.htm "National reunification prizes awarded to unconverted long-term prisoners"], [[Korean Central News Agency]], 2000-09-04. Archived 2019-11-19.</ref> while those remaining in south Korea faced difficulties including ongoing health issues from their long imprisonment, living in poverty, not being given social security numbers,<ref name=":10" /> and being subjected to ROK state surveillance under the Security Surveillance Act.<ref name=":22">{{Web citation|author=Liberation School|newspaper=Liberation School|title=Still fighting for Korea’s liberation: An interview with Ahn Hak-sop|date=Jul 27, 2022|url=https://www.liberationschool.org/interview-with-ahn-hak-sop/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/2/https://www.liberationschool.org/interview-with-ahn-hak-sop/}}</ref> <br />
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Many who participated in the repatriation in the year 2000 and many of those who remained in south Korea made their decisions based on their impression at the time that there was going to be more freedom of movement between ROK and DPRK thereafter. In an interview with [[Liberation School]], former prisoner Ahn Hak-sop, who chose to remain in the South when the 2000 repatriation happened, said one of his reasons was that he "thought it was a temporary situation." Anh also notes regarding two prisoners released alongside him, that "Those comrades went to the North because they thought that shortly there would be free movement between the two states. They went to the North to study and thought they would come back later." Regarding his own intention to stay in the south temporarily, Anh elaborated: "[T]here were young progressive people here in the South, and they asked me to stay. [...] We have to keep struggling here for the withdrawal of US army, the peace treaty, and peaceful reunification. I decided to stay here to fight for these goals. In 1952, I came here to liberate the southern half of the peninsula, and I need to stay here and continue that struggle."<ref name=":22" /><br />
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Those who oppose or criticize the repatriation of these former prisoners generally do so on grounds of demanding that DPRK start repatriating people back to the south as well.<ref name=":28" /><br />
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=== National Security Law ===<br />
The National Security Law is a south Korean law enforced since 1948 with the avowed purpose "to secure the security of the State and the subsistence and freedom of nationals, by regulating any anticipated activities compromising the safety of the State." Behaviors or speeches in favor of the DPRK or communism can be punished by the National Security Law. In an article from The Diplomat, it was referred to as a "Cold War holdover" that "allows the government to selectively prosecute anyone who 'praises, incites or propagates the activities of an anti-government organization'" which the article describes as "a deliberately vague clause that broadly implies the north Korean state and its sympathizers." The article continues, explaining "Under Article 7, individuals have been prosecuted and imprisoned for merely possessing north Korean publications or satirically tweeting north Korean propaganda. In recent years this clause has been harshly criticized by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, who claim the government abuses the law to repress dissenting voices."<ref>{{News citation|author=Meredith Shaw and Joseph Yi.|newspaper=The Diplomat|title=Will Yoon Suk-yeol Finally Reform South Korea’s National Security Law?|date=2022-03-15|url=https://thediplomat.com/2022/03/will-yoon-suk-yeol-finally-reform-south-koreas-national-security-law/}}</ref><br />
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=== Anti-imperialist, anti-U.S., and pro-unification struggle in south Korea ===<br />
[[File:Unification Vanguard of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions Anti-US Demonstration.png|thumb|318x318px|The Unification Vanguard of the [[Korean Confederation of Trade Unions]] unfurls large banners reading "This land is our land, YANKEE GO HOME" and "Stop practicing for a war of aggression" in an August 2022 demonstration against US-ROK joint military exercises.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXCK3s-vic8 "23기 민주노총 중앙통일선봉대 활동영상" ("23rd KCTU Central Unification Vanguard Activity Video")]. 민주노총 (Confederation of Trade Unions). Aug 14, 2022. YouTube.</ref><ref>김준. (Kim Jun). [http://worknworld.kctu.org/news/articleView.html?idxno=500588 "쌍용훈련 재개 예고에 23기 중앙통선대, 포항 한미연합상륙훈련장 지휘소 기습점거투쟁" ("23rd Central Telecommunication Battalion, Pohang ROK-U.S. Combined Amphibious Training Center Command Post, Surprise Occupation Struggle to Announce Resumption of Ssangyong Training").] 노동과세계. 2022.08.12. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220828050027/http://worknworld.kctu.org/news/articleView.html?idxno=500588 Archived] 2022-08-28.</ref>]]<br />
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According to the People's Democracy Party (PDP), a revolutionary workers' party in south Korea, the continued U.S. military occupation of south Korea is the primary barrier to peaceful reunification of the Korean peninsula. The PDP, co-authoring a 2020 ''Liberation School'' article, writes:<blockquote>The peace of the Corean Peninsula is possible only after the withdrawal of the U.S. troops. The U.S. troops are occupation forces in South Corea and invading army to North Corea. So their withdrawal is the most desperate and preferred struggle task for the whole Corean nation to solve. The present war crisis escalating to a high level proves that peace in the Corean peninsula cannot be realized unless the U.S. troops are withdrawn from South Corea.<br />
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As long as the U.S. troops are stationed in South Corea and war exercises are conducted against North Corea, the prospect for peace is bound to be dark. We are convinced from our historical experience that if we develop the struggles for the withdrawal of the U.S. troops into a popular uprising of the South Corean people, and if the whole Corean nation can struggle together in great unity, we can withdraw the U.S. troops from South Corea.<br />
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[...] True peace is possible only without imperialism; the head of imperialism is the U.S. We have an opinion that a true peace movement should be an anti-imperialist movement and an anti-U.S. movement. We believe that the progressive and peace-loving forces of the world can and must conduct an anti-imperialist, anti-war struggle, to halt all wars in the world by U.S. troops and to withdraw all U.S. troops stationed overseas. The key is the formation of an anti-imperialist, anti-U.S. united front and anti-imperialist, anti-U.S. joint action.<ref name=":23" /></blockquote><br />
[[File:South Korean students rush the U.S. Ambassador’s official residence, 2019.png|thumb|South Korean students surprise rushing U.S. Ambassador [[Harry Harris]]' official residence in 2019, using ladders to climb over the wall, with signs saying “leave this land” and shouting "Stop interfering with our domestic affairs" and "We don’t need U.S. troops."<ref name=":26">Shin, Hyonhee. 2019. [https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-northkorea-southkorea-idUSKBN1WX0Z6 “South Korean Students Climb into U.S. Envoy’s Residence in Protest against Troop Presence.”] U.S. October 18, 2019. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230325105702/https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-northkorea-southkorea-idUSKBN1WX0Z6 Archived] 2023-03-25.</ref><ref name=":27">오마이TV. 2019. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Del06vXK8nk “순식간에 미대사관저 담장 넘어간 대학생들.”] YouTube Video. [https://web.archive.org/web/20221018101952/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Del06vXK8nk&feature=youtu.be Archive link].</ref>]]<br />
In 2019, 19 south Korean students were detained after several used a ladder to climb over the wall into the grounds of the U.S. Ambassador [[Harry Harris]]' residence in Seoul in protest against the U.S. troop presence in the country. A spokesman for the US Embassy in Seoul said that approximately 20 Korean nationals illegally entered the official residential compound of the U.S. Ambassador and attempted to forcibly enter the residence itself. In a video broadcast from inside the compound, the activists accused the United States of demanding a 500% increase in the cost of keeping some 28,500 troops in south Korea, holding a banner saying "Leave this soil, Harris" and shouted "Stop interfering with our domestic affairs!" "Get out!" and "We don’t need U.S. troops!" before being marched out of the residence by police. The students had also attempted to break into the U.S. Embassy in Seoul in 2018, before being stopped by police. A Reuters article notes that the student group also "held a forum to present their 'research findings' on the achievements of North Korean leader [[Kim Jong-un|Kim Jong Un]], lauding him as a caring and influential leader."<ref name=":26" /><ref name=":27" /> <br />
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[[Nodutdol]] (Korean: 노듯돌), an [[Anti-imperialism|anti-imperialist]], pro-unification organization of diasporic Koreans,<ref>[https://nodutdol.org/about/ “About.”] Nodutdol. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230401142208/https://nodutdol.org/about/ Archived] 2023-04-01.</ref> notes in their 2020 pamphlet "Sanctions of Empire" that Ambassador Harry Harris has been obstructive toward inter-Korean reconciliation, blocking efforts by the [[Moon Jae-in]] administration to develop tourism into the DPRK, claiming that "independent" tourism plans would have to undergo US consultation, emphasizing that the items inside south Korean tourists' luggage could violate [[Economic sanctions|sanctions]].<ref>[https://nodutdol.org/sanctions-of-empire/ "제국의 제재 - Sanctions of Empire."] [[Nodutdol]]. October 20, 2020. [https://nodutdol.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Sanctions-of-Empire.pdf PDF]. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220520095404/https://nodutdol.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Sanctions-of-Empire.pdf Archive].</ref><br />
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On Jeju Island, located off the southern tip of the Korean peninsula, a decade-long protest of the construction of a naval base has been ongoing. Activists noted in a 2013 statement that the base will only worsen the likelihood of Koreans being pulled into a US-China conflict: "Jeju naval base will be an outpost of the U.S. maritime military alliance, together with Japan, targeting China, rather than a strategic point of independent national defense. With the U.S. [[Pivot to Asia]] strategy, the chances of South Korea’s getting pulled into conflicts between the U.S. and China increase."<ref>[https://www.peoplepower21.org/english/1080148 <nowiki>“[Publication] No Naval Base on Jeju Island! - 참여연대 -.”</nowiki>] 참여연대. October 7, 2013. [https://web.archive.org/web/20210414023914/http://www.peoplepower21.org/English/1080148 Archive link].</ref> Although the base eventually completed construction, protestors continued to oppose it with demonstrations and attempted entries into it, saying that although it is nominally a south Korean base, it is "a place where cutting-edge strategic assets in the US military can stop by whenever they please according to American interests."<ref>[https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_international/820635.html “American Nuclear Submarine Enters Jeju Naval Base.”] Hankyoreh. Hani.co.kr. 2017. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230325090226/https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_international/820635.html Archived] 2023-03-25.</ref> In 2020, an activist was arrested for trespassing on the base and destroying government property.<ref>Elizabeth Shim. [https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2020/03/30/South-Korea-arrests-protester-for-infiltrating-Jeju-Naval-Base/2991585585755/ “South Korea Arrests Protester for Infiltrating Jeju Naval Base.”] UPI. March 30, 2020. [https://web.archive.org/web/20200814001452/https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2020/03/30/South-Korea-arrests-protester-for-infiltrating-Jeju-Naval-Base/2991585585755/ Archived].</ref><br />
[[File:People rally to protest against the planned South Korea-U.S. military drills in Seoul, South Korea, Aug. 13, 2022.jpg|thumb|People rally against the ROK-US military drills, Aug. 13, 2022. Banners say "Stop war exercises! No to USA!" (Korean: 전쟁연습 중단! 미국 반대!)]]<br />
On August 13, 2022, thousands of south Korean unionists and their progressive supporters rallied in downtown Seoul to protest against joint US-south Korea war game exercises. In a video uploaded by [[Press TV]], Oh Eun-Jung of the National Teachers Union was quoted as saying "The threat of nuclear war is growing on the Korean peninsula, conservative forces of Yoon Suk-yeol in south Korea and those in the U.S. are frantically conducting aggressive war drills in the sky, the land, and the sea, and are about to start large-scale military exercises, aimed at the invasion of north Korea. We must stamp out this behavior of anti-reunification forces." In the same video, construction worker Lee Seung-Woo stated, "We not only oppose the war exercises, but we want the U.S. Forces Korea, which is actually controlling and interfering with the Korean peninsula to leave this land. We believe that only then will the eighty million Koreans from both north and south be able to live peacefully."<ref>Frank Smith. [https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2022/08/13/687322/South-Korean-unionists-protest-US-South-Korea-war-games “‘South Korean Unionists Protest US-South Korea War Games.’”] PressTV News. August 13, 2022. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220826124551/https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2022/08/13/687322/South-Korean-unionists-protest-US-South-Korea-war-games Archived] 2022-08-28.</ref><br />
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The media company [[Sovereignty Broadcast]] (Korean: 주권방송), additionally going by the name 615tv on some of its social media accounts, uploads educational and informative videos its to YouTube page regarding the peace and unification struggle in Korea. According to the channel's about page, it is an internet media company that deals with peace and unification on the Korean Peninsula and various current affairs topics in Korea.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/c/The615tv/about About Sovereignty Broadcast]. Sovereignty Broadcast. YouTube.</ref><br />
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=== Censorship ===<br />
Until 1973, images of [[Kim Il-sung]] were banned in south Korea. The southern secret police falsely claimed that Kim was an impostor who had not been involved in the guerrilla resistance against Japan. In 1989, the police state arrested an average of 3.3 Koreans every day under anti-communist censorship laws. Many [[Anti-capitalism|anti-capitalist]] books are banned, even some by non-[[Marxism|Marxists]]. In 2011, southern authorities deleted over 67,000 internet posts that were critical of the ROK or United States. Left-wing music such as the ''Song of the Red Flag'' (which is even used by the [[Social democracy|social democratic]] [[Labour Party (UK)|UK Labour Party]]) is also illegal under the National Security Law.<ref name=":1103">{{Citation|author=Stephen Gowans|year=2018|title=Patriots, Traitors and Empires: The Story of Korea’s Struggle for Freedom|chapter=The Anti-Communist Police State|page=136–145|pdf=https://ipfs.io/ipfs/bafykbzaced4iiga4ngtxusr2civjxewbili5jne2sbpefbx2s3im2kphattzc?filename=Stephen%20Gowans%20-%20Patriots%2C%20Traitors%20and%20Empires_%20The%20Story%20of%20Korea%E2%80%99s%20Struggle%20for%20Freedom-Baraka%20Books%20%282018%29.pdf|city=Montreal|publisher=Baraka Books|isbn=9781771861427|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=8435F6FF91279531705764823FDC2A7F}}</ref><br />
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=== Government-sanctioned prostitution and sex trafficking victims ===<br />
[[File:Women who were encouraged by the South Korean government to work as prostitutes near US military bases hold a press conference outside of the Seoul High Court in the Seocho neighborhood.jpg|thumb|Women who were encouraged by the South Korean government to work as prostitutes near US military bases hold a press conference outside of the Seoul High Court in the Seocho neighborhood following a court ruling on their case on Feb. 8, 2018.]]<br />
As described in a 2019 article by journalist [[Tim Shorrock]], "between the end of the Korean War and the early 1990s, more than one million Korean women were caught up in a state-controlled prostitution industry" that was operated by and for the benefit of the U.S. military. They worked in special zones surrounding U.S. bases, in areas licensed by the south Korean government, reserved exclusively for American troops, and monitored and policed by the U.S. Army. Shorrock explains that the system was designed to strengthen the U.S.-south Korean alliance and boost the morale of U.S. military personnel, and for south Korea to bring in foreign currency, with prostitution for this purpose being encouraged as a woman’s patriotic duty to the state. These zones, called ''kijichon'' (Korean: 기지촌; "military camp town"), were established around 31 U.S. Army, Air Force, and Navy bases in South Korea. Shorrock writes that "in Gyonggi province, which extends from south of Seoul up to the DMZ and was home to the majority of U.S. bases, some 10,000 sex workers were registered every year from 1953 to the late 1980s."<ref name=":25">[[Tim Shorrock|Shorrock, Tim]]. 2019. [https://newrepublic.com/article/155707/united-states-military-prostitution-south-korea-monkey-house “Welcome to the Monkey House.”] The New Republic. December 2, 2019. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230322174621/https://newrepublic.com/article/155707/united-states-military-prostitution-south-korea-monkey-house Archived] 2023-03-22.</ref><br />
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In 2018, Lee Beom-gyun, a judge on an appellate court in Seoul, agreed that the south Korean government had actively encouraged prostitution to boost ties with the United States. Lee ruled that the Korean state "operated and managed" the military camp towns to contribute to the "maintenance of a military alliance essential for national security" and abetted the industry "through patriotic education praising prostitutes as 'patriots who bring in foreign currency.'" He concluded that the government had violated the human rights of its citizens and denounced the practice of segregating "camp town prostitutes in forced internment facilities or through the indiscriminate administration of penicillin, which carries serious physical side effects."<ref name=":25" /><ref>[http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_international/831625.html “Court Finds That South Korean Government Encouraged Prostitution near US Military Bases.”] 2018. Hani.co.kr. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230325113713/http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_international/831625.html Archived] 2023-03-25.</ref><br />
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The 2019 article describes one sex worker's experience in this system:<blockquote>One former sex worker starkly laid out the conditions faced by many ''kijichon'' women in a documentary film produced by Durebang. “A pimp sold me to a U.S. camp town,” she recalled. “Inside a warehouse, I was raped. The police sent me to the Monkey House, where American medics gave us injections” of penicillin and other drugs to prevent the spread of STDs. After her release, she was required to wear a plastic badge showing she’d been tested—“cunt tags,” she called them. All sex workers and bar owners were required to hang these registration certificates on the walls of their establishments as well.<ref name=":25" /></blockquote>Choi Hee-shin, a community organizer who grew up in Dongducheon, which surrounds the U.S. Camp Casey, was quoted in the same 2019 article saying, “Lots of people are ashamed of what happened in the camp towns, and want to forget," further stating, "But people like me, we can't forget. The U.S.-South Korean alliance depended on these comfort women."<br />
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According to Wellesley Professor Katharine H.S. Moon in ''Sex Among Allies'', a history of military prostitution in south Korea, the "overwhelming majority" of prostitutes in the camp towns were either orphans or abandoned children. Moon estimates in her book that at the peak of U.S. troop strength in the 1980s, the ''kijichon'' economy contributed 5 percent of South Korea’s gross domestic product. Once they were recruited to the camp towns, women found themselves trapped by debt. They carried out their sex work in rooms they had to rent from the bar owners. They also had to buy all their supplies, including their bed, their clothes, and the phonographs they set up to entertain their American clients.<br />
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Shorrock explains that many of the Koreans who seek justice for camp-town sex workers refer to them as [[comfort women]], a term which commonly refers to women whom the Japanese Imperial Army kidnapped and forced to work in military brothels called "comfort stations" during the Second World War. However, the Korean public has generally refrained from treating the kijichon women as victims of imperialism in the manner of the comfort women. Park Jeong-mi, a professor at Chungbuk National University, argues that this sentiment is unfair, and in her research she has found a direct historical link between the Japanese and American systems, as the U.S. military government created an administrative state that was dominated by Koreans who had collaborated with Japan's colonial rulers. The shift from Japanese- to American-coerced sex work was an easy transition, she said: "High-ranking Korean officials who served under Japanese colonial rule were familiar with the comfort station system." Under U.S. pressure, Park said, the south Korean government licensed the bars and clubs that hired the women who entertained the U.S. troops, likening those establishments to de facto brothels.<ref name=":25" /><br />
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=== Sexism ===<br />
Women are only paid half as much as men for the same job.<ref name=":1222">{{Citation|author=[[Vijay Prashad]]|year=2008|title=The Darker Nations: A People's History of the Third World|chapter=Singapore|page=248|pdf=https://cloudflare-ipfs.com/ipfs/bafykbzaceascnzh26r5d6uitjjs2z7rflhaxlt7rboz5whzdf76qg6xxvecqq?filename=%28A%20New%20Press%20People%27s%20history%29%20Vijay%20Prashad%20-%20The%20darker%20nations_%20a%20people%27s%20history%20of%20the%20third%20world-The%20New%20Press%20%282008%29.pdf|publisher=The New Press|isbn=9781595583420|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=9B40B96E830128A7FE0E0E887C06829F}}</ref><br />
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==Rising anti-capitalism==<br />
In recent years, the term '''"'''[[Hell Joseon]]" or "Hell Korea" (Korean: 헬조선) has become popular to describe the social anxiety and discontent surrounding high unemployment and poor working conditions.<ref>[http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/739886.html Lashing out at “Hell Joseon”, young’uns drive ruling party’s election beatdown]</ref><ref>[https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/young-south-koreans-call-their-country-hell-and-look-for-ways-out/2016/01/30/34737c06-b967-11e5-85cd-5ad59bc19432_story.html Young South Koreans call their country ‘hell’ and look for ways out] by the [[Washington Post]]</ref> <br />
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south Korean media has also increasingly included narratives of class antagonism which have been popular successes for Western audiences, with films such as ''Snowpiercer'' (2013)<ref>[https://newmultitude.org/snowpiercer-class-consciousness/ THE TRAIN IS CAPITALISM- SNOWPIERCER AND CLASS CONSCIOUNESS]</ref> and ''Parasite'' (2019)<ref>[https://medium.com/incluvie/parasite-and-capitalism-what-the-film-says-about-the-pursuit-of-wealth-993fa7ce7ee1 Parasite and Capitalism: What the Film Says About the Pursuit of Wealth]</ref> and the popular TV show ''Squid Game'' (2021).<ref>[https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/squid-game-the-rise-of-anti-capitalist-entertainment/ar-AAPaOHG Squid Game & The Rise Of Anti-Capitalist Entertainment]</ref><ref>[https://www.gen-zine.com/post/thesquidgame “The Squid Game”: Anti-Capitalism and Netflix]</ref><ref>[https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/elaminabdelmahmoud/squid-game-netflix-review-lupin-international “Squid Game” Works Because Capitalism Is A Global Scourge]</ref><br />
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With increasing economic stratification, social [[alienation]], and lack of opportunity among young people entering the work force, south Korea has a rate of mental health issues and suicide that is among the highest in the developed world.<ref>{{News citation|author=Katrin Park|newspaper=Foreign Policy|title=South Korea Is No Country for Young People|date=2021-10-5|url=https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/11/05/south-korea-suicide-rates-mental-illness-squid-game/}}</ref> This undoubtedly is resulting in the development of [[class consciousness]].<br />
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The [[bourgeois media]] (in south Korea and in the US) carefully ensures that all criticism of capitalism stops just short of providing concrete solutions, lest people become interested in [[socialism]] and its [[Successes of socialism|various successes around the world]].<br />
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Labor militancy is also on the rise as 500k south Korean workers walked off in a one-day [[general strike]], protesting against rampant [[exploitation]] by the [[Gig worker|gig economy]], high costs of housing, and the highest annual working hours in the OECD.<ref>[https://therealnews.com/half-a-million-south-korean-workers-walk-off-jobs-in-general-strike HALF A MILLION SOUTH KOREAN WORKERS WALK OFF JOBS IN GENERAL STRIKE] on [https://therealnews.com/half-a-million-south-korean-workers-walk-off-jobs-in-general-strike The Real News Network]</ref><br />
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== Notes ==<br />
<references group="Notes" /><br />
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==References==<br />
<references /><br />
[[Category:Illegal states]]<br />
[[Category:Global north]]<br />
[[Category:Puppet states]]<br />
[[Category:Neocolonial outposts]]<br />
[[Category:Asian countries]]</div>
Verda.Majo
https://en.prolewiki.org/index.php?title=Unconverted_long-term_prisoners&diff=64270
Unconverted long-term prisoners
2024-03-16T19:28:18Z
<p>Verda.Majo: created page links for some of the prisoners' names to make the pages in the future</p>
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<div>[[File:Unconverted long-term prisoners in south Korea.jpg|thumb|A demonstration calling for a second repatriation of unconverted long-term prisoners in south Korea. The sign reads "Call for second repatriation of non-converted long-term prisoners" ("비전향장기수 2차 송환 촉구").<ref>장동욱 (Jang Dong-wook). [http://www.saramilbo.com/5940 “비전향장기수 2차 송환 촉구.”] ("Call for second repatriation of non-converted long-term prisoners.") 사람일보. (Saram Ilbo.) 2006-09-02. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240311145007/http://www.saramilbo.com/5940 Archived] 2024-03-11.</ref>]]<br />
'''Unconverted long-term prisoners''' is a term which refers to [[Political prisoner|political prisoners]] imprisoned in [[Republic of Korea|south Korea]], generally on charges of "anti-state" activities or views in support of [[communism]] or [[Democratic People's Republic of Korea|DPRK]].<ref name=":1">[https://www.amnesty.org/es/documents/asa25/033/1993/en/ “South Korea: Unfair Trial and Torture: Long-Term Political Prisoners.”] [[Amnesty International]], September 30, 1993.</ref><ref name=":6">"National reunification prizes awarded to unconverted long-term prisoners", [[Korean Central News Agency]], 2000-09-04. [https://web.archive.org/web/20191124030603/http://www.kcna.co.jp/item/2000/200009/news09/04.htm Archived] 2019-11-19.</ref> The term commonly refers to people who were mostly arrested from the 1950s to 1980s and imprisoned and tortured for decades and who refused to sign a "conversion" statement renouncing communist or [[Left–right political spectrum|left-wing]] ideology, which had been a condition for their release.<ref>Amnesty International, [https://www.refworld.org/reference/annualreport/amnesty/1999/en/24250 Amnesty International Report 1999 - Korea, -, 1 January 1999]. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240311065515/https://www.refworld.org/reference/annualreport/amnesty/1999/en/24250 Archived] 2024-03-11.</ref> In the 1990s, some of the prisoners began being released. Some chose to remain in south Korea while others sought to be repatriated to DPRK.<ref name=":0">Kim Dong-won. ''Repatriation'' (2003). Documentary. URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xu2mEvU29Q</ref><br />
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== Imprisonment and torture ==<br />
The individuals arrested by the southern regime on charges of anti-state activities faced unfair trials,<ref name=":1" /> torture,<ref name=":1" /> and isolation,<ref name=":2">[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/286070.stm "Solitary: Tough test of survival instinct."] [[British Broadcasting Corporation|BBC]] News. February 25, 1999. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240311083202/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/286070.stm Archived] 2024-03-11.</ref> with some of them being imprisoned for over 40 years.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":8">[https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/news/1995/nov/15/worlds-longest-held-political-prisoner-released/ "World’s Longest Held Political Prisoner Released."] Prison Legal News, 1995-11-15. [https://web.archive.org/web/20231001182401/https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/news/1995/nov/15/worlds-longest-held-political-prisoner-released/ Archived] 2023-10-01.</ref><ref name=":3">[https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/388611.html “Truth Commission Confirms Yushin-Era Violations on Prisoners’ Freedom of Conscience.”] Hankyoreh, 2009-11-19. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240311105516/https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/388611.html Archived] 2024-03-11.</ref> While some of the prisoners were arrested for actual acts of espionage,<ref name=":4">Kang Jin-kyu (2016-08-07). [https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2016/08/07/politics/Spies-who-cant-come-in-from-the-cold/3022316.html "Spies who can't come in from the cold"] ''Korea JoongAng Daily''. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230208033225/https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2016/08/07/politics/Spies-who-cant-come-in-from-the-cold/3022316.html Archived] 2023-02-08.</ref> others have been described as [[Prisoner of conscience|prisoners of conscience]], with organizations such as [[Amnesty International]] stating in a 1993 document that some of the prisoners were "held solely for peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of expression and association" while also stating that prisoners "appear to have been tortured during interrogation" and were "convicted largely on the basis of these coerced confessions after an unfair trial" and raising concerns that they had been denied lawyers during their interrogations.<ref name=":1" /><br />
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In 2009, south Korean news outlet Hankyoreh reported that south Korea's Truth and Reconciliation Commission released a statement which concluded that the conversion tactics which had been used on left-wing prisoners during the Yushin era of the 1970s constituted state violence and that acts of brutality were used to convert left-wing prisoners.<ref name=":3" /><br />
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=== "Conversion" statements ===<br />
Until 1998, the prisoners were pressured to sign statements of "conversion" renouncing communist ideology as a condition of being released. Many prisoners refused to sign, later becoming referred to as "unconverted" prisoners.<ref name=":0" /> The requirement to sign a conversion statement was substituted in 1998 with a "Pledge to Obey the Law" which was eventually discontinued in 2003.<ref name=":3" /><br />
<br />
Among those who did sign the "conversion" statement as a condition of release, there are accounts such as that of [[Park Hee-sung]], who said that his so-called "conversion" was the result of physical torture, and that he meant none of it,<ref name=":4" /> or the case of [[Kim Young-sik]], who commented on his own experience with torture in the 2003 documentary [[Repatriation (film)|''Repatriation'']], "torturing you and forcing you to renounce your belief, can you really call that conversion?"<ref name=":0" /> Kim Young-sik was also quoted in a 2018 article saying of this forced conversion via torture, "I'm still very angry [...] How could they torture me to force me to give up an ideology that I believe is correct?"<ref name=":7">Kim, Hyung-jin. [https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/southern-exposure-the-north-koreans-longing-to-be-sent-home-20180523-p4zh0h.html “Southern Exposure: The North Koreans Longing to Be Sent Home.”] The Sydney Morning Herald. May 24, 2018. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240311103437/https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/southern-exposure-the-north-koreans-longing-to-be-sent-home-20180523-p4zh0h.html Archived] 2024-03-11. </ref><br />
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Former prisoner [[Anh Hak-sop]] recounted similar methods of pressure to renounce his beliefs, including bribery and torture, in an interview with [[Liberation School]]: "First they tried to make theoretical arguments against the DPRK. But they couldn’t defend their beliefs to me. After that, they tried to bribe me with property. After that, there was torture."<ref name=":5" /><br />
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=== Torture ===<br />
The methods of torture recounted by various victims include waterboarding,<ref name=":7" /> being forced to eat off the floor with hands cuffed behind their backs,<ref name=":7" /> being spun while hanging from the ceiling,<ref name=":7" /> beatings,<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":9">Kristof, Nicholas D. [https://www.nytimes.com/1995/08/20/world/free-in-seoul-after-44-years-and-still-defiant.html?pagewanted=all "Free in Seoul after 44 Years, and Still Defiant."] [[The New York Times]]. Aug. 20, 1995. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240311152015/https://www.nytimes.com/1995/08/20/world/free-in-seoul-after-44-years-and-still-defiant.html?pagewanted=all Archived] 2024-03-11.</ref> prolonged solitary confinement,<ref name=":2" /> water being thrown in the room in winter,<ref name=":5" /> clothing and bedding being taken away,<ref name=":5" /> starvation,<ref name=":9" /> prisoners being "expected to wash themselves with their own urine",<ref name=":9" /> and denial of medical and dental care.<ref name=":1" /> The 1993 Amnesty International document noted that the long-term prisoners were often kept in poor conditions and that some were suffering ill health due to their long term imprisonment and a reported lack of adequate medical care. The document also mentions that those who refused to sign the conversion statement generally suffered even worse treatment than the other prisoners.<ref name=":1" /> An article from 1999 by the BBC states that "Life inside was almost entirely spent in dark and cold cells and medical attention was scarce. Torture sometimes took the form of being locked up with a particularly sadistic prisoner."<ref name=":2" /><br />
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According to a 1995 [[Prison Legal News]] article, unconverted prisoner [[Kim Sun Myung]], who had been in captivity for over 43 years, had been beaten, starved, threatened with execution, watched his fellow prisoners die, was kept in solitary confinement for decades, and was denied medical care by prison doctors as he went blind from cataracts. Commenting with regard to the torture upon his release, Kim said: "They say that when you hammer steel, it only gets harder. Well, when you hit people, you just turn them into enemies, and they become stronger."<ref name=":8" /><br />
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== Repatriation movement ==<br />
[[File:Repatriation demonstration for unconverted long-term prisoners vop.co.kr.jpg|thumb|Members of the preparatory group for the 20th anniversary of the repatriation of non-converted prisoners hold a press conference in front of the government complex in Seoul to urge the second repatriation (2020).<ref>Photo by 김철수 (Kim Cheoulsu). [https://www.vop.co.kr/A00001510809.html <nowiki>민중의소리 (Voice of the People). 인도적조치 비전향장기수 송환하라[포토] (Repatriate non-converted long-term prisoners for humanitarian measures [Photo]).</nowiki>] 2020-09-08.</ref>]]<br />
Of the former prisoners who sought repatriation to DPRK, some were eventually able to be repatriated, notably 63 of them in the year 2000.<ref name=":7" /> However, others remained in the south, being denied their requests for repatriation.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":4" /> The 63 individuals who were repatriated in September of 2000 were celebrated in [[Pyongyang]] and awarded [[National Reunification Prize|National Reunification Prizes]].<ref name=":6" /> At the time, the prisoners ranged in age from 66 to 90 years old.<ref name=":10">[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/907307.stm "Korean communists go home."] BBC News, 2 September, 2000. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240311153647/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/907307.stm Archived] 2024-03-11.</ref><br />
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A Liberation School interview with a former prisoner, Ahn Hak-sop, reveals that many who participated in the repatriation in the year 2000 and many of those who remained in south Korea made their decisions based on their impression at the time that there was going to be more freedom of movement between ROK and DPRK thereafter. Ahn, who chose to remain in the south when the 2000 repatriation happened, said one of his reasons was that he "thought it was a temporary situation." Anh also notes regarding two prisoners released alongside him who were repatriated, that "[T]hose comrades went to the North because they thought that shortly there would be free movement between the two states. They went to the North to study and thought they would come back later." Regarding his own intention to stay in the south temporarily, Anh elaborated: "[T]here were young [[Progressivism|progressive]] people here in the South, and they asked me to stay. [...] We have to keep struggling here for the withdrawal of US army, the peace treaty, and peaceful reunification. I decided to stay here to fight for these goals. In 1952, I came here to liberate the southern half of the peninsula, and I need to stay here and continue that struggle."<ref name=":5">Liberation School (Jul 27, 2022). [https://www.liberationschool.org/interview-with-ahn-hak-sop/ "Still fighting for Korea’s liberation: An interview with Ahn Hak-sop"] ''Liberation School''. [https://web.archive.org/web/2/https://www.liberationschool.org/interview-with-ahn-hak-sop/ Archived] from the original.</ref><br />
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Those who oppose or criticize the repatriation of these former prisoners generally do so on grounds of demanding that DPRK repatriate people to the south as well.<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":10" /><br />
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== Persecution and surveillance ==<br />
The unconverted long-term prisoners who were released have faced various difficulties while living in south Korea, ranging from ongoing health issues from their imprisonment, to not being given social security numbers, living in poverty, and being subjected to state surveillance. In some cases, their families have also suffered persecution during and after their relative's imprisonment.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":7" /><ref name=":9" /><br />
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Giving examples of the forms of persecution and surveillance he faced, former prisoner Anh Hak-sop explained, "[T]here are security police who follow me. Whenever there is a problem with the North and South, they raid my house and stand guard outside my property. One time at a demonstration, [[Conservatism|conservative]] forces attacked me. The police did nothing to protect me. Every week or every other week, the police come to my house and ask about my activities, who has visited my house, and so on. Once every other month I need to report to them about what I did, who I met, and who visited me. Every two years I need to go to court."<ref name=":5" /><br />
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[[Kang Yong-ju]], a citizen activist who had been involved in the 1980 [[May 18 uprising|Gwangju Uprising]] as a student, is an unconverted long-term prisoner who was arrested in 1985, on charges of connection to a "spy ring" which have been regarded as unfounded<ref>[https://www.refworld.org/reference/countryrep/amnesty/1998/en/93950 "Long-Term Prisoners Still Held under the National Security Law."] Amnesty International. May 1, 1998. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240316184146/https://www.refworld.org/reference/countryrep/amnesty/1998/en/93950 Archived] 2023-03-16.</ref> and alleged to have been fabricated by the [[Chun Doo-hwan]] regime.<ref name=":11">Bak Gwang-yeon. [https://english.khan.co.kr/khan_art_view.html?artid=201802222015297&code=710100 "Kang Yong-ju, Free from the Shackles of 'Security Surveillance'."] [[The Kyunghyang Shinmun]], 2018-02-22. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240316182453/https://english.khan.co.kr/khan_art_view.html?artid=201802222015297&code=710100 Archived] 2024-03-16.</ref> He refused to sign a statement renouncing his views, and was thus imprisoned by the south Korean regime for 14 years, being released in 1999.<ref>Kim Min-kyung. [https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/824966.html “Prosecutors Request Prison Time for Unconverted Political Prisoner.”] Hankyoreh, 2017-12-25. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240316183657/https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/824966.html Archived] 2024-03-16.</ref> In the years following his release, Kang was subjected to the Security Surveillance Act until a court decision in 2018 finally prohibited the extension of further surveillance on Kang.<ref name=":11" /><br />
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A column in Hankyoreh describes the surveillance program which Kang had been subjected to in the following manner:<blockquote>Being subject to security surveillance means that you must report your every move, every three months. If you move to a new house, you have to report that, and if the police suddenly call you in the middle of the night, you have to pick up the phone. If you want to travel, you have to provide advance notice of the destination and length of your trip and your travel companions. The police can ban you not only from meeting or contacting other people but also from attending public gatherings and demonstrations. Not only your family and relatives but even your [[landlord]], coworkers, church parishioners and apartment security staff can be asked to provide information about you or may be subject to surveillance themselves. Even though you have already finished your prison sentence, your life as a convict continues for the rest of your life.<ref name=":12">Lee Myung-soo. [https://www.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/792186.html <nowiki>“[Column] Kang Yong-Ju Must Not Be Treated like a Convict for the Rest of His Life.”</nowiki>] Hankyoreh, 2017-04-25. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240316183604/https://www.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/792186.html Archived] 2024-03-16.</ref></blockquote>The column also notes that security surveillance must be renewed every two years, but if the Justice Minister believes that there is a risk of recidivism, "the state can continue to monitor an individual’s private life until the day they die."<ref name=":12" /><br />
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== See also ==<br />
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* [[Repatriation (film)]]<br />
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== References ==<br />
<references /></div>
Verda.Majo
https://en.prolewiki.org/index.php?title=Unconverted_long-term_prisoners&diff=64269
Unconverted long-term prisoners
2024-03-16T19:15:53Z
<p>Verda.Majo: /* Persecution and surveillance */ changed wording slightly to be less specific about the exact amount of years, as the articles say 18 years but by 2018 it would have been 19 years. As I'm unsure when the exact end of the surveillance was, I took the specific figure out.</p>
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<div>[[File:Unconverted long-term prisoners in south Korea.jpg|thumb|A demonstration calling for a second repatriation of unconverted long-term prisoners in south Korea. The sign reads "Call for second repatriation of non-converted long-term prisoners" ("비전향장기수 2차 송환 촉구").<ref>장동욱 (Jang Dong-wook). [http://www.saramilbo.com/5940 “비전향장기수 2차 송환 촉구.”] ("Call for second repatriation of non-converted long-term prisoners.") 사람일보. (Saram Ilbo.) 2006-09-02. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240311145007/http://www.saramilbo.com/5940 Archived] 2024-03-11.</ref>]]<br />
'''Unconverted long-term prisoners''' is a term which refers to [[Political prisoner|political prisoners]] imprisoned in [[Republic of Korea|south Korea]], generally on charges of "anti-state" activities or views in support of [[communism]] or [[Democratic People's Republic of Korea|DPRK]].<ref name=":1">[https://www.amnesty.org/es/documents/asa25/033/1993/en/ “South Korea: Unfair Trial and Torture: Long-Term Political Prisoners.”] [[Amnesty International]], September 30, 1993.</ref><ref name=":6">"National reunification prizes awarded to unconverted long-term prisoners", [[Korean Central News Agency]], 2000-09-04. [https://web.archive.org/web/20191124030603/http://www.kcna.co.jp/item/2000/200009/news09/04.htm Archived] 2019-11-19.</ref> The term commonly refers to people who were mostly arrested from the 1950s to 1980s and imprisoned and tortured for decades and who refused to sign a "conversion" statement renouncing communist or [[Left–right political spectrum|left-wing]] ideology, which had been a condition for their release.<ref>Amnesty International, [https://www.refworld.org/reference/annualreport/amnesty/1999/en/24250 Amnesty International Report 1999 - Korea, -, 1 January 1999]. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240311065515/https://www.refworld.org/reference/annualreport/amnesty/1999/en/24250 Archived] 2024-03-11.</ref> In the 1990s, some of the prisoners began being released. Some chose to remain in south Korea while others sought to be repatriated to DPRK.<ref name=":0">Kim Dong-won. ''Repatriation'' (2003). Documentary. URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xu2mEvU29Q</ref><br />
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== Imprisonment and torture ==<br />
The individuals arrested by the southern regime on charges of anti-state activities faced unfair trials,<ref name=":1" /> torture,<ref name=":1" /> and isolation,<ref name=":2">[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/286070.stm "Solitary: Tough test of survival instinct."] [[British Broadcasting Corporation|BBC]] News. February 25, 1999. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240311083202/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/286070.stm Archived] 2024-03-11.</ref> with some of them being imprisoned for over 40 years.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":8">[https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/news/1995/nov/15/worlds-longest-held-political-prisoner-released/ "World’s Longest Held Political Prisoner Released."] Prison Legal News, 1995-11-15. [https://web.archive.org/web/20231001182401/https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/news/1995/nov/15/worlds-longest-held-political-prisoner-released/ Archived] 2023-10-01.</ref><ref name=":3">[https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/388611.html “Truth Commission Confirms Yushin-Era Violations on Prisoners’ Freedom of Conscience.”] Hankyoreh, 2009-11-19. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240311105516/https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/388611.html Archived] 2024-03-11.</ref> While some of the prisoners were arrested for actual acts of espionage,<ref name=":4">Kang Jin-kyu (2016-08-07). [https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2016/08/07/politics/Spies-who-cant-come-in-from-the-cold/3022316.html "Spies who can't come in from the cold"] ''Korea JoongAng Daily''. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230208033225/https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2016/08/07/politics/Spies-who-cant-come-in-from-the-cold/3022316.html Archived] 2023-02-08.</ref> others have been described as [[Prisoner of conscience|prisoners of conscience]], with organizations such as [[Amnesty International]] stating in a 1993 document that some of the prisoners were "held solely for peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of expression and association" while also stating that prisoners "appear to have been tortured during interrogation" and were "convicted largely on the basis of these coerced confessions after an unfair trial" and raising concerns that they had been denied lawyers during their interrogations.<ref name=":1" /><br />
<br />
In 2009, south Korean news outlet Hankyoreh reported that south Korea's Truth and Reconciliation Commission released a statement which concluded that the conversion tactics which had been used on left-wing prisoners during the Yushin era of the 1970s constituted state violence and that acts of brutality were used to convert left-wing prisoners.<ref name=":3" /><br />
<br />
=== "Conversion" statements ===<br />
Until 1998, the prisoners were pressured to sign statements of "conversion" renouncing communist ideology as a condition of being released. Many prisoners refused to sign, later becoming referred to as "unconverted" prisoners.<ref name=":0" /> The requirement to sign a conversion statement was substituted in 1998 with a "Pledge to Obey the Law" which was eventually discontinued in 2003.<ref name=":3" /><br />
<br />
Among those who did sign the "conversion" statement as a condition of release, there are accounts such as that of Park Hee-sung, who said that his so-called "conversion" was the result of physical torture, and that he meant none of it,<ref name=":4" /> or the case of Kim Young-sik, who commented on his own experience with torture in the 2003 documentary [[Repatriation (film)|''Repatriation'']], "torturing you and forcing you to renounce your belief, can you really call that conversion?"<ref name=":0" /> Kim Young-sik was also quoted in a 2018 article saying of this forced conversion via torture, "I'm still very angry [...] How could they torture me to force me to give up an ideology that I believe is correct?"<ref name=":7">Kim, Hyung-jin. [https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/southern-exposure-the-north-koreans-longing-to-be-sent-home-20180523-p4zh0h.html “Southern Exposure: The North Koreans Longing to Be Sent Home.”] The Sydney Morning Herald. May 24, 2018. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240311103437/https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/southern-exposure-the-north-koreans-longing-to-be-sent-home-20180523-p4zh0h.html Archived] 2024-03-11. </ref><br />
<br />
Former prisoner Anh Hak-sop recounted similar methods of pressure to renounce his beliefs, including bribery and torture, in an interview with [[Liberation School]]: "First they tried to make theoretical arguments against the DPRK. But they couldn’t defend their beliefs to me. After that, they tried to bribe me with property. After that, there was torture."<ref name=":5" /><br />
<br />
=== Torture ===<br />
The methods of torture recounted by various victims include waterboarding,<ref name=":7" /> being forced to eat off the floor with hands cuffed behind their backs,<ref name=":7" /> being spun while hanging from the ceiling,<ref name=":7" /> beatings,<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":9">Kristof, Nicholas D. [https://www.nytimes.com/1995/08/20/world/free-in-seoul-after-44-years-and-still-defiant.html?pagewanted=all "Free in Seoul after 44 Years, and Still Defiant."] [[The New York Times]]. Aug. 20, 1995. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240311152015/https://www.nytimes.com/1995/08/20/world/free-in-seoul-after-44-years-and-still-defiant.html?pagewanted=all Archived] 2024-03-11.</ref> prolonged solitary confinement,<ref name=":2" /> water being thrown in the room in winter,<ref name=":5" /> clothing and bedding being taken away,<ref name=":5" /> starvation,<ref name=":9" /> prisoners being "expected to wash themselves with their own urine",<ref name=":9" /> and denial of medical and dental care.<ref name=":1" /> The 1993 Amnesty International document noted that the long-term prisoners were often kept in poor conditions and that some were suffering ill health due to their long term imprisonment and a reported lack of adequate medical care. The document also mentions that those who refused to sign the conversion statement generally suffered even worse treatment than the other prisoners.<ref name=":1" /> An article from 1999 by the BBC states that "Life inside was almost entirely spent in dark and cold cells and medical attention was scarce. Torture sometimes took the form of being locked up with a particularly sadistic prisoner."<ref name=":2" /><br />
<br />
According to a 1995 [[Prison Legal News]] article, unconverted prisoner Kim Sun Myung, who had been in captivity for over 43 years, had been beaten, starved, threatened with execution, watched his fellow prisoners die, was kept in solitary confinement for decades, and was denied medical care by prison doctors as he went blind from cataracts. Commenting with regard to the torture upon his release, Kim said: "They say that when you hammer steel, it only gets harder. Well, when you hit people, you just turn them into enemies, and they become stronger."<ref name=":8" /><br />
<br />
== Repatriation movement ==<br />
[[File:Repatriation demonstration for unconverted long-term prisoners vop.co.kr.jpg|thumb|Members of the preparatory group for the 20th anniversary of the repatriation of non-converted prisoners hold a press conference in front of the government complex in Seoul to urge the second repatriation (2020).<ref>Photo by 김철수 (Kim Cheoulsu). [https://www.vop.co.kr/A00001510809.html <nowiki>민중의소리 (Voice of the People). 인도적조치 비전향장기수 송환하라[포토] (Repatriate non-converted long-term prisoners for humanitarian measures [Photo]).</nowiki>] 2020-09-08.</ref>]]<br />
Of the former prisoners who sought repatriation to DPRK, some were eventually able to be repatriated, notably 63 of them in the year 2000.<ref name=":7" /> However, others remained in the south, being denied their requests for repatriation.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":4" /> The 63 individuals who were repatriated in September of 2000 were celebrated in [[Pyongyang]] and awarded [[National Reunification Prize|National Reunification Prizes]].<ref name=":6" /> At the time, the prisoners ranged in age from 66 to 90 years old.<ref name=":10">[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/907307.stm "Korean communists go home."] BBC News, 2 September, 2000. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240311153647/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/907307.stm Archived] 2024-03-11.</ref><br />
<br />
A Liberation School interview with a former prisoner, Ahn Hak-sop, reveals that many who participated in the repatriation in the year 2000 and many of those who remained in south Korea made their decisions based on their impression at the time that there was going to be more freedom of movement between ROK and DPRK thereafter. Ahn, who chose to remain in the south when the 2000 repatriation happened, said one of his reasons was that he "thought it was a temporary situation." Anh also notes regarding two prisoners released alongside him who were repatriated, that "[T]hose comrades went to the North because they thought that shortly there would be free movement between the two states. They went to the North to study and thought they would come back later." Regarding his own intention to stay in the south temporarily, Anh elaborated: "[T]here were young [[Progressivism|progressive]] people here in the South, and they asked me to stay. [...] We have to keep struggling here for the withdrawal of US army, the peace treaty, and peaceful reunification. I decided to stay here to fight for these goals. In 1952, I came here to liberate the southern half of the peninsula, and I need to stay here and continue that struggle."<ref name=":5">Liberation School (Jul 27, 2022). [https://www.liberationschool.org/interview-with-ahn-hak-sop/ "Still fighting for Korea’s liberation: An interview with Ahn Hak-sop"] ''Liberation School''. [https://web.archive.org/web/2/https://www.liberationschool.org/interview-with-ahn-hak-sop/ Archived] from the original.</ref><br />
<br />
Those who oppose or criticize the repatriation of these former prisoners generally do so on grounds of demanding that DPRK repatriate people to the south as well.<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":10" /><br />
<br />
== Persecution and surveillance ==<br />
The unconverted long-term prisoners who were released have faced various difficulties while living in south Korea, ranging from ongoing health issues from their imprisonment, to not being given social security numbers, living in poverty, and being subjected to state surveillance. In some cases, their families have also suffered persecution during and after their relative's imprisonment.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":7" /><ref name=":9" /><br />
<br />
Giving examples of the forms of persecution and surveillance he faced, former prisoner [[Anh Hak-sop]] explained, "[T]here are security police who follow me. Whenever there is a problem with the North and South, they raid my house and stand guard outside my property. One time at a demonstration, [[Conservatism|conservative]] forces attacked me. The police did nothing to protect me. Every week or every other week, the police come to my house and ask about my activities, who has visited my house, and so on. Once every other month I need to report to them about what I did, who I met, and who visited me. Every two years I need to go to court."<ref name=":5" /><br />
<br />
[[Kang Yong-ju]], a citizen activist who had been involved in the 1980 [[May 18 uprising|Gwangju Uprising]] as a student, is an unconverted long-term prisoner who was arrested in 1985, on charges of connection to a "spy ring" which have been regarded as unfounded<ref>[https://www.refworld.org/reference/countryrep/amnesty/1998/en/93950 "Long-Term Prisoners Still Held under the National Security Law."] Amnesty International. May 1, 1998. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240316184146/https://www.refworld.org/reference/countryrep/amnesty/1998/en/93950 Archived] 2023-03-16.</ref> and alleged to have been fabricated by the [[Chun Doo-hwan]] regime.<ref name=":11">Bak Gwang-yeon. [https://english.khan.co.kr/khan_art_view.html?artid=201802222015297&code=710100 "Kang Yong-ju, Free from the Shackles of 'Security Surveillance'."] [[The Kyunghyang Shinmun]], 2018-02-22. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240316182453/https://english.khan.co.kr/khan_art_view.html?artid=201802222015297&code=710100 Archived] 2024-03-16.</ref> He refused to sign a statement renouncing his views, and was thus imprisoned by the south Korean regime for 14 years, being released in 1999.<ref>Kim Min-kyung. [https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/824966.html “Prosecutors Request Prison Time for Unconverted Political Prisoner.”] Hankyoreh, 2017-12-25. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240316183657/https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/824966.html Archived] 2024-03-16.</ref> In the years following his release, Kang was subjected to the Security Surveillance Act until a court decision in 2018 finally prohibited the extension of further surveillance on Kang.<ref name=":11" /><br />
<br />
A column in Hankyoreh describes the surveillance program which Kang had been subjected to in the following manner:<blockquote>Being subject to security surveillance means that you must report your every move, every three months. If you move to a new house, you have to report that, and if the police suddenly call you in the middle of the night, you have to pick up the phone. If you want to travel, you have to provide advance notice of the destination and length of your trip and your travel companions. The police can ban you not only from meeting or contacting other people but also from attending public gatherings and demonstrations. Not only your family and relatives but even your [[landlord]], coworkers, church parishioners and apartment security staff can be asked to provide information about you or may be subject to surveillance themselves. Even though you have already finished your prison sentence, your life as a convict continues for the rest of your life.<ref name=":12">Lee Myung-soo. [https://www.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/792186.html <nowiki>“[Column] Kang Yong-Ju Must Not Be Treated like a Convict for the Rest of His Life.”</nowiki>] Hankyoreh, 2017-04-25. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240316183604/https://www.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/792186.html Archived] 2024-03-16.</ref></blockquote>The column also notes that security surveillance must be renewed every two years, but if the Justice Minister believes that there is a risk of recidivism, "the state can continue to monitor an individual’s private life until the day they die."<ref name=":12" /><br />
<br />
== See also ==<br />
<br />
* [[Repatriation (film)]]<br />
<br />
== References ==<br />
<references /></div>
Verda.Majo
https://en.prolewiki.org/index.php?title=Unconverted_long-term_prisoners&diff=64268
Unconverted long-term prisoners
2024-03-16T19:06:41Z
<p>Verda.Majo: /* Persecution and surveillance */ added information about a former prisoner arrested in the 1980s and the intense surveillance he faced post-release</p>
<hr />
<div>[[File:Unconverted long-term prisoners in south Korea.jpg|thumb|A demonstration calling for a second repatriation of unconverted long-term prisoners in south Korea. The sign reads "Call for second repatriation of non-converted long-term prisoners" ("비전향장기수 2차 송환 촉구").<ref>장동욱 (Jang Dong-wook). [http://www.saramilbo.com/5940 “비전향장기수 2차 송환 촉구.”] ("Call for second repatriation of non-converted long-term prisoners.") 사람일보. (Saram Ilbo.) 2006-09-02. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240311145007/http://www.saramilbo.com/5940 Archived] 2024-03-11.</ref>]]<br />
'''Unconverted long-term prisoners''' is a term which refers to [[Political prisoner|political prisoners]] imprisoned in [[Republic of Korea|south Korea]], generally on charges of "anti-state" activities or views in support of [[communism]] or [[Democratic People's Republic of Korea|DPRK]].<ref name=":1">[https://www.amnesty.org/es/documents/asa25/033/1993/en/ “South Korea: Unfair Trial and Torture: Long-Term Political Prisoners.”] [[Amnesty International]], September 30, 1993.</ref><ref name=":6">"National reunification prizes awarded to unconverted long-term prisoners", [[Korean Central News Agency]], 2000-09-04. [https://web.archive.org/web/20191124030603/http://www.kcna.co.jp/item/2000/200009/news09/04.htm Archived] 2019-11-19.</ref> The term commonly refers to people who were mostly arrested from the 1950s to 1980s and imprisoned and tortured for decades and who refused to sign a "conversion" statement renouncing communist or [[Left–right political spectrum|left-wing]] ideology, which had been a condition for their release.<ref>Amnesty International, [https://www.refworld.org/reference/annualreport/amnesty/1999/en/24250 Amnesty International Report 1999 - Korea, -, 1 January 1999]. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240311065515/https://www.refworld.org/reference/annualreport/amnesty/1999/en/24250 Archived] 2024-03-11.</ref> In the 1990s, some of the prisoners began being released. Some chose to remain in south Korea while others sought to be repatriated to DPRK.<ref name=":0">Kim Dong-won. ''Repatriation'' (2003). Documentary. URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xu2mEvU29Q</ref><br />
<br />
== Imprisonment and torture ==<br />
The individuals arrested by the southern regime on charges of anti-state activities faced unfair trials,<ref name=":1" /> torture,<ref name=":1" /> and isolation,<ref name=":2">[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/286070.stm "Solitary: Tough test of survival instinct."] [[British Broadcasting Corporation|BBC]] News. February 25, 1999. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240311083202/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/286070.stm Archived] 2024-03-11.</ref> with some of them being imprisoned for over 40 years.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":8">[https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/news/1995/nov/15/worlds-longest-held-political-prisoner-released/ "World’s Longest Held Political Prisoner Released."] Prison Legal News, 1995-11-15. [https://web.archive.org/web/20231001182401/https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/news/1995/nov/15/worlds-longest-held-political-prisoner-released/ Archived] 2023-10-01.</ref><ref name=":3">[https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/388611.html “Truth Commission Confirms Yushin-Era Violations on Prisoners’ Freedom of Conscience.”] Hankyoreh, 2009-11-19. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240311105516/https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/388611.html Archived] 2024-03-11.</ref> While some of the prisoners were arrested for actual acts of espionage,<ref name=":4">Kang Jin-kyu (2016-08-07). [https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2016/08/07/politics/Spies-who-cant-come-in-from-the-cold/3022316.html "Spies who can't come in from the cold"] ''Korea JoongAng Daily''. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230208033225/https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2016/08/07/politics/Spies-who-cant-come-in-from-the-cold/3022316.html Archived] 2023-02-08.</ref> others have been described as [[Prisoner of conscience|prisoners of conscience]], with organizations such as [[Amnesty International]] stating in a 1993 document that some of the prisoners were "held solely for peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of expression and association" while also stating that prisoners "appear to have been tortured during interrogation" and were "convicted largely on the basis of these coerced confessions after an unfair trial" and raising concerns that they had been denied lawyers during their interrogations.<ref name=":1" /><br />
<br />
In 2009, south Korean news outlet Hankyoreh reported that south Korea's Truth and Reconciliation Commission released a statement which concluded that the conversion tactics which had been used on left-wing prisoners during the Yushin era of the 1970s constituted state violence and that acts of brutality were used to convert left-wing prisoners.<ref name=":3" /><br />
<br />
=== "Conversion" statements ===<br />
Until 1998, the prisoners were pressured to sign statements of "conversion" renouncing communist ideology as a condition of being released. Many prisoners refused to sign, later becoming referred to as "unconverted" prisoners.<ref name=":0" /> The requirement to sign a conversion statement was substituted in 1998 with a "Pledge to Obey the Law" which was eventually discontinued in 2003.<ref name=":3" /><br />
<br />
Among those who did sign the "conversion" statement as a condition of release, there are accounts such as that of Park Hee-sung, who said that his so-called "conversion" was the result of physical torture, and that he meant none of it,<ref name=":4" /> or the case of Kim Young-sik, who commented on his own experience with torture in the 2003 documentary [[Repatriation (film)|''Repatriation'']], "torturing you and forcing you to renounce your belief, can you really call that conversion?"<ref name=":0" /> Kim Young-sik was also quoted in a 2018 article saying of this forced conversion via torture, "I'm still very angry [...] How could they torture me to force me to give up an ideology that I believe is correct?"<ref name=":7">Kim, Hyung-jin. [https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/southern-exposure-the-north-koreans-longing-to-be-sent-home-20180523-p4zh0h.html “Southern Exposure: The North Koreans Longing to Be Sent Home.”] The Sydney Morning Herald. May 24, 2018. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240311103437/https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/southern-exposure-the-north-koreans-longing-to-be-sent-home-20180523-p4zh0h.html Archived] 2024-03-11. </ref><br />
<br />
Former prisoner Anh Hak-sop recounted similar methods of pressure to renounce his beliefs, including bribery and torture, in an interview with [[Liberation School]]: "First they tried to make theoretical arguments against the DPRK. But they couldn’t defend their beliefs to me. After that, they tried to bribe me with property. After that, there was torture."<ref name=":5" /><br />
<br />
=== Torture ===<br />
The methods of torture recounted by various victims include waterboarding,<ref name=":7" /> being forced to eat off the floor with hands cuffed behind their backs,<ref name=":7" /> being spun while hanging from the ceiling,<ref name=":7" /> beatings,<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":9">Kristof, Nicholas D. [https://www.nytimes.com/1995/08/20/world/free-in-seoul-after-44-years-and-still-defiant.html?pagewanted=all "Free in Seoul after 44 Years, and Still Defiant."] [[The New York Times]]. Aug. 20, 1995. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240311152015/https://www.nytimes.com/1995/08/20/world/free-in-seoul-after-44-years-and-still-defiant.html?pagewanted=all Archived] 2024-03-11.</ref> prolonged solitary confinement,<ref name=":2" /> water being thrown in the room in winter,<ref name=":5" /> clothing and bedding being taken away,<ref name=":5" /> starvation,<ref name=":9" /> prisoners being "expected to wash themselves with their own urine",<ref name=":9" /> and denial of medical and dental care.<ref name=":1" /> The 1993 Amnesty International document noted that the long-term prisoners were often kept in poor conditions and that some were suffering ill health due to their long term imprisonment and a reported lack of adequate medical care. The document also mentions that those who refused to sign the conversion statement generally suffered even worse treatment than the other prisoners.<ref name=":1" /> An article from 1999 by the BBC states that "Life inside was almost entirely spent in dark and cold cells and medical attention was scarce. Torture sometimes took the form of being locked up with a particularly sadistic prisoner."<ref name=":2" /><br />
<br />
According to a 1995 [[Prison Legal News]] article, unconverted prisoner Kim Sun Myung, who had been in captivity for over 43 years, had been beaten, starved, threatened with execution, watched his fellow prisoners die, was kept in solitary confinement for decades, and was denied medical care by prison doctors as he went blind from cataracts. Commenting with regard to the torture upon his release, Kim said: "They say that when you hammer steel, it only gets harder. Well, when you hit people, you just turn them into enemies, and they become stronger."<ref name=":8" /><br />
<br />
== Repatriation movement ==<br />
[[File:Repatriation demonstration for unconverted long-term prisoners vop.co.kr.jpg|thumb|Members of the preparatory group for the 20th anniversary of the repatriation of non-converted prisoners hold a press conference in front of the government complex in Seoul to urge the second repatriation (2020).<ref>Photo by 김철수 (Kim Cheoulsu). [https://www.vop.co.kr/A00001510809.html <nowiki>민중의소리 (Voice of the People). 인도적조치 비전향장기수 송환하라[포토] (Repatriate non-converted long-term prisoners for humanitarian measures [Photo]).</nowiki>] 2020-09-08.</ref>]]<br />
Of the former prisoners who sought repatriation to DPRK, some were eventually able to be repatriated, notably 63 of them in the year 2000.<ref name=":7" /> However, others remained in the south, being denied their requests for repatriation.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":4" /> The 63 individuals who were repatriated in September of 2000 were celebrated in [[Pyongyang]] and awarded [[National Reunification Prize|National Reunification Prizes]].<ref name=":6" /> At the time, the prisoners ranged in age from 66 to 90 years old.<ref name=":10">[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/907307.stm "Korean communists go home."] BBC News, 2 September, 2000. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240311153647/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/907307.stm Archived] 2024-03-11.</ref><br />
<br />
A Liberation School interview with a former prisoner, Ahn Hak-sop, reveals that many who participated in the repatriation in the year 2000 and many of those who remained in south Korea made their decisions based on their impression at the time that there was going to be more freedom of movement between ROK and DPRK thereafter. Ahn, who chose to remain in the south when the 2000 repatriation happened, said one of his reasons was that he "thought it was a temporary situation." Anh also notes regarding two prisoners released alongside him who were repatriated, that "[T]hose comrades went to the North because they thought that shortly there would be free movement between the two states. They went to the North to study and thought they would come back later." Regarding his own intention to stay in the south temporarily, Anh elaborated: "[T]here were young [[Progressivism|progressive]] people here in the South, and they asked me to stay. [...] We have to keep struggling here for the withdrawal of US army, the peace treaty, and peaceful reunification. I decided to stay here to fight for these goals. In 1952, I came here to liberate the southern half of the peninsula, and I need to stay here and continue that struggle."<ref name=":5">Liberation School (Jul 27, 2022). [https://www.liberationschool.org/interview-with-ahn-hak-sop/ "Still fighting for Korea’s liberation: An interview with Ahn Hak-sop"] ''Liberation School''. [https://web.archive.org/web/2/https://www.liberationschool.org/interview-with-ahn-hak-sop/ Archived] from the original.</ref><br />
<br />
Those who oppose or criticize the repatriation of these former prisoners generally do so on grounds of demanding that DPRK repatriate people to the south as well.<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":10" /><br />
<br />
== Persecution and surveillance ==<br />
The unconverted long-term prisoners who were released have faced various difficulties while living in south Korea, ranging from ongoing health issues from their imprisonment, to not being given social security numbers, living in poverty, and being subjected to state surveillance. In some cases, their families have also suffered persecution during and after their relative's imprisonment.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":7" /><ref name=":9" /><br />
<br />
Giving examples of the forms of persecution and surveillance he faced, former prisoner [[Anh Hak-sop]] explained, "[T]here are security police who follow me. Whenever there is a problem with the North and South, they raid my house and stand guard outside my property. One time at a demonstration, [[Conservatism|conservative]] forces attacked me. The police did nothing to protect me. Every week or every other week, the police come to my house and ask about my activities, who has visited my house, and so on. Once every other month I need to report to them about what I did, who I met, and who visited me. Every two years I need to go to court."<ref name=":5" /><br />
<br />
[[Kang Yong-ju]], a citizen activist who had been involved in the 1980 [[May 18 uprising|Gwangju Uprising]] as a student, is an unconverted long-term prisoner who was arrested in 1985, on charges of connection to a "spy ring" which have been regarded as unfounded<ref>[https://www.refworld.org/reference/countryrep/amnesty/1998/en/93950 "Long-Term Prisoners Still Held under the National Security Law."] Amnesty International. May 1, 1998. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240316184146/https://www.refworld.org/reference/countryrep/amnesty/1998/en/93950 Archived] 2023-03-16.</ref> and alleged to have been fabricated by the [[Chun Doo-hwan]] regime.<ref name=":11">Bak Gwang-yeon. [https://english.khan.co.kr/khan_art_view.html?artid=201802222015297&code=710100 "Kang Yong-ju, Free from the Shackles of 'Security Surveillance'."] [[The Kyunghyang Shinmun]], 2018-02-22. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240316182453/https://english.khan.co.kr/khan_art_view.html?artid=201802222015297&code=710100 Archived] 2024-03-16.</ref> He refused to sign a statement renouncing his views, and was thus imprisoned by the south Korean regime for 14 years, being released in 1999.<ref>Kim Min-kyung. [https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/824966.html “Prosecutors Request Prison Time for Unconverted Political Prisoner.”] Hankyoreh, 2017-12-25. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240316183657/https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/824966.html Archived] 2024-03-16.</ref> For 18 years following his release, Kang was subjected to the Security Surveillance Act until a court decision in 2018 finally prohibited the extension of further surveillance on Kang.<ref name=":11" /><br />
<br />
A column in Hankyoreh describes the surveillance program which Kang had been subjected to in the following manner:<blockquote>Being subject to security surveillance means that you must report your every move, every three months. If you move to a new house, you have to report that, and if the police suddenly call you in the middle of the night, you have to pick up the phone. If you want to travel, you have to provide advance notice of the destination and length of your trip and your travel companions. The police can ban you not only from meeting or contacting other people but also from attending public gatherings and demonstrations. Not only your family and relatives but even your [[landlord]], coworkers, church parishioners and apartment security staff can be asked to provide information about you or may be subject to surveillance themselves. Even though you have already finished your prison sentence, your life as a convict continues for the rest of your life.<ref name=":12">Lee Myung-soo. [https://www.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/792186.html <nowiki>“[Column] Kang Yong-Ju Must Not Be Treated like a Convict for the Rest of His Life.”</nowiki>] Hankyoreh, 2017-04-25. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240316183604/https://www.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/792186.html Archived] 2024-03-16.</ref></blockquote>The column also notes that security surveillance must be renewed every two years, but if the Justice Minister believes that there is a risk of recidivism, "the state can continue to monitor an individual’s private life until the day they die."<ref name=":12" /><br />
<br />
== See also ==<br />
<br />
* [[Repatriation (film)]]<br />
<br />
== References ==<br />
<references /></div>
Verda.Majo
https://en.prolewiki.org/index.php?title=United_States_Army_Military_Government_in_Korea&diff=64264
United States Army Military Government in Korea
2024-03-16T16:42:24Z
<p>Verda.Majo: created basic page about USAMGIK</p>
<hr />
<div>[[File:The Japanese flag in front of the Japanese Government-General of Korea building in Seoul is replaced with the U.S. flag..png|alt=A side-by-side of two black and white photos. The first is of the Japanese flag in front of the Japanese Government General of Korea building being lowered, with US military watching. In the second picture, the US flag is raised on the same flag pole, with the US military personnel saluting it.|thumb|The Japanese flag in front of the Japanese Government-General of Korea building in Seoul is replaced with the U.S. flag.<ref>[http://jeju43peace.org/historytruth/fact-truth/factstruth_article2/ "Liberation from Japan in 1945."] Jeju 4.3 Peace Foundation. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230604195550/http://jeju43peace.org/historytruth/fact-truth/factstruth_article2/ Archived] 2023-06-04.</ref>]]<br />
'''The United States Army Military Government in Korea''' ('''USAMGIK''') was the [[United States of America|United States]]' occupying authority in the southern part of [[Korea]] from September 8, 1945 until August 15, 1948.<ref name=":0">Heo Ho-joon. [https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_international/1086487 "‘My mission is suppression’: Jeju blood on the hands of the US military government."] Hankyoreh, 2023-04-04. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240316154019/https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_international/1086487 Archived] 2024-03-16.</ref><br />
<br />
Ahn Hak-sop, a former officer in the [[Korean People's Army]] who was captured in 1952 and endured decades of torture as a political prisoner in [[Republic of Korea|south Korea]], spoke about the USAMGIK's occupation in a 2019 interview with [[Liberation School]]:<blockquote>In September of 1945, Koreans went out to greet the US Army, but the US Army shot at them. After the Moscow Committee, the US Army said explicitly that they were there to block the [[Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (1922–1991)|Soviet Union]]. But in 1948, the Soviet Union withdrew all of their troops. But the US Army didn’t withdraw. In almost every town, there was a People’s Committee for self-rule, but the US Army crushed the People’s Committees with tanks and soldiers.<ref>Ahn Hak-sop, Derek Ford. [https://www.liberationschool.org/interview-with-ahn-hak-sop/ "Still fighting for Korea’s liberation: An interview with Ahn Hak-sop."] Liberation School, 2023-07-27. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240117180755/https://www.liberationschool.org/interview-with-ahn-hak-sop/ Archived] 2024-01-17.</ref></blockquote>The "Jeju 4•3 Incident Investigation Report" published in 2003 by south Korea's government assigns responsibility for the [[Jeju Uprising|Jeju massacre]] not only to dictator [[Syngman Rhee]] but also to the USAMGIK authorities.<ref name=":0" /><ref>"The Jeju 4·3 Incident Investigation Report." The National Committee for Investigation of the Truth about the Jeju April 3 Incident, Jeju 4·3 Peace Foundation, 2003.</ref><br />
<br />
== References ==<br />
<references /></div>
Verda.Majo
https://en.prolewiki.org/index.php?title=Republic_of_Korea&diff=64263
Republic of Korea
2024-03-16T15:43:54Z
<p>Verda.Majo: /* US occupation */ made a link to United States Army Military Government in Korea (USAMGIK)</p>
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<div>{{Infobox country|name=Republic of Korea|population_estimate_year=2019|population_estimate=51,709,098|area_km2=100,363|established_date1=1948 August 15|established_event1=First Republic|image_map=Statesian neocolonial occupation of Korea.svg|map_width=260|official_languages=Korean|leader_name3=Kim Jin-pyo|native_name=대한민국|image_flag=Flag of South Korea.svg|leader_title3=Speaker of the National Assembly|leader_name2=Han Duck-soo|leader_title2=Prime Minister|leader_name1=[[Yoon Suk-yeol]]|leader_title1=President|image_coat=ROK emblem.svg|capital=Seoul|government_type=Unitary corporatocratic republic|currency=Korean Republic won (₩) (KRW)|official_website=https://www.korea.net/|mode_of_production=[[Capitalism]]}}<br />
The so-called '''Republic of Korea''' ('''ROK'''), also known as '''Capitalist Korea''' or '''South Korea''', is a [[Bourgeois state|bourgeois liberal republic]] that serves as a [[United States of America|U.S.]] puppet state<ref>{{Citation|author=Stephen Gowans|year=2018|title=Patriots, Traitors and Empires: The Story of Korea’s Struggle for Freedom|chapter=The Empire of Japan|page=45|pdf=https://ipfs.io/ipfs/bafykbzaced4iiga4ngtxusr2civjxewbili5jne2sbpefbx2s3im2kphattzc?filename=Stephen%20Gowans%20-%20Patriots%2C%20Traitors%20and%20Empires_%20The%20Story%20of%20Korea%E2%80%99s%20Struggle%20for%20Freedom-Baraka%20Books%20%282018%29.pdf|city=Montreal|publisher=Baraka Books|isbn=9781771861427|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=8435F6FF91279531705764823FDC2A7F}}</ref> and [[Neocolonialism|colony]]<ref name=":23" /> located on the southern portion of the [[Korea|Korean Peninsula]]. The northern part of the peninsula is governed by the [[Democratic People's Republic of Korea|Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)]], also known as People's Korea. <br />
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According to the south Korean [[People's Democracy Party]] (민중민주당), writing in a 2020 [[Liberation School]] article, "south Korea is a complete colony occupied by the U.S. military, is politically oppressed by the U.S., and is economically subordinate to [[Imperialism|imperialist]] countries, including the U.S. After the military coup of 1961, the rule of fascist military dictatorships continued for 30 years, and since then a pro-US [[Neoliberalism|neoliberal]] regime has operated in the country. It is severely exploiting the [[Proletariat|workers]], [[Peasantry|farmers]], and all the people."<ref name=":23">People's Democracy Party and Liberation School. [https://www.liberationschool.org/korean-war-70-years/ “70 Years Too Long: The Struggle to End the Korean War – Liberation School.”] ''Liberation School – Revolutionary Marxism for a New Generation of Fighters'', 25 June 2020. [https://web.archive.org/web/2/https://www.liberationschool.org/korean-war-70-years/ Archived].<br />
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According to the same party, the Korean reunification and peace struggle is contingent on the withdrawal of U.S. troops, and therefore U.S. military withdrawal from south Korea is "the most desperate and preferred struggle task for the whole Korean nation to solve.<ref name=":23" /> <br />
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Since its inception, the ROK has been riddled with corruption and political scandals. All four living former south Korean presidents have been sentenced to prison for various crimes ranging from abuse of authority to bribery and embezzlement.<ref name="aei">{{Web citation|date=2018-10-09|title=South Korea's troubling history of jailing ex-presidents|url=https://www.aei.org/foreign-and-defense-policy/asia/south-koreas-troubling-history-of-jailing-ex-presidents/|newspaper=American Enterprise Institute}}</ref><ref>{{Web citation|date=2021-02-10|title=Former South Korean president sentenced to prison|url=https://www.dw.com/en/former-south-korean-president-sentenced-to-prison/a-55779280|newspaper=Deutsche Welle}}</ref><ref>{{Web citation|date=2013-08-22|title=Ex-president Roh Tae-woo to pay remainder of massive fine|newspaper=The Chosunilbo}}</ref><ref>{{Web citation|date=2017-02-07|title=South Korea: President's impeachment on a background of political scandal|url=http://perspective.usherbrooke.ca/bilan/servlet/BMAnalyse?codeAnalyse=2320|newspaper=Perspective Monde}}</ref><ref name="bbcsource">{{Web citation|date=2018-10-05|title=South Korea ex-leader jailed for 15 years|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-45756561|newspaper=[[BBC|BBC News]]}}</ref><br />
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==History==<br />
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=== Early history and Japanese occupation ===<br />
{{Main article|Korea}}<br />
Some of Korea's major historical periods leading up to the contemporary period include the period of Gojoseon (2333 B.C.-108 B.C.), the Three Han States Period, the Three Kingdoms Period, the North-South States Period (668-918), the Goryeo Dynasty (918–1392), the Joseon Dynasty (1392–1897), the relatively short-lived Korean Empire (1897–1910), and the Japanese colonial occupation period (1910–1945).<ref name=":29">Shin, Michael D.; Lee, Injae; Miller, Owen; Park, Jinhoon; Yi, Hyon-hye. [https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781107098466 "Korean History in Maps: from prehistory to the Twenty-first Century."] Cambridge University Press, 3rd printing, 2016.</ref><ref>[http://nationalatlas.ngii.go.kr/pages/page_3083.php "Territorial History of Korea."] National Atlas of Korea: Comprehensive Edition (2022). National Geography Information Institute, Ministry of Land Infrastructure and Transport.</ref><br />
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Throughout its history, Korea has been faced with various foreign attacks and disturbances. For example, Korea faced invasion by Japan during the [[Imjin Wars]] of the 1590s<ref name=":29" /> and disturbances such as imperialist [[gunboat diplomacy]] in the 1800s.<ref>Bullimore, Kim. [https://redflag.org.au/node/6486 "Understanding US aggression against North Korea."] [[Redflag]], [[Socialist Alternative (Australia)|Socialist Alternative]], 2018-08-21. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220526084730/https://redflag.org.au/node/6486 Archived] 2022-05-26.</ref> As independent scholar Jay Hauben observed in The Jeju Weekly, Korea "remained independent despite 500 years of efforts of bigger powers to dominate it" until it was subjected to Japanese rule in 1910.<ref name=":14" /><br />
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During the Japanese occupation era, which lasted until Japan's defeat in 1945, Korea's economy was developed to serve the interests of the Japanese empire, with Korean industry developing as an "appendage" of Japanese industry, hindering the normal development of Korea's national industry.<ref>Kim Han Gil. [https://archive.org/details/ModernHistoryOfKorea/ "Modern History of Korea."] Foreign Languages Publishing House, Pyongyang, Korea, 1979.</ref> The southern part of the Korean peninsula was predominantly agricultural, and was considered the "rice bowl" of the country as it supplied a greater portion of the food for Korea. As a colonial economy, it was tightly controlled in the interest of creating a rice surplus for Japan.<ref name=":15">Kim Jinwung. A ''Policy of Amateurism: The Rice Policy of the U.S. Army Military''. Government in Korea, 1945-1948. Korea Journal, Summer 2007.https://kj.accesson.kr/assets/pdf/8153/journal-47-2-208.pdf</ref><br />
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As [[Kim Il-sung|Kim Il Sung]] summarized, during the colonial period, Japan turned Korea into "a source of raw materials and labour, a market for their commodities and a military base for aggression against the continent."<ref>Kim Il Sung. "The Tasks of Korean Communists." Treatise Published in Sogwang, Organ of the Korean People's Revolutionary Army, November 10, 1937. Collected Works Volume 1. ([https://www.marxists.org/archive/kim-il-sung/cw/01.pdf PDF])</ref> Additionally, under colonial rule, Koreans were subjected to kidnapping and slavery in the form of forced labor and sexual slavery (the latter are known as [[comfort women]]), on top of facing extensive political repression and cultural erasure.<ref name=":30" /><br />
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A [[Liberation School]] article explains that as economic and anti-colonial demands mounted under the occupation, resistance to Japanese colonialism grew and [[Communism|communists]] and [[Anarchism|anarchists]] "began meeting in the borderlands of Russia, China, and Korea." On March 1, 1919 a massive Korean independence protest movement was launched. Since 1931, nationalist and communist guerrillas struggled in the mountains of Manchuria against the Japanese, and Kim Il-Sung emerged as a particularly effective leader during this period.<ref name=":30">Ford, Derek. [https://www.liberationschool.org/the-chongryon-movement-the-struggle-of-koreans-in-japan/ “Chongryon: The Struggle of Koreans in Japan – Liberation School.”] ''Liberation School – Revolutionary Marxism for a New Generation of Fighters'', 30 Jan. 2019.</ref><br />
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===US occupation===<br />
[[File:The Japanese flag in front of the Japanese Government-General of Korea building in Seoul is replaced with the U.S. flag..png|thumb|314x314px|U.S. forces lower the Japanese flag in Seoul and replace it with the U.S. flag.]]<br />
After [[Kim Il-sung]] liberated Korea from the Japanese Empire, in an "outburst of meetings and organizing" that "came out into the open all over Korea" after Japanese surrender, activists throughout the Korean peninsula began to plan and organize to replace Japanese rule and dominance. Groups of local people gathered in most villages and cities and sought ways to replace the police and pro-Japanese administrators with people who had resisted Japanese rule.<ref name=":14" /> A left-leaning nationwide organization established by Koreans known as the Alliance for National government as well as many local People's Committees enjoyed widespread popular support throughout the country. However, the [[United States Army Military Government in Korea|U.S. Military Government in Korea]] (USAMGIK) did not recognize the new state declared by the People’s Committees, and Korea was divided across the 38th parallel by two American officers who had never been to Korea.<ref>{{Citation|author=Don Oberdorfer, Robert Carlin|year=2014|title=The Two Koreas: A Contemporary History|chapter=|section=|page=5|quote=|pdf=|city=|publisher=|isbn=9780465031238|doi=|lg=|mia=|title-url=|chapter-url=|trans-title=|trans-lang=}}</ref> The U.S. occupation of the southern half of Korea was announced in Proclamation No. 1 by General of the Army Douglas MacArthur on Sept. 7, 1945, with the statement that “All powers of Government over the territory of Korea south of 38 degrees north latitude and the people thereof will be for the present exercised under my authority.”<ref>{{News citation|newspaper=Jeju 4.3 Peace Foundation|title=Liberation from Japan in 1945|date=2018|url=http://jeju43peace.org/historytruth/fact-truth/factstruth_article2/}}</ref><br />
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In "A Policy of Amateurism: The Rice Policy of the U.S. Army Military''"'', Kim Jinwung writes:<blockquote>When news arrived that the United States was planning to occupy southern Korea, [<nowiki/>[[Lyuh Woon-hyung|Yeo Un-hyeong]]'s<ref group="Notes">여운형, name romanized as Yeo Unhyeong, Yŏ Unhyŏng, or Lyuh Woon-hyung.</ref> Committee for the Preparation of Korean Independence] called a national convention in Seoul on September 6 to give his regime the stamp of legitimacy. Yeo and his followers wanted to quicken the process of establishing a new government before the Americans arrived. Yeo proclaimed the establishment of the [[People's Republic of Korea (1945–1946)|Korean People’s Republic]], with a cabinet that included distinguished nationalists of all political persuasions, right and left. But the body was clearly influenced by the left, with Communists playing key roles.<ref name=":15" /></blockquote>However, the U.S. refused to recognize this organization, and General John R. Hodge, the Commanding General of U.S. Army Forces in Korea, outlawed the people’s committees and created new local councils under conservative control.<ref name=":15" /> In an article titled "People's Republic of Korea: Jeju, 1945-1946", Jay Hauben describes the situation:<blockquote>On Sept. 8, 21 US warships arrived in Incheon to supervise in the name of the Allies the surrender of the Japanese Governor-General of Korea and the 200,000 Japanese military personnel and their equipment and property south of the 38th parallel. US General John Hodge commanded the US landing. The US party was met by an English speaking committee of the PRK [People's Republic of Korea] to welcome it to Korea in the name of the people and newly emerging government of Korea. General Hodge refused to meet with them. His mission was to head the United States Military Government In Korea (USAMGIK) and he would not accept that there was already a newly forming government of Korea.<ref name=":14" /></blockquote>Due to the People’s Committees enjoying such widespread popular support, the USAMGIK resorted to dissolving the committees by force so that the U.S. could effectively rule the country.<ref name=":0">{{News citation|newspaper=Jeju 4.3 Peace Foundation|title=Who ruled over the Korean Peninsula?|date=2018|url=http://jeju43peace.org/historytruth/fact-truth/factstruth_article3/|retrieved=2022-07-23}}</ref> As noted by Hauben, "The USAMGIK had as its mission to prevent a Korean government friendly to socialism or communism or leftism in general. That mission required that the left leaning majority of the Korean people had to be diverted."<ref name=":14" /><br />
[[File:1946 South Korean opinion poll about socialism, communism, and capitalism.png|thumb|An opinion poll appearing in the Dong-A Ilbo newspaper on August 13, 1946 showed a majority of respondents favoring socialism and less than 15% supporting capitalism.|341x341px]]<br />
In August 1946, the newspaper Dong-A Ilbo published the results of various opinion polls seeking information about the kind of government the people of Korea wanted. Of those surveyed, when asked about which system they agreed with, 14% of respondents answered "capitalism" (1,189 people), 70% answered "socialism" (6,037 people), 7% answered "communism" (574 people), and 8% responded "do not know" (653 people).<ref>[https://db.history.go.kr/id/dh_003_1946_08_13_0070 "1946년 8월 13일 軍政廳輿論局, 朝鮮國民이 어떠한 종류의 政府를 요망하는지 여론을 조사" ("August 13, 1946. Surveys the public opinion on what kind of military service the people of the military and government demand.")] 동아일보 1946년 08월 13일. (Dong-A Ilbo, August 13, 1946). 자료대한민국사 제3권. (Source Korea History Vol. 3). Korean History Database. 국사편찬위원회. (National Institute of Korean History). [https://web.archive.org/web/20220825114505/https://db.history.go.kr/id/dh_003_1946_08_13_0070 Archived] 2022-08-25.</ref><ref>[https://newslibrary.naver.com/viewer/index.naver?articleId=1946081300209203003&editNo=1&printCount=1&publishDate=1946-08-13&officeId=00020&pageNo=3&printNo=7053&publishType=00020 "軍政廳輿論局調査(군정청여론국조사)."] Dong-A Ilbo August 13, 1946. Page 3. Naver 뉴스 라이브러리 (Naver News Library).</ref><br />
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Following General MacArthur's Proclamation No. 1, the USAMGIK became the official ruling body of south Korea (in the eyes of the U.S.), from 1945 to 1948, until the establishment of the Republic of Korea on Aug. 15, 1948. Through this series of events, the Korean Peninsula was divided along the 38th parallel, the South was occupied by the United States, the People's Committees were suppressed, many Japanese colonial era collaborator police and officials were placed back into positions of power, and a [[Fascism|fascist]] dictatorship led by Harvard graduate [[Syngman Rhee]] was installed.<ref>{{News citation|journalist=|date=|title=Syngman Rhee|url=https://www.doopedia.co.kr/doopedia/master/master.do?_method=view&MAS_IDX=101013000746262|newspaper=Doopedia|archive-url=|archive-date=|retrieved=}}</ref> <br />
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==== Suppressed criticism in official U.S. military history of Korean War and U.S. occupation of Korea ====<br />
In the work ''From Occupation to War: Cold War Legacies of US: Army Historical Studies of the Occupation and Korean War'', Seoul National University professor Chung Yong Wook writes that "a divergent understanding" of this era "was repressed or rooted out by force in the US and around the ‘free world'" due to the official U.S. history of the war being written in the context of the emerging Cold War. Military historian Richard Robinson, who wrote a work critical of the U.S. role in Korea, ''Betrayal of a Nation'', was unable to find a publisher for his work and it remained in manuscript form. I.F. Stone's work ''The Hidden History of the Korean War'' (1952) which was also critical of U.S. conduct in Korea was removed from many libraries. Professor Chung notes that "military historians were not, in essence, allowed to criticize information given to them, nor did they have leeway in interpreting and critiquing facts, they were left only to describe ''sanitized'' history" at all stages of the information-gathering and history-writing process.<ref>Chung, Yong Wook. From Occupation to War; Cold War Legacies of US Army Historical Studies of the Occupation and Korean War. Korea Journal, vol. 60, no. 2 (summer 2020): 14–54. doi: 10.25024/kj.2020.60.2.14 © The Academy of Korean Studies, 2020. URL: https://kj.accesson.kr/assets/pdf/8518/journal-60-2-14.pdf [https://web.archive.org/web/20220725044626/https://kj.accesson.kr/assets/pdf/8518/journal-60-2-14.pdf Archive URL]. Suppression of counter-narratives ("Abstract" p. 15, PDF p.1); "sanitized history" (p. 20, PDF p. 7)</ref><br />
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According to Richard Robinson, who had been working as a historian for the military during the occupation, the official American military history of the occupation is "highly prejudiced and inaccurate" adding that the official U.S. histories were "written upon explicit orders not even to imply criticism of anything American" and says that "if the truth were known, the American occupation of south Korea was incredibly bungled by an incompetent and corrupt administration—all in the name of American democracy."<ref name=":5">Robinson, Richard. Cited in Chung, Yong Wook. ''From Occupation to War; Cold War Legacies of US Army Historical Studies of the Occupation and Korean War''. Korea Journal, vol. 60, no. 2 (summer 2020): 14–54. doi: 10.25024/kj.2020.60.2.14 © The Academy of Korean Studies, 2020 URL: https://kj.accesson.kr/assets/pdf/8518/journal-60-2-14.pdf</ref> Robinson had his work suppressed as he expressed criticism of the U.S. military government's failures in Korea and eventually was compelled to leave the country.<ref name=":5" /><ref>{{News citation|author=김환균|newspaper=미디어오늘 (Media Today)|title='미국의 배반'이 미국에서 금서가 된 이유. (Why "American Betrayal" is Banned Reading in the U.S.)|date=2004-08-09|url=http://www.mediatoday.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=25874|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220724050252/http://www.mediatoday.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=25874|archive-date=2022-07-24|retrieved=2022-07-24}}</ref><br />
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==== USAMGIK disregards People's Committee's rice management, establishes rice "free market" ====<br />
During Japanese colonial rule, the Japanese placed rigid controls on the people of Korea to build up a food surplus. When the U.S. forces arrived in south Korea, they found that "Japanese control over rice had been loosened or altogether abolished" and that instead, "the [[People's Republic of Korea (1945–1946)|Korean People’s Republic]] (KPR) and people’s committees managed food stocks, and according to American accounts, 'after the Koreans drove the Japanese police out, [the leaders of the KPR and people’s committees] took over the rice collection machinery and were operating it successfully when the Americans arrived.'"<ref name=":15" /> As the Americans largely did not acknowledge the authority of the People's Committees and were trying to establish an [[Anti-communism|anti-communist]] government in south Korea, they struck down the management system that had been operating under the People's Committees and replaced it with a "free market" in rice. In Ordinance 19, USAMGIK describes this as "giving to every man, woman and child within the country equal opportunity to enjoy his just and fair share of great wealth which this beautiful nation has been endowed".<ref>Office of the Military Governor, United States Army Forces in Korea. [https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/USAMGIK_Ordinance_19 Ordinance Number 19]. 1945-10-30. </ref><ref name=":15" /> <br />
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In "A Policy of Amateurism: The Rice Policy of the U.S. Army Military''"'', Kim Jinwung describes the results of the free market policy of the USAMGIK:<blockquote>The immediate effect of the free market policy was a steep rise in the price of rice and resultant hoarding and speculation. Poor distribution of food led to food shortages and hunger in cities, despite a bumper harvest in 1945. Additionally, the rice-based south Korean economy inevitably began to suffer from massive inflation. It was quite natural then that the black-market should grow and prosper; it was expected that the lure of black market prices would stimulate the flow of rice into the black market. The result was that “rice disappeared almost entirely from the market.” Through its free market policy, the U.S. military government lost the main strength of the south Korean economy—its ability to extract large surpluses of grain—and caused in its stead spiraling inflation, near starvation in early 1946, and a general economic breakdown. The price of a bushel of rice increased from 9.4 yen in September 1945 to 2,800 yen in September 1946. Landlords, police and other government officials, and wealthy individuals engaged in speculation on a wholesale basis.<ref name=":15" /></blockquote>In the wake of this policy, USAMGIK was "flooded with complaints and petitions from Koreans demanding that price control and rationing be resumed and that the American military government take drastic action to stop rice hoarding."<ref name=":15" /> However, it seemed to many that USAMGIK was "reluctant to move against the principal hoarders" due to them being Korean businessmen who the government who had been relying on for advice.<ref name=":15" /> By 1946, the U.S. rescinded the free market and implemented rice rationing. A U.S. summation of the U.S. army military government activities in Korea stated that public attention was "focused on the threat of hunger" at this time.<ref>Commander-in-Chief, United States Army Forces, Pacific. ''[https://www8.cao.go.jp/okinawa/okinawasen/pdf/b0604002_09/b0604002_09.pdf Summation of United States Military Government Activities in Korea, No. 6].'' March 1946. </ref> As the situation continued, U.S. rice rations eventually fell to half of the ration size that had been received under the Japanese colonial administration during World War II, and newspapers published accounts of famine and starvation, further disaster only being averted by eventual shipments of U.S. grains as emergency relief. In addition, "the deteriorating food situation forced the Americans to revive the old Japanese rice collection system" which was unpopular with farmers.<ref name=":15" /> The USAMGIK eventually formed local boards composed of local police officials, elders, businessmen, and landlords approved by the USAMGIK to manage the collection of rice quotas, but created no system for appeal to adjust the quotas. Under this program, many farmers were arrested or faced violence for not meeting their quotas.<ref name=":15" /> <br />
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==== Re-appointment of Japanese colonial officials under U.S. occupation ====<br />
The USAMGIK had a policy of rehiring officers from the Japanese colonial era, which it tried to justify by the need to implement effective governance. This failure to prosecute officers who had collaborated with the Japanese and re-instatement of their power increased public resentment against the U.S. regime.<ref name=":0" /> Instead of fully enjoying their independence, people were being victimized by the same oppressive police officers and corrupt public officials as under Japanese colonial authority.<ref name=":1">{{News citation|newspaper=Jeju 4.3 Peace Foundation|title=Jeju’s political climate following liberation|date=2018|url=http://jeju43peace.org/historytruth/fact-truth/factstruth_article4/}}</ref> The U.S. occupiers created an army staffed by former Japanese officers and rebuilt the [[Korean National Police]] (KNP) of the Japanese occupation era.<ref name=":110">{{Citation|author=Stephen Gowans|year=2018|title=Patriots, Traitors and Empires: The Story of Korea’s Struggle for Freedom|chapter=The War Against Communists of the South|page=95–99|pdf=https://ipfs.io/ipfs/bafykbzaced4iiga4ngtxusr2civjxewbili5jne2sbpefbx2s3im2kphattzc?filename=Stephen%20Gowans%20-%20Patriots%2C%20Traitors%20and%20Empires_%20The%20Story%20of%20Korea%E2%80%99s%20Struggle%20for%20Freedom-Baraka%20Books%20%282018%29.pdf|city=Montreal|publisher=Baraka Books|isbn=9781771861427|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=8435F6FF91279531705764823FDC2A7F}}</ref><br />
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==== Conflict between occupation forces and people's committees ====<br />
Richard Robinson, the chief of the Public Opinion Section of the Department of Information of the USAMGIK, who had been present in Korea and contributing to the official U.S. military historical record at the time, later gave his observations about the People's Committees and the USAMGIK's policy of rehiring officers from the Japanese colonial era:<blockquote>It was safe to say that for the most part the local People's Committees in these early days were of the genuine grassroots democratic variety and represented a spontaneous urge of the people to govern themselves. . . . They resented orders from the Military Government to turn the administration of local government over to American Army officers and their appointed Korean counterparts, many of whom were considered to be Japanese collaborators. It seemed like a reversion to what had gone before. Bloodshed ensued in many communities as local People's Committees defied the Military Government and refused to abandon government offices. Koreans and Americans met in pitched battles, and not a few Koreans met violent death in the struggle.<ref name=":4">Robinson, Richard. Cited in Mark J. Scher (1973) ''U.S. policy in Korea 1945–1948: A Neocolonial model takes shape.'' Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars, 5:4, 17-27, DOI: 10.1080/14672715.1973.10406346. <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.1080/14672715.1973.1040634</nowiki> URL: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/14672715.1973.10406346</ref></blockquote>Robinson then gives an example of an incident which he refers to as "typical" of this period. According to Robinson, in the small community of Namwon in North Jeolla province, the Japanese had turned over considerable property to the local People's Committee just prior to the arrival of the Americans. The U.S. military government then demanded the property, but the People's Committee refused to turn it over to the U.S. military government. Robinson states that five leaders of the Committee were arrested by the local Korean police, adding that "the police chief was captured and beaten by Committee members and the police station attacked by a large crowd of irate citizens." He says that the station was guarded by American troops, and that when the Koreans refused to disband, "the Americans advanced with fixed bayonets," resulting in two Koreans being killed and several injured.<ref name=":4" /><br />
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Within a year of the U.S. occupation, uprisings began in 80 cities and hundreds of villages. After the suppression of the People's Republic of Korea, widespread [[Strike action|strikes]] and protests began followed by a guerrilla movement. By December 1947, the KNP had arrested over 21,000 leftists, and the amount of political prisoners was more than under the Japanese occupation. By 1948, resistance forces controlled most of the inland villages in south Korea. The KNP arrested so many people that it ran out of space in prisons and forced an additional 70,000 people, including 30,000 communists, into concentration camps. By 1950, the south Korean government and U.S. occupation forces killed between 100,000 and 200,000 dissidents.<ref name=":110" /><br />
===First Republic (1948–1960) ===<br />
[[File:Syngman Rhee.jpg|thumb|264x264px|Syngman Rhee (Korean: 이승만), president of the ROK First Republic from 1948-1960, was described as an "extreme rightist" in a 1948 [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] report.<ref name=":20">{{News citation|newspaper=Wilson Center Digital Archive|title=March 18, 1948 Central Intelligence Agency, ORE 15/48, 'The Current Situation in Korea'|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220729051304/https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/220065.pdf?v=d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e|retrieved=2022-07-29|Archive=History and Public Policy Program Digital Archive, Record Group 263, Records of the Central Intelligence Agency|url=https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/220065.pdf?v=d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e}}</ref>]]After rejecting [[Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (1922–1991)|Soviet]] proposals for all-Korean elections, the United States created a UN committee of [[Canada]], [[Commonwealth of Australia|Australia]], the [[Republic of the Philippines|Philippines]], and the defeated [[Kuomintang]] from [[People's Republic of China|China]] to supervise elections in the southern zone. Koreans from all parts of the nation organized a National Unity Conference in [[Pyongyang]] that met three weeks before the US-sponsored elections. Many [[Left-wing politics|leftist]] parties and some [[Right-wing politics|right-wing]] parties boycotted the elections. The Korean National Police and right-wing thugs attacked communists, while people who did not vote would lose their land and ration cards. [[Syngman Rhee]] won the rigged elections and took power as the first president of the south. During the elections, [[Kim Sok-won]] led a parade in Seoul of 2,500 Koreans who had collaborated with the Japanese.<br />
<br />
The First Republic was the government of south Korea from August 1948 to April 1960. Syngman Rhee ruled for the entire existence of the first republic. The first republic was characterized by Rhee's authoritarianism and corruption, limited economic development, strong anti-communism, and by the late 1950s, by growing political instability and public opposition to Rhee.<br />
<br />
Prior to being flown in to Korea by the OSS (precursor to the CIA), Rhee had been living in the United States for over thirty-five years, earning an M.A. at Harvard and a Ph.D. at Princeton.<ref name=":21">{{Citation|author=Max Hastings|year=1988|title=The Korean War|title-url=https://archive.org/details/koreanwar00hast_0/page/32/mode/2up|chapter=Origins of a Tragedy|page=32, 33-34|quote=Syngman Rhee was born in 1875, the son of a genealogical scholar. He failed the civil service exams several times before becoming a student of English. Between 1899 and 1904 he was imprisoned for political activities. On his release, he went to the United States, where he studied for some years, earning an M.A. at Harvard and a Ph.D. at Princeton—the first Korean to receive an American doctorate. After a brief return to his homeland in 1910, Rhee once more settled in America. He remained there for the next thirty-five years, lobbying relentlessly for American support for Korean independence, financed by the contributions of Korean patriots. (p.32)}}</ref> According to Max Hastings, in ''The Korean War'':<blockquote>Rhee's backing from the Military Government was a decisive force in his rise to power. [...] There is no murkier episode in the history of the American occupation than the return of Rhee to Seoul. The Military Government firmly denied not only complicity but prior knowledge of this. Yet all the evidence now suggests that General Hodge and his staff participated in a carefully orchestrated conspiracy to bring back Rhee, despite the refusal of the State Department to grant him a passport. A former deputy director of the wartime OSS, Preston Goodfellow, prevailed upon the State Department to provide Rhee with documentation. There appears to have been at least a measure of corruption in this transaction. Rhee got to know Goodfellow during the war, when the Korean mendaciously suggested to the American that he could provide agents for operations behind the Japanese lines. After the war it seems almost certain that Goodfellow assisted and raised money for Rhee in return for the promise of commercial concessions in Korea when the doctor gained power. Rhee flew to Seoul in one of MacArthur's aircraft. Despite the vigorous denials of the U.S. Army in the Far East, it seems likely that he met secretly with both the Supreme Commander and Hodge during his stopover in Tokyo. Rhee, it is apparent, was their nominee for the leadership of a Korean civilian government.<ref name=":21" /></blockquote>A 1948 CIA report wrote that "there is every prospect that Rhee's accession to power will be followed by intra-party cleavages and by the ruthless suppression of all non-Rhee Rightist, Moderate, and Leftist opposition," characterizing Rhee as an "imported expatriate politician" and "extreme rightist" and demagogue "bent on autocratic rule", who would be an "unpopular" figure who would play into communist propaganda due to his extreme rightist orientation, and stating that the U.S. throwing their full support behind him could potentially be "a source of future embarrassment to US policy in the Far East."<ref name=":20" /><br />
<br />
During the First Republic, the number of U.S. troops decreased, but many intelligence officers and combat specialists continued to occupy south Korea. Resistance against the occupation continued to grow, reaching 3,500 to 6,000 guerrilla fighters by early 1949. Rhee created the National Guidance League to make leftists to reject reunification and forced 300,000 people to join. He also created the [[National Security Law]], which still exists today and criminalizes recognition of the DPRK as a legitimate state. Almost 190,000 people, including members of the National Assembly, were arrested under this law up to December 1949.<ref name=":1102">{{Citation|author=Stephen Gowans|year=2018|title=Patriots, Traitors and Empires: The Story of Korea’s Struggle for Freedom|chapter=The Political Partition of Korea|page=115–116|pdf=https://ipfs.io/ipfs/bafykbzaced4iiga4ngtxusr2civjxewbili5jne2sbpefbx2s3im2kphattzc?filename=Stephen%20Gowans%20-%20Patriots%2C%20Traitors%20and%20Empires_%20The%20Story%20of%20Korea%E2%80%99s%20Struggle%20for%20Freedom-Baraka%20Books%20%282018%29.pdf|city=Montreal|publisher=Baraka Books|isbn=9781771861427|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=8435F6FF91279531705764823FDC2A7F}}</ref><br />
<br />
==== Jeju People's Committee ====<br />
After liberation from Japanese colonization, the Jeju People’s Committee was formed with the head of the Farmers' Guild and the Fishermens' Guild as its leaders. According to the Jeju 4.3 Peace Foundation, "In every aspect, the Jeju People’s Committee was the only political party and the only government in Jeju" after liberation from the Japanese. E. Grant Meade, a USAMGIK officer, said, “The Jeju People’s Committee was the only political party in the island and the only organization acting like a government.”<ref name=":1" /> The committees had the respect and support from most villagers. Committee members were known in their communities from their long years as school teachers, union leaders and for resistance to Japanese abuses or for their organizing work in Japan. When the USAMGIK arrived on Jeju, it found that the Jeju People’s Committee and all the village and county People’s Committees were functioning successfully as a de facto government with popular support. The USAMGIK did not disturb or challenge this de facto government. This was unusual because the USAMGIK had as its mission to insure that a right leaning government hostile to socialism emerged in Korea.<ref name=":14">{{News citation|author=Jay Hauben|newspaper=The Jeju Weekly|title=People's Republic of Korea: Jeju, 1945-1946|date=2011-08-20|url=http://www.jejuweekly.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=1865|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220723035033/http://www.jejuweekly.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=1865|archive-date=2022-07-23|retrieved=2022-07-23}}</ref> Unlike in the mainland, where the People's Committees were immediately disregarded and systematically dismantled by the USAMGIK, the People's Committee on Jeju Island remained intact for a longer period, serving as the island's main governmental body until 1948 when it, too, was violently dismantled in conjunction with the process of the Republic of Korea being officially established that year.<br />
<br />
==== Jeju Uprising and Massacre ====<br />
{{Main article|Jeju Uprising}}[[File:Northwest Youth League logo 백골부대 정신을 계승한 서북청년단 기.jpg|thumb|262x262px|Banner of the Northwest Youth League, a right-wing paramilitary group who assisted government forces in the mass murder of Jeju islanders in the name of anti-communism.<ref name=":7">{{News citation|author=Lauren Flenniken|newspaper=The Jeju Weekly|title=The Northwest Youth League|date=2011-04-10|url=http://www.jejuweekly.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=1435|retrieved=2022-07-25|quote=Despite the Northwest Youth League lacking legal backing to exercise their power, President Rhee and the KDP allowed the group to use aggressive force against supposed Communists without restrictions. [...] Professor Bruce Cumings of the University of Chicago states that at the time, Jeju’s local government and police were comprised mostly of mainlanders who “worked together with ultra-rightest party terrorists,” otherwise known as the Northwest Youth League.}}</ref>]]<br />
In 1948, in a series of events known variously as the Jeju Uprising, the Jeju 4.3 Incident, and the Jeju Massacre, an uprising occurred on Jeju Island, followed by a scorched earth style retaliation undertaken by government forces and right-wing paramilitary groups to root out communist influence on the island. The Jeju massacre was the second largest massacre in south Korea's modern history,<ref name=":8">{{News citation|author=Song Jung Hee|newspaper=The Jeju Weekly|title=Islanders still mourn April 3 massacre|date=2010-03-31|url=http://www.jejuweekly.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=657}}</ref> the death toll listed by the Jeju 4.3 Peace Foundation being approximately 30,000 people, or one-tenth of the island's population.<ref name=":9">{{News citation|newspaper=Jeju 4.3 Peace Foundation|title=Background to the Jeju 4·3 Uprising and Massacre|date=2018|url=http://jeju43peace.org/historytruth/fact-truth/factstruth-article1/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220723024308/http://jeju43peace.org/historytruth/fact-truth/factstruth-article1/|archive-date=2022-07-23}}</ref> <br />
<br />
Although the People’s Committees in other regions were either dissolved by the USAMGIK or operated under different names, the Jeju People’s Committee remained intact and enjoyed strong support. This was largely due to the pro-Japanese faction being relatively weak in Jeju. Many people who had fought for independence against the Japanese returned to their hometowns and became members of the People’s Committee in Jeju.<ref name=":1" /> However, Many Jeju islanders resisted the division of the Korean Peninsula and strongly protested the first election that was scheduled for May 10, 1948, that would confirm the formation of the Republic of Korea south of the 38th parallel. Their resistance to the division of the peninsula and the establishment of the Southern regime triggered a brutal suppression by government forces. <br />
<br />
According to The Jeju 4·3 Incident Investigation Report, "In around the middle of November 1948, uncompromising repression operations were carried out. Under these operations, a curfew was imposed on the residents of the upland areas and if anyone broke it, he or she was executed without exception. From the middle of November 1948 to February 1949, for about four months, the anti-guerrilla expeditions burned down the upland villages and killed the residents collectively. [...] During this period, the casualties were the highest and most of the upland villages were literally burnt to the ground."<ref>{{Citation|author=Jeju 4·3 Peace Foundation|year=2003|title=The Jeju 4·3 Incident Investigation Report|page=469|pdf=https://jeju43peace.or.kr/cmm/fms/FileDown.do?atchFileId=FILE_00000000000071265Cu0&fileSn=0|publisher=The National Committee for Investigation<br />
of the Truth about the Jeju April 3 Incident}}</ref> A combination of government forces and violent far-right paramilitary groups, notably the far-right anti-communist Northwest Youth League, carried out these attacks.<ref name=":7" /><br />
[[File:Jeju 4.3 Camellia flower.png|thumb|The camellia flower can be seen in the island of Jeju as a symbol of the 4.3 incident's victims. '''Above:''' A camellia flower pin. '''Below:''' Camellia flowers forming the shape of Jeju Island.]]<br />
<br />
===== Death toll of Jeju massacre and long-term imprisonment of Jeju islanders =====<br />
Because the facts of the Jeju massacre were officially suppressed for over fifty years, only coming to light in January 2000 when a Special Act was decreed by the south Korean Government calling for an official investigation of the incident, an official death toll could not be established until that time. Additionally, discoveries of mass grave execution sites, such as the mass grave uncovered in 2008 near Jeju Airport, illustrate the difficulty of calculating the massacre's true toll.<ref name=":8" /> According to a report by the National Commission on the Jeju April 3 Incident, 25,000 to 30,000 people were killed or simply vanished, with upwards of 4,000 more fleeing to Japan as the government sought to quell the uprising. As the island’s population was at most 300,000 at the time, the official toll was one-tenth of the inhabitants. However, some Jeju people claim that as many as 40,000 islanders were killed in the suppression.<ref name=":8" /> Some estimates claim as many as 60,000 people may have been killed by the end of these events.<ref>{{News citation|journalist=|date=2000-06-18|title=Ghosts of Cheju|url=|newspaper=Newsweek|archive-url=https://www.newsweek.com/ghosts-cheju-160665|archive-date=|retrieved=2021-21-30}}</ref> The 30,000 death figure, or one in every 10 Jeju residents at the time, is a common figure given for how many people lost their lives during this period, and is the one cited on the Jeju 4.3 Peace Foundation website.<ref name=":9" /> <br />
<br />
One result of the decades-long suppression of the facts of the massacre is the long-term imprisonment of Jeju islanders arrested on suspicion of being communists during the conflict. Many of those arrested on these charges died in captivity. Others remained in prison for up to 20 years, and those who had been released were not cleared of their criminal records, and were ostracized by the community or disadvantaged in their job applications for having criminal records. Decades after being arrested, some of the remaining victims had their names legally cleared of the charges in 2019, due to a ruling that found that the military court of the time did not follow proper legal procedures, made groundless charges, and that there were no court records found from the time explaining why those arrested were given such harsh sentences.<ref>{{News citation|author=Lee Suh-yoon|newspaper=The Korea Times|title=Jeju massacre victims get their names cleared in court|date=2019-01-17|url=https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2019/01/251_262242.html|quote=The suit was filed by 18 plaintiffs who were jailed after being branded as communist insurgents ― with around 2,500 others ― during the ideological conflict that flared up on the southern island after Korea's independence from Japan. Many died in captivity. Even after surviving the massacre and imprisonment, the plaintiffs were ostracized by the community or disadvantaged in their job applications for having criminal records. [...] The plaintiffs demanded a retrial in 2017, saying they were arrested and imprisoned for up to 20 years without fair procedure. There were no court records found from the time explaining why the plaintiffs were given such harsh sentences.}}</ref><br />
<br />
==== Fatherland Liberation War (1950–1953) ====<br />
<blockquote>''See also: [[Korean War]], [[List of atrocities commited by the United States of America#Korean War|List of atrocities committed by the United States of America#Korean War]]''</blockquote>This period is generally referred to in English as the "Korean War", in DPRK as the "Fatherland Liberation War" (Korean: 조국해방전쟁), and in south Korea as the "6.25 War" (Korean: 6·25 전쟁). In China it is sometimes referred to as the "Korean War", and some specific battles are referred to as the "War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea" (Chinese: 抗美援朝战争). This period is also referred to by some in English as "The Forgotten War" or "The Unknown War." <br />
<br />
In the U.S., the war was initially described as a "police action" as the United States never formally declared war on its opponents.<ref>Truman, Harry S. (29 June 1950). "The President's News Conference of June 29, 1950. Teachingamericanhistory.org. [https://web.archive.org/web/20101226063925/http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?document=594 Archive link].</ref> According to the U.S. Department of State's Office of the Historian, "When north Korea invaded south Korea in June 1950, the United States sponsored a "police action"—a war in all but name—under the auspices of the United Nations. The Department of State coordinated U.S. strategic decisions with the other 16 countries contributing troops to the fighting. In addition, the Department worked closely with the government of Syngman Rhee, encouraging him to implement reform so that the UN claim of defending democracy in Korea would be accurate." The U.S. Department of State's description of the war notes that "The Korean War was difficult to fight and unpopular domestically" and that "The American public tired of a war without victory."<ref>A Short History of the Department of State. "NSC-68 and the Korean War." Office of the Historian, Foreign Service Institute, U.S. Department of State. URL: https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/short-history/koreanwar [https://web.archive.org/web/20220725043544/https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/short-history/koreanwar Archive link].</ref><br />
<br />
The People's Democracy Party (PDP) of south Korea characterizes the conditions that led to the Korean War as follows:<blockquote>Objectively, there were 2,617 attacks from the South to the North during the year of 1949 under pro-U.S. and far-right Rhee Seung-man regime. Therefore, it cannot be viewed that the war broke out exactly on June 25th, 1950. The U.S. military government forcefully dissolved the people’s committees that were formed as independent South Corean people’s organizations and exhaustively massacred and oppressed the national liberation movement forces and patriotic and democratic forces after the U.S. army came into South Corea in September 1945 as an occupation force. <br />
<br />
All the people except the minimum of pro-U.S. and far-right forces held the “Joint Meeting of Representatives of Political Parties and Social Organizations in the North and South of Korea” in April 1948, in Pyongyang, and decided to immediately withdraw the U.S. military and to establish a unified government by the Corean nation’s power and initiative.<br />
<br />
However, the single government of the South was established by the U.S. and the intervention of the UN, which was under the domination of the U.S. Then, North Corea had to establish their own government. The condition for an outbreak of the Corean War had developed.<ref name=":23" /></blockquote>The PDP stated that the U.S. had become the head of imperialist forces after World War II, and Korea was the first country it invaded. The PDP characterizes the war as a battle between the Korean nation and U.S. imperialism, and also notes that "it was the first war that U.S. imperialism fought against a small country and lost."<ref name=":23" /><br />
<br />
Alan Winnington, a British correspondent in China and Korea for the ''Daily Worker,'' provides a description of the apparent ignorance of U.S. soldiers at the outset of the war, by interviewing POWs caught by the People's Army. Winnington writes:<blockquote>I asked every prisoner I met: “Why are you fighting in Korea?” Not one could give a clear answer. Most said: “I don’t know.” Some said: “It’s something to do with the United Nations, they told us.”<br />
<br />
A few had heard of Rhee. None knew of Kim Ir Sen. With one or two exceptions, Privates—nearly all teen-agers—said they had joined the army to “see the world”, “get out of the draft” or “save some money”. Their general view of the Korean war was summed up by Edward Sorea, nineteen-year-old Private of San Bernardino, California. He said: “I just wanted to travel. It was peace-time. Who in hell thought there would be a war? One drops on you from out of a clear sky.” <br />
<br />
You cannot find one American soldier who is concerned whether America wins the war or not—rather you meet many who want the Koreans to win quickly so that they can “get back home". “Win or lose”, they say, “American people have nothing to gain". Soldiers like that make bad fighters—just how bad can be seen by taking a trip down the main road from Kumchon, near the 38th Parallel, to Yongdong, near Taegu, in the South.<ref name=":24">{{Web citation|author=Alan Winnington|newspaper=The Daily Worker|title=I Saw The Truth In Korea: Facts and photographs that will shock Britain|date=September 1950|url=https://www.docdroid.net/8z73fQZ/i-saw-the-truth-in-korea-readingt-ver-pdf|quote=The Daily Worker sent me to Korea to get the facts at first hand and report them to the British public. And so I arrived in Korea on July 16 and stayed for five weeks. <br />
<br />
Of course, before I went I knew that the Americans were bombing heavily and fighting badly. I knew that Syngman Rhee's troops only existed as scattered units and there was no longer a “South Korean Army”; that effectively this was a war between America and Korea. These facts were common knowledge in the world, but I admit I was mentally unprepared for all I found. <br />
<br />
After all, five years ago we and the Russians were allies of the Americans in the war against the Nazis. Since then, Roosevelt and his colleagues have gone and atomic diplomacy has taken their place. But still, what I saw Americans doing in Korea shook me to my heels. I suppose all my life I’ve been listening to propaganda about America being a civilised nation and some of this must have sunk in. Somehow, I never quite thought of Americans doing exactly what the Nazis did until I saw it with my own eyes. <br />
<br />
We still talk of Coventry as an example of malicious and futile bombing, but the Americans have gone far ahead of the Nazis in what they politely term “Saturation Bombing”. The American style of waging war in Korea is on the same pattern as the Nazis but, bearing in mind the size of the country, even more savage and just as stupid. <br />
<br />
Wonsan is a much smaller town than Coventry, not nearly as large as the London suburb; of Walthamstow. During its first heavy raid in July, B.29 Superfortresses flung 500 tons of high explosive bombs into the town—sixty tons more than Coventry got on that terrible night ten years ago. No targets were aimed at. MacArthur’s communiqué admitted that there was “heavy cloud" which “prevented the evaluation of the effect of the raid”. Actually, visibility was nil at the time, for it was raining hard. In Coventry there were 1,000 casualties that night. During the first raid on Wonsan there were 1,249 killed and the northern half of the town was wiped out In August the raid was repeated, wiping out the other half. No other military objective was claimed than that this town was a rail centre. A thousand tons of bombs; a town obliterated; over 4,000 casualties in all; tens of thousands made homeless and bereaved—all to damage a rail -track. Does it make sense? This is bombing in the fashion that no British town ever met. I saw Coventry and I was in London all through the ‘blitz and I saw Wonsan after these raids. It was far worse than the worst the Nazis ever did.}}</ref></blockquote>Winnington contrasts the apparent cluelessness and lack of resolve of American troops with his observations of the attitudes of Koreans:<blockquote>[T]he ghastly destruction of homes and lives that has gone with it has made the whole nation furious. Even former apologists of America are now their bitter enemies.<br />
<br />
On roads you can meet men by the hundred who tell you: “My home was bombed in . . . so I sent my wife and children to relatives in the country and I’m oil to volunteer.” In Wonsan, the wife and children of a worker, Wan Wun Chu, were killed in a raid while he was at work. “They are dead and I cannot call them back,” he said. “If I die it is little now. But I would give my last drop of blood to get revenge and drive those murdering dogs from our country. They tell me my place is in production and I will work my fingers to the bone to produce more for the army.”<br />
<br />
Every village I visited proudly told me not only how many men had gone into the army but also how many volunteers were waiting to be accepted. There is no lack of the finest quality fighting men; men who were bred in the countless thousands of mountains that cover Korea; volunteers who know why they want to win.<ref name=":24" /></blockquote>Winnington sums up his 1950 assessment of the Korean War's outbreak by saying "Korea has repudiated Syngman Rhee and the Americans. All the Korean people want Korea to be reunited and ruled by Koreans. No regime can exist that has been repudiated by the people and this war can only be won by the Koreans just as the war in China could only be won by the people. This is one of the iron facts of the twentieth century. [...] In China the pattern was the same; America supported the most corrupt and hated enemies of the people, led by Chiang Kai-shek, backed them with more than ‘$6 billion, sent them military aid and advisers—and produced their great fiasco. [...] It is America which has invaded Korea. To defend the interests of Morgan and Rockefeller, of Dupont and the steel barons, to restore the land to the feudal landlords, to drive the people back to penury, to maintain a war base against the peaceful Soviet Union."<ref name=":24" /><br />
<br />
===== Support for DPRK among south Koreans during the war =====<br />
[[File:CIA document pages 1 and 2.jpg|thumb|1950 CIA document stating that more than 50% of Seoul students were actively aiding communists, many volunteering for the Northern Army, and that the working class of Seoul generally supported the North.<ref name=":6" />]]<br />
The Korean War and the following decades were characterized by massive arrest campaigns and mass killings to suppress communists as well as anyone else suspected of opposing the highly unpopular Southern regime. In 1950, when the DPRK attempted to reunify the country, Rhee's forces retreated and killed at least another 60,000 supposed communist sympathizers.<ref>{{Citation|author=Kim Dong-Choon|year=2004|title=Forgotten war, forgotten massacres--the Korean War (1950-1953) as licensed mass killings|chapter=|section=|page=|quote=|pdf=https://www.academia.edu/6417696|city=|publisher=Journal of Genocide Research|isbn=|doi=|lg=|mia=|title-url=|chapter-url=|trans-title=|trans-lang=}}</ref> <br />
<br />
In a 1950 CIA memorandum, after the Northern Army had taken over Seoul, Central Intelligence Director and U.S. Navy Rear Admiral R.H. Hillenkoeter reported that "over 50% of Seoul's students are actively aiding the Communist invaders, with many voluntarily enlisting in the Northern Army" and that among Seoul's population, "the working class generally supports the Northern Koreans, while merchants are neutral and the intelligentsia continue to be pro-Southern," adding that the streets of Seoul were "crowded [...] with youths engaging in Communist demonstrations.<ref name=":6">{{News citation|author=R.H. Hillenkoeter, Director of Central Intelligence|newspaper=CIA Memorandum|title=The Korean Situation|date=1950-7-19|url=https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/1950-07-19b.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220723030500/https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/1950-07-19b.pdf|archive-date=2022-07-23|quote=Past failure of the Republic of Korea to win the support of its restless student class may lie behind reports that over 50% of Seoul's students are actively aiding the Communist invaders, with many voluntarily enlisting in the Northern Army. Apparently attracted by the glamor of a winning army, the morale of these recruits may suffer rapidly if the going gets tough. Among others elements of Seoul's population, the working class generally supports the Northern Koreans, while merchants are neutral and the intelligentsia continue to be pro-Southern. A former Seoul policeman reports that North Korean troops and police are rather inconspicuous in Seoul. Commercially, the city is nearly "dead"; stores are closed except for two department stores and some greengrocers. The streets, however, are crowded, especially with youths engaging in Communist demonstrations.}}</ref><br />
<br />
The People's Democratic Party of south Korea, interviewed in 2020, said that "almost all workers and peasants in the South rejected the U.S. military" and added that "According to North Corea’s data, about 400,00 peoples in the South voluntarily enlisted in the North Corean military when the Corean war started."<ref name=":23" /> <br />
<br />
According to Kim Sin Gyu, a north Korean correspondent present in Seoul at the time: "When the city was first liberated, the citizens of Seoul welcomed the Korean People's Army. I remember hearing people say, 'We heard the north Korean communist soldiers were a monstrous rabble, with the horns of devils and red faces. But seeing them now, they are the same as us. The soldiers are young and brave and handsome.'"<ref name=":11">''Korea: The Unknown War.'' TV Documentary Series. Episode 2: "An Arrogant Display of Strength." Thames Television, 1988. Aired on WGBH Boston, 1990. (URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVCuku3Ldi0)</ref><br />
<br />
Alan Winnington, a ''Daily Worker'' correspondent present in Korea in 1950, wrote:<blockquote>Every evening, the countryside of Korea, especially in the South, boils with life. Hundreds of thousands of peasants and townfolk converge on roads and in a matter of hours have repaired the bomb damage of the previous day by the sheer weight of limitless, willing human labour. While that is going on, hundreds of thousands of others are resuming their trek south from where they stopped at dawn; managing countless oxcarts over remote by-ways; carrying loads of food and munitions on their backs. All these reconstruction and transport workers are volunteers, unpaid, providing their own food and materials, with their own militia to protect them from stray enemy troops, self-supporting, familiar with the terrain and determined to put an end to foreign occupation of their country. <br />
<br />
[...] In places where I checked the figures, I found that practically every available man and many of the women had taken part in one or other side of the Civilian War Service. Below the Parallel, in Koyang County near Seoul, in twelve days 54,085 men had volunteered out of a total population of only 180,000. During the advance of the People’s Army in this area, the local People’s Committee had mobilised 1,000 oxcarts in a single night for a transport emergency. I personally never met a peasant—except old and infirm—who had not helped the army in some way. And in cities, every evening you can see the reconstruction workers gathering in their thousands with spades, crowbars and ropes. At least half of these are women, who refuse to be kept out of even the heaviest and most dangerous work of rescue and fire-fighting during the raids.<ref name=":24" /> </blockquote><br />
<br />
===== U.S. war crimes =====<br />
<blockquote>''See also: [[List of atrocities commited by the United States of America#Korean War|List of atrocities committed by the United States of America#Korean War]]''</blockquote>During the Korean War, U.S. troops killed large numbers of Korean civilians and engaged in copious firebombing with napalm, and, as was eventually revealed through declassified documents, had at certain times a policy of deliberately firing on south Korean refugee groups approaching its lines.<ref name=":12">{{News citation|author=Youkyung Lee|newspaper=Associated Press|title=S. Korean who forced US to admit massacre has died|date=2014-08-07|url=https://apnews.com/article/108b4bd1dc854caeaf5f9349fcd5a176|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220726115036/https://apnews.com/article/108b4bd1dc854caeaf5f9349fcd5a176|quote=On July 26, 1950, outside the central South Korean village of No Gun Ri, hundreds of civilians from nearby villages, ordered south by U.S. troops, were stopped by a dug-in battalion of the U.S. 7th Cavalry Regiment, and then were attacked without warning by U.S. warplanes. Survivors fled under a railroad overpass, where for the next three days they were fired on by 7th Cavalry troops. [...] in January 2001 the Army acknowledged the No Gun Ri killings but assigned no blame, calling it a “deeply regrettable accompaniment to a war.” [...] In 2006 it emerged that among incriminating documents omitted from the 2001 U.S. report was a declassified letter from the U.S. ambassador in South Korea, dated the day the No Gun Ri killings began, saying the Army had adopted a policy of firing on refugee groups approaching its lines.}}</ref> In an article of the Asia-Pacific Journal, Kim Dong choon writes that "Few are aware that the Korean authorities as well as US and allied forces massacred hundreds of thousands of south Korean civilians at the dawn of the Korean War".<ref>{{News citation|author=Kim Dong choon|newspaper=The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus|title=The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Korea: Uncovering the Hidden Korean War. The Other War: Korean War Massacres.|date=2010-03-01|url=https://apjjf.org/-Kim-Dong-choon/3314/article.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220726125030/https://apjjf.org/-Kim-Dong-choon/3314/article.html|archive-date=2022-07-26|retrieved=2022-07-26}}</ref> There were also incidents of U.S. pilots ignoring their orders to stay within Korea and flying beyond its borders, strafing military targets in China and the Soviet Union.<ref name=":11" /><br />
<br />
According to U.S. Naval Captain Walter Karig, in his book ''Battle Report: The War in Korea'':<blockquote>[W]e killed civilians, friendly civilians, and bombed their homes; fired whole villages with the occupants--women and children and ten times as many hidden Communist soldiers--under showers of napalm, and the pilots came back to their ships stinking of vomit twisted from their vitals by the shock of what they had to do.<ref>Walter Karig; Malcolm W Cagle; Frank A Manson; et al (1952). ''Battle Report: The War in Korea'' (pp. 111-112). New York: Rinehart.</ref></blockquote>United States Air Force General Curtis LeMay, commander of the U.S.'s Strategic Air Command, gave a similar description of the U.S. military's conduct in Korea, saying:<blockquote>[W]e went over there and fought the war and eventually burned down every town in North Korea [...] some way or another, and some in south Korea, too. We even burned down Pusan—an accident, but we burned it down anyway. The Marines started a battle down there with no enemy in sight. Over a period of three years or so, we killed off—what—twenty percent of the population of Korea as direct casualties of war, or from starvation and exposure?<ref>Richard H. Kohn and Joseph P. Harahan (1988). ''[https://media.defense.gov/2010/Sep/29/2001329790/-1/-1/0/AFD-100929-052.pdf Strategic Air Warfare: an interview with generals Curtis E. LeMay, Leon W. Johnson, David A. Burchinal, and Jack J. Catton]'' (p. 88). Washington, D.C.: Office of Air Force History, United States Air Force. <small>ISBN 0-912799-56-0</small></ref></blockquote>In a 1950 pamphlet entitled "I Saw the Truth in Korea", written by Alan Winnington, correspondent in China and Korea for the ''Daily Worker'', Winnington describes the actions of U.S. forces in Korea, documenting massacres with photographs and describing the aftermath of bombings:<blockquote>[F]ive years ago we and the Russians were allies of the Americans in the war against the Nazis. Since then, Roosevelt and his colleagues have gone and atomic diplomacy has taken their place. But still, what I saw Americans doing in Korea shook me to my heels. I suppose all my life I’ve been listening to propaganda about America being a civilised nation and some of this must have sunk in. Somehow, I never quite thought of Americans doing exactly what the Nazis did until I saw it with my own eyes. [...] A thousand tons of bombs; a town obliterated; over 4,000 casualties in all; tens of thousands made homeless and bereaved—all to damage a rail-track. Does it make sense? This is bombing in the fashion that no British town ever met. I saw Coventry and I was in London all through the ‘blitz and I saw Wonsan after these raids. It was far worse than the worst the Nazis ever did.<ref name=":24" /></blockquote>In addition to the U.S. military's practice of fire-bombing civilian targets and firing on refugees, many south Korean civilian casualties occurred due to the American soldiers' inability to tell apart North and south Koreans. As described by an anonymous U.S. officer on the U.S. Defense Department radio program called "Time for Defense", "What makes it so difficult over here is that you can't tell the damn north Koreans from the south Koreans, and that's caused a lot of slaughter" ([[:File:Anonymous U.S. officer describes Korean war.mp4|audio file]]).<ref>''Korea: The Unknown War.'' TV Documentary Series. Episode 2: "An Arrogant Display of Strength." Thames Television, 1988. Aired on WGBH Boston, 1990. (URL: <nowiki>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVCuku3Ldi0</nowiki>)</ref> It may be argued that the policy of firing on groups of refugees was a result of this, as described in the 1988 documentary ''Korea: The Unknown War'', which observes that "American troops found it difficult to distinguish friend from foe," and that "the North Koreans had infiltrated refugee columns, and in the ensuing confusion, innocent civilians became casualties." According to the documentary, one American general allegedly commented, "If they look organized, shoot at them."<ref name=":11" /><br />
[[File:U.S. documents showing refugee policy early in Korean War.jpg|thumb|364x364px|'''Left:''' An unsigned Air Force memo from July 25, 1950 seeking alternatives on the policy of "strafing civilian refugees" which "is sure to receive wide publicity and may cause embarrassment to the U.S. Air Force and U.S. government." '''Right:''' A July 26, 1950 letter from the American embassy to the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State saying, "If refugees do appear from the north of US lines they will receive warning shots, and if they then persist in advancing they will be shot."]]<br />
One example of the U.S. policy of firing on groups of refugees is the incident of the Nogeun-ri massacre, also written as No Gun Ri (Korean: 노근리). The incident was little-known outside Korea until publication of an Associated Press story in 1999 in which U.S. veterans corroborated survivors' accounts, and details gradually became more widely known. In July 1950, American soldiers shot "hundreds of helpless civilians under a railroad bridge".<ref name=":13">{{News citation|author=Sang-Hun Choe, Charles J. Hanley and Martha Mendoza|newspaper=Washington Post|title=U.S. Massacre of Civilians in Korean War Described|date=1999-09-30|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/daily/sept99/skorea30.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220726121945/https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/daily/sept99/skorea30.htm|retrieved=2022-07-26}}</ref> U.S. veterans spoke of 100 or 200 or "hundreds" dead and described "a preponderance of women, children and old men among the victims", while Korean witnesses said 300 were killed at the bridge and 100 in a preceding air attack. One Korean witness commented that "the American soldiers played with our lives like boys playing with flies." One of the U.S. veterans described it as "wholesale slaughter."<ref name=":13" /> <br />
<br />
Although this incident had gone unacknowledged for decades, in 2001 the U.S. Army acknowledged the killings, calling them a "regrettable accompaniment to a war." In 2006, it was revealed that among documents omitted from the 2001 U.S. report, there was a declassified letter from the U.S. ambassador in south Korea, dated the day the Nogeun-ri killings began, saying the Army had adopted a policy of firing on refugee groups approaching its lines.<ref name=":12" /> Some U.S. veterans have also described other refugee killings as well, when U.S. commanders ordered their troops to shoot civilians as a defense against disguised enemy soldiers, and declassified U.S. Air Force reports allegedly show that pilots also sometimes deliberately attacked "people in white" (referring to white peasant garb), suspecting that disguised north Korean soldiers were among them.<ref name=":13" /><br />
<br />
==== Armistice Agreement (1953) ====<br />
The armistice was signed on 27 July 1953. The signed armistice established the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), the de facto new border between the two nations, put into force a cease-fire, and finalized repatriation of prisoners of war. The DMZ runs close to the 38th parallel and has continued to separate north and south Korea since the Korean Armistice Agreement was signed in 1953.<br />
<br />
==== U.S. abrogation of armistice paragraph 13d, introduction of nuclear weapons into South ====<br />
Paragraph 13d of the agreement mandated that neither side introduce new weapons into Korea. At a meeting in 1957, the U.S. informed the north Korean representatives that the United Nations Command no longer considered itself bound by paragraph 13d of the armistice,<ref>{{News citation|newspaper=Time Magazine|title=Korea: The End of 13d|date=1957-07-01|url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,809583,00.html|archive-date=https://web.archive.org/web/20220728030416/https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,809583,00.html|quote=One afternoon last week in the stuffy green Quonset hut that is the heart of the scrubby no man's land of Panmunjom, three U.S. generals, a British brigadier and a Republic of Korea air-force officer coldly confronted 40 North Korean commissars and military men. "I have a statement to make," began Major General Homer L. Litzenberg, U.S.M.C., in a level voice. Then, while the Communists listened attentively, he told them that the U.N. Command no longer felt bound by subparagraph 13D of the Korean armistice agreement—the clause limiting introduction of new weapons into Korea.}}</ref> and in 1958 the U.S. abrogated paragraph 13d of the armistice by introducing nuclear weapons into south Korea.<ref>{{News citation|author=Lee Jae-Bong|newspaper=The Asia-Pacific Journal|title=US Deployment of Nuclear Weapons in 1950s South Korea & North Korea's Nuclear Development: Toward Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula|date=2009-02-07|url=https://apjjf.org/-Lee-Jae-Bong/3053/article.html}}</ref><br />
<br />
==== End of the First Republic ====<br />
In 1960, Rhee was forced to resign due to mass protests across the nation after the body of a student killed by police was found floating in the harbor.<ref>{{Citation|author=|year=|title=Cause of the 4.19 Revolution|chapter=|section=|page=|quote=|pdf=|city=|publisher=|isbn=|doi=|lg=|mia=|title-url=https://archive.ph/20120707225356/http://100.naver.com/100.nhn?docid=726618|chapter-url=|trans-title=|trans-lang=}}</ref> As a result of this, he fled to [[Honolulu]], [[Hawaii]], where he remained in exile until his death.<br />
<br />
===Second Republic (1960–1961)===<br />
[[File:Park Chung Hee Japan.png|thumb|Park Chung-hee, the leader of the third and early fourth republics, in a Japanese military uniform]]<br />
After Rhee's overthrow, bourgeois democracy was briefly restored under president [[Yun Bo-seon]].<ref>{{News citation|journalist=|date=|title=The Democratic Interlude|url=http://countrystudies.us/south-korea/12.htm|newspaper=Library of Congress|archive-url=|archive-date=|retrieved=}}</ref> The second republic was founded during the April Revolution mass protests against President Syngman Rhee, succeeding the first republic and establishing a parliamentary government. After thirteen months it was overthrown by the south Korean Army in the May 16 coup led by [[Park Chung-hee]]. Park had fought for the Japanese during the occupation and took the Japanese name Takagi Masao.<ref>{{Citation|author=Stephen Gowans|year=2018|title=Patriots, Traitors and Empires: The Story of Korea’s Struggle for Freedom|chapter=The Patriot|page=67|pdf=https://ipfs.io/ipfs/bafykbzaced4iiga4ngtxusr2civjxewbili5jne2sbpefbx2s3im2kphattzc?filename=Stephen%20Gowans%20-%20Patriots%2C%20Traitors%20and%20Empires_%20The%20Story%20of%20Korea%E2%80%99s%20Struggle%20for%20Freedom-Baraka%20Books%20%282018%29.pdf|city=Montreal|publisher=Baraka Books|isbn=9781771861427|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=8435F6FF91279531705764823FDC2A7F}}</ref> In 1961, the ROK declared all [[Socialist state|socialist states]] its enemies and founded the [[Korean Central Intelligence Agency|KCIA]], a brutal secret police agency that routinely imprisoned and tortured dissidents. The KCIA required [[Trade union|union]] leaders to pledge loyalty to the state.<ref name=":1103" /><br />
<br />
=== Third Republic (1963–1972) ===<br />
The Third Republic was founded on the dissolution of the Supreme Council for National Reconstruction that overthrew the Second Republic and established a military government in May 1961 when, on May 16, General [[Park Chung-hee]], the father of future president [[Park Geun-hye]] and former [[Empire of Japan (1868–1947)|Japanese]] collaborator, took power in a military coup. After serving for two years as chairman of the military junta, he was elected president in 1963, which is considered to be the start of the Third Republic. Park ruled as a military dictator for 18 years and sent 320,000 troops to support the [[Republic of Vietnam (1955–1975)|South Vietnamese]] puppet state in the [[Vietnam War]]. <br />
<br />
==== Korean DMZ conflict ====<br />
The Korean DMZ conflict was a series of low-level armed clashes between north Korean forces and the forces of south Korea and the United States, largely occurring between 1966 and 1969 at the Korean DMZ.<br />
<br />
=== Fourth Republic (1972–1981) ===<br />
[[File:Gwangju riot police.png|thumb|Riot troops attacking protestors during the Gwangju uprising]]<br />
The Fourth Republic was founded on the approval of the Yushin Constitution in the 1972 constitutional referendum, codifying the ''de facto'' dictatorial powers held by President Park Chung-hee. The Fourth Republic entered a period of political instability under Park's successor, Choi Kyu-hah, and the escalating martial law declared after Park's death. Choi was unofficially overthrown by [[Chun Doo-hwan]] in a coup d'état of December Twelfth in December 1979, and began the armed suppression of the [[May 18 uprising|Gwangju Democratization Movement]] against martial law. <br />
<br />
After Park Chung-hee's assassination on 26 October 1979, General Chun Doo-hwan took power. During his presidency he perpetrated the largest massacre of Korean civilians since the Korean war. In May 1980, protests against martial law began in [[Gwangju]], which were met with special warfare troops. Estimates vary as to the amount of casualties, but they range from 165 at the most conservative, to over 300. Some also claim that up to 2,300 civilians were killed in the Gwangju massacre, in response to the May 18 uprising also known as the Gwangju uprising.<ref>{{News citation|author=K. J. Noh|newspaper=Hampton Institute|title=South Korean Dictator Dies, Western Media Resurrects a Myth|date=2020-12-02|url=https://www.hamptonthink.org/read/south-korean-dictator-dies-western-media-resurrects-a-myth|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220519190752/https://www.hamptonthink.org/read/south-korean-dictator-dies-western-media-resurrects-a-myth|archive-date=2022-05-19|retrieved=2022-06-02}}</ref><br />
<br />
An article in ''The Nation'' states that the 10-day revolt known as the Gwangju uprising was triggered when students and other citizens protesting the military coup were attacked by airborne special forces "with a viciousness and cruelty that Koreans had not experienced since the darkest days of the Korean War." The article further states that "The armed resistance by Gwangju’s citizen militia liberated the city from the marauding troops. The townspeople, freed from decades of military rule, kept their city running, buried their dead, and transformed themselves into a self-organized system of mutual aid they now call the Gwangju Commune." On May 27 Korean Army troops were released from their usual duties on the border with DPRK to reoccupy Gwangju. The official death toll from the uprising stands at 165, but residents believe that more than 300 people were killed, with dozens still unaccounted for.<ref>Tim Shorrock and Injeong Kim. [https://www.thenation.com/article/world/two-days-in-may-that-shattered-korean-democracy/ “2 Days in May That Shattered Korean Democracy.”] The Nation. May 28, 2020. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220909162444/https://www.thenation.com/article/world/two-days-in-may-that-shattered-korean-democracy/ Archived] 2022-09-09.</ref><br />
<br />
The Fourth Republic was dissolved on the adoption of a new constitution in March 1981 and replaced with the fifth Republic of Korea.<br />
<br />
=== Fifth Republic (1981–1987) ===<br />
The fifth republic was established in March 1981 by Chun Doo-hwan. The fifth republic faced growing opposition from the democratization movement of the Gwangju Uprising, and the June Democracy Movement of 1987 resulted in the election of Roh Tae-woo in the December 1987 presidential election. The fifth republic was dissolved three days after the election upon the adoption of a new constitution that laid the foundations for the relatively stable democratic system of the current sixth Republic of Korea.<br />
<br />
=== Sixth Republic (1987–present) ===<br />
The Sixth Republic was established in 1987 with Roh Tae-woo as its first president<ref>{{News citation|newspaper=두산백과 (Doopedia)|title=제6공화국 (Sixth Republic)|url=https://terms.naver.com/entry.naver?docId=1141297&cid=40942&categoryId=33385|retrieved=2022-07-24}}</ref> and sixth president of south Korea from 1988 to 1993. Roh's election was the first direct presidential election in 16 years. His presidency was followed by Kim Young-sam (in office 1993–1998), the first civilian to hold the office in over 30 years. After this came the presidency of Kim Dae-jung (in office 1998–2003), known for his "Sunshine Policy" of engagement through dialogue and economic and cultural exchanges with north Korea.<ref>{{News citation|author=Hyonhee Shin|newspaper=Reuters|title=Vindication: Architects of South Korea's 'Sunshine' policy on North say it's paying off|date=2018-06-11|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-usa-sunshinepolicy-idUSKBN1J60PP}}</ref> This was followed by the presidencies of Roh Moo-hyun (in office 2003–2008), and Lee Myung-bak (in office 2008–2013). <br />
<br />
South Korea's next president, Park Geun-hye (in office 2013–2017), is the daughter of former dictator Park Chung-hee. Park Geun-hye was in office as the 11th president of Korea until she was impeached and convicted on corruption charges following public demonstrations, commonly known as the Candlelight Revolution or Candlelight Demonstrations. She became the first south Korean president to be removed from power by impeachment, and was sentenced to 24 years in prison, but received a pardon and was released in 2021 after serving just under 5 years.<ref>{{News citation|author=Hyonhee Shin|newspaper=Reuters|title=S.Korea's disgraced ex-president Park freed after nearly 5 years in prison|date=2021-12-31|url=https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/skoreas-disgraced-ex-president-park-freed-after-nearly-5-years-prison-2021-12-31/}}</ref> Park Geun-hye's presidency was followed by Moon Jae-in (in office 2017–2022). The 13th and current president of Korea is Yoon Suk-yeol of the conservative People Power Party.<br />
<br />
==Politics==<br />
<br />
=== Military command ===<br />
Since the [[Korean War|Korean war]] ended in 1953 with a ceasefire, the US has maintained control over the south Korean military.<ref>Swanström, N. (2021, April 27). ''Not a Sovereignty Issue: Understanding the Transition of Military Operational Control between the United States and South Korea''. Institute for Security and Development Policy. https://isdp.eu/publication/not-a-sovereignty-issue-understanding-the-transition-of-military-operational-control-between-the-united-states-and-south-korea/</ref><ref name=":16">{{News citation|author=Kathryn Botto|newspaper=Carnegie Endowment for International Peace|title=Why Doesn’t South Korea Have Full Control Over Its Military?|date=2019-08-21|url=https://carnegieendowment.org/2019/08/21/why-doesn-t-south-korea-have-full-control-over-its-military-pub-79702}}</ref><ref name=":17">Kelly, R. E. (2017, February 27). ''Why US control of the South Korean military is here to stay''. The Interpreter. <nowiki>https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/why-us-control-south-korean-military-here-stay</nowiki></ref><ref name=":18">{{News citation|author=Clint Work|newspaper=Stimson|title=No More Delays: Why It’s Time to Move Forward With Wartime OPCON Transition|date=June 21, 2022|url=https://www.stimson.org/2022/no-more-delays-why-its-time-to-move-forward-with-wartime-opcon-transition/|quote=The history and evolution of the US-ROK military command architecture reveal the inherent push and pull at the heart of the US-ROK alliance. Over time, the U.S. has encouraged the ROK to take on a more robust role in its own defense and within the alliance’s command architecture. However, U.S. officials have also been equally hesitant to relinquish too much control too quickly. Simply put, Washington has had trouble navigating the outer edges of its own authority within the alliance command structure as it simultaneously and discordantly pushes and pulls back Seoul in the process.}}</ref><ref name=":19">{{News citation|newspaper=United States Forces Korea|title=Combined Forces Command|url=https://www.usfk.mil/About/CFC/#Commanders|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220728035053/https://www.usfk.mil/About/CFC/|archive-date=2022-07-28|quote=The CFC is commanded by a four-star U.S. general, with a four-star ROK Army general as deputy commander. Throughout the command structure, binational manning is readily apparent: if the chief of a staff section is Korean, the deputy is American and vice versa. This integrated structure exists within the component commands as well as the headquarters. All CFC components are tactically integrated through continuous combined and joint planning, training and exercises.}}</ref> ''US Forces Korea'' were integrated with ROK forces into a ''Combined Forces Command'', which was in turn integrated into the [[United Nations]] Command. All three commands are headed by the same person, a four-star US general<ref name=":17" /><ref name=":19" /> (currently General Paul J. LaCamera<ref>{{Web citation|newspaper=United States Forces Korea|title=Commander UNC/CFC/USFK|url=https://www.usfk.mil/About/Leadership/Article-View/Article/1685489/commander-unccfcusfk/}}</ref> who took functions in 2021).<br />
<br />
South Korea has operational control (referred to as OPCON) of its military under armistice conditions, but the United States would take over in wartime, and the U.S. combatant commander would be able to direct, organize, employ, assign command functions to, or suspend the duty of subordinate South Korean commanders and forces. In essence, if war breaks out on the Korean Peninsula, south Korea would supply the overwhelming majority of the fighting force, which would then be placed under U.S. operational control.<ref name=":16" /> <br />
<br />
Throughout the history of the US-ROK arrangement, the U.S. and ROK have engaged in a back-and-forth trying to determine what degree of control each party should have under this relationship, with the U.S. often showing a reluctance to relinquish control over the ROK's military, and ROK leaders at times expressing a wish to have more control over their own military, and at other times expressing acceptance of the U.S.'s authority over the ROK military in wartime.<ref name=":18" /><br />
=== NATO alliance ===<br />
[[File:Mark Esper suggesting NATO for Asia.png|thumb|Mark Esper, former [[United States Department of Defense|U.S. Secretary of Defense]] and [[Raytheon]] lobbyist, delivering a speech at Think Tank 2022, which was focused on issues facing the Korean peninsula. Esper stated, "It is said that the United States does not seek to build a, quote, "[[North Atlantic Treaty Organization|NATO]] for Asia". And I say, 'Why not?'"<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":2" />]]<br />
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On February 26, 2022 (KST), former U.S. Secretary of Defense and Raytheon weapons manufacturer lobbyist, Mark Esper, delivered a speech at the 4th Think Tank 2022 Forum,<ref name=":2">{{News citation|author=Dr. William Selig|newspaper=Universal Peace Federation|title=4th Think Tank 2022 Forum Features Former U.S. Secretary of Defense|date=2022-02-26|url=https://www.upf.org/peace-and-security-reports/10012-4th-think-tank-2022-forum-featured-hon-mark-esper-former-u-s-secretary-of-defense|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220723061325/https://www.upf.org/peace-and-security-reports/10012-4th-think-tank-2022-forum-featured-hon-mark-esper-former-u-s-secretary-of-defense|archive-date=2022-07-23|retrieved=2022-07-23}}</ref> which is a think tank associated with Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon,<ref>{{News citation|newspaper=Think Tank 2022|title=Co-Founder Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon|url=http://thinktank2022.org/founder/HakJaHanMoon.php}}</ref> the wife of late millionaire<ref>{{News citation|newspaper=Celebrity Net Worth|title=Sun Myung Moon Net Worth|url=https://www.celebritynetworth.com/richest-celebrities/authors/sun-myung-moon-net-worth/|quote=Sun Myung Moon was a Korean religious leader, businessman, and media mogul who had a net worth of $900 million at the time of his death. Sun Myung Moon was best known for founding the Unification movement and authoring its conservative theology of the "Divine Principle." [...] Some considered him a cult leader.}}</ref> Rev. Sun Myung Moon, founder and self-proclaimed messiah of the generally right-wing, anti-communist [[Unification Church]].<ref>{{News citation|author=Conal Urquhart|newspaper=The Guardian|title=Sun Myung Moon, founder of the Moonies, dies in South Korea|date=2012-09-03|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/sep/03/moonies-sun-myung-moon-dies|quote=Moon saw himself as a messiah and created a church that became a worldwide movement and claims to have around 3 million members, including 100,000 in the United States. [...] He was jailed for five years by the North Korean government in 1948, but escaped in 1950 when his guards fled as United Nations troops advanced. He was an active anti-Communist throughout the cold war.}}</ref> Speaking at this event, weapons industry lobbyist Esper emphasized the need for full cooperation between the U.S., south Korea, and Japan in the face of challenges posed by north Korea and China, saying:<blockquote>It is said that the United States does not seek to build a, quote, "NATO for Asia". And I say, "Why not?" We should have lofty goals and high expectations and not let history and distance confound us. America's European allies overcame a brutal history to form a collective security arrangement to deal with [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (1917–1991)|Soviet Russia]]. There's no reason why the same can't happen in the Indo-Pacific as we increasingly face off against a recalcitrant north Korea and aggressive communist China.<ref name=":3">Esper, Mark. 4th Think Tank 2022 Forum. "Hon. Mart[sic] Esper, 27th United States Secretary of Defense keynote address." Think Tank 2022. Uploaded April 13, 2022. URL:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfKih9aabsk (NATO-related quote begins at 16:36)</ref></blockquote>Esper stated that he is a "big believer" in the quadrilateral security dialogue known as "The Quad" a strategic security dialogue between [[Commonwealth of Australia|Australia]], [[Republic of India|India]], Japan, and the United States that is maintained by talks between member countries, which Esper says is "rightly viewed as a unified response to China's rising military and economic power." He states, "I believe south Korea should be the next partner to join the Quad, transitioning it into the Quint."<ref name=":3" /><br />
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The former Raytheon lobbyist and defense company Epirus Inc. board member then went on to say that "America's allies and partners need to invest at least two percent of their GDP for defense and invest in the right capabilities," listing long-range precision strike capabilities, air and missile defenses, advanced submarines, and fifth generation fighter aircraft as examples, and noting that the Republic of Korea has already met this two percent mark.<ref name=":3" /> Esper describes that these weapons investments will help the region deter Chinese and north Korean "aggression" and states that a "reinvigorated work plan with the DPRK should begin with the complete verifiable and irreversible denuclearization of the North."<ref name=":2" /><br />
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In June 2022, the south Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol declared he will participate in the 3rd [[NATO Summit]] of 2022.<ref>{{News citation|newspaper=Kyodo News|title=Yoon to attend NATO summit, 1st time for S. Korean president|date=2022-06-22|url=https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2022/06/968e985e4c76-yoon-to-attend-nato-summit-1st-time-for-s-korean-president.html}}</ref> The director of the National Security Office Kim Sung-han declared not much later that south Korea will establish a "diplomatic mission" to NATO in Brussels to coincide with President Yoon Suk-yeol's participation in the Summit. According to Sung-han, this mission will make south Korea "able to increase information sharing and strengthen our networks with NATO allies and partners and establish a Europe platform that is worthy of our [global] status".<ref>{{News citation|newspaper=Korea JoongAng Daily|title=Korea to open diplomatic mission to NATO|date=2022-06-22|url=https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2022/06/22/national/politics/Korea-Nato-Summit-Yoon-Sukyeol/20220622191349616.html}}</ref><br />
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=== Unconverted long-term prisoners ===<br />
[[File:Unconverted long-term prisoners in south Korea.jpg|thumb|A demonstration calling for a second repatriation of unconverted long-term prisoners in south Korea. The sign reads "Call for second repatriation of non-converted long-term prisoners" ("비전향장기수 2차 송환 촉구").]]<br />
''Main article: [[Unconverted long-term prisoners]]''<br />
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Unconverted long-term prisoners is a term which refers to political prisoners imprisoned in south Korea, generally on charges of "anti-state" activities or views in support of communism or DPRK. While in prison, many of them were held in solitary confinement and subjected to extensive torture while being pressured to sign a "conversion" statement renouncing communist or left-wing ideology.<ref>{{News citation|newspaper=BBC News|title=Solitary: Tough test of survival instinct|date=1999-02-25|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/286070.stm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220725155633/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/286070.stm}}</ref> In the 1990s, some of the unconverted prisoners began being released. Some chose to remain in south Korea while others sought to be repatriated to DPRK.<ref name=":10">Kim Dong-won. ''Repatriation'' (2003). Documentary. URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xu2mEvU29Q</ref> Some were able to return to DPRK, notably 63 of them in the year 2000,<ref name=":28">[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/907307.stm "Korean communists go home."] BBC News, 2 September, 2000. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240311153647/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/907307.stm Archived] 2024-03-11.</ref><ref>{{News citation|newspaper=파이낸셜 뉴스 (Financial News)|title=북한, 비전향장기수 북송 21주년 맞아 생존 장기수들 조명 (North Korea celebrates 21st anniversary of repatriation of non-converted long-term prisoners to North Korea)|date=2021-09-06|url=https://www.fnnews.com/news/202109061041393026}}</ref> but others remained in the South, being denied their requests for repatriation.<ref>{{News citation|author=Kang Jin-kyu|newspaper=Korea JoongAng Daily|title=Spies who can't come in from the cold|date=2016-08-07|url=https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2016/08/07/politics/Spies-who-cant-come-in-from-the-cold/3022316.html}}</ref> <br />
Those who returned to the DPRK were met with celebrations and awards,<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20191124030603/http://www.kcna.co.jp/item/2000/200009/news09/04.htm "National reunification prizes awarded to unconverted long-term prisoners"], [[Korean Central News Agency]], 2000-09-04. Archived 2019-11-19.</ref> while those remaining in south Korea faced difficulties including ongoing health issues from their long imprisonment, living in poverty, not being given social security numbers,<ref name=":10" /> and being subjected to ROK state surveillance under the Security Surveillance Act.<ref name=":22">{{Web citation|author=Liberation School|newspaper=Liberation School|title=Still fighting for Korea’s liberation: An interview with Ahn Hak-sop|date=Jul 27, 2022|url=https://www.liberationschool.org/interview-with-ahn-hak-sop/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/2/https://www.liberationschool.org/interview-with-ahn-hak-sop/}}</ref> <br />
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Many who participated in the repatriation in the year 2000 and many of those who remained in south Korea made their decisions based on their impression at the time that there was going to be more freedom of movement between ROK and DPRK thereafter. In an interview with [[Liberation School]], former prisoner Ahn Hak-sop, who chose to remain in the South when the 2000 repatriation happened, said one of his reasons was that he "thought it was a temporary situation." Anh also notes regarding two prisoners released alongside him, that "Those comrades went to the North because they thought that shortly there would be free movement between the two states. They went to the North to study and thought they would come back later." Regarding his own intention to stay in the south temporarily, Anh elaborated: "[T]here were young progressive people here in the South, and they asked me to stay. [...] We have to keep struggling here for the withdrawal of US army, the peace treaty, and peaceful reunification. I decided to stay here to fight for these goals. In 1952, I came here to liberate the southern half of the peninsula, and I need to stay here and continue that struggle."<ref name=":22" /><br />
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Those who oppose or criticize the repatriation of these former prisoners generally do so on grounds of demanding that DPRK start repatriating people back to the south as well.<ref name=":28" /><br />
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=== National Security Law ===<br />
The National Security Law is a south Korean law enforced since 1948 with the avowed purpose "to secure the security of the State and the subsistence and freedom of nationals, by regulating any anticipated activities compromising the safety of the State." Behaviors or speeches in favor of the DPRK or communism can be punished by the National Security Law. In an article from The Diplomat, it was referred to as a "Cold War holdover" that "allows the government to selectively prosecute anyone who 'praises, incites or propagates the activities of an anti-government organization'" which the article describes as "a deliberately vague clause that broadly implies the north Korean state and its sympathizers." The article continues, explaining "Under Article 7, individuals have been prosecuted and imprisoned for merely possessing north Korean publications or satirically tweeting north Korean propaganda. In recent years this clause has been harshly criticized by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, who claim the government abuses the law to repress dissenting voices."<ref>{{News citation|author=Meredith Shaw and Joseph Yi.|newspaper=The Diplomat|title=Will Yoon Suk-yeol Finally Reform South Korea’s National Security Law?|date=2022-03-15|url=https://thediplomat.com/2022/03/will-yoon-suk-yeol-finally-reform-south-koreas-national-security-law/}}</ref><br />
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=== Anti-imperialist, anti-U.S., and pro-unification struggle in south Korea ===<br />
[[File:Unification Vanguard of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions Anti-US Demonstration.png|thumb|318x318px|The Unification Vanguard of the [[Korean Confederation of Trade Unions]] unfurls large banners reading "This land is our land, YANKEE GO HOME" and "Stop practicing for a war of aggression" in an August 2022 demonstration against US-ROK joint military exercises.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXCK3s-vic8 "23기 민주노총 중앙통일선봉대 활동영상" ("23rd KCTU Central Unification Vanguard Activity Video")]. 민주노총 (Confederation of Trade Unions). Aug 14, 2022. YouTube.</ref><ref>김준. (Kim Jun). [http://worknworld.kctu.org/news/articleView.html?idxno=500588 "쌍용훈련 재개 예고에 23기 중앙통선대, 포항 한미연합상륙훈련장 지휘소 기습점거투쟁" ("23rd Central Telecommunication Battalion, Pohang ROK-U.S. Combined Amphibious Training Center Command Post, Surprise Occupation Struggle to Announce Resumption of Ssangyong Training").] 노동과세계. 2022.08.12. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220828050027/http://worknworld.kctu.org/news/articleView.html?idxno=500588 Archived] 2022-08-28.</ref>]]<br />
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According to the People's Democracy Party (PDP), a revolutionary workers' party in south Korea, the continued U.S. military occupation of south Korea is the primary barrier to peaceful reunification of the Korean peninsula. The PDP, co-authoring a 2020 ''Liberation School'' article, writes:<blockquote>The peace of the Corean Peninsula is possible only after the withdrawal of the U.S. troops. The U.S. troops are occupation forces in South Corea and invading army to North Corea. So their withdrawal is the most desperate and preferred struggle task for the whole Corean nation to solve. The present war crisis escalating to a high level proves that peace in the Corean peninsula cannot be realized unless the U.S. troops are withdrawn from South Corea.<br />
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As long as the U.S. troops are stationed in South Corea and war exercises are conducted against North Corea, the prospect for peace is bound to be dark. We are convinced from our historical experience that if we develop the struggles for the withdrawal of the U.S. troops into a popular uprising of the South Corean people, and if the whole Corean nation can struggle together in great unity, we can withdraw the U.S. troops from South Corea.<br />
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[...] True peace is possible only without imperialism; the head of imperialism is the U.S. We have an opinion that a true peace movement should be an anti-imperialist movement and an anti-U.S. movement. We believe that the progressive and peace-loving forces of the world can and must conduct an anti-imperialist, anti-war struggle, to halt all wars in the world by U.S. troops and to withdraw all U.S. troops stationed overseas. The key is the formation of an anti-imperialist, anti-U.S. united front and anti-imperialist, anti-U.S. joint action.<ref name=":23" /></blockquote><br />
[[File:South Korean students rush the U.S. Ambassador’s official residence, 2019.png|thumb|South Korean students surprise rushing U.S. Ambassador [[Harry Harris]]' official residence in 2019, using ladders to climb over the wall, with signs saying “leave this land” and shouting "Stop interfering with our domestic affairs" and "We don’t need U.S. troops."<ref name=":26">Shin, Hyonhee. 2019. [https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-northkorea-southkorea-idUSKBN1WX0Z6 “South Korean Students Climb into U.S. Envoy’s Residence in Protest against Troop Presence.”] U.S. October 18, 2019. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230325105702/https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-northkorea-southkorea-idUSKBN1WX0Z6 Archived] 2023-03-25.</ref><ref name=":27">오마이TV. 2019. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Del06vXK8nk “순식간에 미대사관저 담장 넘어간 대학생들.”] YouTube Video. [https://web.archive.org/web/20221018101952/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Del06vXK8nk&feature=youtu.be Archive link].</ref>]]<br />
In 2019, 19 south Korean students were detained after several used a ladder to climb over the wall into the grounds of the U.S. Ambassador [[Harry Harris]]' residence in Seoul in protest against the U.S. troop presence in the country. A spokesman for the US Embassy in Seoul said that approximately 20 Korean nationals illegally entered the official residential compound of the U.S. Ambassador and attempted to forcibly enter the residence itself. In a video broadcast from inside the compound, the activists accused the United States of demanding a 500% increase in the cost of keeping some 28,500 troops in south Korea, holding a banner saying "Leave this soil, Harris" and shouted "Stop interfering with our domestic affairs!" "Get out!" and "We don’t need U.S. troops!" before being marched out of the residence by police. The students had also attempted to break into the U.S. Embassy in Seoul in 2018, before being stopped by police. A Reuters article notes that the student group also "held a forum to present their 'research findings' on the achievements of North Korean leader [[Kim Jong-un|Kim Jong Un]], lauding him as a caring and influential leader."<ref name=":26" /><ref name=":27" /> <br />
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[[Nodutdol]] (Korean: 노듯돌), an [[Anti-imperialism|anti-imperialist]], pro-unification organization of diasporic Koreans,<ref>[https://nodutdol.org/about/ “About.”] Nodutdol. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230401142208/https://nodutdol.org/about/ Archived] 2023-04-01.</ref> notes in their 2020 pamphlet "Sanctions of Empire" that Ambassador Harry Harris has been obstructive toward inter-Korean reconciliation, blocking efforts by the [[Moon Jae-in]] administration to develop tourism into the DPRK, claiming that "independent" tourism plans would have to undergo US consultation, emphasizing that the items inside south Korean tourists' luggage could violate [[Economic sanctions|sanctions]].<ref>[https://nodutdol.org/sanctions-of-empire/ "제국의 제재 - Sanctions of Empire."] [[Nodutdol]]. October 20, 2020. [https://nodutdol.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Sanctions-of-Empire.pdf PDF]. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220520095404/https://nodutdol.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Sanctions-of-Empire.pdf Archive].</ref><br />
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On Jeju Island, located off the southern tip of the Korean peninsula, a decade-long protest of the construction of a naval base has been ongoing. Activists noted in a 2013 statement that the base will only worsen the likelihood of Koreans being pulled into a US-China conflict: "Jeju naval base will be an outpost of the U.S. maritime military alliance, together with Japan, targeting China, rather than a strategic point of independent national defense. With the U.S. [[Pivot to Asia]] strategy, the chances of South Korea’s getting pulled into conflicts between the U.S. and China increase."<ref>[https://www.peoplepower21.org/english/1080148 <nowiki>“[Publication] No Naval Base on Jeju Island! - 참여연대 -.”</nowiki>] 참여연대. October 7, 2013. [https://web.archive.org/web/20210414023914/http://www.peoplepower21.org/English/1080148 Archive link].</ref> Although the base eventually completed construction, protestors continued to oppose it with demonstrations and attempted entries into it, saying that although it is nominally a south Korean base, it is "a place where cutting-edge strategic assets in the US military can stop by whenever they please according to American interests."<ref>[https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_international/820635.html “American Nuclear Submarine Enters Jeju Naval Base.”] Hankyoreh. Hani.co.kr. 2017. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230325090226/https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_international/820635.html Archived] 2023-03-25.</ref> In 2020, an activist was arrested for trespassing on the base and destroying government property.<ref>Elizabeth Shim. [https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2020/03/30/South-Korea-arrests-protester-for-infiltrating-Jeju-Naval-Base/2991585585755/ “South Korea Arrests Protester for Infiltrating Jeju Naval Base.”] UPI. March 30, 2020. [https://web.archive.org/web/20200814001452/https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2020/03/30/South-Korea-arrests-protester-for-infiltrating-Jeju-Naval-Base/2991585585755/ Archived].</ref><br />
[[File:People rally to protest against the planned South Korea-U.S. military drills in Seoul, South Korea, Aug. 13, 2022.jpg|thumb|People rally against the ROK-US military drills, Aug. 13, 2022. Banners say "Stop war exercises! No to USA!" (Korean: 전쟁연습 중단! 미국 반대!)]]<br />
On August 13, 2022, thousands of south Korean unionists and their progressive supporters rallied in downtown Seoul to protest against joint US-south Korea war game exercises. In a video uploaded by [[Press TV]], Oh Eun-Jung of the National Teachers Union was quoted as saying "The threat of nuclear war is growing on the Korean peninsula, conservative forces of Yoon Suk-yeol in south Korea and those in the U.S. are frantically conducting aggressive war drills in the sky, the land, and the sea, and are about to start large-scale military exercises, aimed at the invasion of north Korea. We must stamp out this behavior of anti-reunification forces." In the same video, construction worker Lee Seung-Woo stated, "We not only oppose the war exercises, but we want the U.S. Forces Korea, which is actually controlling and interfering with the Korean peninsula to leave this land. We believe that only then will the eighty million Koreans from both north and south be able to live peacefully."<ref>Frank Smith. [https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2022/08/13/687322/South-Korean-unionists-protest-US-South-Korea-war-games “‘South Korean Unionists Protest US-South Korea War Games.’”] PressTV News. August 13, 2022. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220826124551/https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2022/08/13/687322/South-Korean-unionists-protest-US-South-Korea-war-games Archived] 2022-08-28.</ref><br />
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The media company [[Sovereignty Broadcast]] (Korean: 주권방송), additionally going by the name 615tv on some of its social media accounts, uploads educational and informative videos its to YouTube page regarding the peace and unification struggle in Korea. According to the channel's about page, it is an internet media company that deals with peace and unification on the Korean Peninsula and various current affairs topics in Korea.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/c/The615tv/about About Sovereignty Broadcast]. Sovereignty Broadcast. YouTube.</ref><br />
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=== Censorship ===<br />
Until 1973, images of [[Kim Il-sung]] were banned in south Korea. The southern secret police falsely claimed that Kim was an impostor who had not been involved in the guerrilla resistance against Japan. In 1989, the police state arrested an average of 3.3 Koreans every day under anti-communist censorship laws. Many [[Anti-capitalism|anti-capitalist]] books are banned, even some by non-[[Marxism|Marxists]]. In 2011, southern authorities deleted over 67,000 internet posts that were critical of the ROK or United States. Left-wing music such as the ''Song of the Red Flag'' (which is even used by the [[Social democracy|social democratic]] [[Labour Party (UK)|UK Labour Party]]) is also illegal under the National Security Law.<ref name=":1103">{{Citation|author=Stephen Gowans|year=2018|title=Patriots, Traitors and Empires: The Story of Korea’s Struggle for Freedom|chapter=The Anti-Communist Police State|page=136–145|pdf=https://ipfs.io/ipfs/bafykbzaced4iiga4ngtxusr2civjxewbili5jne2sbpefbx2s3im2kphattzc?filename=Stephen%20Gowans%20-%20Patriots%2C%20Traitors%20and%20Empires_%20The%20Story%20of%20Korea%E2%80%99s%20Struggle%20for%20Freedom-Baraka%20Books%20%282018%29.pdf|city=Montreal|publisher=Baraka Books|isbn=9781771861427|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=8435F6FF91279531705764823FDC2A7F}}</ref><br />
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=== Government-sanctioned prostitution and sex trafficking victims ===<br />
[[File:Women who were encouraged by the South Korean government to work as prostitutes near US military bases hold a press conference outside of the Seoul High Court in the Seocho neighborhood.jpg|thumb|Women who were encouraged by the South Korean government to work as prostitutes near US military bases hold a press conference outside of the Seoul High Court in the Seocho neighborhood following a court ruling on their case on Feb. 8, 2018.]]<br />
As described in a 2019 article by journalist [[Tim Shorrock]], "between the end of the Korean War and the early 1990s, more than one million Korean women were caught up in a state-controlled prostitution industry" that was operated by and for the benefit of the U.S. military. They worked in special zones surrounding U.S. bases, in areas licensed by the south Korean government, reserved exclusively for American troops, and monitored and policed by the U.S. Army. Shorrock explains that the system was designed to strengthen the U.S.-south Korean alliance and boost the morale of U.S. military personnel, and for south Korea to bring in foreign currency, with prostitution for this purpose being encouraged as a woman’s patriotic duty to the state. These zones, called ''kijichon'' (Korean: 기지촌; "military camp town"), were established around 31 U.S. Army, Air Force, and Navy bases in South Korea. Shorrock writes that "in Gyonggi province, which extends from south of Seoul up to the DMZ and was home to the majority of U.S. bases, some 10,000 sex workers were registered every year from 1953 to the late 1980s."<ref name=":25">[[Tim Shorrock|Shorrock, Tim]]. 2019. [https://newrepublic.com/article/155707/united-states-military-prostitution-south-korea-monkey-house “Welcome to the Monkey House.”] The New Republic. December 2, 2019. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230322174621/https://newrepublic.com/article/155707/united-states-military-prostitution-south-korea-monkey-house Archived] 2023-03-22.</ref><br />
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In 2018, Lee Beom-gyun, a judge on an appellate court in Seoul, agreed that the south Korean government had actively encouraged prostitution to boost ties with the United States. Lee ruled that the Korean state "operated and managed" the military camp towns to contribute to the "maintenance of a military alliance essential for national security" and abetted the industry "through patriotic education praising prostitutes as 'patriots who bring in foreign currency.'" He concluded that the government had violated the human rights of its citizens and denounced the practice of segregating "camp town prostitutes in forced internment facilities or through the indiscriminate administration of penicillin, which carries serious physical side effects."<ref name=":25" /><ref>[http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_international/831625.html “Court Finds That South Korean Government Encouraged Prostitution near US Military Bases.”] 2018. Hani.co.kr. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230325113713/http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_international/831625.html Archived] 2023-03-25.</ref><br />
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The 2019 article describes one sex worker's experience in this system:<blockquote>One former sex worker starkly laid out the conditions faced by many ''kijichon'' women in a documentary film produced by Durebang. “A pimp sold me to a U.S. camp town,” she recalled. “Inside a warehouse, I was raped. The police sent me to the Monkey House, where American medics gave us injections” of penicillin and other drugs to prevent the spread of STDs. After her release, she was required to wear a plastic badge showing she’d been tested—“cunt tags,” she called them. All sex workers and bar owners were required to hang these registration certificates on the walls of their establishments as well.<ref name=":25" /></blockquote>Choi Hee-shin, a community organizer who grew up in Dongducheon, which surrounds the U.S. Camp Casey, was quoted in the same 2019 article saying, “Lots of people are ashamed of what happened in the camp towns, and want to forget," further stating, "But people like me, we can't forget. The U.S.-South Korean alliance depended on these comfort women."<br />
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According to Wellesley Professor Katharine H.S. Moon in ''Sex Among Allies'', a history of military prostitution in south Korea, the "overwhelming majority" of prostitutes in the camp towns were either orphans or abandoned children. Moon estimates in her book that at the peak of U.S. troop strength in the 1980s, the ''kijichon'' economy contributed 5 percent of South Korea’s gross domestic product. Once they were recruited to the camp towns, women found themselves trapped by debt. They carried out their sex work in rooms they had to rent from the bar owners. They also had to buy all their supplies, including their bed, their clothes, and the phonographs they set up to entertain their American clients.<br />
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Shorrock explains that many of the Koreans who seek justice for camp-town sex workers refer to them as [[comfort women]], a term which commonly refers to women whom the Japanese Imperial Army kidnapped and forced to work in military brothels called "comfort stations" during the Second World War. However, the Korean public has generally refrained from treating the kijichon women as victims of imperialism in the manner of the comfort women. Park Jeong-mi, a professor at Chungbuk National University, argues that this sentiment is unfair, and in her research she has found a direct historical link between the Japanese and American systems, as the U.S. military government created an administrative state that was dominated by Koreans who had collaborated with Japan's colonial rulers. The shift from Japanese- to American-coerced sex work was an easy transition, she said: "High-ranking Korean officials who served under Japanese colonial rule were familiar with the comfort station system." Under U.S. pressure, Park said, the south Korean government licensed the bars and clubs that hired the women who entertained the U.S. troops, likening those establishments to de facto brothels.<ref name=":25" /><br />
<br />
=== Sexism ===<br />
Women are only paid half as much as men for the same job.<ref name=":1222">{{Citation|author=[[Vijay Prashad]]|year=2008|title=The Darker Nations: A People's History of the Third World|chapter=Singapore|page=248|pdf=https://cloudflare-ipfs.com/ipfs/bafykbzaceascnzh26r5d6uitjjs2z7rflhaxlt7rboz5whzdf76qg6xxvecqq?filename=%28A%20New%20Press%20People%27s%20history%29%20Vijay%20Prashad%20-%20The%20darker%20nations_%20a%20people%27s%20history%20of%20the%20third%20world-The%20New%20Press%20%282008%29.pdf|publisher=The New Press|isbn=9781595583420|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=9B40B96E830128A7FE0E0E887C06829F}}</ref><br />
<br />
==Rising anti-capitalism==<br />
In recent years, the term '''"'''[[Hell Joseon]]" or "Hell Korea" (Korean: 헬조선) has become popular to describe the social anxiety and discontent surrounding high unemployment and poor working conditions.<ref>[http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/739886.html Lashing out at “Hell Joseon”, young’uns drive ruling party’s election beatdown]</ref><ref>[https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/young-south-koreans-call-their-country-hell-and-look-for-ways-out/2016/01/30/34737c06-b967-11e5-85cd-5ad59bc19432_story.html Young South Koreans call their country ‘hell’ and look for ways out] by the [[Washington Post]]</ref> <br />
<br />
south Korean media has also increasingly included narratives of class antagonism which have been popular successes for Western audiences, with films such as ''Snowpiercer'' (2013)<ref>[https://newmultitude.org/snowpiercer-class-consciousness/ THE TRAIN IS CAPITALISM- SNOWPIERCER AND CLASS CONSCIOUNESS]</ref> and ''Parasite'' (2019)<ref>[https://medium.com/incluvie/parasite-and-capitalism-what-the-film-says-about-the-pursuit-of-wealth-993fa7ce7ee1 Parasite and Capitalism: What the Film Says About the Pursuit of Wealth]</ref> and the popular TV show ''Squid Game'' (2021).<ref>[https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/squid-game-the-rise-of-anti-capitalist-entertainment/ar-AAPaOHG Squid Game & The Rise Of Anti-Capitalist Entertainment]</ref><ref>[https://www.gen-zine.com/post/thesquidgame “The Squid Game”: Anti-Capitalism and Netflix]</ref><ref>[https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/elaminabdelmahmoud/squid-game-netflix-review-lupin-international “Squid Game” Works Because Capitalism Is A Global Scourge]</ref><br />
<br />
With increasing economic stratification, social [[alienation]], and lack of opportunity among young people entering the work force, south Korea has a rate of mental health issues and suicide that is among the highest in the developed world.<ref>{{News citation|author=Katrin Park|newspaper=Foreign Policy|title=South Korea Is No Country for Young People|date=2021-10-5|url=https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/11/05/south-korea-suicide-rates-mental-illness-squid-game/}}</ref> This undoubtedly is resulting in the development of [[class consciousness]].<br />
<br />
The [[bourgeois media]] (in south Korea and in the US) carefully ensures that all criticism of capitalism stops just short of providing concrete solutions, lest people become interested in [[socialism]] and its [[Successes of socialism|various successes around the world]].<br />
<br />
Labor militancy is also on the rise as 500k south Korean workers walked off in a one-day [[general strike]], protesting against rampant [[exploitation]] by the [[Gig worker|gig economy]], high costs of housing, and the highest annual working hours in the OECD.<ref>[https://therealnews.com/half-a-million-south-korean-workers-walk-off-jobs-in-general-strike HALF A MILLION SOUTH KOREAN WORKERS WALK OFF JOBS IN GENERAL STRIKE] on [https://therealnews.com/half-a-million-south-korean-workers-walk-off-jobs-in-general-strike The Real News Network]</ref><br />
<br />
== Notes ==<br />
<references group="Notes" /><br />
<br />
==References==<br />
<references /><br />
[[Category:Illegal states]]<br />
[[Category:Global north]]<br />
[[Category:Puppet states]]<br />
[[Category:Neocolonial outposts]]<br />
[[Category:Asian countries]]</div>
Verda.Majo
https://en.prolewiki.org/index.php?title=Republic_of_Korea&diff=64208
Republic of Korea
2024-03-16T04:30:48Z
<p>Verda.Majo: /* US occupation */ added link to Korean People's Republic and a note about the romanization of a Korean name</p>
<hr />
<div>{{Infobox country|name=Republic of Korea|population_estimate_year=2019|population_estimate=51,709,098|area_km2=100,363|established_date1=1948 August 15|established_event1=First Republic|image_map=Statesian neocolonial occupation of Korea.svg|map_width=260|official_languages=Korean|leader_name3=Kim Jin-pyo|native_name=대한민국|image_flag=Flag of South Korea.svg|leader_title3=Speaker of the National Assembly|leader_name2=Han Duck-soo|leader_title2=Prime Minister|leader_name1=[[Yoon Suk-yeol]]|leader_title1=President|image_coat=ROK emblem.svg|capital=Seoul|government_type=Unitary corporatocratic republic|currency=Korean Republic won (₩) (KRW)|official_website=https://www.korea.net/|mode_of_production=[[Capitalism]]}}<br />
The so-called '''Republic of Korea''' ('''ROK'''), also known as '''Capitalist Korea''' or '''South Korea''', is a [[Bourgeois state|bourgeois liberal republic]] that serves as a [[United States of America|U.S.]] puppet state<ref>{{Citation|author=Stephen Gowans|year=2018|title=Patriots, Traitors and Empires: The Story of Korea’s Struggle for Freedom|chapter=The Empire of Japan|page=45|pdf=https://ipfs.io/ipfs/bafykbzaced4iiga4ngtxusr2civjxewbili5jne2sbpefbx2s3im2kphattzc?filename=Stephen%20Gowans%20-%20Patriots%2C%20Traitors%20and%20Empires_%20The%20Story%20of%20Korea%E2%80%99s%20Struggle%20for%20Freedom-Baraka%20Books%20%282018%29.pdf|city=Montreal|publisher=Baraka Books|isbn=9781771861427|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=8435F6FF91279531705764823FDC2A7F}}</ref> and [[Neocolonialism|colony]]<ref name=":23" /> located on the southern portion of the [[Korea|Korean Peninsula]]. The northern part of the peninsula is governed by the [[Democratic People's Republic of Korea|Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)]], also known as People's Korea. <br />
<br />
According to the south Korean [[People's Democracy Party]] (민중민주당), writing in a 2020 [[Liberation School]] article, "south Korea is a complete colony occupied by the U.S. military, is politically oppressed by the U.S., and is economically subordinate to [[Imperialism|imperialist]] countries, including the U.S. After the military coup of 1961, the rule of fascist military dictatorships continued for 30 years, and since then a pro-US [[Neoliberalism|neoliberal]] regime has operated in the country. It is severely exploiting the [[Proletariat|workers]], [[Peasantry|farmers]], and all the people."<ref name=":23">People's Democracy Party and Liberation School. [https://www.liberationschool.org/korean-war-70-years/ “70 Years Too Long: The Struggle to End the Korean War – Liberation School.”] ''Liberation School – Revolutionary Marxism for a New Generation of Fighters'', 25 June 2020. [https://web.archive.org/web/2/https://www.liberationschool.org/korean-war-70-years/ Archived].<br />
<br />
</ref><br />
<br />
According to the same party, the Korean reunification and peace struggle is contingent on the withdrawal of U.S. troops, and therefore U.S. military withdrawal from south Korea is "the most desperate and preferred struggle task for the whole Korean nation to solve.<ref name=":23" /> <br />
<br />
Since its inception, the ROK has been riddled with corruption and political scandals. All four living former south Korean presidents have been sentenced to prison for various crimes ranging from abuse of authority to bribery and embezzlement.<ref name="aei">{{Web citation|date=2018-10-09|title=South Korea's troubling history of jailing ex-presidents|url=https://www.aei.org/foreign-and-defense-policy/asia/south-koreas-troubling-history-of-jailing-ex-presidents/|newspaper=American Enterprise Institute}}</ref><ref>{{Web citation|date=2021-02-10|title=Former South Korean president sentenced to prison|url=https://www.dw.com/en/former-south-korean-president-sentenced-to-prison/a-55779280|newspaper=Deutsche Welle}}</ref><ref>{{Web citation|date=2013-08-22|title=Ex-president Roh Tae-woo to pay remainder of massive fine|newspaper=The Chosunilbo}}</ref><ref>{{Web citation|date=2017-02-07|title=South Korea: President's impeachment on a background of political scandal|url=http://perspective.usherbrooke.ca/bilan/servlet/BMAnalyse?codeAnalyse=2320|newspaper=Perspective Monde}}</ref><ref name="bbcsource">{{Web citation|date=2018-10-05|title=South Korea ex-leader jailed for 15 years|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-45756561|newspaper=[[BBC|BBC News]]}}</ref><br />
<br />
==History==<br />
<br />
=== Early history and Japanese occupation ===<br />
{{Main article|Korea}}<br />
Some of Korea's major historical periods leading up to the contemporary period include the period of Gojoseon (2333 B.C.-108 B.C.), the Three Han States Period, the Three Kingdoms Period, the North-South States Period (668-918), the Goryeo Dynasty (918–1392), the Joseon Dynasty (1392–1897), the relatively short-lived Korean Empire (1897–1910), and the Japanese colonial occupation period (1910–1945).<ref name=":29">Shin, Michael D.; Lee, Injae; Miller, Owen; Park, Jinhoon; Yi, Hyon-hye. [https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781107098466 "Korean History in Maps: from prehistory to the Twenty-first Century."] Cambridge University Press, 3rd printing, 2016.</ref><ref>[http://nationalatlas.ngii.go.kr/pages/page_3083.php "Territorial History of Korea."] National Atlas of Korea: Comprehensive Edition (2022). National Geography Information Institute, Ministry of Land Infrastructure and Transport.</ref><br />
<br />
Throughout its history, Korea has been faced with various foreign attacks and disturbances. For example, Korea faced invasion by Japan during the [[Imjin Wars]] of the 1590s<ref name=":29" /> and disturbances such as imperialist [[gunboat diplomacy]] in the 1800s.<ref>Bullimore, Kim. [https://redflag.org.au/node/6486 "Understanding US aggression against North Korea."] [[Redflag]], [[Socialist Alternative (Australia)|Socialist Alternative]], 2018-08-21. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220526084730/https://redflag.org.au/node/6486 Archived] 2022-05-26.</ref> As independent scholar Jay Hauben observed in The Jeju Weekly, Korea "remained independent despite 500 years of efforts of bigger powers to dominate it" until it was subjected to Japanese rule in 1910.<ref name=":14" /><br />
<br />
During the Japanese occupation era, which lasted until Japan's defeat in 1945, Korea's economy was developed to serve the interests of the Japanese empire, with Korean industry developing as an "appendage" of Japanese industry, hindering the normal development of Korea's national industry.<ref>Kim Han Gil. [https://archive.org/details/ModernHistoryOfKorea/ "Modern History of Korea."] Foreign Languages Publishing House, Pyongyang, Korea, 1979.</ref> The southern part of the Korean peninsula was predominantly agricultural, and was considered the "rice bowl" of the country as it supplied a greater portion of the food for Korea. As a colonial economy, it was tightly controlled in the interest of creating a rice surplus for Japan.<ref name=":15">Kim Jinwung. A ''Policy of Amateurism: The Rice Policy of the U.S. Army Military''. Government in Korea, 1945-1948. Korea Journal, Summer 2007.https://kj.accesson.kr/assets/pdf/8153/journal-47-2-208.pdf</ref><br />
<br />
As [[Kim Il-sung|Kim Il Sung]] summarized, during the colonial period, Japan turned Korea into "a source of raw materials and labour, a market for their commodities and a military base for aggression against the continent."<ref>Kim Il Sung. "The Tasks of Korean Communists." Treatise Published in Sogwang, Organ of the Korean People's Revolutionary Army, November 10, 1937. Collected Works Volume 1. ([https://www.marxists.org/archive/kim-il-sung/cw/01.pdf PDF])</ref> Additionally, under colonial rule, Koreans were subjected to kidnapping and slavery in the form of forced labor and sexual slavery (the latter are known as [[comfort women]]), on top of facing extensive political repression and cultural erasure.<ref name=":30" /><br />
<br />
A [[Liberation School]] article explains that as economic and anti-colonial demands mounted under the occupation, resistance to Japanese colonialism grew and [[Communism|communists]] and [[Anarchism|anarchists]] "began meeting in the borderlands of Russia, China, and Korea." On March 1, 1919 a massive Korean independence protest movement was launched. Since 1931, nationalist and communist guerrillas struggled in the mountains of Manchuria against the Japanese, and Kim Il-Sung emerged as a particularly effective leader during this period.<ref name=":30">Ford, Derek. [https://www.liberationschool.org/the-chongryon-movement-the-struggle-of-koreans-in-japan/ “Chongryon: The Struggle of Koreans in Japan – Liberation School.”] ''Liberation School – Revolutionary Marxism for a New Generation of Fighters'', 30 Jan. 2019.</ref><br />
<br />
===US occupation===<br />
[[File:The Japanese flag in front of the Japanese Government-General of Korea building in Seoul is replaced with the U.S. flag..png|thumb|314x314px|U.S. forces lower the Japanese flag in Seoul and replace it with the U.S. flag.]]<br />
After [[Kim Il-sung]] liberated Korea from the Japanese Empire, in an "outburst of meetings and organizing" that "came out into the open all over Korea" after Japanese surrender, activists throughout the Korean peninsula began to plan and organize to replace Japanese rule and dominance. Groups of local people gathered in most villages and cities and sought ways to replace the police and pro-Japanese administrators with people who had resisted Japanese rule.<ref name=":14" /> A left-leaning nationwide organization established by Koreans known as the Alliance for National government as well as many local People's Committees enjoyed widespread popular support throughout the country. However, the U.S. Military Government in Korea (USAMGIK) did not recognize the new state declared by the People’s Committees, and Korea was divided across the 38th parallel by two American officers who had never been to Korea.<ref>{{Citation|author=Don Oberdorfer, Robert Carlin|year=2014|title=The Two Koreas: A Contemporary History|chapter=|section=|page=5|quote=|pdf=|city=|publisher=|isbn=9780465031238|doi=|lg=|mia=|title-url=|chapter-url=|trans-title=|trans-lang=}}</ref> The U.S. occupation of the southern half of Korea was announced in Proclamation No. 1 by General of the Army Douglas MacArthur on Sept. 7, 1945, with the statement that “All powers of Government over the territory of Korea south of 38 degrees north latitude and the people thereof will be for the present exercised under my authority.”<ref>{{News citation|newspaper=Jeju 4.3 Peace Foundation|title=Liberation from Japan in 1945|date=2018|url=http://jeju43peace.org/historytruth/fact-truth/factstruth_article2/}}</ref><br />
<br />
In "A Policy of Amateurism: The Rice Policy of the U.S. Army Military''"'', Kim Jinwung writes:<blockquote>When news arrived that the United States was planning to occupy southern Korea, [<nowiki/>[[Lyuh Woon-hyung|Yeo Un-hyeong]]'s<ref group="Notes">여운형, name romanized as Yeo Unhyeong, Yŏ Unhyŏng, or Lyuh Woon-hyung.</ref> Committee for the Preparation of Korean Independence] called a national convention in Seoul on September 6 to give his regime the stamp of legitimacy. Yeo and his followers wanted to quicken the process of establishing a new government before the Americans arrived. Yeo proclaimed the establishment of the [[People's Republic of Korea (1945–1946)|Korean People’s Republic]], with a cabinet that included distinguished nationalists of all political persuasions, right and left. But the body was clearly influenced by the left, with Communists playing key roles.<ref name=":15" /></blockquote>However, the U.S. refused to recognize this organization, and General John R. Hodge, the Commanding General of U.S. Army Forces in Korea, outlawed the people’s committees and created new local councils under conservative control.<ref name=":15" /> In an article titled "People's Republic of Korea: Jeju, 1945-1946", Jay Hauben describes the situation:<blockquote>On Sept. 8, 21 US warships arrived in Incheon to supervise in the name of the Allies the surrender of the Japanese Governor-General of Korea and the 200,000 Japanese military personnel and their equipment and property south of the 38th parallel. US General John Hodge commanded the US landing. The US party was met by an English speaking committee of the PRK [People's Republic of Korea] to welcome it to Korea in the name of the people and newly emerging government of Korea. General Hodge refused to meet with them. His mission was to head the United States Military Government In Korea (USAMGIK) and he would not accept that there was already a newly forming government of Korea.<ref name=":14" /></blockquote>Due to the People’s Committees enjoying such widespread popular support, the USAMGIK resorted to dissolving the committees by force so that the U.S. could effectively rule the country.<ref name=":0">{{News citation|newspaper=Jeju 4.3 Peace Foundation|title=Who ruled over the Korean Peninsula?|date=2018|url=http://jeju43peace.org/historytruth/fact-truth/factstruth_article3/|retrieved=2022-07-23}}</ref> As noted by Hauben, "The USAMGIK had as its mission to prevent a Korean government friendly to socialism or communism or leftism in general. That mission required that the left leaning majority of the Korean people had to be diverted."<ref name=":14" /><br />
[[File:1946 South Korean opinion poll about socialism, communism, and capitalism.png|thumb|An opinion poll appearing in the Dong-A Ilbo newspaper on August 13, 1946 showed a majority of respondents favoring socialism and less than 15% supporting capitalism.|341x341px]]<br />
In August 1946, the newspaper Dong-A Ilbo published the results of various opinion polls seeking information about the kind of government the people of Korea wanted. Of those surveyed, when asked about which system they agreed with, 14% of respondents answered "capitalism" (1,189 people), 70% answered "socialism" (6,037 people), 7% answered "communism" (574 people), and 8% responded "do not know" (653 people).<ref>[https://db.history.go.kr/id/dh_003_1946_08_13_0070 "1946년 8월 13일 軍政廳輿論局, 朝鮮國民이 어떠한 종류의 政府를 요망하는지 여론을 조사" ("August 13, 1946. Surveys the public opinion on what kind of military service the people of the military and government demand.")] 동아일보 1946년 08월 13일. (Dong-A Ilbo, August 13, 1946). 자료대한민국사 제3권. (Source Korea History Vol. 3). Korean History Database. 국사편찬위원회. (National Institute of Korean History). [https://web.archive.org/web/20220825114505/https://db.history.go.kr/id/dh_003_1946_08_13_0070 Archived] 2022-08-25.</ref><ref>[https://newslibrary.naver.com/viewer/index.naver?articleId=1946081300209203003&editNo=1&printCount=1&publishDate=1946-08-13&officeId=00020&pageNo=3&printNo=7053&publishType=00020 "軍政廳輿論局調査(군정청여론국조사)."] Dong-A Ilbo August 13, 1946. Page 3. Naver 뉴스 라이브러리 (Naver News Library).</ref><br />
<br />
Following General MacArthur's Proclamation No. 1, the USAMGIK became the official ruling body of south Korea (in the eyes of the U.S.), from 1945 to 1948, until the establishment of the Republic of Korea on Aug. 15, 1948. Through this series of events, the Korean Peninsula was divided along the 38th parallel, the South was occupied by the United States, the People's Committees were suppressed, many Japanese colonial era collaborator police and officials were placed back into positions of power, and a [[Fascism|fascist]] dictatorship led by Harvard graduate [[Syngman Rhee]] was installed.<ref>{{News citation|journalist=|date=|title=Syngman Rhee|url=https://www.doopedia.co.kr/doopedia/master/master.do?_method=view&MAS_IDX=101013000746262|newspaper=Doopedia|archive-url=|archive-date=|retrieved=}}</ref> <br />
<br />
==== Suppressed criticism in official U.S. military history of Korean War and U.S. occupation of Korea ====<br />
In the work ''From Occupation to War: Cold War Legacies of US: Army Historical Studies of the Occupation and Korean War'', Seoul National University professor Chung Yong Wook writes that "a divergent understanding" of this era "was repressed or rooted out by force in the US and around the ‘free world'" due to the official U.S. history of the war being written in the context of the emerging Cold War. Military historian Richard Robinson, who wrote a work critical of the U.S. role in Korea, ''Betrayal of a Nation'', was unable to find a publisher for his work and it remained in manuscript form. I.F. Stone's work ''The Hidden History of the Korean War'' (1952) which was also critical of U.S. conduct in Korea was removed from many libraries. Professor Chung notes that "military historians were not, in essence, allowed to criticize information given to them, nor did they have leeway in interpreting and critiquing facts, they were left only to describe ''sanitized'' history" at all stages of the information-gathering and history-writing process.<ref>Chung, Yong Wook. From Occupation to War; Cold War Legacies of US Army Historical Studies of the Occupation and Korean War. Korea Journal, vol. 60, no. 2 (summer 2020): 14–54. doi: 10.25024/kj.2020.60.2.14 © The Academy of Korean Studies, 2020. URL: https://kj.accesson.kr/assets/pdf/8518/journal-60-2-14.pdf [https://web.archive.org/web/20220725044626/https://kj.accesson.kr/assets/pdf/8518/journal-60-2-14.pdf Archive URL]. Suppression of counter-narratives ("Abstract" p. 15, PDF p.1); "sanitized history" (p. 20, PDF p. 7)</ref><br />
<br />
According to Richard Robinson, who had been working as a historian for the military during the occupation, the official American military history of the occupation is "highly prejudiced and inaccurate" adding that the official U.S. histories were "written upon explicit orders not even to imply criticism of anything American" and says that "if the truth were known, the American occupation of south Korea was incredibly bungled by an incompetent and corrupt administration—all in the name of American democracy."<ref name=":5">Robinson, Richard. Cited in Chung, Yong Wook. ''From Occupation to War; Cold War Legacies of US Army Historical Studies of the Occupation and Korean War''. Korea Journal, vol. 60, no. 2 (summer 2020): 14–54. doi: 10.25024/kj.2020.60.2.14 © The Academy of Korean Studies, 2020 URL: https://kj.accesson.kr/assets/pdf/8518/journal-60-2-14.pdf</ref> Robinson had his work suppressed as he expressed criticism of the U.S. military government's failures in Korea and eventually was compelled to leave the country.<ref name=":5" /><ref>{{News citation|author=김환균|newspaper=미디어오늘 (Media Today)|title='미국의 배반'이 미국에서 금서가 된 이유. (Why "American Betrayal" is Banned Reading in the U.S.)|date=2004-08-09|url=http://www.mediatoday.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=25874|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220724050252/http://www.mediatoday.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=25874|archive-date=2022-07-24|retrieved=2022-07-24}}</ref><br />
<br />
==== USAMGIK disregards People's Committee's rice management, establishes rice "free market" ====<br />
During Japanese colonial rule, the Japanese placed rigid controls on the people of Korea to build up a food surplus. When the U.S. forces arrived in south Korea, they found that "Japanese control over rice had been loosened or altogether abolished" and that instead, "the [[People's Republic of Korea (1945–1946)|Korean People’s Republic]] (KPR) and people’s committees managed food stocks, and according to American accounts, 'after the Koreans drove the Japanese police out, [the leaders of the KPR and people’s committees] took over the rice collection machinery and were operating it successfully when the Americans arrived.'"<ref name=":15" /> As the Americans largely did not acknowledge the authority of the People's Committees and were trying to establish an [[Anti-communism|anti-communist]] government in south Korea, they struck down the management system that had been operating under the People's Committees and replaced it with a "free market" in rice. In Ordinance 19, USAMGIK describes this as "giving to every man, woman and child within the country equal opportunity to enjoy his just and fair share of great wealth which this beautiful nation has been endowed".<ref>Office of the Military Governor, United States Army Forces in Korea. [https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/USAMGIK_Ordinance_19 Ordinance Number 19]. 1945-10-30. </ref><ref name=":15" /> <br />
<br />
In "A Policy of Amateurism: The Rice Policy of the U.S. Army Military''"'', Kim Jinwung describes the results of the free market policy of the USAMGIK:<blockquote>The immediate effect of the free market policy was a steep rise in the price of rice and resultant hoarding and speculation. Poor distribution of food led to food shortages and hunger in cities, despite a bumper harvest in 1945. Additionally, the rice-based south Korean economy inevitably began to suffer from massive inflation. It was quite natural then that the black-market should grow and prosper; it was expected that the lure of black market prices would stimulate the flow of rice into the black market. The result was that “rice disappeared almost entirely from the market.” Through its free market policy, the U.S. military government lost the main strength of the south Korean economy—its ability to extract large surpluses of grain—and caused in its stead spiraling inflation, near starvation in early 1946, and a general economic breakdown. The price of a bushel of rice increased from 9.4 yen in September 1945 to 2,800 yen in September 1946. Landlords, police and other government officials, and wealthy individuals engaged in speculation on a wholesale basis.<ref name=":15" /></blockquote>In the wake of this policy, USAMGIK was "flooded with complaints and petitions from Koreans demanding that price control and rationing be resumed and that the American military government take drastic action to stop rice hoarding."<ref name=":15" /> However, it seemed to many that USAMGIK was "reluctant to move against the principal hoarders" due to them being Korean businessmen who the government who had been relying on for advice.<ref name=":15" /> By 1946, the U.S. rescinded the free market and implemented rice rationing. A U.S. summation of the U.S. army military government activities in Korea stated that public attention was "focused on the threat of hunger" at this time.<ref>Commander-in-Chief, United States Army Forces, Pacific. ''[https://www8.cao.go.jp/okinawa/okinawasen/pdf/b0604002_09/b0604002_09.pdf Summation of United States Military Government Activities in Korea, No. 6].'' March 1946. </ref> As the situation continued, U.S. rice rations eventually fell to half of the ration size that had been received under the Japanese colonial administration during World War II, and newspapers published accounts of famine and starvation, further disaster only being averted by eventual shipments of U.S. grains as emergency relief. In addition, "the deteriorating food situation forced the Americans to revive the old Japanese rice collection system" which was unpopular with farmers.<ref name=":15" /> The USAMGIK eventually formed local boards composed of local police officials, elders, businessmen, and landlords approved by the USAMGIK to manage the collection of rice quotas, but created no system for appeal to adjust the quotas. Under this program, many farmers were arrested or faced violence for not meeting their quotas.<ref name=":15" /> <br />
<br />
==== Re-appointment of Japanese colonial officials under U.S. occupation ====<br />
The USAMGIK had a policy of rehiring officers from the Japanese colonial era, which it tried to justify by the need to implement effective governance. This failure to prosecute officers who had collaborated with the Japanese and re-instatement of their power increased public resentment against the U.S. regime.<ref name=":0" /> Instead of fully enjoying their independence, people were being victimized by the same oppressive police officers and corrupt public officials as under Japanese colonial authority.<ref name=":1">{{News citation|newspaper=Jeju 4.3 Peace Foundation|title=Jeju’s political climate following liberation|date=2018|url=http://jeju43peace.org/historytruth/fact-truth/factstruth_article4/}}</ref> The U.S. occupiers created an army staffed by former Japanese officers and rebuilt the [[Korean National Police]] (KNP) of the Japanese occupation era.<ref name=":110">{{Citation|author=Stephen Gowans|year=2018|title=Patriots, Traitors and Empires: The Story of Korea’s Struggle for Freedom|chapter=The War Against Communists of the South|page=95–99|pdf=https://ipfs.io/ipfs/bafykbzaced4iiga4ngtxusr2civjxewbili5jne2sbpefbx2s3im2kphattzc?filename=Stephen%20Gowans%20-%20Patriots%2C%20Traitors%20and%20Empires_%20The%20Story%20of%20Korea%E2%80%99s%20Struggle%20for%20Freedom-Baraka%20Books%20%282018%29.pdf|city=Montreal|publisher=Baraka Books|isbn=9781771861427|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=8435F6FF91279531705764823FDC2A7F}}</ref><br />
<br />
==== Conflict between occupation forces and people's committees ====<br />
Richard Robinson, the chief of the Public Opinion Section of the Department of Information of the USAMGIK, who had been present in Korea and contributing to the official U.S. military historical record at the time, later gave his observations about the People's Committees and the USAMGIK's policy of rehiring officers from the Japanese colonial era:<blockquote>It was safe to say that for the most part the local People's Committees in these early days were of the genuine grassroots democratic variety and represented a spontaneous urge of the people to govern themselves. . . . They resented orders from the Military Government to turn the administration of local government over to American Army officers and their appointed Korean counterparts, many of whom were considered to be Japanese collaborators. It seemed like a reversion to what had gone before. Bloodshed ensued in many communities as local People's Committees defied the Military Government and refused to abandon government offices. Koreans and Americans met in pitched battles, and not a few Koreans met violent death in the struggle.<ref name=":4">Robinson, Richard. Cited in Mark J. Scher (1973) ''U.S. policy in Korea 1945–1948: A Neocolonial model takes shape.'' Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars, 5:4, 17-27, DOI: 10.1080/14672715.1973.10406346. <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.1080/14672715.1973.1040634</nowiki> URL: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/14672715.1973.10406346</ref></blockquote>Robinson then gives an example of an incident which he refers to as "typical" of this period. According to Robinson, in the small community of Namwon in North Jeolla province, the Japanese had turned over considerable property to the local People's Committee just prior to the arrival of the Americans. The U.S. military government then demanded the property, but the People's Committee refused to turn it over to the U.S. military government. Robinson states that five leaders of the Committee were arrested by the local Korean police, adding that "the police chief was captured and beaten by Committee members and the police station attacked by a large crowd of irate citizens." He says that the station was guarded by American troops, and that when the Koreans refused to disband, "the Americans advanced with fixed bayonets," resulting in two Koreans being killed and several injured.<ref name=":4" /><br />
<br />
Within a year of the U.S. occupation, uprisings began in 80 cities and hundreds of villages. After the suppression of the People's Republic of Korea, widespread [[Strike action|strikes]] and protests began followed by a guerrilla movement. By December 1947, the KNP had arrested over 21,000 leftists, and the amount of political prisoners was more than under the Japanese occupation. By 1948, resistance forces controlled most of the inland villages in south Korea. The KNP arrested so many people that it ran out of space in prisons and forced an additional 70,000 people, including 30,000 communists, into concentration camps. By 1950, the south Korean government and U.S. occupation forces killed between 100,000 and 200,000 dissidents.<ref name=":110" /><br />
===First Republic (1948–1960) ===<br />
[[File:Syngman Rhee.jpg|thumb|264x264px|Syngman Rhee (Korean: 이승만), president of the ROK First Republic from 1948-1960, was described as an "extreme rightist" in a 1948 [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] report.<ref name=":20">{{News citation|newspaper=Wilson Center Digital Archive|title=March 18, 1948 Central Intelligence Agency, ORE 15/48, 'The Current Situation in Korea'|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220729051304/https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/220065.pdf?v=d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e|retrieved=2022-07-29|Archive=History and Public Policy Program Digital Archive, Record Group 263, Records of the Central Intelligence Agency|url=https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/220065.pdf?v=d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e}}</ref>]]After rejecting [[Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (1922–1991)|Soviet]] proposals for all-Korean elections, the United States created a UN committee of [[Canada]], [[Commonwealth of Australia|Australia]], the [[Republic of the Philippines|Philippines]], and the defeated [[Kuomintang]] from [[People's Republic of China|China]] to supervise elections in the southern zone. Koreans from all parts of the nation organized a National Unity Conference in [[Pyongyang]] that met three weeks before the US-sponsored elections. Many [[Left-wing politics|leftist]] parties and some [[Right-wing politics|right-wing]] parties boycotted the elections. The Korean National Police and right-wing thugs attacked communists, while people who did not vote would lose their land and ration cards. [[Syngman Rhee]] won the rigged elections and took power as the first president of the south. During the elections, [[Kim Sok-won]] led a parade in Seoul of 2,500 Koreans who had collaborated with the Japanese.<br />
<br />
The First Republic was the government of south Korea from August 1948 to April 1960. Syngman Rhee ruled for the entire existence of the first republic. The first republic was characterized by Rhee's authoritarianism and corruption, limited economic development, strong anti-communism, and by the late 1950s, by growing political instability and public opposition to Rhee.<br />
<br />
Prior to being flown in to Korea by the OSS (precursor to the CIA), Rhee had been living in the United States for over thirty-five years, earning an M.A. at Harvard and a Ph.D. at Princeton.<ref name=":21">{{Citation|author=Max Hastings|year=1988|title=The Korean War|title-url=https://archive.org/details/koreanwar00hast_0/page/32/mode/2up|chapter=Origins of a Tragedy|page=32, 33-34|quote=Syngman Rhee was born in 1875, the son of a genealogical scholar. He failed the civil service exams several times before becoming a student of English. Between 1899 and 1904 he was imprisoned for political activities. On his release, he went to the United States, where he studied for some years, earning an M.A. at Harvard and a Ph.D. at Princeton—the first Korean to receive an American doctorate. After a brief return to his homeland in 1910, Rhee once more settled in America. He remained there for the next thirty-five years, lobbying relentlessly for American support for Korean independence, financed by the contributions of Korean patriots. (p.32)}}</ref> According to Max Hastings, in ''The Korean War'':<blockquote>Rhee's backing from the Military Government was a decisive force in his rise to power. [...] There is no murkier episode in the history of the American occupation than the return of Rhee to Seoul. The Military Government firmly denied not only complicity but prior knowledge of this. Yet all the evidence now suggests that General Hodge and his staff participated in a carefully orchestrated conspiracy to bring back Rhee, despite the refusal of the State Department to grant him a passport. A former deputy director of the wartime OSS, Preston Goodfellow, prevailed upon the State Department to provide Rhee with documentation. There appears to have been at least a measure of corruption in this transaction. Rhee got to know Goodfellow during the war, when the Korean mendaciously suggested to the American that he could provide agents for operations behind the Japanese lines. After the war it seems almost certain that Goodfellow assisted and raised money for Rhee in return for the promise of commercial concessions in Korea when the doctor gained power. Rhee flew to Seoul in one of MacArthur's aircraft. Despite the vigorous denials of the U.S. Army in the Far East, it seems likely that he met secretly with both the Supreme Commander and Hodge during his stopover in Tokyo. Rhee, it is apparent, was their nominee for the leadership of a Korean civilian government.<ref name=":21" /></blockquote>A 1948 CIA report wrote that "there is every prospect that Rhee's accession to power will be followed by intra-party cleavages and by the ruthless suppression of all non-Rhee Rightist, Moderate, and Leftist opposition," characterizing Rhee as an "imported expatriate politician" and "extreme rightist" and demagogue "bent on autocratic rule", who would be an "unpopular" figure who would play into communist propaganda due to his extreme rightist orientation, and stating that the U.S. throwing their full support behind him could potentially be "a source of future embarrassment to US policy in the Far East."<ref name=":20" /><br />
<br />
During the First Republic, the number of U.S. troops decreased, but many intelligence officers and combat specialists continued to occupy south Korea. Resistance against the occupation continued to grow, reaching 3,500 to 6,000 guerrilla fighters by early 1949. Rhee created the National Guidance League to make leftists to reject reunification and forced 300,000 people to join. He also created the [[National Security Law]], which still exists today and criminalizes recognition of the DPRK as a legitimate state. Almost 190,000 people, including members of the National Assembly, were arrested under this law up to December 1949.<ref name=":1102">{{Citation|author=Stephen Gowans|year=2018|title=Patriots, Traitors and Empires: The Story of Korea’s Struggle for Freedom|chapter=The Political Partition of Korea|page=115–116|pdf=https://ipfs.io/ipfs/bafykbzaced4iiga4ngtxusr2civjxewbili5jne2sbpefbx2s3im2kphattzc?filename=Stephen%20Gowans%20-%20Patriots%2C%20Traitors%20and%20Empires_%20The%20Story%20of%20Korea%E2%80%99s%20Struggle%20for%20Freedom-Baraka%20Books%20%282018%29.pdf|city=Montreal|publisher=Baraka Books|isbn=9781771861427|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=8435F6FF91279531705764823FDC2A7F}}</ref><br />
<br />
==== Jeju People's Committee ====<br />
After liberation from Japanese colonization, the Jeju People’s Committee was formed with the head of the Farmers' Guild and the Fishermens' Guild as its leaders. According to the Jeju 4.3 Peace Foundation, "In every aspect, the Jeju People’s Committee was the only political party and the only government in Jeju" after liberation from the Japanese. E. Grant Meade, a USAMGIK officer, said, “The Jeju People’s Committee was the only political party in the island and the only organization acting like a government.”<ref name=":1" /> The committees had the respect and support from most villagers. Committee members were known in their communities from their long years as school teachers, union leaders and for resistance to Japanese abuses or for their organizing work in Japan. When the USAMGIK arrived on Jeju, it found that the Jeju People’s Committee and all the village and county People’s Committees were functioning successfully as a de facto government with popular support. The USAMGIK did not disturb or challenge this de facto government. This was unusual because the USAMGIK had as its mission to insure that a right leaning government hostile to socialism emerged in Korea.<ref name=":14">{{News citation|author=Jay Hauben|newspaper=The Jeju Weekly|title=People's Republic of Korea: Jeju, 1945-1946|date=2011-08-20|url=http://www.jejuweekly.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=1865|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220723035033/http://www.jejuweekly.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=1865|archive-date=2022-07-23|retrieved=2022-07-23}}</ref> Unlike in the mainland, where the People's Committees were immediately disregarded and systematically dismantled by the USAMGIK, the People's Committee on Jeju Island remained intact for a longer period, serving as the island's main governmental body until 1948 when it, too, was violently dismantled in conjunction with the process of the Republic of Korea being officially established that year.<br />
<br />
==== Jeju Uprising and Massacre ====<br />
{{Main article|Jeju Uprising}}[[File:Northwest Youth League logo 백골부대 정신을 계승한 서북청년단 기.jpg|thumb|262x262px|Banner of the Northwest Youth League, a right-wing paramilitary group who assisted government forces in the mass murder of Jeju islanders in the name of anti-communism.<ref name=":7">{{News citation|author=Lauren Flenniken|newspaper=The Jeju Weekly|title=The Northwest Youth League|date=2011-04-10|url=http://www.jejuweekly.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=1435|retrieved=2022-07-25|quote=Despite the Northwest Youth League lacking legal backing to exercise their power, President Rhee and the KDP allowed the group to use aggressive force against supposed Communists without restrictions. [...] Professor Bruce Cumings of the University of Chicago states that at the time, Jeju’s local government and police were comprised mostly of mainlanders who “worked together with ultra-rightest party terrorists,” otherwise known as the Northwest Youth League.}}</ref>]]<br />
In 1948, in a series of events known variously as the Jeju Uprising, the Jeju 4.3 Incident, and the Jeju Massacre, an uprising occurred on Jeju Island, followed by a scorched earth style retaliation undertaken by government forces and right-wing paramilitary groups to root out communist influence on the island. The Jeju massacre was the second largest massacre in south Korea's modern history,<ref name=":8">{{News citation|author=Song Jung Hee|newspaper=The Jeju Weekly|title=Islanders still mourn April 3 massacre|date=2010-03-31|url=http://www.jejuweekly.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=657}}</ref> the death toll listed by the Jeju 4.3 Peace Foundation being approximately 30,000 people, or one-tenth of the island's population.<ref name=":9">{{News citation|newspaper=Jeju 4.3 Peace Foundation|title=Background to the Jeju 4·3 Uprising and Massacre|date=2018|url=http://jeju43peace.org/historytruth/fact-truth/factstruth-article1/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220723024308/http://jeju43peace.org/historytruth/fact-truth/factstruth-article1/|archive-date=2022-07-23}}</ref> <br />
<br />
Although the People’s Committees in other regions were either dissolved by the USAMGIK or operated under different names, the Jeju People’s Committee remained intact and enjoyed strong support. This was largely due to the pro-Japanese faction being relatively weak in Jeju. Many people who had fought for independence against the Japanese returned to their hometowns and became members of the People’s Committee in Jeju.<ref name=":1" /> However, Many Jeju islanders resisted the division of the Korean Peninsula and strongly protested the first election that was scheduled for May 10, 1948, that would confirm the formation of the Republic of Korea south of the 38th parallel. Their resistance to the division of the peninsula and the establishment of the Southern regime triggered a brutal suppression by government forces. <br />
<br />
According to The Jeju 4·3 Incident Investigation Report, "In around the middle of November 1948, uncompromising repression operations were carried out. Under these operations, a curfew was imposed on the residents of the upland areas and if anyone broke it, he or she was executed without exception. From the middle of November 1948 to February 1949, for about four months, the anti-guerrilla expeditions burned down the upland villages and killed the residents collectively. [...] During this period, the casualties were the highest and most of the upland villages were literally burnt to the ground."<ref>{{Citation|author=Jeju 4·3 Peace Foundation|year=2003|title=The Jeju 4·3 Incident Investigation Report|page=469|pdf=https://jeju43peace.or.kr/cmm/fms/FileDown.do?atchFileId=FILE_00000000000071265Cu0&fileSn=0|publisher=The National Committee for Investigation<br />
of the Truth about the Jeju April 3 Incident}}</ref> A combination of government forces and violent far-right paramilitary groups, notably the far-right anti-communist Northwest Youth League, carried out these attacks.<ref name=":7" /><br />
[[File:Jeju 4.3 Camellia flower.png|thumb|The camellia flower can be seen in the island of Jeju as a symbol of the 4.3 incident's victims. '''Above:''' A camellia flower pin. '''Below:''' Camellia flowers forming the shape of Jeju Island.]]<br />
<br />
===== Death toll of Jeju massacre and long-term imprisonment of Jeju islanders =====<br />
Because the facts of the Jeju massacre were officially suppressed for over fifty years, only coming to light in January 2000 when a Special Act was decreed by the south Korean Government calling for an official investigation of the incident, an official death toll could not be established until that time. Additionally, discoveries of mass grave execution sites, such as the mass grave uncovered in 2008 near Jeju Airport, illustrate the difficulty of calculating the massacre's true toll.<ref name=":8" /> According to a report by the National Commission on the Jeju April 3 Incident, 25,000 to 30,000 people were killed or simply vanished, with upwards of 4,000 more fleeing to Japan as the government sought to quell the uprising. As the island’s population was at most 300,000 at the time, the official toll was one-tenth of the inhabitants. However, some Jeju people claim that as many as 40,000 islanders were killed in the suppression.<ref name=":8" /> Some estimates claim as many as 60,000 people may have been killed by the end of these events.<ref>{{News citation|journalist=|date=2000-06-18|title=Ghosts of Cheju|url=|newspaper=Newsweek|archive-url=https://www.newsweek.com/ghosts-cheju-160665|archive-date=|retrieved=2021-21-30}}</ref> The 30,000 death figure, or one in every 10 Jeju residents at the time, is a common figure given for how many people lost their lives during this period, and is the one cited on the Jeju 4.3 Peace Foundation website.<ref name=":9" /> <br />
<br />
One result of the decades-long suppression of the facts of the massacre is the long-term imprisonment of Jeju islanders arrested on suspicion of being communists during the conflict. Many of those arrested on these charges died in captivity. Others remained in prison for up to 20 years, and those who had been released were not cleared of their criminal records, and were ostracized by the community or disadvantaged in their job applications for having criminal records. Decades after being arrested, some of the remaining victims had their names legally cleared of the charges in 2019, due to a ruling that found that the military court of the time did not follow proper legal procedures, made groundless charges, and that there were no court records found from the time explaining why those arrested were given such harsh sentences.<ref>{{News citation|author=Lee Suh-yoon|newspaper=The Korea Times|title=Jeju massacre victims get their names cleared in court|date=2019-01-17|url=https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2019/01/251_262242.html|quote=The suit was filed by 18 plaintiffs who were jailed after being branded as communist insurgents ― with around 2,500 others ― during the ideological conflict that flared up on the southern island after Korea's independence from Japan. Many died in captivity. Even after surviving the massacre and imprisonment, the plaintiffs were ostracized by the community or disadvantaged in their job applications for having criminal records. [...] The plaintiffs demanded a retrial in 2017, saying they were arrested and imprisoned for up to 20 years without fair procedure. There were no court records found from the time explaining why the plaintiffs were given such harsh sentences.}}</ref><br />
<br />
==== Fatherland Liberation War (1950–1953) ====<br />
<blockquote>''See also: [[Korean War]], [[List of atrocities commited by the United States of America#Korean War|List of atrocities committed by the United States of America#Korean War]]''</blockquote>This period is generally referred to in English as the "Korean War", in DPRK as the "Fatherland Liberation War" (Korean: 조국해방전쟁), and in south Korea as the "6.25 War" (Korean: 6·25 전쟁). In China it is sometimes referred to as the "Korean War", and some specific battles are referred to as the "War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea" (Chinese: 抗美援朝战争). This period is also referred to by some in English as "The Forgotten War" or "The Unknown War." <br />
<br />
In the U.S., the war was initially described as a "police action" as the United States never formally declared war on its opponents.<ref>Truman, Harry S. (29 June 1950). "The President's News Conference of June 29, 1950. Teachingamericanhistory.org. [https://web.archive.org/web/20101226063925/http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?document=594 Archive link].</ref> According to the U.S. Department of State's Office of the Historian, "When north Korea invaded south Korea in June 1950, the United States sponsored a "police action"—a war in all but name—under the auspices of the United Nations. The Department of State coordinated U.S. strategic decisions with the other 16 countries contributing troops to the fighting. In addition, the Department worked closely with the government of Syngman Rhee, encouraging him to implement reform so that the UN claim of defending democracy in Korea would be accurate." The U.S. Department of State's description of the war notes that "The Korean War was difficult to fight and unpopular domestically" and that "The American public tired of a war without victory."<ref>A Short History of the Department of State. "NSC-68 and the Korean War." Office of the Historian, Foreign Service Institute, U.S. Department of State. URL: https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/short-history/koreanwar [https://web.archive.org/web/20220725043544/https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/short-history/koreanwar Archive link].</ref><br />
<br />
The People's Democracy Party (PDP) of south Korea characterizes the conditions that led to the Korean War as follows:<blockquote>Objectively, there were 2,617 attacks from the South to the North during the year of 1949 under pro-U.S. and far-right Rhee Seung-man regime. Therefore, it cannot be viewed that the war broke out exactly on June 25th, 1950. The U.S. military government forcefully dissolved the people’s committees that were formed as independent South Corean people’s organizations and exhaustively massacred and oppressed the national liberation movement forces and patriotic and democratic forces after the U.S. army came into South Corea in September 1945 as an occupation force. <br />
<br />
All the people except the minimum of pro-U.S. and far-right forces held the “Joint Meeting of Representatives of Political Parties and Social Organizations in the North and South of Korea” in April 1948, in Pyongyang, and decided to immediately withdraw the U.S. military and to establish a unified government by the Corean nation’s power and initiative.<br />
<br />
However, the single government of the South was established by the U.S. and the intervention of the UN, which was under the domination of the U.S. Then, North Corea had to establish their own government. The condition for an outbreak of the Corean War had developed.<ref name=":23" /></blockquote>The PDP stated that the U.S. had become the head of imperialist forces after World War II, and Korea was the first country it invaded. The PDP characterizes the war as a battle between the Korean nation and U.S. imperialism, and also notes that "it was the first war that U.S. imperialism fought against a small country and lost."<ref name=":23" /><br />
<br />
Alan Winnington, a British correspondent in China and Korea for the ''Daily Worker,'' provides a description of the apparent ignorance of U.S. soldiers at the outset of the war, by interviewing POWs caught by the People's Army. Winnington writes:<blockquote>I asked every prisoner I met: “Why are you fighting in Korea?” Not one could give a clear answer. Most said: “I don’t know.” Some said: “It’s something to do with the United Nations, they told us.”<br />
<br />
A few had heard of Rhee. None knew of Kim Ir Sen. With one or two exceptions, Privates—nearly all teen-agers—said they had joined the army to “see the world”, “get out of the draft” or “save some money”. Their general view of the Korean war was summed up by Edward Sorea, nineteen-year-old Private of San Bernardino, California. He said: “I just wanted to travel. It was peace-time. Who in hell thought there would be a war? One drops on you from out of a clear sky.” <br />
<br />
You cannot find one American soldier who is concerned whether America wins the war or not—rather you meet many who want the Koreans to win quickly so that they can “get back home". “Win or lose”, they say, “American people have nothing to gain". Soldiers like that make bad fighters—just how bad can be seen by taking a trip down the main road from Kumchon, near the 38th Parallel, to Yongdong, near Taegu, in the South.<ref name=":24">{{Web citation|author=Alan Winnington|newspaper=The Daily Worker|title=I Saw The Truth In Korea: Facts and photographs that will shock Britain|date=September 1950|url=https://www.docdroid.net/8z73fQZ/i-saw-the-truth-in-korea-readingt-ver-pdf|quote=The Daily Worker sent me to Korea to get the facts at first hand and report them to the British public. And so I arrived in Korea on July 16 and stayed for five weeks. <br />
<br />
Of course, before I went I knew that the Americans were bombing heavily and fighting badly. I knew that Syngman Rhee's troops only existed as scattered units and there was no longer a “South Korean Army”; that effectively this was a war between America and Korea. These facts were common knowledge in the world, but I admit I was mentally unprepared for all I found. <br />
<br />
After all, five years ago we and the Russians were allies of the Americans in the war against the Nazis. Since then, Roosevelt and his colleagues have gone and atomic diplomacy has taken their place. But still, what I saw Americans doing in Korea shook me to my heels. I suppose all my life I’ve been listening to propaganda about America being a civilised nation and some of this must have sunk in. Somehow, I never quite thought of Americans doing exactly what the Nazis did until I saw it with my own eyes. <br />
<br />
We still talk of Coventry as an example of malicious and futile bombing, but the Americans have gone far ahead of the Nazis in what they politely term “Saturation Bombing”. The American style of waging war in Korea is on the same pattern as the Nazis but, bearing in mind the size of the country, even more savage and just as stupid. <br />
<br />
Wonsan is a much smaller town than Coventry, not nearly as large as the London suburb; of Walthamstow. During its first heavy raid in July, B.29 Superfortresses flung 500 tons of high explosive bombs into the town—sixty tons more than Coventry got on that terrible night ten years ago. No targets were aimed at. MacArthur’s communiqué admitted that there was “heavy cloud" which “prevented the evaluation of the effect of the raid”. Actually, visibility was nil at the time, for it was raining hard. In Coventry there were 1,000 casualties that night. During the first raid on Wonsan there were 1,249 killed and the northern half of the town was wiped out In August the raid was repeated, wiping out the other half. No other military objective was claimed than that this town was a rail centre. A thousand tons of bombs; a town obliterated; over 4,000 casualties in all; tens of thousands made homeless and bereaved—all to damage a rail -track. Does it make sense? This is bombing in the fashion that no British town ever met. I saw Coventry and I was in London all through the ‘blitz and I saw Wonsan after these raids. It was far worse than the worst the Nazis ever did.}}</ref></blockquote>Winnington contrasts the apparent cluelessness and lack of resolve of American troops with his observations of the attitudes of Koreans:<blockquote>[T]he ghastly destruction of homes and lives that has gone with it has made the whole nation furious. Even former apologists of America are now their bitter enemies.<br />
<br />
On roads you can meet men by the hundred who tell you: “My home was bombed in . . . so I sent my wife and children to relatives in the country and I’m oil to volunteer.” In Wonsan, the wife and children of a worker, Wan Wun Chu, were killed in a raid while he was at work. “They are dead and I cannot call them back,” he said. “If I die it is little now. But I would give my last drop of blood to get revenge and drive those murdering dogs from our country. They tell me my place is in production and I will work my fingers to the bone to produce more for the army.”<br />
<br />
Every village I visited proudly told me not only how many men had gone into the army but also how many volunteers were waiting to be accepted. There is no lack of the finest quality fighting men; men who were bred in the countless thousands of mountains that cover Korea; volunteers who know why they want to win.<ref name=":24" /></blockquote>Winnington sums up his 1950 assessment of the Korean War's outbreak by saying "Korea has repudiated Syngman Rhee and the Americans. All the Korean people want Korea to be reunited and ruled by Koreans. No regime can exist that has been repudiated by the people and this war can only be won by the Koreans just as the war in China could only be won by the people. This is one of the iron facts of the twentieth century. [...] In China the pattern was the same; America supported the most corrupt and hated enemies of the people, led by Chiang Kai-shek, backed them with more than ‘$6 billion, sent them military aid and advisers—and produced their great fiasco. [...] It is America which has invaded Korea. To defend the interests of Morgan and Rockefeller, of Dupont and the steel barons, to restore the land to the feudal landlords, to drive the people back to penury, to maintain a war base against the peaceful Soviet Union."<ref name=":24" /><br />
<br />
===== Support for DPRK among south Koreans during the war =====<br />
[[File:CIA document pages 1 and 2.jpg|thumb|1950 CIA document stating that more than 50% of Seoul students were actively aiding communists, many volunteering for the Northern Army, and that the working class of Seoul generally supported the North.<ref name=":6" />]]<br />
The Korean War and the following decades were characterized by massive arrest campaigns and mass killings to suppress communists as well as anyone else suspected of opposing the highly unpopular Southern regime. In 1950, when the DPRK attempted to reunify the country, Rhee's forces retreated and killed at least another 60,000 supposed communist sympathizers.<ref>{{Citation|author=Kim Dong-Choon|year=2004|title=Forgotten war, forgotten massacres--the Korean War (1950-1953) as licensed mass killings|chapter=|section=|page=|quote=|pdf=https://www.academia.edu/6417696|city=|publisher=Journal of Genocide Research|isbn=|doi=|lg=|mia=|title-url=|chapter-url=|trans-title=|trans-lang=}}</ref> <br />
<br />
In a 1950 CIA memorandum, after the Northern Army had taken over Seoul, Central Intelligence Director and U.S. Navy Rear Admiral R.H. Hillenkoeter reported that "over 50% of Seoul's students are actively aiding the Communist invaders, with many voluntarily enlisting in the Northern Army" and that among Seoul's population, "the working class generally supports the Northern Koreans, while merchants are neutral and the intelligentsia continue to be pro-Southern," adding that the streets of Seoul were "crowded [...] with youths engaging in Communist demonstrations.<ref name=":6">{{News citation|author=R.H. Hillenkoeter, Director of Central Intelligence|newspaper=CIA Memorandum|title=The Korean Situation|date=1950-7-19|url=https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/1950-07-19b.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220723030500/https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/1950-07-19b.pdf|archive-date=2022-07-23|quote=Past failure of the Republic of Korea to win the support of its restless student class may lie behind reports that over 50% of Seoul's students are actively aiding the Communist invaders, with many voluntarily enlisting in the Northern Army. Apparently attracted by the glamor of a winning army, the morale of these recruits may suffer rapidly if the going gets tough. Among others elements of Seoul's population, the working class generally supports the Northern Koreans, while merchants are neutral and the intelligentsia continue to be pro-Southern. A former Seoul policeman reports that North Korean troops and police are rather inconspicuous in Seoul. Commercially, the city is nearly "dead"; stores are closed except for two department stores and some greengrocers. The streets, however, are crowded, especially with youths engaging in Communist demonstrations.}}</ref><br />
<br />
The People's Democratic Party of south Korea, interviewed in 2020, said that "almost all workers and peasants in the South rejected the U.S. military" and added that "According to North Corea’s data, about 400,00 peoples in the South voluntarily enlisted in the North Corean military when the Corean war started."<ref name=":23" /> <br />
<br />
According to Kim Sin Gyu, a north Korean correspondent present in Seoul at the time: "When the city was first liberated, the citizens of Seoul welcomed the Korean People's Army. I remember hearing people say, 'We heard the north Korean communist soldiers were a monstrous rabble, with the horns of devils and red faces. But seeing them now, they are the same as us. The soldiers are young and brave and handsome.'"<ref name=":11">''Korea: The Unknown War.'' TV Documentary Series. Episode 2: "An Arrogant Display of Strength." Thames Television, 1988. Aired on WGBH Boston, 1990. (URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVCuku3Ldi0)</ref><br />
<br />
Alan Winnington, a ''Daily Worker'' correspondent present in Korea in 1950, wrote:<blockquote>Every evening, the countryside of Korea, especially in the South, boils with life. Hundreds of thousands of peasants and townfolk converge on roads and in a matter of hours have repaired the bomb damage of the previous day by the sheer weight of limitless, willing human labour. While that is going on, hundreds of thousands of others are resuming their trek south from where they stopped at dawn; managing countless oxcarts over remote by-ways; carrying loads of food and munitions on their backs. All these reconstruction and transport workers are volunteers, unpaid, providing their own food and materials, with their own militia to protect them from stray enemy troops, self-supporting, familiar with the terrain and determined to put an end to foreign occupation of their country. <br />
<br />
[...] In places where I checked the figures, I found that practically every available man and many of the women had taken part in one or other side of the Civilian War Service. Below the Parallel, in Koyang County near Seoul, in twelve days 54,085 men had volunteered out of a total population of only 180,000. During the advance of the People’s Army in this area, the local People’s Committee had mobilised 1,000 oxcarts in a single night for a transport emergency. I personally never met a peasant—except old and infirm—who had not helped the army in some way. And in cities, every evening you can see the reconstruction workers gathering in their thousands with spades, crowbars and ropes. At least half of these are women, who refuse to be kept out of even the heaviest and most dangerous work of rescue and fire-fighting during the raids.<ref name=":24" /> </blockquote><br />
<br />
===== U.S. war crimes =====<br />
<blockquote>''See also: [[List of atrocities commited by the United States of America#Korean War|List of atrocities committed by the United States of America#Korean War]]''</blockquote>During the Korean War, U.S. troops killed large numbers of Korean civilians and engaged in copious firebombing with napalm, and, as was eventually revealed through declassified documents, had at certain times a policy of deliberately firing on south Korean refugee groups approaching its lines.<ref name=":12">{{News citation|author=Youkyung Lee|newspaper=Associated Press|title=S. Korean who forced US to admit massacre has died|date=2014-08-07|url=https://apnews.com/article/108b4bd1dc854caeaf5f9349fcd5a176|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220726115036/https://apnews.com/article/108b4bd1dc854caeaf5f9349fcd5a176|quote=On July 26, 1950, outside the central South Korean village of No Gun Ri, hundreds of civilians from nearby villages, ordered south by U.S. troops, were stopped by a dug-in battalion of the U.S. 7th Cavalry Regiment, and then were attacked without warning by U.S. warplanes. Survivors fled under a railroad overpass, where for the next three days they were fired on by 7th Cavalry troops. [...] in January 2001 the Army acknowledged the No Gun Ri killings but assigned no blame, calling it a “deeply regrettable accompaniment to a war.” [...] In 2006 it emerged that among incriminating documents omitted from the 2001 U.S. report was a declassified letter from the U.S. ambassador in South Korea, dated the day the No Gun Ri killings began, saying the Army had adopted a policy of firing on refugee groups approaching its lines.}}</ref> In an article of the Asia-Pacific Journal, Kim Dong choon writes that "Few are aware that the Korean authorities as well as US and allied forces massacred hundreds of thousands of south Korean civilians at the dawn of the Korean War".<ref>{{News citation|author=Kim Dong choon|newspaper=The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus|title=The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Korea: Uncovering the Hidden Korean War. The Other War: Korean War Massacres.|date=2010-03-01|url=https://apjjf.org/-Kim-Dong-choon/3314/article.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220726125030/https://apjjf.org/-Kim-Dong-choon/3314/article.html|archive-date=2022-07-26|retrieved=2022-07-26}}</ref> There were also incidents of U.S. pilots ignoring their orders to stay within Korea and flying beyond its borders, strafing military targets in China and the Soviet Union.<ref name=":11" /><br />
<br />
According to U.S. Naval Captain Walter Karig, in his book ''Battle Report: The War in Korea'':<blockquote>[W]e killed civilians, friendly civilians, and bombed their homes; fired whole villages with the occupants--women and children and ten times as many hidden Communist soldiers--under showers of napalm, and the pilots came back to their ships stinking of vomit twisted from their vitals by the shock of what they had to do.<ref>Walter Karig; Malcolm W Cagle; Frank A Manson; et al (1952). ''Battle Report: The War in Korea'' (pp. 111-112). New York: Rinehart.</ref></blockquote>United States Air Force General Curtis LeMay, commander of the U.S.'s Strategic Air Command, gave a similar description of the U.S. military's conduct in Korea, saying:<blockquote>[W]e went over there and fought the war and eventually burned down every town in North Korea [...] some way or another, and some in south Korea, too. We even burned down Pusan—an accident, but we burned it down anyway. The Marines started a battle down there with no enemy in sight. Over a period of three years or so, we killed off—what—twenty percent of the population of Korea as direct casualties of war, or from starvation and exposure?<ref>Richard H. Kohn and Joseph P. Harahan (1988). ''[https://media.defense.gov/2010/Sep/29/2001329790/-1/-1/0/AFD-100929-052.pdf Strategic Air Warfare: an interview with generals Curtis E. LeMay, Leon W. Johnson, David A. Burchinal, and Jack J. Catton]'' (p. 88). Washington, D.C.: Office of Air Force History, United States Air Force. <small>ISBN 0-912799-56-0</small></ref></blockquote>In a 1950 pamphlet entitled "I Saw the Truth in Korea", written by Alan Winnington, correspondent in China and Korea for the ''Daily Worker'', Winnington describes the actions of U.S. forces in Korea, documenting massacres with photographs and describing the aftermath of bombings:<blockquote>[F]ive years ago we and the Russians were allies of the Americans in the war against the Nazis. Since then, Roosevelt and his colleagues have gone and atomic diplomacy has taken their place. But still, what I saw Americans doing in Korea shook me to my heels. I suppose all my life I’ve been listening to propaganda about America being a civilised nation and some of this must have sunk in. Somehow, I never quite thought of Americans doing exactly what the Nazis did until I saw it with my own eyes. [...] A thousand tons of bombs; a town obliterated; over 4,000 casualties in all; tens of thousands made homeless and bereaved—all to damage a rail-track. Does it make sense? This is bombing in the fashion that no British town ever met. I saw Coventry and I was in London all through the ‘blitz and I saw Wonsan after these raids. It was far worse than the worst the Nazis ever did.<ref name=":24" /></blockquote>In addition to the U.S. military's practice of fire-bombing civilian targets and firing on refugees, many south Korean civilian casualties occurred due to the American soldiers' inability to tell apart North and south Koreans. As described by an anonymous U.S. officer on the U.S. Defense Department radio program called "Time for Defense", "What makes it so difficult over here is that you can't tell the damn north Koreans from the south Koreans, and that's caused a lot of slaughter" ([[:File:Anonymous U.S. officer describes Korean war.mp4|audio file]]).<ref>''Korea: The Unknown War.'' TV Documentary Series. Episode 2: "An Arrogant Display of Strength." Thames Television, 1988. Aired on WGBH Boston, 1990. (URL: <nowiki>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVCuku3Ldi0</nowiki>)</ref> It may be argued that the policy of firing on groups of refugees was a result of this, as described in the 1988 documentary ''Korea: The Unknown War'', which observes that "American troops found it difficult to distinguish friend from foe," and that "the North Koreans had infiltrated refugee columns, and in the ensuing confusion, innocent civilians became casualties." According to the documentary, one American general allegedly commented, "If they look organized, shoot at them."<ref name=":11" /><br />
[[File:U.S. documents showing refugee policy early in Korean War.jpg|thumb|364x364px|'''Left:''' An unsigned Air Force memo from July 25, 1950 seeking alternatives on the policy of "strafing civilian refugees" which "is sure to receive wide publicity and may cause embarrassment to the U.S. Air Force and U.S. government." '''Right:''' A July 26, 1950 letter from the American embassy to the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State saying, "If refugees do appear from the north of US lines they will receive warning shots, and if they then persist in advancing they will be shot."]]<br />
One example of the U.S. policy of firing on groups of refugees is the incident of the Nogeun-ri massacre, also written as No Gun Ri (Korean: 노근리). The incident was little-known outside Korea until publication of an Associated Press story in 1999 in which U.S. veterans corroborated survivors' accounts, and details gradually became more widely known. In July 1950, American soldiers shot "hundreds of helpless civilians under a railroad bridge".<ref name=":13">{{News citation|author=Sang-Hun Choe, Charles J. Hanley and Martha Mendoza|newspaper=Washington Post|title=U.S. Massacre of Civilians in Korean War Described|date=1999-09-30|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/daily/sept99/skorea30.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220726121945/https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/daily/sept99/skorea30.htm|retrieved=2022-07-26}}</ref> U.S. veterans spoke of 100 or 200 or "hundreds" dead and described "a preponderance of women, children and old men among the victims", while Korean witnesses said 300 were killed at the bridge and 100 in a preceding air attack. One Korean witness commented that "the American soldiers played with our lives like boys playing with flies." One of the U.S. veterans described it as "wholesale slaughter."<ref name=":13" /> <br />
<br />
Although this incident had gone unacknowledged for decades, in 2001 the U.S. Army acknowledged the killings, calling them a "regrettable accompaniment to a war." In 2006, it was revealed that among documents omitted from the 2001 U.S. report, there was a declassified letter from the U.S. ambassador in south Korea, dated the day the Nogeun-ri killings began, saying the Army had adopted a policy of firing on refugee groups approaching its lines.<ref name=":12" /> Some U.S. veterans have also described other refugee killings as well, when U.S. commanders ordered their troops to shoot civilians as a defense against disguised enemy soldiers, and declassified U.S. Air Force reports allegedly show that pilots also sometimes deliberately attacked "people in white" (referring to white peasant garb), suspecting that disguised north Korean soldiers were among them.<ref name=":13" /><br />
<br />
==== Armistice Agreement (1953) ====<br />
The armistice was signed on 27 July 1953. The signed armistice established the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), the de facto new border between the two nations, put into force a cease-fire, and finalized repatriation of prisoners of war. The DMZ runs close to the 38th parallel and has continued to separate north and south Korea since the Korean Armistice Agreement was signed in 1953.<br />
<br />
==== U.S. abrogation of armistice paragraph 13d, introduction of nuclear weapons into South ====<br />
Paragraph 13d of the agreement mandated that neither side introduce new weapons into Korea. At a meeting in 1957, the U.S. informed the north Korean representatives that the United Nations Command no longer considered itself bound by paragraph 13d of the armistice,<ref>{{News citation|newspaper=Time Magazine|title=Korea: The End of 13d|date=1957-07-01|url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,809583,00.html|archive-date=https://web.archive.org/web/20220728030416/https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,809583,00.html|quote=One afternoon last week in the stuffy green Quonset hut that is the heart of the scrubby no man's land of Panmunjom, three U.S. generals, a British brigadier and a Republic of Korea air-force officer coldly confronted 40 North Korean commissars and military men. "I have a statement to make," began Major General Homer L. Litzenberg, U.S.M.C., in a level voice. Then, while the Communists listened attentively, he told them that the U.N. Command no longer felt bound by subparagraph 13D of the Korean armistice agreement—the clause limiting introduction of new weapons into Korea.}}</ref> and in 1958 the U.S. abrogated paragraph 13d of the armistice by introducing nuclear weapons into south Korea.<ref>{{News citation|author=Lee Jae-Bong|newspaper=The Asia-Pacific Journal|title=US Deployment of Nuclear Weapons in 1950s South Korea & North Korea's Nuclear Development: Toward Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula|date=2009-02-07|url=https://apjjf.org/-Lee-Jae-Bong/3053/article.html}}</ref><br />
<br />
==== End of the First Republic ====<br />
In 1960, Rhee was forced to resign due to mass protests across the nation after the body of a student killed by police was found floating in the harbor.<ref>{{Citation|author=|year=|title=Cause of the 4.19 Revolution|chapter=|section=|page=|quote=|pdf=|city=|publisher=|isbn=|doi=|lg=|mia=|title-url=https://archive.ph/20120707225356/http://100.naver.com/100.nhn?docid=726618|chapter-url=|trans-title=|trans-lang=}}</ref> As a result of this, he fled to [[Honolulu]], [[Hawaii]], where he remained in exile until his death.<br />
<br />
===Second Republic (1960–1961)===<br />
[[File:Park Chung Hee Japan.png|thumb|Park Chung-hee, the leader of the third and early fourth republics, in a Japanese military uniform]]<br />
After Rhee's overthrow, bourgeois democracy was briefly restored under president [[Yun Bo-seon]].<ref>{{News citation|journalist=|date=|title=The Democratic Interlude|url=http://countrystudies.us/south-korea/12.htm|newspaper=Library of Congress|archive-url=|archive-date=|retrieved=}}</ref> The second republic was founded during the April Revolution mass protests against President Syngman Rhee, succeeding the first republic and establishing a parliamentary government. After thirteen months it was overthrown by the south Korean Army in the May 16 coup led by [[Park Chung-hee]]. Park had fought for the Japanese during the occupation and took the Japanese name Takagi Masao.<ref>{{Citation|author=Stephen Gowans|year=2018|title=Patriots, Traitors and Empires: The Story of Korea’s Struggle for Freedom|chapter=The Patriot|page=67|pdf=https://ipfs.io/ipfs/bafykbzaced4iiga4ngtxusr2civjxewbili5jne2sbpefbx2s3im2kphattzc?filename=Stephen%20Gowans%20-%20Patriots%2C%20Traitors%20and%20Empires_%20The%20Story%20of%20Korea%E2%80%99s%20Struggle%20for%20Freedom-Baraka%20Books%20%282018%29.pdf|city=Montreal|publisher=Baraka Books|isbn=9781771861427|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=8435F6FF91279531705764823FDC2A7F}}</ref> In 1961, the ROK declared all [[Socialist state|socialist states]] its enemies and founded the [[Korean Central Intelligence Agency|KCIA]], a brutal secret police agency that routinely imprisoned and tortured dissidents. The KCIA required [[Trade union|union]] leaders to pledge loyalty to the state.<ref name=":1103" /><br />
<br />
=== Third Republic (1963–1972) ===<br />
The Third Republic was founded on the dissolution of the Supreme Council for National Reconstruction that overthrew the Second Republic and established a military government in May 1961 when, on May 16, General [[Park Chung-hee]], the father of future president [[Park Geun-hye]] and former [[Empire of Japan (1868–1947)|Japanese]] collaborator, took power in a military coup. After serving for two years as chairman of the military junta, he was elected president in 1963, which is considered to be the start of the Third Republic. Park ruled as a military dictator for 18 years and sent 320,000 troops to support the [[Republic of Vietnam (1955–1975)|South Vietnamese]] puppet state in the [[Vietnam War]]. <br />
<br />
==== Korean DMZ conflict ====<br />
The Korean DMZ conflict was a series of low-level armed clashes between north Korean forces and the forces of south Korea and the United States, largely occurring between 1966 and 1969 at the Korean DMZ.<br />
<br />
=== Fourth Republic (1972–1981) ===<br />
[[File:Gwangju riot police.png|thumb|Riot troops attacking protestors during the Gwangju uprising]]<br />
The Fourth Republic was founded on the approval of the Yushin Constitution in the 1972 constitutional referendum, codifying the ''de facto'' dictatorial powers held by President Park Chung-hee. The Fourth Republic entered a period of political instability under Park's successor, Choi Kyu-hah, and the escalating martial law declared after Park's death. Choi was unofficially overthrown by [[Chun Doo-hwan]] in a coup d'état of December Twelfth in December 1979, and began the armed suppression of the [[May 18 uprising|Gwangju Democratization Movement]] against martial law. <br />
<br />
After Park Chung-hee's assassination on 26 October 1979, General Chun Doo-hwan took power. During his presidency he perpetrated the largest massacre of Korean civilians since the Korean war. In May 1980, protests against martial law began in [[Gwangju]], which were met with special warfare troops. Estimates vary as to the amount of casualties, but they range from 165 at the most conservative, to over 300. Some also claim that up to 2,300 civilians were killed in the Gwangju massacre, in response to the May 18 uprising also known as the Gwangju uprising.<ref>{{News citation|author=K. J. Noh|newspaper=Hampton Institute|title=South Korean Dictator Dies, Western Media Resurrects a Myth|date=2020-12-02|url=https://www.hamptonthink.org/read/south-korean-dictator-dies-western-media-resurrects-a-myth|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220519190752/https://www.hamptonthink.org/read/south-korean-dictator-dies-western-media-resurrects-a-myth|archive-date=2022-05-19|retrieved=2022-06-02}}</ref><br />
<br />
An article in ''The Nation'' states that the 10-day revolt known as the Gwangju uprising was triggered when students and other citizens protesting the military coup were attacked by airborne special forces "with a viciousness and cruelty that Koreans had not experienced since the darkest days of the Korean War." The article further states that "The armed resistance by Gwangju’s citizen militia liberated the city from the marauding troops. The townspeople, freed from decades of military rule, kept their city running, buried their dead, and transformed themselves into a self-organized system of mutual aid they now call the Gwangju Commune." On May 27 Korean Army troops were released from their usual duties on the border with DPRK to reoccupy Gwangju. The official death toll from the uprising stands at 165, but residents believe that more than 300 people were killed, with dozens still unaccounted for.<ref>Tim Shorrock and Injeong Kim. [https://www.thenation.com/article/world/two-days-in-may-that-shattered-korean-democracy/ “2 Days in May That Shattered Korean Democracy.”] The Nation. May 28, 2020. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220909162444/https://www.thenation.com/article/world/two-days-in-may-that-shattered-korean-democracy/ Archived] 2022-09-09.</ref><br />
<br />
The Fourth Republic was dissolved on the adoption of a new constitution in March 1981 and replaced with the fifth Republic of Korea.<br />
<br />
=== Fifth Republic (1981–1987) ===<br />
The fifth republic was established in March 1981 by Chun Doo-hwan. The fifth republic faced growing opposition from the democratization movement of the Gwangju Uprising, and the June Democracy Movement of 1987 resulted in the election of Roh Tae-woo in the December 1987 presidential election. The fifth republic was dissolved three days after the election upon the adoption of a new constitution that laid the foundations for the relatively stable democratic system of the current sixth Republic of Korea.<br />
<br />
=== Sixth Republic (1987–present) ===<br />
The Sixth Republic was established in 1987 with Roh Tae-woo as its first president<ref>{{News citation|newspaper=두산백과 (Doopedia)|title=제6공화국 (Sixth Republic)|url=https://terms.naver.com/entry.naver?docId=1141297&cid=40942&categoryId=33385|retrieved=2022-07-24}}</ref> and sixth president of south Korea from 1988 to 1993. Roh's election was the first direct presidential election in 16 years. His presidency was followed by Kim Young-sam (in office 1993–1998), the first civilian to hold the office in over 30 years. After this came the presidency of Kim Dae-jung (in office 1998–2003), known for his "Sunshine Policy" of engagement through dialogue and economic and cultural exchanges with north Korea.<ref>{{News citation|author=Hyonhee Shin|newspaper=Reuters|title=Vindication: Architects of South Korea's 'Sunshine' policy on North say it's paying off|date=2018-06-11|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-usa-sunshinepolicy-idUSKBN1J60PP}}</ref> This was followed by the presidencies of Roh Moo-hyun (in office 2003–2008), and Lee Myung-bak (in office 2008–2013). <br />
<br />
South Korea's next president, Park Geun-hye (in office 2013–2017), is the daughter of former dictator Park Chung-hee. Park Geun-hye was in office as the 11th president of Korea until she was impeached and convicted on corruption charges following public demonstrations, commonly known as the Candlelight Revolution or Candlelight Demonstrations. She became the first south Korean president to be removed from power by impeachment, and was sentenced to 24 years in prison, but received a pardon and was released in 2021 after serving just under 5 years.<ref>{{News citation|author=Hyonhee Shin|newspaper=Reuters|title=S.Korea's disgraced ex-president Park freed after nearly 5 years in prison|date=2021-12-31|url=https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/skoreas-disgraced-ex-president-park-freed-after-nearly-5-years-prison-2021-12-31/}}</ref> Park Geun-hye's presidency was followed by Moon Jae-in (in office 2017–2022). The 13th and current president of Korea is Yoon Suk-yeol of the conservative People Power Party.<br />
<br />
==Politics==<br />
<br />
=== Military command ===<br />
Since the [[Korean War|Korean war]] ended in 1953 with a ceasefire, the US has maintained control over the south Korean military.<ref>Swanström, N. (2021, April 27). ''Not a Sovereignty Issue: Understanding the Transition of Military Operational Control between the United States and South Korea''. Institute for Security and Development Policy. https://isdp.eu/publication/not-a-sovereignty-issue-understanding-the-transition-of-military-operational-control-between-the-united-states-and-south-korea/</ref><ref name=":16">{{News citation|author=Kathryn Botto|newspaper=Carnegie Endowment for International Peace|title=Why Doesn’t South Korea Have Full Control Over Its Military?|date=2019-08-21|url=https://carnegieendowment.org/2019/08/21/why-doesn-t-south-korea-have-full-control-over-its-military-pub-79702}}</ref><ref name=":17">Kelly, R. E. (2017, February 27). ''Why US control of the South Korean military is here to stay''. The Interpreter. <nowiki>https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/why-us-control-south-korean-military-here-stay</nowiki></ref><ref name=":18">{{News citation|author=Clint Work|newspaper=Stimson|title=No More Delays: Why It’s Time to Move Forward With Wartime OPCON Transition|date=June 21, 2022|url=https://www.stimson.org/2022/no-more-delays-why-its-time-to-move-forward-with-wartime-opcon-transition/|quote=The history and evolution of the US-ROK military command architecture reveal the inherent push and pull at the heart of the US-ROK alliance. Over time, the U.S. has encouraged the ROK to take on a more robust role in its own defense and within the alliance’s command architecture. However, U.S. officials have also been equally hesitant to relinquish too much control too quickly. Simply put, Washington has had trouble navigating the outer edges of its own authority within the alliance command structure as it simultaneously and discordantly pushes and pulls back Seoul in the process.}}</ref><ref name=":19">{{News citation|newspaper=United States Forces Korea|title=Combined Forces Command|url=https://www.usfk.mil/About/CFC/#Commanders|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220728035053/https://www.usfk.mil/About/CFC/|archive-date=2022-07-28|quote=The CFC is commanded by a four-star U.S. general, with a four-star ROK Army general as deputy commander. Throughout the command structure, binational manning is readily apparent: if the chief of a staff section is Korean, the deputy is American and vice versa. This integrated structure exists within the component commands as well as the headquarters. All CFC components are tactically integrated through continuous combined and joint planning, training and exercises.}}</ref> ''US Forces Korea'' were integrated with ROK forces into a ''Combined Forces Command'', which was in turn integrated into the [[United Nations]] Command. All three commands are headed by the same person, a four-star US general<ref name=":17" /><ref name=":19" /> (currently General Paul J. LaCamera<ref>{{Web citation|newspaper=United States Forces Korea|title=Commander UNC/CFC/USFK|url=https://www.usfk.mil/About/Leadership/Article-View/Article/1685489/commander-unccfcusfk/}}</ref> who took functions in 2021).<br />
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South Korea has operational control (referred to as OPCON) of its military under armistice conditions, but the United States would take over in wartime, and the U.S. combatant commander would be able to direct, organize, employ, assign command functions to, or suspend the duty of subordinate South Korean commanders and forces. In essence, if war breaks out on the Korean Peninsula, south Korea would supply the overwhelming majority of the fighting force, which would then be placed under U.S. operational control.<ref name=":16" /> <br />
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Throughout the history of the US-ROK arrangement, the U.S. and ROK have engaged in a back-and-forth trying to determine what degree of control each party should have under this relationship, with the U.S. often showing a reluctance to relinquish control over the ROK's military, and ROK leaders at times expressing a wish to have more control over their own military, and at other times expressing acceptance of the U.S.'s authority over the ROK military in wartime.<ref name=":18" /><br />
=== NATO alliance ===<br />
[[File:Mark Esper suggesting NATO for Asia.png|thumb|Mark Esper, former [[United States Department of Defense|U.S. Secretary of Defense]] and [[Raytheon]] lobbyist, delivering a speech at Think Tank 2022, which was focused on issues facing the Korean peninsula. Esper stated, "It is said that the United States does not seek to build a, quote, "[[North Atlantic Treaty Organization|NATO]] for Asia". And I say, 'Why not?'"<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":2" />]]<br />
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On February 26, 2022 (KST), former U.S. Secretary of Defense and Raytheon weapons manufacturer lobbyist, Mark Esper, delivered a speech at the 4th Think Tank 2022 Forum,<ref name=":2">{{News citation|author=Dr. William Selig|newspaper=Universal Peace Federation|title=4th Think Tank 2022 Forum Features Former U.S. Secretary of Defense|date=2022-02-26|url=https://www.upf.org/peace-and-security-reports/10012-4th-think-tank-2022-forum-featured-hon-mark-esper-former-u-s-secretary-of-defense|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220723061325/https://www.upf.org/peace-and-security-reports/10012-4th-think-tank-2022-forum-featured-hon-mark-esper-former-u-s-secretary-of-defense|archive-date=2022-07-23|retrieved=2022-07-23}}</ref> which is a think tank associated with Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon,<ref>{{News citation|newspaper=Think Tank 2022|title=Co-Founder Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon|url=http://thinktank2022.org/founder/HakJaHanMoon.php}}</ref> the wife of late millionaire<ref>{{News citation|newspaper=Celebrity Net Worth|title=Sun Myung Moon Net Worth|url=https://www.celebritynetworth.com/richest-celebrities/authors/sun-myung-moon-net-worth/|quote=Sun Myung Moon was a Korean religious leader, businessman, and media mogul who had a net worth of $900 million at the time of his death. Sun Myung Moon was best known for founding the Unification movement and authoring its conservative theology of the "Divine Principle." [...] Some considered him a cult leader.}}</ref> Rev. Sun Myung Moon, founder and self-proclaimed messiah of the generally right-wing, anti-communist [[Unification Church]].<ref>{{News citation|author=Conal Urquhart|newspaper=The Guardian|title=Sun Myung Moon, founder of the Moonies, dies in South Korea|date=2012-09-03|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/sep/03/moonies-sun-myung-moon-dies|quote=Moon saw himself as a messiah and created a church that became a worldwide movement and claims to have around 3 million members, including 100,000 in the United States. [...] He was jailed for five years by the North Korean government in 1948, but escaped in 1950 when his guards fled as United Nations troops advanced. He was an active anti-Communist throughout the cold war.}}</ref> Speaking at this event, weapons industry lobbyist Esper emphasized the need for full cooperation between the U.S., south Korea, and Japan in the face of challenges posed by north Korea and China, saying:<blockquote>It is said that the United States does not seek to build a, quote, "NATO for Asia". And I say, "Why not?" We should have lofty goals and high expectations and not let history and distance confound us. America's European allies overcame a brutal history to form a collective security arrangement to deal with [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (1917–1991)|Soviet Russia]]. There's no reason why the same can't happen in the Indo-Pacific as we increasingly face off against a recalcitrant north Korea and aggressive communist China.<ref name=":3">Esper, Mark. 4th Think Tank 2022 Forum. "Hon. Mart[sic] Esper, 27th United States Secretary of Defense keynote address." Think Tank 2022. Uploaded April 13, 2022. URL:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfKih9aabsk (NATO-related quote begins at 16:36)</ref></blockquote>Esper stated that he is a "big believer" in the quadrilateral security dialogue known as "The Quad" a strategic security dialogue between [[Commonwealth of Australia|Australia]], [[Republic of India|India]], Japan, and the United States that is maintained by talks between member countries, which Esper says is "rightly viewed as a unified response to China's rising military and economic power." He states, "I believe south Korea should be the next partner to join the Quad, transitioning it into the Quint."<ref name=":3" /><br />
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The former Raytheon lobbyist and defense company Epirus Inc. board member then went on to say that "America's allies and partners need to invest at least two percent of their GDP for defense and invest in the right capabilities," listing long-range precision strike capabilities, air and missile defenses, advanced submarines, and fifth generation fighter aircraft as examples, and noting that the Republic of Korea has already met this two percent mark.<ref name=":3" /> Esper describes that these weapons investments will help the region deter Chinese and north Korean "aggression" and states that a "reinvigorated work plan with the DPRK should begin with the complete verifiable and irreversible denuclearization of the North."<ref name=":2" /><br />
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In June 2022, the south Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol declared he will participate in the 3rd [[NATO Summit]] of 2022.<ref>{{News citation|newspaper=Kyodo News|title=Yoon to attend NATO summit, 1st time for S. Korean president|date=2022-06-22|url=https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2022/06/968e985e4c76-yoon-to-attend-nato-summit-1st-time-for-s-korean-president.html}}</ref> The director of the National Security Office Kim Sung-han declared not much later that south Korea will establish a "diplomatic mission" to NATO in Brussels to coincide with President Yoon Suk-yeol's participation in the Summit. According to Sung-han, this mission will make south Korea "able to increase information sharing and strengthen our networks with NATO allies and partners and establish a Europe platform that is worthy of our [global] status".<ref>{{News citation|newspaper=Korea JoongAng Daily|title=Korea to open diplomatic mission to NATO|date=2022-06-22|url=https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2022/06/22/national/politics/Korea-Nato-Summit-Yoon-Sukyeol/20220622191349616.html}}</ref><br />
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=== Unconverted long-term prisoners ===<br />
[[File:Unconverted long-term prisoners in south Korea.jpg|thumb|A demonstration calling for a second repatriation of unconverted long-term prisoners in south Korea. The sign reads "Call for second repatriation of non-converted long-term prisoners" ("비전향장기수 2차 송환 촉구").]]<br />
''Main article: [[Unconverted long-term prisoners]]''<br />
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Unconverted long-term prisoners is a term which refers to political prisoners imprisoned in south Korea, generally on charges of "anti-state" activities or views in support of communism or DPRK. While in prison, many of them were held in solitary confinement and subjected to extensive torture while being pressured to sign a "conversion" statement renouncing communist or left-wing ideology.<ref>{{News citation|newspaper=BBC News|title=Solitary: Tough test of survival instinct|date=1999-02-25|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/286070.stm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220725155633/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/286070.stm}}</ref> In the 1990s, some of the unconverted prisoners began being released. Some chose to remain in south Korea while others sought to be repatriated to DPRK.<ref name=":10">Kim Dong-won. ''Repatriation'' (2003). Documentary. URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xu2mEvU29Q</ref> Some were able to return to DPRK, notably 63 of them in the year 2000,<ref name=":28">[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/907307.stm "Korean communists go home."] BBC News, 2 September, 2000. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240311153647/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/907307.stm Archived] 2024-03-11.</ref><ref>{{News citation|newspaper=파이낸셜 뉴스 (Financial News)|title=북한, 비전향장기수 북송 21주년 맞아 생존 장기수들 조명 (North Korea celebrates 21st anniversary of repatriation of non-converted long-term prisoners to North Korea)|date=2021-09-06|url=https://www.fnnews.com/news/202109061041393026}}</ref> but others remained in the South, being denied their requests for repatriation.<ref>{{News citation|author=Kang Jin-kyu|newspaper=Korea JoongAng Daily|title=Spies who can't come in from the cold|date=2016-08-07|url=https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2016/08/07/politics/Spies-who-cant-come-in-from-the-cold/3022316.html}}</ref> <br />
Those who returned to the DPRK were met with celebrations and awards,<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20191124030603/http://www.kcna.co.jp/item/2000/200009/news09/04.htm "National reunification prizes awarded to unconverted long-term prisoners"], [[Korean Central News Agency]], 2000-09-04. Archived 2019-11-19.</ref> while those remaining in south Korea faced difficulties including ongoing health issues from their long imprisonment, living in poverty, not being given social security numbers,<ref name=":10" /> and being subjected to ROK state surveillance under the Security Surveillance Act.<ref name=":22">{{Web citation|author=Liberation School|newspaper=Liberation School|title=Still fighting for Korea’s liberation: An interview with Ahn Hak-sop|date=Jul 27, 2022|url=https://www.liberationschool.org/interview-with-ahn-hak-sop/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/2/https://www.liberationschool.org/interview-with-ahn-hak-sop/}}</ref> <br />
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Many who participated in the repatriation in the year 2000 and many of those who remained in south Korea made their decisions based on their impression at the time that there was going to be more freedom of movement between ROK and DPRK thereafter. In an interview with [[Liberation School]], former prisoner Ahn Hak-sop, who chose to remain in the South when the 2000 repatriation happened, said one of his reasons was that he "thought it was a temporary situation." Anh also notes regarding two prisoners released alongside him, that "Those comrades went to the North because they thought that shortly there would be free movement between the two states. They went to the North to study and thought they would come back later." Regarding his own intention to stay in the south temporarily, Anh elaborated: "[T]here were young progressive people here in the South, and they asked me to stay. [...] We have to keep struggling here for the withdrawal of US army, the peace treaty, and peaceful reunification. I decided to stay here to fight for these goals. In 1952, I came here to liberate the southern half of the peninsula, and I need to stay here and continue that struggle."<ref name=":22" /><br />
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Those who oppose or criticize the repatriation of these former prisoners generally do so on grounds of demanding that DPRK start repatriating people back to the south as well.<ref name=":28" /><br />
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=== National Security Law ===<br />
The National Security Law is a south Korean law enforced since 1948 with the avowed purpose "to secure the security of the State and the subsistence and freedom of nationals, by regulating any anticipated activities compromising the safety of the State." Behaviors or speeches in favor of the DPRK or communism can be punished by the National Security Law. In an article from The Diplomat, it was referred to as a "Cold War holdover" that "allows the government to selectively prosecute anyone who 'praises, incites or propagates the activities of an anti-government organization'" which the article describes as "a deliberately vague clause that broadly implies the north Korean state and its sympathizers." The article continues, explaining "Under Article 7, individuals have been prosecuted and imprisoned for merely possessing north Korean publications or satirically tweeting north Korean propaganda. In recent years this clause has been harshly criticized by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, who claim the government abuses the law to repress dissenting voices."<ref>{{News citation|author=Meredith Shaw and Joseph Yi.|newspaper=The Diplomat|title=Will Yoon Suk-yeol Finally Reform South Korea’s National Security Law?|date=2022-03-15|url=https://thediplomat.com/2022/03/will-yoon-suk-yeol-finally-reform-south-koreas-national-security-law/}}</ref><br />
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=== Anti-imperialist, anti-U.S., and pro-unification struggle in south Korea ===<br />
[[File:Unification Vanguard of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions Anti-US Demonstration.png|thumb|318x318px|The Unification Vanguard of the [[Korean Confederation of Trade Unions]] unfurls large banners reading "This land is our land, YANKEE GO HOME" and "Stop practicing for a war of aggression" in an August 2022 demonstration against US-ROK joint military exercises.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXCK3s-vic8 "23기 민주노총 중앙통일선봉대 활동영상" ("23rd KCTU Central Unification Vanguard Activity Video")]. 민주노총 (Confederation of Trade Unions). Aug 14, 2022. YouTube.</ref><ref>김준. (Kim Jun). [http://worknworld.kctu.org/news/articleView.html?idxno=500588 "쌍용훈련 재개 예고에 23기 중앙통선대, 포항 한미연합상륙훈련장 지휘소 기습점거투쟁" ("23rd Central Telecommunication Battalion, Pohang ROK-U.S. Combined Amphibious Training Center Command Post, Surprise Occupation Struggle to Announce Resumption of Ssangyong Training").] 노동과세계. 2022.08.12. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220828050027/http://worknworld.kctu.org/news/articleView.html?idxno=500588 Archived] 2022-08-28.</ref>]]<br />
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According to the People's Democracy Party (PDP), a revolutionary workers' party in south Korea, the continued U.S. military occupation of south Korea is the primary barrier to peaceful reunification of the Korean peninsula. The PDP, co-authoring a 2020 ''Liberation School'' article, writes:<blockquote>The peace of the Corean Peninsula is possible only after the withdrawal of the U.S. troops. The U.S. troops are occupation forces in South Corea and invading army to North Corea. So their withdrawal is the most desperate and preferred struggle task for the whole Corean nation to solve. The present war crisis escalating to a high level proves that peace in the Corean peninsula cannot be realized unless the U.S. troops are withdrawn from South Corea.<br />
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As long as the U.S. troops are stationed in South Corea and war exercises are conducted against North Corea, the prospect for peace is bound to be dark. We are convinced from our historical experience that if we develop the struggles for the withdrawal of the U.S. troops into a popular uprising of the South Corean people, and if the whole Corean nation can struggle together in great unity, we can withdraw the U.S. troops from South Corea.<br />
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[...] True peace is possible only without imperialism; the head of imperialism is the U.S. We have an opinion that a true peace movement should be an anti-imperialist movement and an anti-U.S. movement. We believe that the progressive and peace-loving forces of the world can and must conduct an anti-imperialist, anti-war struggle, to halt all wars in the world by U.S. troops and to withdraw all U.S. troops stationed overseas. The key is the formation of an anti-imperialist, anti-U.S. united front and anti-imperialist, anti-U.S. joint action.<ref name=":23" /></blockquote><br />
[[File:South Korean students rush the U.S. Ambassador’s official residence, 2019.png|thumb|South Korean students surprise rushing U.S. Ambassador [[Harry Harris]]' official residence in 2019, using ladders to climb over the wall, with signs saying “leave this land” and shouting "Stop interfering with our domestic affairs" and "We don’t need U.S. troops."<ref name=":26">Shin, Hyonhee. 2019. [https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-northkorea-southkorea-idUSKBN1WX0Z6 “South Korean Students Climb into U.S. Envoy’s Residence in Protest against Troop Presence.”] U.S. October 18, 2019. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230325105702/https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-northkorea-southkorea-idUSKBN1WX0Z6 Archived] 2023-03-25.</ref><ref name=":27">오마이TV. 2019. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Del06vXK8nk “순식간에 미대사관저 담장 넘어간 대학생들.”] YouTube Video. [https://web.archive.org/web/20221018101952/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Del06vXK8nk&feature=youtu.be Archive link].</ref>]]<br />
In 2019, 19 south Korean students were detained after several used a ladder to climb over the wall into the grounds of the U.S. Ambassador [[Harry Harris]]' residence in Seoul in protest against the U.S. troop presence in the country. A spokesman for the US Embassy in Seoul said that approximately 20 Korean nationals illegally entered the official residential compound of the U.S. Ambassador and attempted to forcibly enter the residence itself. In a video broadcast from inside the compound, the activists accused the United States of demanding a 500% increase in the cost of keeping some 28,500 troops in south Korea, holding a banner saying "Leave this soil, Harris" and shouted "Stop interfering with our domestic affairs!" "Get out!" and "We don’t need U.S. troops!" before being marched out of the residence by police. The students had also attempted to break into the U.S. Embassy in Seoul in 2018, before being stopped by police. A Reuters article notes that the student group also "held a forum to present their 'research findings' on the achievements of North Korean leader [[Kim Jong-un|Kim Jong Un]], lauding him as a caring and influential leader."<ref name=":26" /><ref name=":27" /> <br />
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[[Nodutdol]] (Korean: 노듯돌), an [[Anti-imperialism|anti-imperialist]], pro-unification organization of diasporic Koreans,<ref>[https://nodutdol.org/about/ “About.”] Nodutdol. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230401142208/https://nodutdol.org/about/ Archived] 2023-04-01.</ref> notes in their 2020 pamphlet "Sanctions of Empire" that Ambassador Harry Harris has been obstructive toward inter-Korean reconciliation, blocking efforts by the [[Moon Jae-in]] administration to develop tourism into the DPRK, claiming that "independent" tourism plans would have to undergo US consultation, emphasizing that the items inside south Korean tourists' luggage could violate [[Economic sanctions|sanctions]].<ref>[https://nodutdol.org/sanctions-of-empire/ "제국의 제재 - Sanctions of Empire."] [[Nodutdol]]. October 20, 2020. [https://nodutdol.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Sanctions-of-Empire.pdf PDF]. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220520095404/https://nodutdol.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Sanctions-of-Empire.pdf Archive].</ref><br />
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On Jeju Island, located off the southern tip of the Korean peninsula, a decade-long protest of the construction of a naval base has been ongoing. Activists noted in a 2013 statement that the base will only worsen the likelihood of Koreans being pulled into a US-China conflict: "Jeju naval base will be an outpost of the U.S. maritime military alliance, together with Japan, targeting China, rather than a strategic point of independent national defense. With the U.S. [[Pivot to Asia]] strategy, the chances of South Korea’s getting pulled into conflicts between the U.S. and China increase."<ref>[https://www.peoplepower21.org/english/1080148 <nowiki>“[Publication] No Naval Base on Jeju Island! - 참여연대 -.”</nowiki>] 참여연대. October 7, 2013. [https://web.archive.org/web/20210414023914/http://www.peoplepower21.org/English/1080148 Archive link].</ref> Although the base eventually completed construction, protestors continued to oppose it with demonstrations and attempted entries into it, saying that although it is nominally a south Korean base, it is "a place where cutting-edge strategic assets in the US military can stop by whenever they please according to American interests."<ref>[https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_international/820635.html “American Nuclear Submarine Enters Jeju Naval Base.”] Hankyoreh. Hani.co.kr. 2017. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230325090226/https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_international/820635.html Archived] 2023-03-25.</ref> In 2020, an activist was arrested for trespassing on the base and destroying government property.<ref>Elizabeth Shim. [https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2020/03/30/South-Korea-arrests-protester-for-infiltrating-Jeju-Naval-Base/2991585585755/ “South Korea Arrests Protester for Infiltrating Jeju Naval Base.”] UPI. March 30, 2020. [https://web.archive.org/web/20200814001452/https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2020/03/30/South-Korea-arrests-protester-for-infiltrating-Jeju-Naval-Base/2991585585755/ Archived].</ref><br />
[[File:People rally to protest against the planned South Korea-U.S. military drills in Seoul, South Korea, Aug. 13, 2022.jpg|thumb|People rally against the ROK-US military drills, Aug. 13, 2022. Banners say "Stop war exercises! No to USA!" (Korean: 전쟁연습 중단! 미국 반대!)]]<br />
On August 13, 2022, thousands of south Korean unionists and their progressive supporters rallied in downtown Seoul to protest against joint US-south Korea war game exercises. In a video uploaded by [[Press TV]], Oh Eun-Jung of the National Teachers Union was quoted as saying "The threat of nuclear war is growing on the Korean peninsula, conservative forces of Yoon Suk-yeol in south Korea and those in the U.S. are frantically conducting aggressive war drills in the sky, the land, and the sea, and are about to start large-scale military exercises, aimed at the invasion of north Korea. We must stamp out this behavior of anti-reunification forces." In the same video, construction worker Lee Seung-Woo stated, "We not only oppose the war exercises, but we want the U.S. Forces Korea, which is actually controlling and interfering with the Korean peninsula to leave this land. We believe that only then will the eighty million Koreans from both north and south be able to live peacefully."<ref>Frank Smith. [https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2022/08/13/687322/South-Korean-unionists-protest-US-South-Korea-war-games “‘South Korean Unionists Protest US-South Korea War Games.’”] PressTV News. August 13, 2022. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220826124551/https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2022/08/13/687322/South-Korean-unionists-protest-US-South-Korea-war-games Archived] 2022-08-28.</ref><br />
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The media company [[Sovereignty Broadcast]] (Korean: 주권방송), additionally going by the name 615tv on some of its social media accounts, uploads educational and informative videos its to YouTube page regarding the peace and unification struggle in Korea. According to the channel's about page, it is an internet media company that deals with peace and unification on the Korean Peninsula and various current affairs topics in Korea.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/c/The615tv/about About Sovereignty Broadcast]. Sovereignty Broadcast. YouTube.</ref><br />
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=== Censorship ===<br />
Until 1973, images of [[Kim Il-sung]] were banned in south Korea. The southern secret police falsely claimed that Kim was an impostor who had not been involved in the guerrilla resistance against Japan. In 1989, the police state arrested an average of 3.3 Koreans every day under anti-communist censorship laws. Many [[Anti-capitalism|anti-capitalist]] books are banned, even some by non-[[Marxism|Marxists]]. In 2011, southern authorities deleted over 67,000 internet posts that were critical of the ROK or United States. Left-wing music such as the ''Song of the Red Flag'' (which is even used by the [[Social democracy|social democratic]] [[Labour Party (UK)|UK Labour Party]]) is also illegal under the National Security Law.<ref name=":1103">{{Citation|author=Stephen Gowans|year=2018|title=Patriots, Traitors and Empires: The Story of Korea’s Struggle for Freedom|chapter=The Anti-Communist Police State|page=136–145|pdf=https://ipfs.io/ipfs/bafykbzaced4iiga4ngtxusr2civjxewbili5jne2sbpefbx2s3im2kphattzc?filename=Stephen%20Gowans%20-%20Patriots%2C%20Traitors%20and%20Empires_%20The%20Story%20of%20Korea%E2%80%99s%20Struggle%20for%20Freedom-Baraka%20Books%20%282018%29.pdf|city=Montreal|publisher=Baraka Books|isbn=9781771861427|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=8435F6FF91279531705764823FDC2A7F}}</ref><br />
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=== Government-sanctioned prostitution and sex trafficking victims ===<br />
[[File:Women who were encouraged by the South Korean government to work as prostitutes near US military bases hold a press conference outside of the Seoul High Court in the Seocho neighborhood.jpg|thumb|Women who were encouraged by the South Korean government to work as prostitutes near US military bases hold a press conference outside of the Seoul High Court in the Seocho neighborhood following a court ruling on their case on Feb. 8, 2018.]]<br />
As described in a 2019 article by journalist [[Tim Shorrock]], "between the end of the Korean War and the early 1990s, more than one million Korean women were caught up in a state-controlled prostitution industry" that was operated by and for the benefit of the U.S. military. They worked in special zones surrounding U.S. bases, in areas licensed by the south Korean government, reserved exclusively for American troops, and monitored and policed by the U.S. Army. Shorrock explains that the system was designed to strengthen the U.S.-south Korean alliance and boost the morale of U.S. military personnel, and for south Korea to bring in foreign currency, with prostitution for this purpose being encouraged as a woman’s patriotic duty to the state. These zones, called ''kijichon'' (Korean: 기지촌; "military camp town"), were established around 31 U.S. Army, Air Force, and Navy bases in South Korea. Shorrock writes that "in Gyonggi province, which extends from south of Seoul up to the DMZ and was home to the majority of U.S. bases, some 10,000 sex workers were registered every year from 1953 to the late 1980s."<ref name=":25">[[Tim Shorrock|Shorrock, Tim]]. 2019. [https://newrepublic.com/article/155707/united-states-military-prostitution-south-korea-monkey-house “Welcome to the Monkey House.”] The New Republic. December 2, 2019. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230322174621/https://newrepublic.com/article/155707/united-states-military-prostitution-south-korea-monkey-house Archived] 2023-03-22.</ref><br />
<br />
In 2018, Lee Beom-gyun, a judge on an appellate court in Seoul, agreed that the south Korean government had actively encouraged prostitution to boost ties with the United States. Lee ruled that the Korean state "operated and managed" the military camp towns to contribute to the "maintenance of a military alliance essential for national security" and abetted the industry "through patriotic education praising prostitutes as 'patriots who bring in foreign currency.'" He concluded that the government had violated the human rights of its citizens and denounced the practice of segregating "camp town prostitutes in forced internment facilities or through the indiscriminate administration of penicillin, which carries serious physical side effects."<ref name=":25" /><ref>[http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_international/831625.html “Court Finds That South Korean Government Encouraged Prostitution near US Military Bases.”] 2018. Hani.co.kr. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230325113713/http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_international/831625.html Archived] 2023-03-25.</ref><br />
<br />
The 2019 article describes one sex worker's experience in this system:<blockquote>One former sex worker starkly laid out the conditions faced by many ''kijichon'' women in a documentary film produced by Durebang. “A pimp sold me to a U.S. camp town,” she recalled. “Inside a warehouse, I was raped. The police sent me to the Monkey House, where American medics gave us injections” of penicillin and other drugs to prevent the spread of STDs. After her release, she was required to wear a plastic badge showing she’d been tested—“cunt tags,” she called them. All sex workers and bar owners were required to hang these registration certificates on the walls of their establishments as well.<ref name=":25" /></blockquote>Choi Hee-shin, a community organizer who grew up in Dongducheon, which surrounds the U.S. Camp Casey, was quoted in the same 2019 article saying, “Lots of people are ashamed of what happened in the camp towns, and want to forget," further stating, "But people like me, we can't forget. The U.S.-South Korean alliance depended on these comfort women."<br />
<br />
According to Wellesley Professor Katharine H.S. Moon in ''Sex Among Allies'', a history of military prostitution in south Korea, the "overwhelming majority" of prostitutes in the camp towns were either orphans or abandoned children. Moon estimates in her book that at the peak of U.S. troop strength in the 1980s, the ''kijichon'' economy contributed 5 percent of South Korea’s gross domestic product. Once they were recruited to the camp towns, women found themselves trapped by debt. They carried out their sex work in rooms they had to rent from the bar owners. They also had to buy all their supplies, including their bed, their clothes, and the phonographs they set up to entertain their American clients.<br />
<br />
Shorrock explains that many of the Koreans who seek justice for camp-town sex workers refer to them as [[comfort women]], a term which commonly refers to women whom the Japanese Imperial Army kidnapped and forced to work in military brothels called "comfort stations" during the Second World War. However, the Korean public has generally refrained from treating the kijichon women as victims of imperialism in the manner of the comfort women. Park Jeong-mi, a professor at Chungbuk National University, argues that this sentiment is unfair, and in her research she has found a direct historical link between the Japanese and American systems, as the U.S. military government created an administrative state that was dominated by Koreans who had collaborated with Japan's colonial rulers. The shift from Japanese- to American-coerced sex work was an easy transition, she said: "High-ranking Korean officials who served under Japanese colonial rule were familiar with the comfort station system." Under U.S. pressure, Park said, the south Korean government licensed the bars and clubs that hired the women who entertained the U.S. troops, likening those establishments to de facto brothels.<ref name=":25" /><br />
<br />
=== Sexism ===<br />
Women are only paid half as much as men for the same job.<ref name=":1222">{{Citation|author=[[Vijay Prashad]]|year=2008|title=The Darker Nations: A People's History of the Third World|chapter=Singapore|page=248|pdf=https://cloudflare-ipfs.com/ipfs/bafykbzaceascnzh26r5d6uitjjs2z7rflhaxlt7rboz5whzdf76qg6xxvecqq?filename=%28A%20New%20Press%20People%27s%20history%29%20Vijay%20Prashad%20-%20The%20darker%20nations_%20a%20people%27s%20history%20of%20the%20third%20world-The%20New%20Press%20%282008%29.pdf|publisher=The New Press|isbn=9781595583420|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=9B40B96E830128A7FE0E0E887C06829F}}</ref><br />
<br />
==Rising anti-capitalism==<br />
In recent years, the term '''"'''[[Hell Joseon]]" or "Hell Korea" (Korean: 헬조선) has become popular to describe the social anxiety and discontent surrounding high unemployment and poor working conditions.<ref>[http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/739886.html Lashing out at “Hell Joseon”, young’uns drive ruling party’s election beatdown]</ref><ref>[https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/young-south-koreans-call-their-country-hell-and-look-for-ways-out/2016/01/30/34737c06-b967-11e5-85cd-5ad59bc19432_story.html Young South Koreans call their country ‘hell’ and look for ways out] by the [[Washington Post]]</ref> <br />
<br />
south Korean media has also increasingly included narratives of class antagonism which have been popular successes for Western audiences, with films such as ''Snowpiercer'' (2013)<ref>[https://newmultitude.org/snowpiercer-class-consciousness/ THE TRAIN IS CAPITALISM- SNOWPIERCER AND CLASS CONSCIOUNESS]</ref> and ''Parasite'' (2019)<ref>[https://medium.com/incluvie/parasite-and-capitalism-what-the-film-says-about-the-pursuit-of-wealth-993fa7ce7ee1 Parasite and Capitalism: What the Film Says About the Pursuit of Wealth]</ref> and the popular TV show ''Squid Game'' (2021).<ref>[https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/squid-game-the-rise-of-anti-capitalist-entertainment/ar-AAPaOHG Squid Game & The Rise Of Anti-Capitalist Entertainment]</ref><ref>[https://www.gen-zine.com/post/thesquidgame “The Squid Game”: Anti-Capitalism and Netflix]</ref><ref>[https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/elaminabdelmahmoud/squid-game-netflix-review-lupin-international “Squid Game” Works Because Capitalism Is A Global Scourge]</ref><br />
<br />
With increasing economic stratification, social [[alienation]], and lack of opportunity among young people entering the work force, south Korea has a rate of mental health issues and suicide that is among the highest in the developed world.<ref>{{News citation|author=Katrin Park|newspaper=Foreign Policy|title=South Korea Is No Country for Young People|date=2021-10-5|url=https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/11/05/south-korea-suicide-rates-mental-illness-squid-game/}}</ref> This undoubtedly is resulting in the development of [[class consciousness]].<br />
<br />
The [[bourgeois media]] (in south Korea and in the US) carefully ensures that all criticism of capitalism stops just short of providing concrete solutions, lest people become interested in [[socialism]] and its [[Successes of socialism|various successes around the world]].<br />
<br />
Labor militancy is also on the rise as 500k south Korean workers walked off in a one-day [[general strike]], protesting against rampant [[exploitation]] by the [[Gig worker|gig economy]], high costs of housing, and the highest annual working hours in the OECD.<ref>[https://therealnews.com/half-a-million-south-korean-workers-walk-off-jobs-in-general-strike HALF A MILLION SOUTH KOREAN WORKERS WALK OFF JOBS IN GENERAL STRIKE] on [https://therealnews.com/half-a-million-south-korean-workers-walk-off-jobs-in-general-strike The Real News Network]</ref><br />
<br />
== Notes ==<br />
<references group="Notes" /><br />
<br />
==References==<br />
<references /><br />
[[Category:Illegal states]]<br />
[[Category:Global north]]<br />
[[Category:Puppet states]]<br />
[[Category:Neocolonial outposts]]<br />
[[Category:Asian countries]]</div>
Verda.Majo
https://en.prolewiki.org/index.php?title=Republic_of_Korea&diff=64205
Republic of Korea
2024-03-15T16:31:14Z
<p>Verda.Majo: /* Early history and Japanese occupation */ Seeing if I can rewrite this section a bit to have better sources, clearer citations and better organization. WIP</p>
<hr />
<div>{{Infobox country|name=Republic of Korea|population_estimate_year=2019|population_estimate=51,709,098|area_km2=100,363|established_date1=1948 August 15|established_event1=First Republic|image_map=Statesian neocolonial occupation of Korea.svg|map_width=260|official_languages=Korean|leader_name3=Kim Jin-pyo|native_name=대한민국|image_flag=Flag of South Korea.svg|leader_title3=Speaker of the National Assembly|leader_name2=Han Duck-soo|leader_title2=Prime Minister|leader_name1=[[Yoon Suk-yeol]]|leader_title1=President|image_coat=ROK emblem.svg|capital=Seoul|government_type=Unitary corporatocratic republic|currency=Korean Republic won (₩) (KRW)|official_website=https://www.korea.net/|mode_of_production=[[Capitalism]]}}<br />
The so-called '''Republic of Korea''' ('''ROK'''), also known as '''Capitalist Korea''' or '''South Korea''', is a [[Bourgeois state|bourgeois liberal republic]] that serves as a [[United States of America|U.S.]] puppet state<ref>{{Citation|author=Stephen Gowans|year=2018|title=Patriots, Traitors and Empires: The Story of Korea’s Struggle for Freedom|chapter=The Empire of Japan|page=45|pdf=https://ipfs.io/ipfs/bafykbzaced4iiga4ngtxusr2civjxewbili5jne2sbpefbx2s3im2kphattzc?filename=Stephen%20Gowans%20-%20Patriots%2C%20Traitors%20and%20Empires_%20The%20Story%20of%20Korea%E2%80%99s%20Struggle%20for%20Freedom-Baraka%20Books%20%282018%29.pdf|city=Montreal|publisher=Baraka Books|isbn=9781771861427|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=8435F6FF91279531705764823FDC2A7F}}</ref> and [[Neocolonialism|colony]]<ref name=":23" /> located on the southern portion of the [[Korea|Korean Peninsula]]. The northern part of the peninsula is governed by the [[Democratic People's Republic of Korea|Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)]], also known as People's Korea. <br />
<br />
According to the south Korean [[People's Democracy Party]] (민중민주당), writing in a 2020 [[Liberation School]] article, "south Korea is a complete colony occupied by the U.S. military, is politically oppressed by the U.S., and is economically subordinate to [[Imperialism|imperialist]] countries, including the U.S. After the military coup of 1961, the rule of fascist military dictatorships continued for 30 years, and since then a pro-US [[Neoliberalism|neoliberal]] regime has operated in the country. It is severely exploiting the [[Proletariat|workers]], [[Peasantry|farmers]], and all the people."<ref name=":23">People's Democracy Party and Liberation School. [https://www.liberationschool.org/korean-war-70-years/ “70 Years Too Long: The Struggle to End the Korean War – Liberation School.”] ''Liberation School – Revolutionary Marxism for a New Generation of Fighters'', 25 June 2020. [https://web.archive.org/web/2/https://www.liberationschool.org/korean-war-70-years/ Archived].<br />
<br />
</ref><br />
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According to the same party, the Korean reunification and peace struggle is contingent on the withdrawal of U.S. troops, and therefore U.S. military withdrawal from south Korea is "the most desperate and preferred struggle task for the whole Korean nation to solve.<ref name=":23" /> <br />
<br />
Since its inception, the ROK has been riddled with corruption and political scandals. All four living former south Korean presidents have been sentenced to prison for various crimes ranging from abuse of authority to bribery and embezzlement.<ref name="aei">{{Web citation|date=2018-10-09|title=South Korea's troubling history of jailing ex-presidents|url=https://www.aei.org/foreign-and-defense-policy/asia/south-koreas-troubling-history-of-jailing-ex-presidents/|newspaper=American Enterprise Institute}}</ref><ref>{{Web citation|date=2021-02-10|title=Former South Korean president sentenced to prison|url=https://www.dw.com/en/former-south-korean-president-sentenced-to-prison/a-55779280|newspaper=Deutsche Welle}}</ref><ref>{{Web citation|date=2013-08-22|title=Ex-president Roh Tae-woo to pay remainder of massive fine|newspaper=The Chosunilbo}}</ref><ref>{{Web citation|date=2017-02-07|title=South Korea: President's impeachment on a background of political scandal|url=http://perspective.usherbrooke.ca/bilan/servlet/BMAnalyse?codeAnalyse=2320|newspaper=Perspective Monde}}</ref><ref name="bbcsource">{{Web citation|date=2018-10-05|title=South Korea ex-leader jailed for 15 years|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-45756561|newspaper=[[BBC|BBC News]]}}</ref><br />
<br />
==History==<br />
<br />
=== Early history and Japanese occupation ===<br />
{{Main article|Korea}}<br />
Some of Korea's major historical periods leading up to the contemporary period include the period of Gojoseon (2333 B.C.-108 B.C.), the Three Han States Period, the Three Kingdoms Period, the North-South States Period (668-918), the Goryeo Dynasty (918–1392), the Joseon Dynasty (1392–1897), the relatively short-lived Korean Empire (1897–1910), and the Japanese colonial occupation period (1910–1945).<ref name=":29">Shin, Michael D.; Lee, Injae; Miller, Owen; Park, Jinhoon; Yi, Hyon-hye. [https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781107098466 "Korean History in Maps: from prehistory to the Twenty-first Century."] Cambridge University Press, 3rd printing, 2016.</ref><ref>[http://nationalatlas.ngii.go.kr/pages/page_3083.php "Territorial History of Korea."] National Atlas of Korea: Comprehensive Edition (2022). National Geography Information Institute, Ministry of Land Infrastructure and Transport.</ref><br />
<br />
Throughout its history, Korea has been faced with various foreign attacks and disturbances. For example, Korea faced invasion by Japan during the [[Imjin Wars]] of the 1590s<ref name=":29" /> and disturbances such as imperialist [[gunboat diplomacy]] in the 1800s.<ref>Bullimore, Kim. [https://redflag.org.au/node/6486 "Understanding US aggression against North Korea."] [[Redflag]], [[Socialist Alternative (Australia)|Socialist Alternative]], 2018-08-21. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220526084730/https://redflag.org.au/node/6486 Archived] 2022-05-26.</ref> As independent scholar Jay Hauben observed in The Jeju Weekly, Korea "remained independent despite 500 years of efforts of bigger powers to dominate it" until it was subjected to Japanese rule in 1910.<ref name=":14" /><br />
<br />
During the Japanese occupation era, which lasted until Japan's defeat in 1945, Korea's economy was developed to serve the interests of the Japanese empire, with Korean industry developing as an "appendage" of Japanese industry, hindering the normal development of Korea's national industry.<ref>Kim Han Gil. [https://archive.org/details/ModernHistoryOfKorea/ "Modern History of Korea."] Foreign Languages Publishing House, Pyongyang, Korea, 1979.</ref> The southern part of the Korean peninsula was predominantly agricultural, and was considered the "rice bowl" of the country as it supplied a greater portion of the food for Korea. As a colonial economy, it was tightly controlled in the interest of creating a rice surplus for Japan.<ref name=":15">Kim Jinwung. A ''Policy of Amateurism: The Rice Policy of the U.S. Army Military''. Government in Korea, 1945-1948. Korea Journal, Summer 2007.https://kj.accesson.kr/assets/pdf/8153/journal-47-2-208.pdf</ref><br />
<br />
As [[Kim Il-sung|Kim Il Sung]] summarized, during the colonial period, Japan turned Korea into "a source of raw materials and labour, a market for their commodities and a military base for aggression against the continent."<ref>Kim Il Sung. "The Tasks of Korean Communists." Treatise Published in Sogwang, Organ of the Korean People's Revolutionary Army, November 10, 1937. Collected Works Volume 1. ([https://www.marxists.org/archive/kim-il-sung/cw/01.pdf PDF])</ref> Additionally, under colonial rule, Koreans were subjected to kidnapping and slavery in the form of forced labor and sexual slavery (the latter are known as [[comfort women]]), on top of facing extensive political repression and cultural erasure.<ref name=":30" /><br />
<br />
A [[Liberation School]] article explains that as economic and anti-colonial demands mounted under the occupation, resistance to Japanese colonialism grew and [[Communism|communists]] and [[Anarchism|anarchists]] "began meeting in the borderlands of Russia, China, and Korea." On March 1, 1919 a massive Korean independence protest movement was launched. Since 1931, nationalist and communist guerrillas struggled in the mountains of Manchuria against the Japanese, and Kim Il-Sung emerged as a particularly effective leader during this period.<ref name=":30">Ford, Derek. [https://www.liberationschool.org/the-chongryon-movement-the-struggle-of-koreans-in-japan/ “Chongryon: The Struggle of Koreans in Japan – Liberation School.”] ''Liberation School – Revolutionary Marxism for a New Generation of Fighters'', 30 Jan. 2019.</ref><br />
<br />
===US occupation===<br />
[[File:The Japanese flag in front of the Japanese Government-General of Korea building in Seoul is replaced with the U.S. flag..png|thumb|314x314px|U.S. forces lower the Japanese flag in Seoul and replace it with the U.S. flag.]]<br />
After [[Kim Il-sung]] liberated Korea from the Japanese Empire, in an "outburst of meetings and organizing" that "came out into the open all over Korea" after Japanese surrender, activists throughout the Korean peninsula began to plan and organize to replace Japanese rule and dominance. Groups of local people gathered in most villages and cities and sought ways to replace the police and pro-Japanese administrators with people who had resisted Japanese rule.<ref name=":14" /> A left-leaning nationwide organization established by Koreans known as the Alliance for National government as well as many local People's Committees enjoyed widespread popular support throughout the country. However, the U.S. Military Government in Korea (USAMGIK) did not recognize the new state declared by the People’s Committees, and Korea was divided across the 38th parallel by two American officers who had never been to Korea.<ref>{{Citation|author=Don Oberdorfer, Robert Carlin|year=2014|title=The Two Koreas: A Contemporary History|chapter=|section=|page=5|quote=|pdf=|city=|publisher=|isbn=9780465031238|doi=|lg=|mia=|title-url=|chapter-url=|trans-title=|trans-lang=}}</ref> The U.S. occupation of the southern half of Korea was announced in Proclamation No. 1 by General of the Army Douglas MacArthur on Sept. 7, 1945, with the statement that “All powers of Government over the territory of Korea south of 38 degrees north latitude and the people thereof will be for the present exercised under my authority.”<ref>{{News citation|newspaper=Jeju 4.3 Peace Foundation|title=Liberation from Japan in 1945|date=2018|url=http://jeju43peace.org/historytruth/fact-truth/factstruth_article2/}}</ref><br />
<br />
In "A Policy of Amateurism: The Rice Policy of the U.S. Army Military''"'', Kim Jinwung writes:<blockquote>When news arrived that the United States was planning to occupy southern Korea, [Yeo Un-hyeong's Committee for the Preparation of Korean Independence] called a national convention in Seoul on September 6 to give his regime the stamp of legitimacy. Yeo and his followers wanted to quicken the process of establishing a new government before the Americans arrived. Yeo proclaimed the establishment of the Korean People’s Republic, with a cabinet that included distinguished nationalists of all political persuasions, right and left. But the body was clearly influenced by the left, with Communists playing key roles.<ref name=":15" /></blockquote>However, the U.S. refused to recognize this organization, and General John R. Hodge, the Commanding General of U.S. Army Forces in Korea, outlawed the people’s committees and created new local councils under conservative control.<ref name=":15" /> In an article titled "People's Republic of Korea: Jeju, 1945-1946", Jay Hauben describes the situation:<blockquote>On Sept. 8, 21 US warships arrived in Incheon to supervise in the name of the Allies the surrender of the Japanese Governor-General of Korea and the 200,000 Japanese military personnel and their equipment and property south of the 38th parallel. US General John Hodge commanded the US landing. The US party was met by an English speaking committee of the PRK [People's Republic of Korea] to welcome it to Korea in the name of the people and newly emerging government of Korea. General Hodge refused to meet with them. His mission was to head the United States Military Government In Korea (USAMGIK) and he would not accept that there was already a newly forming government of Korea.<ref name=":14" /></blockquote>Due to the People’s Committees enjoying such widespread popular support, the USAMGIK resorted to dissolving the committees by force so that the U.S. could effectively rule the country.<ref name=":0">{{News citation|newspaper=Jeju 4.3 Peace Foundation|title=Who ruled over the Korean Peninsula?|date=2018|url=http://jeju43peace.org/historytruth/fact-truth/factstruth_article3/|retrieved=2022-07-23}}</ref> As noted by Hauben, "The USAMGIK had as its mission to prevent a Korean government friendly to socialism or communism or leftism in general. That mission required that the left leaning majority of the Korean people had to be diverted."<ref name=":14" /><br />
[[File:1946 South Korean opinion poll about socialism, communism, and capitalism.png|thumb|An opinion poll appearing in the Dong-A Ilbo newspaper on August 13, 1946 showed a majority of respondents favoring socialism and less than 15% supporting capitalism.|341x341px]]<br />
In August 1946, the newspaper Dong-A Ilbo published the results of various opinion polls seeking information about the kind of government the people of Korea wanted. Of those surveyed, when asked about which system they agreed with, 14% of respondents answered "capitalism" (1,189 people), 70% answered "socialism" (6,037 people), 7% answered "communism" (574 people), and 8% responded "do not know" (653 people).<ref>[https://db.history.go.kr/id/dh_003_1946_08_13_0070 "1946년 8월 13일 軍政廳輿論局, 朝鮮國民이 어떠한 종류의 政府를 요망하는지 여론을 조사" ("August 13, 1946. Surveys the public opinion on what kind of military service the people of the military and government demand.")] 동아일보 1946년 08월 13일. (Dong-A Ilbo, August 13, 1946). 자료대한민국사 제3권. (Source Korea History Vol. 3). Korean History Database. 국사편찬위원회. (National Institute of Korean History). [https://web.archive.org/web/20220825114505/https://db.history.go.kr/id/dh_003_1946_08_13_0070 Archived] 2022-08-25.</ref><ref>[https://newslibrary.naver.com/viewer/index.naver?articleId=1946081300209203003&editNo=1&printCount=1&publishDate=1946-08-13&officeId=00020&pageNo=3&printNo=7053&publishType=00020 "軍政廳輿論局調査(군정청여론국조사)."] Dong-A Ilbo August 13, 1946. Page 3. Naver 뉴스 라이브러리 (Naver News Library).</ref><br />
<br />
Following General MacArthur's Proclamation No. 1, the USAMGIK became the official ruling body of south Korea (in the eyes of the U.S.), from 1945 to 1948, until the establishment of the Republic of Korea on Aug. 15, 1948. Through this series of events, the Korean Peninsula was divided along the 38th parallel, the South was occupied by the United States, the People's Committees were suppressed, many Japanese colonial era collaborator police and officials were placed back into positions of power, and a [[Fascism|fascist]] dictatorship led by Harvard graduate [[Syngman Rhee]] was installed.<ref>{{News citation|journalist=|date=|title=Syngman Rhee|url=https://www.doopedia.co.kr/doopedia/master/master.do?_method=view&MAS_IDX=101013000746262|newspaper=Doopedia|archive-url=|archive-date=|retrieved=}}</ref> <br />
<br />
==== Suppressed criticism in official U.S. military history of Korean War and U.S. occupation of Korea ====<br />
In the work ''From Occupation to War: Cold War Legacies of US: Army Historical Studies of the Occupation and Korean War'', Seoul National University professor Chung Yong Wook writes that "a divergent understanding" of this era "was repressed or rooted out by force in the US and around the ‘free world'" due to the official U.S. history of the war being written in the context of the emerging Cold War. Military historian Richard Robinson, who wrote a work critical of the U.S. role in Korea, ''Betrayal of a Nation'', was unable to find a publisher for his work and it remained in manuscript form. I.F. Stone's work ''The Hidden History of the Korean War'' (1952) which was also critical of U.S. conduct in Korea was removed from many libraries. Professor Chung notes that "military historians were not, in essence, allowed to criticize information given to them, nor did they have leeway in interpreting and critiquing facts, they were left only to describe ''sanitized'' history" at all stages of the information-gathering and history-writing process.<ref>Chung, Yong Wook. From Occupation to War; Cold War Legacies of US Army Historical Studies of the Occupation and Korean War. Korea Journal, vol. 60, no. 2 (summer 2020): 14–54. doi: 10.25024/kj.2020.60.2.14 © The Academy of Korean Studies, 2020. URL: https://kj.accesson.kr/assets/pdf/8518/journal-60-2-14.pdf [https://web.archive.org/web/20220725044626/https://kj.accesson.kr/assets/pdf/8518/journal-60-2-14.pdf Archive URL]. Suppression of counter-narratives ("Abstract" p. 15, PDF p.1); "sanitized history" (p. 20, PDF p. 7)</ref><br />
<br />
According to Richard Robinson, who had been working as a historian for the military during the occupation, the official American military history of the occupation is "highly prejudiced and inaccurate" adding that the official U.S. histories were "written upon explicit orders not even to imply criticism of anything American" and says that "if the truth were known, the American occupation of south Korea was incredibly bungled by an incompetent and corrupt administration—all in the name of American democracy."<ref name=":5">Robinson, Richard. Cited in Chung, Yong Wook. ''From Occupation to War; Cold War Legacies of US Army Historical Studies of the Occupation and Korean War''. Korea Journal, vol. 60, no. 2 (summer 2020): 14–54. doi: 10.25024/kj.2020.60.2.14 © The Academy of Korean Studies, 2020 URL: https://kj.accesson.kr/assets/pdf/8518/journal-60-2-14.pdf</ref> Robinson had his work suppressed as he expressed criticism of the U.S. military government's failures in Korea and eventually was compelled to leave the country.<ref name=":5" /><ref>{{News citation|author=김환균|newspaper=미디어오늘 (Media Today)|title='미국의 배반'이 미국에서 금서가 된 이유. (Why "American Betrayal" is Banned Reading in the U.S.)|date=2004-08-09|url=http://www.mediatoday.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=25874|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220724050252/http://www.mediatoday.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=25874|archive-date=2022-07-24|retrieved=2022-07-24}}</ref><br />
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==== USAMGIK disregards People's Committee's rice management, establishes rice "free market" ====<br />
During Japanese colonial rule, the Japanese placed rigid controls on the people of Korea to build up a food surplus. When the U.S. forces arrived in south Korea, they found that "Japanese control over rice had been loosened or altogether abolished" and that instead, "the [[People's Republic of Korea (1945–1946)|Korean People’s Republic]] (KPR) and people’s committees managed food stocks, and according to American accounts, 'after the Koreans drove the Japanese police out, [the leaders of the KPR and people’s committees] took over the rice collection machinery and were operating it successfully when the Americans arrived.'"<ref name=":15" /> As the Americans largely did not acknowledge the authority of the People's Committees and were trying to establish an [[Anti-communism|anti-communist]] government in south Korea, they struck down the management system that had been operating under the People's Committees and replaced it with a "free market" in rice. In Ordinance 19, USAMGIK describes this as "giving to every man, woman and child within the country equal opportunity to enjoy his just and fair share of great wealth which this beautiful nation has been endowed".<ref>Office of the Military Governor, United States Army Forces in Korea. [https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/USAMGIK_Ordinance_19 Ordinance Number 19]. 1945-10-30. </ref><ref name=":15" /> <br />
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In "A Policy of Amateurism: The Rice Policy of the U.S. Army Military''"'', Kim Jinwung describes the results of the free market policy of the USAMGIK:<blockquote>The immediate effect of the free market policy was a steep rise in the price of rice and resultant hoarding and speculation. Poor distribution of food led to food shortages and hunger in cities, despite a bumper harvest in 1945. Additionally, the rice-based south Korean economy inevitably began to suffer from massive inflation. It was quite natural then that the black-market should grow and prosper; it was expected that the lure of black market prices would stimulate the flow of rice into the black market. The result was that “rice disappeared almost entirely from the market.” Through its free market policy, the U.S. military government lost the main strength of the south Korean economy—its ability to extract large surpluses of grain—and caused in its stead spiraling inflation, near starvation in early 1946, and a general economic breakdown. The price of a bushel of rice increased from 9.4 yen in September 1945 to 2,800 yen in September 1946. Landlords, police and other government officials, and wealthy individuals engaged in speculation on a wholesale basis.<ref name=":15" /></blockquote>In the wake of this policy, USAMGIK was "flooded with complaints and petitions from Koreans demanding that price control and rationing be resumed and that the American military government take drastic action to stop rice hoarding."<ref name=":15" /> However, it seemed to many that USAMGIK was "reluctant to move against the principal hoarders" due to them being Korean businessmen who the government who had been relying on for advice.<ref name=":15" /> By 1946, the U.S. rescinded the free market and implemented rice rationing. A U.S. summation of the U.S. army military government activities in Korea stated that public attention was "focused on the threat of hunger" at this time.<ref>Commander-in-Chief, United States Army Forces, Pacific. ''[https://www8.cao.go.jp/okinawa/okinawasen/pdf/b0604002_09/b0604002_09.pdf Summation of United States Military Government Activities in Korea, No. 6].'' March 1946. </ref> As the situation continued, U.S. rice rations eventually fell to half of the ration size that had been received under the Japanese colonial administration during World War II, and newspapers published accounts of famine and starvation, further disaster only being averted by eventual shipments of U.S. grains as emergency relief. In addition, "the deteriorating food situation forced the Americans to revive the old Japanese rice collection system" which was unpopular with farmers.<ref name=":15" /> The USAMGIK eventually formed local boards composed of local police officials, elders, businessmen, and landlords approved by the USAMGIK to manage the collection of rice quotas, but created no system for appeal to adjust the quotas. Under this program, many farmers were arrested or faced violence for not meeting their quotas.<ref name=":15" /> <br />
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==== Re-appointment of Japanese colonial officials under U.S. occupation ====<br />
The USAMGIK had a policy of rehiring officers from the Japanese colonial era, which it tried to justify by the need to implement effective governance. This failure to prosecute officers who had collaborated with the Japanese and re-instatement of their power increased public resentment against the U.S. regime.<ref name=":0" /> Instead of fully enjoying their independence, people were being victimized by the same oppressive police officers and corrupt public officials as under Japanese colonial authority.<ref name=":1">{{News citation|newspaper=Jeju 4.3 Peace Foundation|title=Jeju’s political climate following liberation|date=2018|url=http://jeju43peace.org/historytruth/fact-truth/factstruth_article4/}}</ref> The U.S. occupiers created an army staffed by former Japanese officers and rebuilt the [[Korean National Police]] (KNP) of the Japanese occupation era.<ref name=":110">{{Citation|author=Stephen Gowans|year=2018|title=Patriots, Traitors and Empires: The Story of Korea’s Struggle for Freedom|chapter=The War Against Communists of the South|page=95–99|pdf=https://ipfs.io/ipfs/bafykbzaced4iiga4ngtxusr2civjxewbili5jne2sbpefbx2s3im2kphattzc?filename=Stephen%20Gowans%20-%20Patriots%2C%20Traitors%20and%20Empires_%20The%20Story%20of%20Korea%E2%80%99s%20Struggle%20for%20Freedom-Baraka%20Books%20%282018%29.pdf|city=Montreal|publisher=Baraka Books|isbn=9781771861427|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=8435F6FF91279531705764823FDC2A7F}}</ref><br />
<br />
==== Conflict between occupation forces and people's committees ====<br />
Richard Robinson, the chief of the Public Opinion Section of the Department of Information of the USAMGIK, who had been present in Korea and contributing to the official U.S. military historical record at the time, later gave his observations about the People's Committees and the USAMGIK's policy of rehiring officers from the Japanese colonial era:<blockquote>It was safe to say that for the most part the local People's Committees in these early days were of the genuine grassroots democratic variety and represented a spontaneous urge of the people to govern themselves. . . . They resented orders from the Military Government to turn the administration of local government over to American Army officers and their appointed Korean counterparts, many of whom were considered to be Japanese collaborators. It seemed like a reversion to what had gone before. Bloodshed ensued in many communities as local People's Committees defied the Military Government and refused to abandon government offices. Koreans and Americans met in pitched battles, and not a few Koreans met violent death in the struggle.<ref name=":4">Robinson, Richard. Cited in Mark J. Scher (1973) ''U.S. policy in Korea 1945–1948: A Neocolonial model takes shape.'' Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars, 5:4, 17-27, DOI: 10.1080/14672715.1973.10406346. <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.1080/14672715.1973.1040634</nowiki> URL: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/14672715.1973.10406346</ref></blockquote>Robinson then gives an example of an incident which he refers to as "typical" of this period. According to Robinson, in the small community of Namwon in North Jeolla province, the Japanese had turned over considerable property to the local People's Committee just prior to the arrival of the Americans. The U.S. military government then demanded the property, but the People's Committee refused to turn it over to the U.S. military government. Robinson states that five leaders of the Committee were arrested by the local Korean police, adding that "the police chief was captured and beaten by Committee members and the police station attacked by a large crowd of irate citizens." He says that the station was guarded by American troops, and that when the Koreans refused to disband, "the Americans advanced with fixed bayonets," resulting in two Koreans being killed and several injured.<ref name=":4" /><br />
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Within a year of the U.S. occupation, uprisings began in 80 cities and hundreds of villages. After the suppression of the People's Republic of Korea, widespread [[Strike action|strikes]] and protests began followed by a guerrilla movement. By December 1947, the KNP had arrested over 21,000 leftists, and the amount of political prisoners was more than under the Japanese occupation. By 1948, resistance forces controlled most of the inland villages in south Korea. The KNP arrested so many people that it ran out of space in prisons and forced an additional 70,000 people, including 30,000 communists, into concentration camps. By 1950, the south Korean government and U.S. occupation forces killed between 100,000 and 200,000 dissidents.<ref name=":110" /><br />
===First Republic (1948–1960) ===<br />
[[File:Syngman Rhee.jpg|thumb|264x264px|Syngman Rhee (Korean: 이승만), president of the ROK First Republic from 1948-1960, was described as an "extreme rightist" in a 1948 [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] report.<ref name=":20">{{News citation|newspaper=Wilson Center Digital Archive|title=March 18, 1948 Central Intelligence Agency, ORE 15/48, 'The Current Situation in Korea'|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220729051304/https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/220065.pdf?v=d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e|retrieved=2022-07-29|Archive=History and Public Policy Program Digital Archive, Record Group 263, Records of the Central Intelligence Agency|url=https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/220065.pdf?v=d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e}}</ref>]]After rejecting [[Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (1922–1991)|Soviet]] proposals for all-Korean elections, the United States created a UN committee of [[Canada]], [[Commonwealth of Australia|Australia]], the [[Republic of the Philippines|Philippines]], and the defeated [[Kuomintang]] from [[People's Republic of China|China]] to supervise elections in the southern zone. Koreans from all parts of the nation organized a National Unity Conference in [[Pyongyang]] that met three weeks before the US-sponsored elections. Many [[Left-wing politics|leftist]] parties and some [[Right-wing politics|right-wing]] parties boycotted the elections. The Korean National Police and right-wing thugs attacked communists, while people who did not vote would lose their land and ration cards. [[Syngman Rhee]] won the rigged elections and took power as the first president of the south. During the elections, [[Kim Sok-won]] led a parade in Seoul of 2,500 Koreans who had collaborated with the Japanese.<br />
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The First Republic was the government of south Korea from August 1948 to April 1960. Syngman Rhee ruled for the entire existence of the first republic. The first republic was characterized by Rhee's authoritarianism and corruption, limited economic development, strong anti-communism, and by the late 1950s, by growing political instability and public opposition to Rhee.<br />
<br />
Prior to being flown in to Korea by the OSS (precursor to the CIA), Rhee had been living in the United States for over thirty-five years, earning an M.A. at Harvard and a Ph.D. at Princeton.<ref name=":21">{{Citation|author=Max Hastings|year=1988|title=The Korean War|title-url=https://archive.org/details/koreanwar00hast_0/page/32/mode/2up|chapter=Origins of a Tragedy|page=32, 33-34|quote=Syngman Rhee was born in 1875, the son of a genealogical scholar. He failed the civil service exams several times before becoming a student of English. Between 1899 and 1904 he was imprisoned for political activities. On his release, he went to the United States, where he studied for some years, earning an M.A. at Harvard and a Ph.D. at Princeton—the first Korean to receive an American doctorate. After a brief return to his homeland in 1910, Rhee once more settled in America. He remained there for the next thirty-five years, lobbying relentlessly for American support for Korean independence, financed by the contributions of Korean patriots. (p.32)}}</ref> According to Max Hastings, in ''The Korean War'':<blockquote>Rhee's backing from the Military Government was a decisive force in his rise to power. [...] There is no murkier episode in the history of the American occupation than the return of Rhee to Seoul. The Military Government firmly denied not only complicity but prior knowledge of this. Yet all the evidence now suggests that General Hodge and his staff participated in a carefully orchestrated conspiracy to bring back Rhee, despite the refusal of the State Department to grant him a passport. A former deputy director of the wartime OSS, Preston Goodfellow, prevailed upon the State Department to provide Rhee with documentation. There appears to have been at least a measure of corruption in this transaction. Rhee got to know Goodfellow during the war, when the Korean mendaciously suggested to the American that he could provide agents for operations behind the Japanese lines. After the war it seems almost certain that Goodfellow assisted and raised money for Rhee in return for the promise of commercial concessions in Korea when the doctor gained power. Rhee flew to Seoul in one of MacArthur's aircraft. Despite the vigorous denials of the U.S. Army in the Far East, it seems likely that he met secretly with both the Supreme Commander and Hodge during his stopover in Tokyo. Rhee, it is apparent, was their nominee for the leadership of a Korean civilian government.<ref name=":21" /></blockquote>A 1948 CIA report wrote that "there is every prospect that Rhee's accession to power will be followed by intra-party cleavages and by the ruthless suppression of all non-Rhee Rightist, Moderate, and Leftist opposition," characterizing Rhee as an "imported expatriate politician" and "extreme rightist" and demagogue "bent on autocratic rule", who would be an "unpopular" figure who would play into communist propaganda due to his extreme rightist orientation, and stating that the U.S. throwing their full support behind him could potentially be "a source of future embarrassment to US policy in the Far East."<ref name=":20" /><br />
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During the First Republic, the number of U.S. troops decreased, but many intelligence officers and combat specialists continued to occupy south Korea. Resistance against the occupation continued to grow, reaching 3,500 to 6,000 guerrilla fighters by early 1949. Rhee created the National Guidance League to make leftists to reject reunification and forced 300,000 people to join. He also created the [[National Security Law]], which still exists today and criminalizes recognition of the DPRK as a legitimate state. Almost 190,000 people, including members of the National Assembly, were arrested under this law up to December 1949.<ref name=":1102">{{Citation|author=Stephen Gowans|year=2018|title=Patriots, Traitors and Empires: The Story of Korea’s Struggle for Freedom|chapter=The Political Partition of Korea|page=115–116|pdf=https://ipfs.io/ipfs/bafykbzaced4iiga4ngtxusr2civjxewbili5jne2sbpefbx2s3im2kphattzc?filename=Stephen%20Gowans%20-%20Patriots%2C%20Traitors%20and%20Empires_%20The%20Story%20of%20Korea%E2%80%99s%20Struggle%20for%20Freedom-Baraka%20Books%20%282018%29.pdf|city=Montreal|publisher=Baraka Books|isbn=9781771861427|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=8435F6FF91279531705764823FDC2A7F}}</ref><br />
<br />
==== Jeju People's Committee ====<br />
After liberation from Japanese colonization, the Jeju People’s Committee was formed with the head of the Farmers' Guild and the Fishermens' Guild as its leaders. According to the Jeju 4.3 Peace Foundation, "In every aspect, the Jeju People’s Committee was the only political party and the only government in Jeju" after liberation from the Japanese. E. Grant Meade, a USAMGIK officer, said, “The Jeju People’s Committee was the only political party in the island and the only organization acting like a government.”<ref name=":1" /> The committees had the respect and support from most villagers. Committee members were known in their communities from their long years as school teachers, union leaders and for resistance to Japanese abuses or for their organizing work in Japan. When the USAMGIK arrived on Jeju, it found that the Jeju People’s Committee and all the village and county People’s Committees were functioning successfully as a de facto government with popular support. The USAMGIK did not disturb or challenge this de facto government. This was unusual because the USAMGIK had as its mission to insure that a right leaning government hostile to socialism emerged in Korea.<ref name=":14">{{News citation|author=Jay Hauben|newspaper=The Jeju Weekly|title=People's Republic of Korea: Jeju, 1945-1946|date=2011-08-20|url=http://www.jejuweekly.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=1865|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220723035033/http://www.jejuweekly.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=1865|archive-date=2022-07-23|retrieved=2022-07-23}}</ref> Unlike in the mainland, where the People's Committees were immediately disregarded and systematically dismantled by the USAMGIK, the People's Committee on Jeju Island remained intact for a longer period, serving as the island's main governmental body until 1948 when it, too, was violently dismantled in conjunction with the process of the Republic of Korea being officially established that year.<br />
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==== Jeju Uprising and Massacre ====<br />
{{Main article|Jeju Uprising}}[[File:Northwest Youth League logo 백골부대 정신을 계승한 서북청년단 기.jpg|thumb|262x262px|Banner of the Northwest Youth League, a right-wing paramilitary group who assisted government forces in the mass murder of Jeju islanders in the name of anti-communism.<ref name=":7">{{News citation|author=Lauren Flenniken|newspaper=The Jeju Weekly|title=The Northwest Youth League|date=2011-04-10|url=http://www.jejuweekly.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=1435|retrieved=2022-07-25|quote=Despite the Northwest Youth League lacking legal backing to exercise their power, President Rhee and the KDP allowed the group to use aggressive force against supposed Communists without restrictions. [...] Professor Bruce Cumings of the University of Chicago states that at the time, Jeju’s local government and police were comprised mostly of mainlanders who “worked together with ultra-rightest party terrorists,” otherwise known as the Northwest Youth League.}}</ref>]]<br />
In 1948, in a series of events known variously as the Jeju Uprising, the Jeju 4.3 Incident, and the Jeju Massacre, an uprising occurred on Jeju Island, followed by a scorched earth style retaliation undertaken by government forces and right-wing paramilitary groups to root out communist influence on the island. The Jeju massacre was the second largest massacre in south Korea's modern history,<ref name=":8">{{News citation|author=Song Jung Hee|newspaper=The Jeju Weekly|title=Islanders still mourn April 3 massacre|date=2010-03-31|url=http://www.jejuweekly.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=657}}</ref> the death toll listed by the Jeju 4.3 Peace Foundation being approximately 30,000 people, or one-tenth of the island's population.<ref name=":9">{{News citation|newspaper=Jeju 4.3 Peace Foundation|title=Background to the Jeju 4·3 Uprising and Massacre|date=2018|url=http://jeju43peace.org/historytruth/fact-truth/factstruth-article1/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220723024308/http://jeju43peace.org/historytruth/fact-truth/factstruth-article1/|archive-date=2022-07-23}}</ref> <br />
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Although the People’s Committees in other regions were either dissolved by the USAMGIK or operated under different names, the Jeju People’s Committee remained intact and enjoyed strong support. This was largely due to the pro-Japanese faction being relatively weak in Jeju. Many people who had fought for independence against the Japanese returned to their hometowns and became members of the People’s Committee in Jeju.<ref name=":1" /> However, Many Jeju islanders resisted the division of the Korean Peninsula and strongly protested the first election that was scheduled for May 10, 1948, that would confirm the formation of the Republic of Korea south of the 38th parallel. Their resistance to the division of the peninsula and the establishment of the Southern regime triggered a brutal suppression by government forces. <br />
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According to The Jeju 4·3 Incident Investigation Report, "In around the middle of November 1948, uncompromising repression operations were carried out. Under these operations, a curfew was imposed on the residents of the upland areas and if anyone broke it, he or she was executed without exception. From the middle of November 1948 to February 1949, for about four months, the anti-guerrilla expeditions burned down the upland villages and killed the residents collectively. [...] During this period, the casualties were the highest and most of the upland villages were literally burnt to the ground."<ref>{{Citation|author=Jeju 4·3 Peace Foundation|year=2003|title=The Jeju 4·3 Incident Investigation Report|page=469|pdf=https://jeju43peace.or.kr/cmm/fms/FileDown.do?atchFileId=FILE_00000000000071265Cu0&fileSn=0|publisher=The National Committee for Investigation<br />
of the Truth about the Jeju April 3 Incident}}</ref> A combination of government forces and violent far-right paramilitary groups, notably the far-right anti-communist Northwest Youth League, carried out these attacks.<ref name=":7" /><br />
[[File:Jeju 4.3 Camellia flower.png|thumb|The camellia flower can be seen in the island of Jeju as a symbol of the 4.3 incident's victims. '''Above:''' A camellia flower pin. '''Below:''' Camellia flowers forming the shape of Jeju Island.]]<br />
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===== Death toll of Jeju massacre and long-term imprisonment of Jeju islanders =====<br />
Because the facts of the Jeju massacre were officially suppressed for over fifty years, only coming to light in January 2000 when a Special Act was decreed by the south Korean Government calling for an official investigation of the incident, an official death toll could not be established until that time. Additionally, discoveries of mass grave execution sites, such as the mass grave uncovered in 2008 near Jeju Airport, illustrate the difficulty of calculating the massacre's true toll.<ref name=":8" /> According to a report by the National Commission on the Jeju April 3 Incident, 25,000 to 30,000 people were killed or simply vanished, with upwards of 4,000 more fleeing to Japan as the government sought to quell the uprising. As the island’s population was at most 300,000 at the time, the official toll was one-tenth of the inhabitants. However, some Jeju people claim that as many as 40,000 islanders were killed in the suppression.<ref name=":8" /> Some estimates claim as many as 60,000 people may have been killed by the end of these events.<ref>{{News citation|journalist=|date=2000-06-18|title=Ghosts of Cheju|url=|newspaper=Newsweek|archive-url=https://www.newsweek.com/ghosts-cheju-160665|archive-date=|retrieved=2021-21-30}}</ref> The 30,000 death figure, or one in every 10 Jeju residents at the time, is a common figure given for how many people lost their lives during this period, and is the one cited on the Jeju 4.3 Peace Foundation website.<ref name=":9" /> <br />
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One result of the decades-long suppression of the facts of the massacre is the long-term imprisonment of Jeju islanders arrested on suspicion of being communists during the conflict. Many of those arrested on these charges died in captivity. Others remained in prison for up to 20 years, and those who had been released were not cleared of their criminal records, and were ostracized by the community or disadvantaged in their job applications for having criminal records. Decades after being arrested, some of the remaining victims had their names legally cleared of the charges in 2019, due to a ruling that found that the military court of the time did not follow proper legal procedures, made groundless charges, and that there were no court records found from the time explaining why those arrested were given such harsh sentences.<ref>{{News citation|author=Lee Suh-yoon|newspaper=The Korea Times|title=Jeju massacre victims get their names cleared in court|date=2019-01-17|url=https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2019/01/251_262242.html|quote=The suit was filed by 18 plaintiffs who were jailed after being branded as communist insurgents ― with around 2,500 others ― during the ideological conflict that flared up on the southern island after Korea's independence from Japan. Many died in captivity. Even after surviving the massacre and imprisonment, the plaintiffs were ostracized by the community or disadvantaged in their job applications for having criminal records. [...] The plaintiffs demanded a retrial in 2017, saying they were arrested and imprisoned for up to 20 years without fair procedure. There were no court records found from the time explaining why the plaintiffs were given such harsh sentences.}}</ref><br />
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==== Fatherland Liberation War (1950–1953) ====<br />
<blockquote>''See also: [[Korean War]], [[List of atrocities commited by the United States of America#Korean War|List of atrocities committed by the United States of America#Korean War]]''</blockquote>This period is generally referred to in English as the "Korean War", in DPRK as the "Fatherland Liberation War" (Korean: 조국해방전쟁), and in south Korea as the "6.25 War" (Korean: 6·25 전쟁). In China it is sometimes referred to as the "Korean War", and some specific battles are referred to as the "War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea" (Chinese: 抗美援朝战争). This period is also referred to by some in English as "The Forgotten War" or "The Unknown War." <br />
<br />
In the U.S., the war was initially described as a "police action" as the United States never formally declared war on its opponents.<ref>Truman, Harry S. (29 June 1950). "The President's News Conference of June 29, 1950. Teachingamericanhistory.org. [https://web.archive.org/web/20101226063925/http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?document=594 Archive link].</ref> According to the U.S. Department of State's Office of the Historian, "When north Korea invaded south Korea in June 1950, the United States sponsored a "police action"—a war in all but name—under the auspices of the United Nations. The Department of State coordinated U.S. strategic decisions with the other 16 countries contributing troops to the fighting. In addition, the Department worked closely with the government of Syngman Rhee, encouraging him to implement reform so that the UN claim of defending democracy in Korea would be accurate." The U.S. Department of State's description of the war notes that "The Korean War was difficult to fight and unpopular domestically" and that "The American public tired of a war without victory."<ref>A Short History of the Department of State. "NSC-68 and the Korean War." Office of the Historian, Foreign Service Institute, U.S. Department of State. URL: https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/short-history/koreanwar [https://web.archive.org/web/20220725043544/https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/short-history/koreanwar Archive link].</ref><br />
<br />
The People's Democracy Party (PDP) of south Korea characterizes the conditions that led to the Korean War as follows:<blockquote>Objectively, there were 2,617 attacks from the South to the North during the year of 1949 under pro-U.S. and far-right Rhee Seung-man regime. Therefore, it cannot be viewed that the war broke out exactly on June 25th, 1950. The U.S. military government forcefully dissolved the people’s committees that were formed as independent South Corean people’s organizations and exhaustively massacred and oppressed the national liberation movement forces and patriotic and democratic forces after the U.S. army came into South Corea in September 1945 as an occupation force. <br />
<br />
All the people except the minimum of pro-U.S. and far-right forces held the “Joint Meeting of Representatives of Political Parties and Social Organizations in the North and South of Korea” in April 1948, in Pyongyang, and decided to immediately withdraw the U.S. military and to establish a unified government by the Corean nation’s power and initiative.<br />
<br />
However, the single government of the South was established by the U.S. and the intervention of the UN, which was under the domination of the U.S. Then, North Corea had to establish their own government. The condition for an outbreak of the Corean War had developed.<ref name=":23" /></blockquote>The PDP stated that the U.S. had become the head of imperialist forces after World War II, and Korea was the first country it invaded. The PDP characterizes the war as a battle between the Korean nation and U.S. imperialism, and also notes that "it was the first war that U.S. imperialism fought against a small country and lost."<ref name=":23" /><br />
<br />
Alan Winnington, a British correspondent in China and Korea for the ''Daily Worker,'' provides a description of the apparent ignorance of U.S. soldiers at the outset of the war, by interviewing POWs caught by the People's Army. Winnington writes:<blockquote>I asked every prisoner I met: “Why are you fighting in Korea?” Not one could give a clear answer. Most said: “I don’t know.” Some said: “It’s something to do with the United Nations, they told us.”<br />
<br />
A few had heard of Rhee. None knew of Kim Ir Sen. With one or two exceptions, Privates—nearly all teen-agers—said they had joined the army to “see the world”, “get out of the draft” or “save some money”. Their general view of the Korean war was summed up by Edward Sorea, nineteen-year-old Private of San Bernardino, California. He said: “I just wanted to travel. It was peace-time. Who in hell thought there would be a war? One drops on you from out of a clear sky.” <br />
<br />
You cannot find one American soldier who is concerned whether America wins the war or not—rather you meet many who want the Koreans to win quickly so that they can “get back home". “Win or lose”, they say, “American people have nothing to gain". Soldiers like that make bad fighters—just how bad can be seen by taking a trip down the main road from Kumchon, near the 38th Parallel, to Yongdong, near Taegu, in the South.<ref name=":24">{{Web citation|author=Alan Winnington|newspaper=The Daily Worker|title=I Saw The Truth In Korea: Facts and photographs that will shock Britain|date=September 1950|url=https://www.docdroid.net/8z73fQZ/i-saw-the-truth-in-korea-readingt-ver-pdf|quote=The Daily Worker sent me to Korea to get the facts at first hand and report them to the British public. And so I arrived in Korea on July 16 and stayed for five weeks. <br />
<br />
Of course, before I went I knew that the Americans were bombing heavily and fighting badly. I knew that Syngman Rhee's troops only existed as scattered units and there was no longer a “South Korean Army”; that effectively this was a war between America and Korea. These facts were common knowledge in the world, but I admit I was mentally unprepared for all I found. <br />
<br />
After all, five years ago we and the Russians were allies of the Americans in the war against the Nazis. Since then, Roosevelt and his colleagues have gone and atomic diplomacy has taken their place. But still, what I saw Americans doing in Korea shook me to my heels. I suppose all my life I’ve been listening to propaganda about America being a civilised nation and some of this must have sunk in. Somehow, I never quite thought of Americans doing exactly what the Nazis did until I saw it with my own eyes. <br />
<br />
We still talk of Coventry as an example of malicious and futile bombing, but the Americans have gone far ahead of the Nazis in what they politely term “Saturation Bombing”. The American style of waging war in Korea is on the same pattern as the Nazis but, bearing in mind the size of the country, even more savage and just as stupid. <br />
<br />
Wonsan is a much smaller town than Coventry, not nearly as large as the London suburb; of Walthamstow. During its first heavy raid in July, B.29 Superfortresses flung 500 tons of high explosive bombs into the town—sixty tons more than Coventry got on that terrible night ten years ago. No targets were aimed at. MacArthur’s communiqué admitted that there was “heavy cloud" which “prevented the evaluation of the effect of the raid”. Actually, visibility was nil at the time, for it was raining hard. In Coventry there were 1,000 casualties that night. During the first raid on Wonsan there were 1,249 killed and the northern half of the town was wiped out In August the raid was repeated, wiping out the other half. No other military objective was claimed than that this town was a rail centre. A thousand tons of bombs; a town obliterated; over 4,000 casualties in all; tens of thousands made homeless and bereaved—all to damage a rail -track. Does it make sense? This is bombing in the fashion that no British town ever met. I saw Coventry and I was in London all through the ‘blitz and I saw Wonsan after these raids. It was far worse than the worst the Nazis ever did.}}</ref></blockquote>Winnington contrasts the apparent cluelessness and lack of resolve of American troops with his observations of the attitudes of Koreans:<blockquote>[T]he ghastly destruction of homes and lives that has gone with it has made the whole nation furious. Even former apologists of America are now their bitter enemies.<br />
<br />
On roads you can meet men by the hundred who tell you: “My home was bombed in . . . so I sent my wife and children to relatives in the country and I’m oil to volunteer.” In Wonsan, the wife and children of a worker, Wan Wun Chu, were killed in a raid while he was at work. “They are dead and I cannot call them back,” he said. “If I die it is little now. But I would give my last drop of blood to get revenge and drive those murdering dogs from our country. They tell me my place is in production and I will work my fingers to the bone to produce more for the army.”<br />
<br />
Every village I visited proudly told me not only how many men had gone into the army but also how many volunteers were waiting to be accepted. There is no lack of the finest quality fighting men; men who were bred in the countless thousands of mountains that cover Korea; volunteers who know why they want to win.<ref name=":24" /></blockquote>Winnington sums up his 1950 assessment of the Korean War's outbreak by saying "Korea has repudiated Syngman Rhee and the Americans. All the Korean people want Korea to be reunited and ruled by Koreans. No regime can exist that has been repudiated by the people and this war can only be won by the Koreans just as the war in China could only be won by the people. This is one of the iron facts of the twentieth century. [...] In China the pattern was the same; America supported the most corrupt and hated enemies of the people, led by Chiang Kai-shek, backed them with more than ‘$6 billion, sent them military aid and advisers—and produced their great fiasco. [...] It is America which has invaded Korea. To defend the interests of Morgan and Rockefeller, of Dupont and the steel barons, to restore the land to the feudal landlords, to drive the people back to penury, to maintain a war base against the peaceful Soviet Union."<ref name=":24" /><br />
<br />
===== Support for DPRK among south Koreans during the war =====<br />
[[File:CIA document pages 1 and 2.jpg|thumb|1950 CIA document stating that more than 50% of Seoul students were actively aiding communists, many volunteering for the Northern Army, and that the working class of Seoul generally supported the North.<ref name=":6" />]]<br />
The Korean War and the following decades were characterized by massive arrest campaigns and mass killings to suppress communists as well as anyone else suspected of opposing the highly unpopular Southern regime. In 1950, when the DPRK attempted to reunify the country, Rhee's forces retreated and killed at least another 60,000 supposed communist sympathizers.<ref>{{Citation|author=Kim Dong-Choon|year=2004|title=Forgotten war, forgotten massacres--the Korean War (1950-1953) as licensed mass killings|chapter=|section=|page=|quote=|pdf=https://www.academia.edu/6417696|city=|publisher=Journal of Genocide Research|isbn=|doi=|lg=|mia=|title-url=|chapter-url=|trans-title=|trans-lang=}}</ref> <br />
<br />
In a 1950 CIA memorandum, after the Northern Army had taken over Seoul, Central Intelligence Director and U.S. Navy Rear Admiral R.H. Hillenkoeter reported that "over 50% of Seoul's students are actively aiding the Communist invaders, with many voluntarily enlisting in the Northern Army" and that among Seoul's population, "the working class generally supports the Northern Koreans, while merchants are neutral and the intelligentsia continue to be pro-Southern," adding that the streets of Seoul were "crowded [...] with youths engaging in Communist demonstrations.<ref name=":6">{{News citation|author=R.H. Hillenkoeter, Director of Central Intelligence|newspaper=CIA Memorandum|title=The Korean Situation|date=1950-7-19|url=https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/1950-07-19b.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220723030500/https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/1950-07-19b.pdf|archive-date=2022-07-23|quote=Past failure of the Republic of Korea to win the support of its restless student class may lie behind reports that over 50% of Seoul's students are actively aiding the Communist invaders, with many voluntarily enlisting in the Northern Army. Apparently attracted by the glamor of a winning army, the morale of these recruits may suffer rapidly if the going gets tough. Among others elements of Seoul's population, the working class generally supports the Northern Koreans, while merchants are neutral and the intelligentsia continue to be pro-Southern. A former Seoul policeman reports that North Korean troops and police are rather inconspicuous in Seoul. Commercially, the city is nearly "dead"; stores are closed except for two department stores and some greengrocers. The streets, however, are crowded, especially with youths engaging in Communist demonstrations.}}</ref><br />
<br />
The People's Democratic Party of south Korea, interviewed in 2020, said that "almost all workers and peasants in the South rejected the U.S. military" and added that "According to North Corea’s data, about 400,00 peoples in the South voluntarily enlisted in the North Corean military when the Corean war started."<ref name=":23" /> <br />
<br />
According to Kim Sin Gyu, a north Korean correspondent present in Seoul at the time: "When the city was first liberated, the citizens of Seoul welcomed the Korean People's Army. I remember hearing people say, 'We heard the north Korean communist soldiers were a monstrous rabble, with the horns of devils and red faces. But seeing them now, they are the same as us. The soldiers are young and brave and handsome.'"<ref name=":11">''Korea: The Unknown War.'' TV Documentary Series. Episode 2: "An Arrogant Display of Strength." Thames Television, 1988. Aired on WGBH Boston, 1990. (URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVCuku3Ldi0)</ref><br />
<br />
Alan Winnington, a ''Daily Worker'' correspondent present in Korea in 1950, wrote:<blockquote>Every evening, the countryside of Korea, especially in the South, boils with life. Hundreds of thousands of peasants and townfolk converge on roads and in a matter of hours have repaired the bomb damage of the previous day by the sheer weight of limitless, willing human labour. While that is going on, hundreds of thousands of others are resuming their trek south from where they stopped at dawn; managing countless oxcarts over remote by-ways; carrying loads of food and munitions on their backs. All these reconstruction and transport workers are volunteers, unpaid, providing their own food and materials, with their own militia to protect them from stray enemy troops, self-supporting, familiar with the terrain and determined to put an end to foreign occupation of their country. <br />
<br />
[...] In places where I checked the figures, I found that practically every available man and many of the women had taken part in one or other side of the Civilian War Service. Below the Parallel, in Koyang County near Seoul, in twelve days 54,085 men had volunteered out of a total population of only 180,000. During the advance of the People’s Army in this area, the local People’s Committee had mobilised 1,000 oxcarts in a single night for a transport emergency. I personally never met a peasant—except old and infirm—who had not helped the army in some way. And in cities, every evening you can see the reconstruction workers gathering in their thousands with spades, crowbars and ropes. At least half of these are women, who refuse to be kept out of even the heaviest and most dangerous work of rescue and fire-fighting during the raids.<ref name=":24" /> </blockquote><br />
<br />
===== U.S. war crimes =====<br />
<blockquote>''See also: [[List of atrocities commited by the United States of America#Korean War|List of atrocities committed by the United States of America#Korean War]]''</blockquote>During the Korean War, U.S. troops killed large numbers of Korean civilians and engaged in copious firebombing with napalm, and, as was eventually revealed through declassified documents, had at certain times a policy of deliberately firing on south Korean refugee groups approaching its lines.<ref name=":12">{{News citation|author=Youkyung Lee|newspaper=Associated Press|title=S. Korean who forced US to admit massacre has died|date=2014-08-07|url=https://apnews.com/article/108b4bd1dc854caeaf5f9349fcd5a176|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220726115036/https://apnews.com/article/108b4bd1dc854caeaf5f9349fcd5a176|quote=On July 26, 1950, outside the central South Korean village of No Gun Ri, hundreds of civilians from nearby villages, ordered south by U.S. troops, were stopped by a dug-in battalion of the U.S. 7th Cavalry Regiment, and then were attacked without warning by U.S. warplanes. Survivors fled under a railroad overpass, where for the next three days they were fired on by 7th Cavalry troops. [...] in January 2001 the Army acknowledged the No Gun Ri killings but assigned no blame, calling it a “deeply regrettable accompaniment to a war.” [...] In 2006 it emerged that among incriminating documents omitted from the 2001 U.S. report was a declassified letter from the U.S. ambassador in South Korea, dated the day the No Gun Ri killings began, saying the Army had adopted a policy of firing on refugee groups approaching its lines.}}</ref> In an article of the Asia-Pacific Journal, Kim Dong choon writes that "Few are aware that the Korean authorities as well as US and allied forces massacred hundreds of thousands of south Korean civilians at the dawn of the Korean War".<ref>{{News citation|author=Kim Dong choon|newspaper=The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus|title=The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Korea: Uncovering the Hidden Korean War. The Other War: Korean War Massacres.|date=2010-03-01|url=https://apjjf.org/-Kim-Dong-choon/3314/article.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220726125030/https://apjjf.org/-Kim-Dong-choon/3314/article.html|archive-date=2022-07-26|retrieved=2022-07-26}}</ref> There were also incidents of U.S. pilots ignoring their orders to stay within Korea and flying beyond its borders, strafing military targets in China and the Soviet Union.<ref name=":11" /><br />
<br />
According to U.S. Naval Captain Walter Karig, in his book ''Battle Report: The War in Korea'':<blockquote>[W]e killed civilians, friendly civilians, and bombed their homes; fired whole villages with the occupants--women and children and ten times as many hidden Communist soldiers--under showers of napalm, and the pilots came back to their ships stinking of vomit twisted from their vitals by the shock of what they had to do.<ref>Walter Karig; Malcolm W Cagle; Frank A Manson; et al (1952). ''Battle Report: The War in Korea'' (pp. 111-112). New York: Rinehart.</ref></blockquote>United States Air Force General Curtis LeMay, commander of the U.S.'s Strategic Air Command, gave a similar description of the U.S. military's conduct in Korea, saying:<blockquote>[W]e went over there and fought the war and eventually burned down every town in North Korea [...] some way or another, and some in south Korea, too. We even burned down Pusan—an accident, but we burned it down anyway. The Marines started a battle down there with no enemy in sight. Over a period of three years or so, we killed off—what—twenty percent of the population of Korea as direct casualties of war, or from starvation and exposure?<ref>Richard H. Kohn and Joseph P. Harahan (1988). ''[https://media.defense.gov/2010/Sep/29/2001329790/-1/-1/0/AFD-100929-052.pdf Strategic Air Warfare: an interview with generals Curtis E. LeMay, Leon W. Johnson, David A. Burchinal, and Jack J. Catton]'' (p. 88). Washington, D.C.: Office of Air Force History, United States Air Force. <small>ISBN 0-912799-56-0</small></ref></blockquote>In a 1950 pamphlet entitled "I Saw the Truth in Korea", written by Alan Winnington, correspondent in China and Korea for the ''Daily Worker'', Winnington describes the actions of U.S. forces in Korea, documenting massacres with photographs and describing the aftermath of bombings:<blockquote>[F]ive years ago we and the Russians were allies of the Americans in the war against the Nazis. Since then, Roosevelt and his colleagues have gone and atomic diplomacy has taken their place. But still, what I saw Americans doing in Korea shook me to my heels. I suppose all my life I’ve been listening to propaganda about America being a civilised nation and some of this must have sunk in. Somehow, I never quite thought of Americans doing exactly what the Nazis did until I saw it with my own eyes. [...] A thousand tons of bombs; a town obliterated; over 4,000 casualties in all; tens of thousands made homeless and bereaved—all to damage a rail-track. Does it make sense? This is bombing in the fashion that no British town ever met. I saw Coventry and I was in London all through the ‘blitz and I saw Wonsan after these raids. It was far worse than the worst the Nazis ever did.<ref name=":24" /></blockquote>In addition to the U.S. military's practice of fire-bombing civilian targets and firing on refugees, many south Korean civilian casualties occurred due to the American soldiers' inability to tell apart North and south Koreans. As described by an anonymous U.S. officer on the U.S. Defense Department radio program called "Time for Defense", "What makes it so difficult over here is that you can't tell the damn north Koreans from the south Koreans, and that's caused a lot of slaughter" ([[:File:Anonymous U.S. officer describes Korean war.mp4|audio file]]).<ref>''Korea: The Unknown War.'' TV Documentary Series. Episode 2: "An Arrogant Display of Strength." Thames Television, 1988. Aired on WGBH Boston, 1990. (URL: <nowiki>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVCuku3Ldi0</nowiki>)</ref> It may be argued that the policy of firing on groups of refugees was a result of this, as described in the 1988 documentary ''Korea: The Unknown War'', which observes that "American troops found it difficult to distinguish friend from foe," and that "the North Koreans had infiltrated refugee columns, and in the ensuing confusion, innocent civilians became casualties." According to the documentary, one American general allegedly commented, "If they look organized, shoot at them."<ref name=":11" /><br />
[[File:U.S. documents showing refugee policy early in Korean War.jpg|thumb|364x364px|'''Left:''' An unsigned Air Force memo from July 25, 1950 seeking alternatives on the policy of "strafing civilian refugees" which "is sure to receive wide publicity and may cause embarrassment to the U.S. Air Force and U.S. government." '''Right:''' A July 26, 1950 letter from the American embassy to the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State saying, "If refugees do appear from the north of US lines they will receive warning shots, and if they then persist in advancing they will be shot."]]<br />
One example of the U.S. policy of firing on groups of refugees is the incident of the Nogeun-ri massacre, also written as No Gun Ri (Korean: 노근리). The incident was little-known outside Korea until publication of an Associated Press story in 1999 in which U.S. veterans corroborated survivors' accounts, and details gradually became more widely known. In July 1950, American soldiers shot "hundreds of helpless civilians under a railroad bridge".<ref name=":13">{{News citation|author=Sang-Hun Choe, Charles J. Hanley and Martha Mendoza|newspaper=Washington Post|title=U.S. Massacre of Civilians in Korean War Described|date=1999-09-30|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/daily/sept99/skorea30.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220726121945/https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/daily/sept99/skorea30.htm|retrieved=2022-07-26}}</ref> U.S. veterans spoke of 100 or 200 or "hundreds" dead and described "a preponderance of women, children and old men among the victims", while Korean witnesses said 300 were killed at the bridge and 100 in a preceding air attack. One Korean witness commented that "the American soldiers played with our lives like boys playing with flies." One of the U.S. veterans described it as "wholesale slaughter."<ref name=":13" /> <br />
<br />
Although this incident had gone unacknowledged for decades, in 2001 the U.S. Army acknowledged the killings, calling them a "regrettable accompaniment to a war." In 2006, it was revealed that among documents omitted from the 2001 U.S. report, there was a declassified letter from the U.S. ambassador in south Korea, dated the day the Nogeun-ri killings began, saying the Army had adopted a policy of firing on refugee groups approaching its lines.<ref name=":12" /> Some U.S. veterans have also described other refugee killings as well, when U.S. commanders ordered their troops to shoot civilians as a defense against disguised enemy soldiers, and declassified U.S. Air Force reports allegedly show that pilots also sometimes deliberately attacked "people in white" (referring to white peasant garb), suspecting that disguised north Korean soldiers were among them.<ref name=":13" /><br />
<br />
==== Armistice Agreement (1953) ====<br />
The armistice was signed on 27 July 1953. The signed armistice established the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), the de facto new border between the two nations, put into force a cease-fire, and finalized repatriation of prisoners of war. The DMZ runs close to the 38th parallel and has continued to separate north and south Korea since the Korean Armistice Agreement was signed in 1953.<br />
<br />
==== U.S. abrogation of armistice paragraph 13d, introduction of nuclear weapons into South ====<br />
Paragraph 13d of the agreement mandated that neither side introduce new weapons into Korea. At a meeting in 1957, the U.S. informed the north Korean representatives that the United Nations Command no longer considered itself bound by paragraph 13d of the armistice,<ref>{{News citation|newspaper=Time Magazine|title=Korea: The End of 13d|date=1957-07-01|url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,809583,00.html|archive-date=https://web.archive.org/web/20220728030416/https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,809583,00.html|quote=One afternoon last week in the stuffy green Quonset hut that is the heart of the scrubby no man's land of Panmunjom, three U.S. generals, a British brigadier and a Republic of Korea air-force officer coldly confronted 40 North Korean commissars and military men. "I have a statement to make," began Major General Homer L. Litzenberg, U.S.M.C., in a level voice. Then, while the Communists listened attentively, he told them that the U.N. Command no longer felt bound by subparagraph 13D of the Korean armistice agreement—the clause limiting introduction of new weapons into Korea.}}</ref> and in 1958 the U.S. abrogated paragraph 13d of the armistice by introducing nuclear weapons into south Korea.<ref>{{News citation|author=Lee Jae-Bong|newspaper=The Asia-Pacific Journal|title=US Deployment of Nuclear Weapons in 1950s South Korea & North Korea's Nuclear Development: Toward Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula|date=2009-02-07|url=https://apjjf.org/-Lee-Jae-Bong/3053/article.html}}</ref><br />
<br />
==== End of the First Republic ====<br />
In 1960, Rhee was forced to resign due to mass protests across the nation after the body of a student killed by police was found floating in the harbor.<ref>{{Citation|author=|year=|title=Cause of the 4.19 Revolution|chapter=|section=|page=|quote=|pdf=|city=|publisher=|isbn=|doi=|lg=|mia=|title-url=https://archive.ph/20120707225356/http://100.naver.com/100.nhn?docid=726618|chapter-url=|trans-title=|trans-lang=}}</ref> As a result of this, he fled to [[Honolulu]], [[Hawaii]], where he remained in exile until his death.<br />
<br />
===Second Republic (1960–1961)===<br />
[[File:Park Chung Hee Japan.png|thumb|Park Chung-hee, the leader of the third and early fourth republics, in a Japanese military uniform]]<br />
After Rhee's overthrow, bourgeois democracy was briefly restored under president [[Yun Bo-seon]].<ref>{{News citation|journalist=|date=|title=The Democratic Interlude|url=http://countrystudies.us/south-korea/12.htm|newspaper=Library of Congress|archive-url=|archive-date=|retrieved=}}</ref> The second republic was founded during the April Revolution mass protests against President Syngman Rhee, succeeding the first republic and establishing a parliamentary government. After thirteen months it was overthrown by the south Korean Army in the May 16 coup led by [[Park Chung-hee]]. Park had fought for the Japanese during the occupation and took the Japanese name Takagi Masao.<ref>{{Citation|author=Stephen Gowans|year=2018|title=Patriots, Traitors and Empires: The Story of Korea’s Struggle for Freedom|chapter=The Patriot|page=67|pdf=https://ipfs.io/ipfs/bafykbzaced4iiga4ngtxusr2civjxewbili5jne2sbpefbx2s3im2kphattzc?filename=Stephen%20Gowans%20-%20Patriots%2C%20Traitors%20and%20Empires_%20The%20Story%20of%20Korea%E2%80%99s%20Struggle%20for%20Freedom-Baraka%20Books%20%282018%29.pdf|city=Montreal|publisher=Baraka Books|isbn=9781771861427|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=8435F6FF91279531705764823FDC2A7F}}</ref> In 1961, the ROK declared all [[Socialist state|socialist states]] its enemies and founded the [[Korean Central Intelligence Agency|KCIA]], a brutal secret police agency that routinely imprisoned and tortured dissidents. The KCIA required [[Trade union|union]] leaders to pledge loyalty to the state.<ref name=":1103" /><br />
<br />
=== Third Republic (1963–1972) ===<br />
The Third Republic was founded on the dissolution of the Supreme Council for National Reconstruction that overthrew the Second Republic and established a military government in May 1961 when, on May 16, General [[Park Chung-hee]], the father of future president [[Park Geun-hye]] and former [[Empire of Japan (1868–1947)|Japanese]] collaborator, took power in a military coup. After serving for two years as chairman of the military junta, he was elected president in 1963, which is considered to be the start of the Third Republic. Park ruled as a military dictator for 18 years and sent 320,000 troops to support the [[Republic of Vietnam (1955–1975)|South Vietnamese]] puppet state in the [[Vietnam War]]. <br />
<br />
==== Korean DMZ conflict ====<br />
The Korean DMZ conflict was a series of low-level armed clashes between north Korean forces and the forces of south Korea and the United States, largely occurring between 1966 and 1969 at the Korean DMZ.<br />
<br />
=== Fourth Republic (1972–1981) ===<br />
[[File:Gwangju riot police.png|thumb|Riot troops attacking protestors during the Gwangju uprising]]<br />
The Fourth Republic was founded on the approval of the Yushin Constitution in the 1972 constitutional referendum, codifying the ''de facto'' dictatorial powers held by President Park Chung-hee. The Fourth Republic entered a period of political instability under Park's successor, Choi Kyu-hah, and the escalating martial law declared after Park's death. Choi was unofficially overthrown by [[Chun Doo-hwan]] in a coup d'état of December Twelfth in December 1979, and began the armed suppression of the [[May 18 uprising|Gwangju Democratization Movement]] against martial law. <br />
<br />
After Park Chung-hee's assassination on 26 October 1979, General Chun Doo-hwan took power. During his presidency he perpetrated the largest massacre of Korean civilians since the Korean war. In May 1980, protests against martial law began in [[Gwangju]], which were met with special warfare troops. Estimates vary as to the amount of casualties, but they range from 165 at the most conservative, to over 300. Some also claim that up to 2,300 civilians were killed in the Gwangju massacre, in response to the May 18 uprising also known as the Gwangju uprising.<ref>{{News citation|author=K. J. Noh|newspaper=Hampton Institute|title=South Korean Dictator Dies, Western Media Resurrects a Myth|date=2020-12-02|url=https://www.hamptonthink.org/read/south-korean-dictator-dies-western-media-resurrects-a-myth|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220519190752/https://www.hamptonthink.org/read/south-korean-dictator-dies-western-media-resurrects-a-myth|archive-date=2022-05-19|retrieved=2022-06-02}}</ref><br />
<br />
An article in ''The Nation'' states that the 10-day revolt known as the Gwangju uprising was triggered when students and other citizens protesting the military coup were attacked by airborne special forces "with a viciousness and cruelty that Koreans had not experienced since the darkest days of the Korean War." The article further states that "The armed resistance by Gwangju’s citizen militia liberated the city from the marauding troops. The townspeople, freed from decades of military rule, kept their city running, buried their dead, and transformed themselves into a self-organized system of mutual aid they now call the Gwangju Commune." On May 27 Korean Army troops were released from their usual duties on the border with DPRK to reoccupy Gwangju. The official death toll from the uprising stands at 165, but residents believe that more than 300 people were killed, with dozens still unaccounted for.<ref>Tim Shorrock and Injeong Kim. [https://www.thenation.com/article/world/two-days-in-may-that-shattered-korean-democracy/ “2 Days in May That Shattered Korean Democracy.”] The Nation. May 28, 2020. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220909162444/https://www.thenation.com/article/world/two-days-in-may-that-shattered-korean-democracy/ Archived] 2022-09-09.</ref><br />
<br />
The Fourth Republic was dissolved on the adoption of a new constitution in March 1981 and replaced with the fifth Republic of Korea.<br />
<br />
=== Fifth Republic (1981–1987) ===<br />
The fifth republic was established in March 1981 by Chun Doo-hwan. The fifth republic faced growing opposition from the democratization movement of the Gwangju Uprising, and the June Democracy Movement of 1987 resulted in the election of Roh Tae-woo in the December 1987 presidential election. The fifth republic was dissolved three days after the election upon the adoption of a new constitution that laid the foundations for the relatively stable democratic system of the current sixth Republic of Korea.<br />
<br />
=== Sixth Republic (1987–present) ===<br />
The Sixth Republic was established in 1987 with Roh Tae-woo as its first president<ref>{{News citation|newspaper=두산백과 (Doopedia)|title=제6공화국 (Sixth Republic)|url=https://terms.naver.com/entry.naver?docId=1141297&cid=40942&categoryId=33385|retrieved=2022-07-24}}</ref> and sixth president of south Korea from 1988 to 1993. Roh's election was the first direct presidential election in 16 years. His presidency was followed by Kim Young-sam (in office 1993–1998), the first civilian to hold the office in over 30 years. After this came the presidency of Kim Dae-jung (in office 1998–2003), known for his "Sunshine Policy" of engagement through dialogue and economic and cultural exchanges with north Korea.<ref>{{News citation|author=Hyonhee Shin|newspaper=Reuters|title=Vindication: Architects of South Korea's 'Sunshine' policy on North say it's paying off|date=2018-06-11|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-usa-sunshinepolicy-idUSKBN1J60PP}}</ref> This was followed by the presidencies of Roh Moo-hyun (in office 2003–2008), and Lee Myung-bak (in office 2008–2013). <br />
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South Korea's next president, Park Geun-hye (in office 2013–2017), is the daughter of former dictator Park Chung-hee. Park Geun-hye was in office as the 11th president of Korea until she was impeached and convicted on corruption charges following public demonstrations, commonly known as the Candlelight Revolution or Candlelight Demonstrations. She became the first south Korean president to be removed from power by impeachment, and was sentenced to 24 years in prison, but received a pardon and was released in 2021 after serving just under 5 years.<ref>{{News citation|author=Hyonhee Shin|newspaper=Reuters|title=S.Korea's disgraced ex-president Park freed after nearly 5 years in prison|date=2021-12-31|url=https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/skoreas-disgraced-ex-president-park-freed-after-nearly-5-years-prison-2021-12-31/}}</ref> Park Geun-hye's presidency was followed by Moon Jae-in (in office 2017–2022). The 13th and current president of Korea is Yoon Suk-yeol of the conservative People Power Party.<br />
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==Politics==<br />
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=== Military command ===<br />
Since the [[Korean War|Korean war]] ended in 1953 with a ceasefire, the US has maintained control over the south Korean military.<ref>Swanström, N. (2021, April 27). ''Not a Sovereignty Issue: Understanding the Transition of Military Operational Control between the United States and South Korea''. Institute for Security and Development Policy. https://isdp.eu/publication/not-a-sovereignty-issue-understanding-the-transition-of-military-operational-control-between-the-united-states-and-south-korea/</ref><ref name=":16">{{News citation|author=Kathryn Botto|newspaper=Carnegie Endowment for International Peace|title=Why Doesn’t South Korea Have Full Control Over Its Military?|date=2019-08-21|url=https://carnegieendowment.org/2019/08/21/why-doesn-t-south-korea-have-full-control-over-its-military-pub-79702}}</ref><ref name=":17">Kelly, R. E. (2017, February 27). ''Why US control of the South Korean military is here to stay''. The Interpreter. <nowiki>https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/why-us-control-south-korean-military-here-stay</nowiki></ref><ref name=":18">{{News citation|author=Clint Work|newspaper=Stimson|title=No More Delays: Why It’s Time to Move Forward With Wartime OPCON Transition|date=June 21, 2022|url=https://www.stimson.org/2022/no-more-delays-why-its-time-to-move-forward-with-wartime-opcon-transition/|quote=The history and evolution of the US-ROK military command architecture reveal the inherent push and pull at the heart of the US-ROK alliance. Over time, the U.S. has encouraged the ROK to take on a more robust role in its own defense and within the alliance’s command architecture. However, U.S. officials have also been equally hesitant to relinquish too much control too quickly. Simply put, Washington has had trouble navigating the outer edges of its own authority within the alliance command structure as it simultaneously and discordantly pushes and pulls back Seoul in the process.}}</ref><ref name=":19">{{News citation|newspaper=United States Forces Korea|title=Combined Forces Command|url=https://www.usfk.mil/About/CFC/#Commanders|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220728035053/https://www.usfk.mil/About/CFC/|archive-date=2022-07-28|quote=The CFC is commanded by a four-star U.S. general, with a four-star ROK Army general as deputy commander. Throughout the command structure, binational manning is readily apparent: if the chief of a staff section is Korean, the deputy is American and vice versa. This integrated structure exists within the component commands as well as the headquarters. All CFC components are tactically integrated through continuous combined and joint planning, training and exercises.}}</ref> ''US Forces Korea'' were integrated with ROK forces into a ''Combined Forces Command'', which was in turn integrated into the [[United Nations]] Command. All three commands are headed by the same person, a four-star US general<ref name=":17" /><ref name=":19" /> (currently General Paul J. LaCamera<ref>{{Web citation|newspaper=United States Forces Korea|title=Commander UNC/CFC/USFK|url=https://www.usfk.mil/About/Leadership/Article-View/Article/1685489/commander-unccfcusfk/}}</ref> who took functions in 2021).<br />
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South Korea has operational control (referred to as OPCON) of its military under armistice conditions, but the United States would take over in wartime, and the U.S. combatant commander would be able to direct, organize, employ, assign command functions to, or suspend the duty of subordinate South Korean commanders and forces. In essence, if war breaks out on the Korean Peninsula, south Korea would supply the overwhelming majority of the fighting force, which would then be placed under U.S. operational control.<ref name=":16" /> <br />
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Throughout the history of the US-ROK arrangement, the U.S. and ROK have engaged in a back-and-forth trying to determine what degree of control each party should have under this relationship, with the U.S. often showing a reluctance to relinquish control over the ROK's military, and ROK leaders at times expressing a wish to have more control over their own military, and at other times expressing acceptance of the U.S.'s authority over the ROK military in wartime.<ref name=":18" /><br />
=== NATO alliance ===<br />
[[File:Mark Esper suggesting NATO for Asia.png|thumb|Mark Esper, former [[United States Department of Defense|U.S. Secretary of Defense]] and [[Raytheon]] lobbyist, delivering a speech at Think Tank 2022, which was focused on issues facing the Korean peninsula. Esper stated, "It is said that the United States does not seek to build a, quote, "[[North Atlantic Treaty Organization|NATO]] for Asia". And I say, 'Why not?'"<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":2" />]]<br />
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On February 26, 2022 (KST), former U.S. Secretary of Defense and Raytheon weapons manufacturer lobbyist, Mark Esper, delivered a speech at the 4th Think Tank 2022 Forum,<ref name=":2">{{News citation|author=Dr. William Selig|newspaper=Universal Peace Federation|title=4th Think Tank 2022 Forum Features Former U.S. Secretary of Defense|date=2022-02-26|url=https://www.upf.org/peace-and-security-reports/10012-4th-think-tank-2022-forum-featured-hon-mark-esper-former-u-s-secretary-of-defense|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220723061325/https://www.upf.org/peace-and-security-reports/10012-4th-think-tank-2022-forum-featured-hon-mark-esper-former-u-s-secretary-of-defense|archive-date=2022-07-23|retrieved=2022-07-23}}</ref> which is a think tank associated with Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon,<ref>{{News citation|newspaper=Think Tank 2022|title=Co-Founder Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon|url=http://thinktank2022.org/founder/HakJaHanMoon.php}}</ref> the wife of late millionaire<ref>{{News citation|newspaper=Celebrity Net Worth|title=Sun Myung Moon Net Worth|url=https://www.celebritynetworth.com/richest-celebrities/authors/sun-myung-moon-net-worth/|quote=Sun Myung Moon was a Korean religious leader, businessman, and media mogul who had a net worth of $900 million at the time of his death. Sun Myung Moon was best known for founding the Unification movement and authoring its conservative theology of the "Divine Principle." [...] Some considered him a cult leader.}}</ref> Rev. Sun Myung Moon, founder and self-proclaimed messiah of the generally right-wing, anti-communist [[Unification Church]].<ref>{{News citation|author=Conal Urquhart|newspaper=The Guardian|title=Sun Myung Moon, founder of the Moonies, dies in South Korea|date=2012-09-03|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/sep/03/moonies-sun-myung-moon-dies|quote=Moon saw himself as a messiah and created a church that became a worldwide movement and claims to have around 3 million members, including 100,000 in the United States. [...] He was jailed for five years by the North Korean government in 1948, but escaped in 1950 when his guards fled as United Nations troops advanced. He was an active anti-Communist throughout the cold war.}}</ref> Speaking at this event, weapons industry lobbyist Esper emphasized the need for full cooperation between the U.S., south Korea, and Japan in the face of challenges posed by north Korea and China, saying:<blockquote>It is said that the United States does not seek to build a, quote, "NATO for Asia". And I say, "Why not?" We should have lofty goals and high expectations and not let history and distance confound us. America's European allies overcame a brutal history to form a collective security arrangement to deal with [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (1917–1991)|Soviet Russia]]. There's no reason why the same can't happen in the Indo-Pacific as we increasingly face off against a recalcitrant north Korea and aggressive communist China.<ref name=":3">Esper, Mark. 4th Think Tank 2022 Forum. "Hon. Mart[sic] Esper, 27th United States Secretary of Defense keynote address." Think Tank 2022. Uploaded April 13, 2022. URL:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfKih9aabsk (NATO-related quote begins at 16:36)</ref></blockquote>Esper stated that he is a "big believer" in the quadrilateral security dialogue known as "The Quad" a strategic security dialogue between [[Commonwealth of Australia|Australia]], [[Republic of India|India]], Japan, and the United States that is maintained by talks between member countries, which Esper says is "rightly viewed as a unified response to China's rising military and economic power." He states, "I believe south Korea should be the next partner to join the Quad, transitioning it into the Quint."<ref name=":3" /><br />
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The former Raytheon lobbyist and defense company Epirus Inc. board member then went on to say that "America's allies and partners need to invest at least two percent of their GDP for defense and invest in the right capabilities," listing long-range precision strike capabilities, air and missile defenses, advanced submarines, and fifth generation fighter aircraft as examples, and noting that the Republic of Korea has already met this two percent mark.<ref name=":3" /> Esper describes that these weapons investments will help the region deter Chinese and north Korean "aggression" and states that a "reinvigorated work plan with the DPRK should begin with the complete verifiable and irreversible denuclearization of the North."<ref name=":2" /><br />
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In June 2022, the south Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol declared he will participate in the 3rd [[NATO Summit]] of 2022.<ref>{{News citation|newspaper=Kyodo News|title=Yoon to attend NATO summit, 1st time for S. Korean president|date=2022-06-22|url=https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2022/06/968e985e4c76-yoon-to-attend-nato-summit-1st-time-for-s-korean-president.html}}</ref> The director of the National Security Office Kim Sung-han declared not much later that south Korea will establish a "diplomatic mission" to NATO in Brussels to coincide with President Yoon Suk-yeol's participation in the Summit. According to Sung-han, this mission will make south Korea "able to increase information sharing and strengthen our networks with NATO allies and partners and establish a Europe platform that is worthy of our [global] status".<ref>{{News citation|newspaper=Korea JoongAng Daily|title=Korea to open diplomatic mission to NATO|date=2022-06-22|url=https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2022/06/22/national/politics/Korea-Nato-Summit-Yoon-Sukyeol/20220622191349616.html}}</ref><br />
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=== Unconverted long-term prisoners ===<br />
[[File:Unconverted long-term prisoners in south Korea.jpg|thumb|A demonstration calling for a second repatriation of unconverted long-term prisoners in south Korea. The sign reads "Call for second repatriation of non-converted long-term prisoners" ("비전향장기수 2차 송환 촉구").]]<br />
''Main article: [[Unconverted long-term prisoners]]''<br />
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Unconverted long-term prisoners is a term which refers to political prisoners imprisoned in south Korea, generally on charges of "anti-state" activities or views in support of communism or DPRK. While in prison, many of them were held in solitary confinement and subjected to extensive torture while being pressured to sign a "conversion" statement renouncing communist or left-wing ideology.<ref>{{News citation|newspaper=BBC News|title=Solitary: Tough test of survival instinct|date=1999-02-25|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/286070.stm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220725155633/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/286070.stm}}</ref> In the 1990s, some of the unconverted prisoners began being released. Some chose to remain in south Korea while others sought to be repatriated to DPRK.<ref name=":10">Kim Dong-won. ''Repatriation'' (2003). Documentary. URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xu2mEvU29Q</ref> Some were able to return to DPRK, notably 63 of them in the year 2000,<ref name=":28">[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/907307.stm "Korean communists go home."] BBC News, 2 September, 2000. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240311153647/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/907307.stm Archived] 2024-03-11.</ref><ref>{{News citation|newspaper=파이낸셜 뉴스 (Financial News)|title=북한, 비전향장기수 북송 21주년 맞아 생존 장기수들 조명 (North Korea celebrates 21st anniversary of repatriation of non-converted long-term prisoners to North Korea)|date=2021-09-06|url=https://www.fnnews.com/news/202109061041393026}}</ref> but others remained in the South, being denied their requests for repatriation.<ref>{{News citation|author=Kang Jin-kyu|newspaper=Korea JoongAng Daily|title=Spies who can't come in from the cold|date=2016-08-07|url=https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2016/08/07/politics/Spies-who-cant-come-in-from-the-cold/3022316.html}}</ref> <br />
Those who returned to the DPRK were met with celebrations and awards,<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20191124030603/http://www.kcna.co.jp/item/2000/200009/news09/04.htm "National reunification prizes awarded to unconverted long-term prisoners"], [[Korean Central News Agency]], 2000-09-04. Archived 2019-11-19.</ref> while those remaining in south Korea faced difficulties including ongoing health issues from their long imprisonment, living in poverty, not being given social security numbers,<ref name=":10" /> and being subjected to ROK state surveillance under the Security Surveillance Act.<ref name=":22">{{Web citation|author=Liberation School|newspaper=Liberation School|title=Still fighting for Korea’s liberation: An interview with Ahn Hak-sop|date=Jul 27, 2022|url=https://www.liberationschool.org/interview-with-ahn-hak-sop/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/2/https://www.liberationschool.org/interview-with-ahn-hak-sop/}}</ref> <br />
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Many who participated in the repatriation in the year 2000 and many of those who remained in south Korea made their decisions based on their impression at the time that there was going to be more freedom of movement between ROK and DPRK thereafter. In an interview with [[Liberation School]], former prisoner Ahn Hak-sop, who chose to remain in the South when the 2000 repatriation happened, said one of his reasons was that he "thought it was a temporary situation." Anh also notes regarding two prisoners released alongside him, that "Those comrades went to the North because they thought that shortly there would be free movement between the two states. They went to the North to study and thought they would come back later." Regarding his own intention to stay in the south temporarily, Anh elaborated: "[T]here were young progressive people here in the South, and they asked me to stay. [...] We have to keep struggling here for the withdrawal of US army, the peace treaty, and peaceful reunification. I decided to stay here to fight for these goals. In 1952, I came here to liberate the southern half of the peninsula, and I need to stay here and continue that struggle."<ref name=":22" /><br />
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Those who oppose or criticize the repatriation of these former prisoners generally do so on grounds of demanding that DPRK start repatriating people back to the south as well.<ref name=":28" /><br />
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=== National Security Law ===<br />
The National Security Law is a south Korean law enforced since 1948 with the avowed purpose "to secure the security of the State and the subsistence and freedom of nationals, by regulating any anticipated activities compromising the safety of the State." Behaviors or speeches in favor of the DPRK or communism can be punished by the National Security Law. In an article from The Diplomat, it was referred to as a "Cold War holdover" that "allows the government to selectively prosecute anyone who 'praises, incites or propagates the activities of an anti-government organization'" which the article describes as "a deliberately vague clause that broadly implies the north Korean state and its sympathizers." The article continues, explaining "Under Article 7, individuals have been prosecuted and imprisoned for merely possessing north Korean publications or satirically tweeting north Korean propaganda. In recent years this clause has been harshly criticized by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, who claim the government abuses the law to repress dissenting voices."<ref>{{News citation|author=Meredith Shaw and Joseph Yi.|newspaper=The Diplomat|title=Will Yoon Suk-yeol Finally Reform South Korea’s National Security Law?|date=2022-03-15|url=https://thediplomat.com/2022/03/will-yoon-suk-yeol-finally-reform-south-koreas-national-security-law/}}</ref><br />
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=== Anti-imperialist, anti-U.S., and pro-unification struggle in south Korea ===<br />
[[File:Unification Vanguard of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions Anti-US Demonstration.png|thumb|318x318px|The Unification Vanguard of the [[Korean Confederation of Trade Unions]] unfurls large banners reading "This land is our land, YANKEE GO HOME" and "Stop practicing for a war of aggression" in an August 2022 demonstration against US-ROK joint military exercises.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXCK3s-vic8 "23기 민주노총 중앙통일선봉대 활동영상" ("23rd KCTU Central Unification Vanguard Activity Video")]. 민주노총 (Confederation of Trade Unions). Aug 14, 2022. YouTube.</ref><ref>김준. (Kim Jun). [http://worknworld.kctu.org/news/articleView.html?idxno=500588 "쌍용훈련 재개 예고에 23기 중앙통선대, 포항 한미연합상륙훈련장 지휘소 기습점거투쟁" ("23rd Central Telecommunication Battalion, Pohang ROK-U.S. Combined Amphibious Training Center Command Post, Surprise Occupation Struggle to Announce Resumption of Ssangyong Training").] 노동과세계. 2022.08.12. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220828050027/http://worknworld.kctu.org/news/articleView.html?idxno=500588 Archived] 2022-08-28.</ref>]]<br />
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According to the People's Democracy Party (PDP), a revolutionary workers' party in south Korea, the continued U.S. military occupation of south Korea is the primary barrier to peaceful reunification of the Korean peninsula. The PDP, co-authoring a 2020 ''Liberation School'' article, writes:<blockquote>The peace of the Corean Peninsula is possible only after the withdrawal of the U.S. troops. The U.S. troops are occupation forces in South Corea and invading army to North Corea. So their withdrawal is the most desperate and preferred struggle task for the whole Corean nation to solve. The present war crisis escalating to a high level proves that peace in the Corean peninsula cannot be realized unless the U.S. troops are withdrawn from South Corea.<br />
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As long as the U.S. troops are stationed in South Corea and war exercises are conducted against North Corea, the prospect for peace is bound to be dark. We are convinced from our historical experience that if we develop the struggles for the withdrawal of the U.S. troops into a popular uprising of the South Corean people, and if the whole Corean nation can struggle together in great unity, we can withdraw the U.S. troops from South Corea.<br />
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[...] True peace is possible only without imperialism; the head of imperialism is the U.S. We have an opinion that a true peace movement should be an anti-imperialist movement and an anti-U.S. movement. We believe that the progressive and peace-loving forces of the world can and must conduct an anti-imperialist, anti-war struggle, to halt all wars in the world by U.S. troops and to withdraw all U.S. troops stationed overseas. The key is the formation of an anti-imperialist, anti-U.S. united front and anti-imperialist, anti-U.S. joint action.<ref name=":23" /></blockquote><br />
[[File:South Korean students rush the U.S. Ambassador’s official residence, 2019.png|thumb|South Korean students surprise rushing U.S. Ambassador [[Harry Harris]]' official residence in 2019, using ladders to climb over the wall, with signs saying “leave this land” and shouting "Stop interfering with our domestic affairs" and "We don’t need U.S. troops."<ref name=":26">Shin, Hyonhee. 2019. [https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-northkorea-southkorea-idUSKBN1WX0Z6 “South Korean Students Climb into U.S. Envoy’s Residence in Protest against Troop Presence.”] U.S. October 18, 2019. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230325105702/https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-northkorea-southkorea-idUSKBN1WX0Z6 Archived] 2023-03-25.</ref><ref name=":27">오마이TV. 2019. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Del06vXK8nk “순식간에 미대사관저 담장 넘어간 대학생들.”] YouTube Video. [https://web.archive.org/web/20221018101952/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Del06vXK8nk&feature=youtu.be Archive link].</ref>]]<br />
In 2019, 19 south Korean students were detained after several used a ladder to climb over the wall into the grounds of the U.S. Ambassador [[Harry Harris]]' residence in Seoul in protest against the U.S. troop presence in the country. A spokesman for the US Embassy in Seoul said that approximately 20 Korean nationals illegally entered the official residential compound of the U.S. Ambassador and attempted to forcibly enter the residence itself. In a video broadcast from inside the compound, the activists accused the United States of demanding a 500% increase in the cost of keeping some 28,500 troops in south Korea, holding a banner saying "Leave this soil, Harris" and shouted "Stop interfering with our domestic affairs!" "Get out!" and "We don’t need U.S. troops!" before being marched out of the residence by police. The students had also attempted to break into the U.S. Embassy in Seoul in 2018, before being stopped by police. A Reuters article notes that the student group also "held a forum to present their 'research findings' on the achievements of North Korean leader [[Kim Jong-un|Kim Jong Un]], lauding him as a caring and influential leader."<ref name=":26" /><ref name=":27" /> <br />
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[[Nodutdol]] (Korean: 노듯돌), an [[Anti-imperialism|anti-imperialist]], pro-unification organization of diasporic Koreans,<ref>[https://nodutdol.org/about/ “About.”] Nodutdol. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230401142208/https://nodutdol.org/about/ Archived] 2023-04-01.</ref> notes in their 2020 pamphlet "Sanctions of Empire" that Ambassador Harry Harris has been obstructive toward inter-Korean reconciliation, blocking efforts by the [[Moon Jae-in]] administration to develop tourism into the DPRK, claiming that "independent" tourism plans would have to undergo US consultation, emphasizing that the items inside south Korean tourists' luggage could violate [[Economic sanctions|sanctions]].<ref>[https://nodutdol.org/sanctions-of-empire/ "제국의 제재 - Sanctions of Empire."] [[Nodutdol]]. October 20, 2020. [https://nodutdol.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Sanctions-of-Empire.pdf PDF]. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220520095404/https://nodutdol.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Sanctions-of-Empire.pdf Archive].</ref><br />
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On Jeju Island, located off the southern tip of the Korean peninsula, a decade-long protest of the construction of a naval base has been ongoing. Activists noted in a 2013 statement that the base will only worsen the likelihood of Koreans being pulled into a US-China conflict: "Jeju naval base will be an outpost of the U.S. maritime military alliance, together with Japan, targeting China, rather than a strategic point of independent national defense. With the U.S. [[Pivot to Asia]] strategy, the chances of South Korea’s getting pulled into conflicts between the U.S. and China increase."<ref>[https://www.peoplepower21.org/english/1080148 <nowiki>“[Publication] No Naval Base on Jeju Island! - 참여연대 -.”</nowiki>] 참여연대. October 7, 2013. [https://web.archive.org/web/20210414023914/http://www.peoplepower21.org/English/1080148 Archive link].</ref> Although the base eventually completed construction, protestors continued to oppose it with demonstrations and attempted entries into it, saying that although it is nominally a south Korean base, it is "a place where cutting-edge strategic assets in the US military can stop by whenever they please according to American interests."<ref>[https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_international/820635.html “American Nuclear Submarine Enters Jeju Naval Base.”] Hankyoreh. Hani.co.kr. 2017. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230325090226/https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_international/820635.html Archived] 2023-03-25.</ref> In 2020, an activist was arrested for trespassing on the base and destroying government property.<ref>Elizabeth Shim. [https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2020/03/30/South-Korea-arrests-protester-for-infiltrating-Jeju-Naval-Base/2991585585755/ “South Korea Arrests Protester for Infiltrating Jeju Naval Base.”] UPI. March 30, 2020. [https://web.archive.org/web/20200814001452/https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2020/03/30/South-Korea-arrests-protester-for-infiltrating-Jeju-Naval-Base/2991585585755/ Archived].</ref><br />
[[File:People rally to protest against the planned South Korea-U.S. military drills in Seoul, South Korea, Aug. 13, 2022.jpg|thumb|People rally against the ROK-US military drills, Aug. 13, 2022. Banners say "Stop war exercises! No to USA!" (Korean: 전쟁연습 중단! 미국 반대!)]]<br />
On August 13, 2022, thousands of south Korean unionists and their progressive supporters rallied in downtown Seoul to protest against joint US-south Korea war game exercises. In a video uploaded by [[Press TV]], Oh Eun-Jung of the National Teachers Union was quoted as saying "The threat of nuclear war is growing on the Korean peninsula, conservative forces of Yoon Suk-yeol in south Korea and those in the U.S. are frantically conducting aggressive war drills in the sky, the land, and the sea, and are about to start large-scale military exercises, aimed at the invasion of north Korea. We must stamp out this behavior of anti-reunification forces." In the same video, construction worker Lee Seung-Woo stated, "We not only oppose the war exercises, but we want the U.S. Forces Korea, which is actually controlling and interfering with the Korean peninsula to leave this land. We believe that only then will the eighty million Koreans from both north and south be able to live peacefully."<ref>Frank Smith. [https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2022/08/13/687322/South-Korean-unionists-protest-US-South-Korea-war-games “‘South Korean Unionists Protest US-South Korea War Games.’”] PressTV News. August 13, 2022. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220826124551/https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2022/08/13/687322/South-Korean-unionists-protest-US-South-Korea-war-games Archived] 2022-08-28.</ref><br />
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The media company [[Sovereignty Broadcast]] (Korean: 주권방송), additionally going by the name 615tv on some of its social media accounts, uploads educational and informative videos its to YouTube page regarding the peace and unification struggle in Korea. According to the channel's about page, it is an internet media company that deals with peace and unification on the Korean Peninsula and various current affairs topics in Korea.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/c/The615tv/about About Sovereignty Broadcast]. Sovereignty Broadcast. YouTube.</ref><br />
<br />
=== Censorship ===<br />
Until 1973, images of [[Kim Il-sung]] were banned in south Korea. The southern secret police falsely claimed that Kim was an impostor who had not been involved in the guerrilla resistance against Japan. In 1989, the police state arrested an average of 3.3 Koreans every day under anti-communist censorship laws. Many [[Anti-capitalism|anti-capitalist]] books are banned, even some by non-[[Marxism|Marxists]]. In 2011, southern authorities deleted over 67,000 internet posts that were critical of the ROK or United States. Left-wing music such as the ''Song of the Red Flag'' (which is even used by the [[Social democracy|social democratic]] [[Labour Party (UK)|UK Labour Party]]) is also illegal under the National Security Law.<ref name=":1103">{{Citation|author=Stephen Gowans|year=2018|title=Patriots, Traitors and Empires: The Story of Korea’s Struggle for Freedom|chapter=The Anti-Communist Police State|page=136–145|pdf=https://ipfs.io/ipfs/bafykbzaced4iiga4ngtxusr2civjxewbili5jne2sbpefbx2s3im2kphattzc?filename=Stephen%20Gowans%20-%20Patriots%2C%20Traitors%20and%20Empires_%20The%20Story%20of%20Korea%E2%80%99s%20Struggle%20for%20Freedom-Baraka%20Books%20%282018%29.pdf|city=Montreal|publisher=Baraka Books|isbn=9781771861427|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=8435F6FF91279531705764823FDC2A7F}}</ref><br />
<br />
=== Government-sanctioned prostitution and sex trafficking victims ===<br />
[[File:Women who were encouraged by the South Korean government to work as prostitutes near US military bases hold a press conference outside of the Seoul High Court in the Seocho neighborhood.jpg|thumb|Women who were encouraged by the South Korean government to work as prostitutes near US military bases hold a press conference outside of the Seoul High Court in the Seocho neighborhood following a court ruling on their case on Feb. 8, 2018.]]<br />
As described in a 2019 article by journalist [[Tim Shorrock]], "between the end of the Korean War and the early 1990s, more than one million Korean women were caught up in a state-controlled prostitution industry" that was operated by and for the benefit of the U.S. military. They worked in special zones surrounding U.S. bases, in areas licensed by the south Korean government, reserved exclusively for American troops, and monitored and policed by the U.S. Army. Shorrock explains that the system was designed to strengthen the U.S.-south Korean alliance and boost the morale of U.S. military personnel, and for south Korea to bring in foreign currency, with prostitution for this purpose being encouraged as a woman’s patriotic duty to the state. These zones, called ''kijichon'' (Korean: 기지촌; "military camp town"), were established around 31 U.S. Army, Air Force, and Navy bases in South Korea. Shorrock writes that "in Gyonggi province, which extends from south of Seoul up to the DMZ and was home to the majority of U.S. bases, some 10,000 sex workers were registered every year from 1953 to the late 1980s."<ref name=":25">[[Tim Shorrock|Shorrock, Tim]]. 2019. [https://newrepublic.com/article/155707/united-states-military-prostitution-south-korea-monkey-house “Welcome to the Monkey House.”] The New Republic. December 2, 2019. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230322174621/https://newrepublic.com/article/155707/united-states-military-prostitution-south-korea-monkey-house Archived] 2023-03-22.</ref><br />
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In 2018, Lee Beom-gyun, a judge on an appellate court in Seoul, agreed that the south Korean government had actively encouraged prostitution to boost ties with the United States. Lee ruled that the Korean state "operated and managed" the military camp towns to contribute to the "maintenance of a military alliance essential for national security" and abetted the industry "through patriotic education praising prostitutes as 'patriots who bring in foreign currency.'" He concluded that the government had violated the human rights of its citizens and denounced the practice of segregating "camp town prostitutes in forced internment facilities or through the indiscriminate administration of penicillin, which carries serious physical side effects."<ref name=":25" /><ref>[http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_international/831625.html “Court Finds That South Korean Government Encouraged Prostitution near US Military Bases.”] 2018. Hani.co.kr. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230325113713/http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_international/831625.html Archived] 2023-03-25.</ref><br />
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The 2019 article describes one sex worker's experience in this system:<blockquote>One former sex worker starkly laid out the conditions faced by many ''kijichon'' women in a documentary film produced by Durebang. “A pimp sold me to a U.S. camp town,” she recalled. “Inside a warehouse, I was raped. The police sent me to the Monkey House, where American medics gave us injections” of penicillin and other drugs to prevent the spread of STDs. After her release, she was required to wear a plastic badge showing she’d been tested—“cunt tags,” she called them. All sex workers and bar owners were required to hang these registration certificates on the walls of their establishments as well.<ref name=":25" /></blockquote>Choi Hee-shin, a community organizer who grew up in Dongducheon, which surrounds the U.S. Camp Casey, was quoted in the same 2019 article saying, “Lots of people are ashamed of what happened in the camp towns, and want to forget," further stating, "But people like me, we can't forget. The U.S.-South Korean alliance depended on these comfort women."<br />
<br />
According to Wellesley Professor Katharine H.S. Moon in ''Sex Among Allies'', a history of military prostitution in south Korea, the "overwhelming majority" of prostitutes in the camp towns were either orphans or abandoned children. Moon estimates in her book that at the peak of U.S. troop strength in the 1980s, the ''kijichon'' economy contributed 5 percent of South Korea’s gross domestic product. Once they were recruited to the camp towns, women found themselves trapped by debt. They carried out their sex work in rooms they had to rent from the bar owners. They also had to buy all their supplies, including their bed, their clothes, and the phonographs they set up to entertain their American clients.<br />
<br />
Shorrock explains that many of the Koreans who seek justice for camp-town sex workers refer to them as [[comfort women]], a term which commonly refers to women whom the Japanese Imperial Army kidnapped and forced to work in military brothels called "comfort stations" during the Second World War. However, the Korean public has generally refrained from treating the kijichon women as victims of imperialism in the manner of the comfort women. Park Jeong-mi, a professor at Chungbuk National University, argues that this sentiment is unfair, and in her research she has found a direct historical link between the Japanese and American systems, as the U.S. military government created an administrative state that was dominated by Koreans who had collaborated with Japan's colonial rulers. The shift from Japanese- to American-coerced sex work was an easy transition, she said: "High-ranking Korean officials who served under Japanese colonial rule were familiar with the comfort station system." Under U.S. pressure, Park said, the south Korean government licensed the bars and clubs that hired the women who entertained the U.S. troops, likening those establishments to de facto brothels.<ref name=":25" /><br />
<br />
=== Sexism ===<br />
Women are only paid half as much as men for the same job.<ref name=":1222">{{Citation|author=[[Vijay Prashad]]|year=2008|title=The Darker Nations: A People's History of the Third World|chapter=Singapore|page=248|pdf=https://cloudflare-ipfs.com/ipfs/bafykbzaceascnzh26r5d6uitjjs2z7rflhaxlt7rboz5whzdf76qg6xxvecqq?filename=%28A%20New%20Press%20People%27s%20history%29%20Vijay%20Prashad%20-%20The%20darker%20nations_%20a%20people%27s%20history%20of%20the%20third%20world-The%20New%20Press%20%282008%29.pdf|publisher=The New Press|isbn=9781595583420|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=9B40B96E830128A7FE0E0E887C06829F}}</ref><br />
<br />
==Rising anti-capitalism==<br />
In recent years, the term '''"'''[[Hell Joseon]]" or "Hell Korea" (Korean: 헬조선) has become popular to describe the social anxiety and discontent surrounding high unemployment and poor working conditions.<ref>[http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/739886.html Lashing out at “Hell Joseon”, young’uns drive ruling party’s election beatdown]</ref><ref>[https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/young-south-koreans-call-their-country-hell-and-look-for-ways-out/2016/01/30/34737c06-b967-11e5-85cd-5ad59bc19432_story.html Young South Koreans call their country ‘hell’ and look for ways out] by the [[Washington Post]]</ref> <br />
<br />
south Korean media has also increasingly included narratives of class antagonism which have been popular successes for Western audiences, with films such as ''Snowpiercer'' (2013)<ref>[https://newmultitude.org/snowpiercer-class-consciousness/ THE TRAIN IS CAPITALISM- SNOWPIERCER AND CLASS CONSCIOUNESS]</ref> and ''Parasite'' (2019)<ref>[https://medium.com/incluvie/parasite-and-capitalism-what-the-film-says-about-the-pursuit-of-wealth-993fa7ce7ee1 Parasite and Capitalism: What the Film Says About the Pursuit of Wealth]</ref> and the popular TV show ''Squid Game'' (2021).<ref>[https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/squid-game-the-rise-of-anti-capitalist-entertainment/ar-AAPaOHG Squid Game & The Rise Of Anti-Capitalist Entertainment]</ref><ref>[https://www.gen-zine.com/post/thesquidgame “The Squid Game”: Anti-Capitalism and Netflix]</ref><ref>[https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/elaminabdelmahmoud/squid-game-netflix-review-lupin-international “Squid Game” Works Because Capitalism Is A Global Scourge]</ref><br />
<br />
With increasing economic stratification, social [[alienation]], and lack of opportunity among young people entering the work force, south Korea has a rate of mental health issues and suicide that is among the highest in the developed world.<ref>{{News citation|author=Katrin Park|newspaper=Foreign Policy|title=South Korea Is No Country for Young People|date=2021-10-5|url=https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/11/05/south-korea-suicide-rates-mental-illness-squid-game/}}</ref> This undoubtedly is resulting in the development of [[class consciousness]].<br />
<br />
The [[bourgeois media]] (in south Korea and in the US) carefully ensures that all criticism of capitalism stops just short of providing concrete solutions, lest people become interested in [[socialism]] and its [[Successes of socialism|various successes around the world]].<br />
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Labor militancy is also on the rise as 500k south Korean workers walked off in a one-day [[general strike]], protesting against rampant [[exploitation]] by the [[Gig worker|gig economy]], high costs of housing, and the highest annual working hours in the OECD.<ref>[https://therealnews.com/half-a-million-south-korean-workers-walk-off-jobs-in-general-strike HALF A MILLION SOUTH KOREAN WORKERS WALK OFF JOBS IN GENERAL STRIKE] on [https://therealnews.com/half-a-million-south-korean-workers-walk-off-jobs-in-general-strike The Real News Network]</ref><br />
<br />
==References==<br />
<references /><br />
[[Category:Illegal states]]<br />
[[Category:Global north]]<br />
[[Category:Puppet states]]<br />
[[Category:Neocolonial outposts]]<br />
[[Category:Asian countries]]</div>
Verda.Majo
https://en.prolewiki.org/index.php?title=Comrade:Verda.Majo&diff=64188
Comrade:Verda.Majo
2024-03-14T13:03:43Z
<p>Verda.Majo: Updated what I want to work on</p>
<hr />
<div>[[File:Teru Hasegawa.jpg|alt=Portrait photo of Teru Hasegawa|thumb|274x274px|The inspiration for my account name, [[Teru Hasegawa]], also known as Verda Majo.]]<br />
Hello, my name is '''Verda.Majo'''. I am a ML. <br />
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I hope to contribute what I can to increase peoples' access to information and knowledge through this project. <br />
<br />
== Projects ==<br />
Here I will list things I am either currently working on or that I plan to work on. <br />
<br />
=== Topics and pages to work on ===<br />
I want to keep adding information about imperialist individuals (such as [[imperial core]] politicians, CIA Directors, CEOs of major corporations, etc.) and what specific things they have been involved with, the specific ideas and goals they uphold, what they have done, etc. I also want to eventually work on pages about imperialist [[Think tank|think tanks]], such as [[Project for the New American Century]], [[The Heritage Foundation]], the [[Brookings Institution]], etc. and pages about large multinational corporations.<br />
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One day I intend to increase the amount of information on the [[List of atrocities commited by the United States of America|list of atrocities committed by the United States of America]], as I believe it is an important page to develop. I would also like to add more information in general to [[Democratic People's Republic of Korea|DPRK]]'s page and about pages relating to DPRK, including on DPRK's provinces and prominent cities.<br />
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Otherwise, I want to keep working on pages and topics I have already contributed to before (see heading below).<br />
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=== Improving and fixing my old edits ===<br />
I want to begin looking through my old edits and trying to improve them and fix problems with them. I will be going through pages where I made big or frequent edits in the past and trying to bring them to a better standard. Of course, I welcome anyone who happens to fix such things before I do. I want to prioritize making my old edits much better cited/sourced, better written, better organized, and in some cases, making subsections of the pages more concise or orderly. In the process of doing this I may end up adding some new information as well, but I mainly want to prioritize cleaning up my edits before adding a lot of new information.<br />
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== Other ==<br />
Space for other notes. Nothing at the moment.</div>
Verda.Majo
https://en.prolewiki.org/index.php?title=Raytheon&diff=64178
Raytheon
2024-03-13T17:32:38Z
<p>Verda.Majo: added some info about Yemen and some more "revolving door" names</p>
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<div>'''Raytheon''', also known as '''Raytheon Technologies''' and now known as the '''RTX Corporation''' as of a 2023 rebranding, with "Raytheon" remaining a division under RTX,<ref>Moore-Carrillo, Jaime. [https://www.defensenews.com/industry/2023/06/20/raytheon-rebrands-as-rtx/ “Raytheon Rebrands as RTX.”] Defense News. June 20, 2023.</ref> is a major defense contractor based in the [[United States of America]]. Ranked by revenue, RTX was ranked as the second largest defense contractor in the world by [[Defense News]] in 2022<ref>Demarest, Colin. [https://www.defensenews.com/battlefield-tech/directed-energy/2023/12/26/raytheon-prototyping-directed-energy-zappers-for-us-air-force-navy/ “Raytheon Prototyping Directed-Energy Zappers for US Air Force, Navy.”] Defense News. December 26, 2023.</ref> and 2023.<ref>[https://people.defensenews.com/top-100/ “Top 100 Defense Companies.”] Defensenews.com.</ref> Raytheon's CEO is [[Greg Hayes]].<ref name=":0">Lazare, Sarah. [https://inthesetimes.com/article/ukraine-russia-raytheon-lockheed-martin-general-dynamics-weapons-industry “Top Weapons Companies Boast Ukraine-Russia Tensions Are a Boon for Business.”] In These Times. January 27, 2022. </ref> Raytheon affiliates contributed $506,424 in donations to US President [[Joe Biden|Biden]]'s presidential campaign.<ref>[https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/raytheon-technologies/summary?toprecipcycle=2020&contribcycle=2022&lobcycle=2022&outspendcycle=2022&id=D000072615&topnumcycle=2020 “RTX Corp Profile: Summary: Top Recipients.”] OpenSecrets.</ref><ref name=":1">Kuzmarov, Jeremy. [https://covertactionmagazine.com/2023/03/10/defense-secretary-lloyd-austin-former-member-of-raytheon-board-of-directors-has-awarded-over-30-billion-in-contracts-to-raytheon-since-his-confirmation-in-january-2021/ “Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin—Former Member of Raytheon Board of Directors—Has Awarded over $30 Billion in Contracts to Raytheon since His Confirmation in January, 2021.”] [[CovertAction Magazine]]. March 11, 2023. [https://web.archive.org/web/20231011202243/https://covertactionmagazine.com/2023/03/10/defense-secretary-lloyd-austin-former-member-of-raytheon-board-of-directors-has-awarded-over-30-billion-in-contracts-to-raytheon-since-his-confirmation-in-january-2021/ Archived] 2023-10-11.</ref><br />
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On a January 25, 2022 earnings call, CEO Greg Hayes listed "tensions in Eastern Europe" and "tensions in the South China Sea" among things which he "fully expect we're going to see some benefit from" in relation to "opportunities for international sales".<ref name=":0" /><ref>Motley Fool Transcribing. [https://www.fool.com/earnings/call-transcripts/2022/01/25/raytheon-technologies-rtx-q4-2021-earnings-call-tr/ “Raytheon Technologies (RTX) Q4 2021 Earnings Call Transcript.”] The Motley Fool. January 25, 2022.</ref> In a 2023 earnings call, Hayes stated that the company was "very encouraged" by President Biden's 2024 budget request of $886 billion for the [[United States Department of Defense|Pentagon]].<ref>Giorno, Taylor. [https://truthout.org/articles/over-500-former-government-officials-are-now-lobbying-for-defense-contractors/ “Over 500 Former Government Officials Are Now Lobbying for Defense Contractors.”] [[Truthout]]. May 6, 2023. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230603111147/https://truthout.org/articles/over-500-former-government-officials-are-now-lobbying-for-defense-contractors/ Archived] 2023-06-03.</ref> Hayes also noted that [[Republic of Poland|Poland]] had announced plans to spend 4% of their GDP on defense, the highest level among all [[North Atlantic Treaty Organization|NATO]] countries, and that Raytheon would continue to "support [[Ukraine]]'s ongoing needs", concluding with a claim that the demand environment for Raytheon was remaining strong.<ref>Thomson Reuters StreetEvents. [https://finance.yahoo.com/news/q1-2023-raytheon-technologies-corp-030200292.html “Q1 2023 Raytheon Technologies Corp Earnings Call.”] Yahoo Finance. April 26, 2023. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230711065706/https://finance.yahoo.com/news/q1-2023-raytheon-technologies-corp-030200292.html Archived] 2023-07-11.</ref><br />
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Raytheon is among the influential corporations commonly involved in the "[[revolving door]]" between public and private sector activities surrounding the [[MICIMATT|military industrial complex]]. For example, [[Lloyd Austin]], President Biden's appointed Secretary of Defense, is a former member of Raytheon's Board of Directors.<ref name=":1" /> Prior to Austin, the US Secretary of Defense, appointed by President [[Donald Trump|Trump]], was [[Mark Esper]], a former Raytheon lobbyist.<ref>Jordan Libowitz and Linnaea Honl-Stuenkel. [https://www.citizensforethics.org/reports-investigations/crew-investigations/mark-esper-raytheon-weapons-lobbyist/ “Mark Esper, Former Raytheon Weapons Lobbyist, Is in Charge of the Pentagon.”] CREW | Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. September 17, 2020. [https://web.archive.org/web/20231222034746/https://www.citizensforethics.org/reports-investigations/crew-investigations/mark-esper-raytheon-weapons-lobbyist/ Archived] 2023-12-22.</ref> In 2023, Eyes on the Ties reported that "RTX’s board contains revolving door figures such as former Deputy Secretary of Defense [[Robert O. Work]], and former Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, [[James A. Winnefeld Jr.]]"<ref>Molly Gott and Derek Seidman. [https://news.littlesis.org/2023/10/26/corporate-enablers-of-israels-war-on-gaza/ "Corporate Enablers of Israel’s War on Gaza."] Eyes on the Ties, LittleSis.org, October 26, 2023. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240106112036/https://news.littlesis.org/2023/10/26/corporate-enablers-of-israels-war-on-gaza/ Archived] 2024-01-06.</ref><br />
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In 2022, peace activists belonging to the group [[Resist and Abolish the Military-Industrial Complex]] (RAM INC) occupied the roof of a Raytheon facility in Cambridge, [[Commonwealth of Massachusetts|Massachusetts]] to protest the company's war profiteering in Ukraine, [[Republic of Yemen|Yemen]], [[State of Palestine|Palestine]], and elsewhere. The activists remained on the roof for five hours before being arrested.<ref>Johnson, Jake. [https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/03/21/peace-activists-occupy-roof-raytheon-building-protest-war-profiteering “Peace Activists Occupy Roof of Raytheon Building to Protest War Profiteering.”] Common Dreams. March 21, 2022. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230318071821/https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/03/21/peace-activists-occupy-roof-raytheon-building-protest-war-profiteering Archived] 2023-03-18.</ref><br />
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[[American Friends Service Committee|AFSC Investigate]] reports that Raytheon has been a major supplier of weapons to the coalition war on Yemen,<ref name=":2">[https://investigate.afsc.org/company/rtx "RTX Corp."] AFSC Investigate. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240313170954/https://investigate.afsc.org/company/rtx Archived] 2024-03-13.</ref> noting that Raytheon's Paveway bombs have routinely targeted civilians in airstrikes in Yemen, citing examples such as [[Amnesty International]]'s 2019 identification of Raytheon Paveway bomb remnants from a bomb that resulted in the death of six civilians,<ref>[https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/press-release/2019/09/yemen-us-made-bomb-used-in-deadly-air-strike-on-civilians/ “Yemen: US-Made Bomb Used in Deadly Air Strike on Civilians.”] Amnesty International. September 26, 2019. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240313172252/https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/press-release/2019/09/yemen-us-made-bomb-used-in-deadly-air-strike-on-civilians/ Archived] 2023-03-13.</ref> a 2017 case of a Raytheon Paveway bomb killing a family of eight in a residential neighborhood,<ref>[https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2017/09/yemen-us-made-bomb-kills-and-maims-children-in-deadly-strike-on-residential-homes/ “Yemen: US-Made Bomb Kills and Maims Children in Deadly Strike on Residential Homes.”] Amnesty International. September 22, 2017. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240120065235/https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2017/09/yemen-us-made-bomb-kills-and-maims-children-in-deadly-strike-on-residential-homes/ Archived] 2024-01-20.</ref> and a 2016 case where [[Human Rights Watch]] found Raytheon Paveway remnants at the site of airstrikes which killed at least 31 civilians and injured 42 others.<ref>[https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/12/08/yemen-us-made-bombs-used-unlawful-airstrikes “Yemen: US-Made Bombs Used in Unlawful Airstrikes.”] Human Rights Watch. December 8, 2016. [https://web.archive.org/web/20231208162625/https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/12/08/yemen-us-made-bombs-used-unlawful-airstrikes Archived] 2023-12-08.</ref><ref name=":2" /><br />
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== See also ==<br />
<br />
* [[Military–industrial complex|Military-industrial complex]]<br />
* [[MICIMATT]]<br />
* [[Lockheed Martin Corporation|Lockheed Martin]]<br />
* [[Northrop Grumman]]<br />
<br />
== References ==<br />
<references /></div>
Verda.Majo
https://en.prolewiki.org/index.php?title=Northrop_Grumman&diff=64173
Northrop Grumman
2024-03-13T16:54:58Z
<p>Verda.Majo: added image</p>
<hr />
<div>[[File:Northrop Grumman Sign after protest.jpg|alt=A Northrop Grumman sign covered in red paint depicting red hands and the words "Baby KKKillers" and "Murderers" and stickers reading "Israel is committing genocide in Gaza"|thumb|Sign outside of a Northrop Grumman office complex after pro-Palestinian demonstrators gathered to protest weapons sales to Israel (2023).<ref>[https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2023/11/10/tens-of-thousands-pray-and-march-in-support-of-palestinians “Pro-Palestinian Demonstrators Blockade Military Suppliers in UK, US.”] Al Jazeera. November 10, 2023. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240313163201/https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2023/11/10/tens-of-thousands-pray-and-march-in-support-of-palestinians Archived] 2023-03-13.</ref>]]<br />
'''Northrop Grumman Corporation''', or '''Northrop Grumman''', is one of the world's top defense companies,<ref>[https://people.defensenews.com/top-100/ "Top 100 Defense Companies."] DefenseNews.</ref> with the [[United States Department of Defense]] and [[United States Intelligence Community|intelligence community]] being its primary clients.<ref>Bernal, Kyle. [https://executivegov.com/articles/what-are-the-top-northrop-grumman-government-contracts/ “What Are the Top Northrop Grumman Government Contracts?”] ExecutiveGov. November 8, 2022. [https://web.archive.org/web/20231201151045/https://executivegov.com/articles/what-are-the-top-northrop-grumman-government-contracts/ Archived] 2023-12-01.</ref><ref>[https://dsm.forecastinternational.com/2024/03/01/top-100-defense-contractors-2023/ “Top 100 Defense Contractors 2023.”] Defense Security Monitor, Forecast International. March 1, 2024. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240313135155/https://dsm.forecastinternational.com/2024/03/01/top-100-defense-contractors-2023/ Archived] 2023-03-13.</ref> It is headquartered in Falls Church, [[Commonwealth of Virginia|Virginia]], [[United States of America|USA]]. Since 2019, [[Kathy Warden]] has been the company's Chairman, President, and CEO.<ref>[https://www.forbes.com/companies/northrop-grumman/?sh=602399213c84 "Profile: Northrop Grumman."] [[Forbes]]. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240313050530/https://www.forbes.com/companies/northrop-grumman/?sh=602399213c84 Archived] 2024-03-13.</ref><ref>[https://www.forbes.com/profile/kathy-warden/?sh=7fce74ee6695 "Profile: Kathy Warden."] Forbes. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240313050123/https://www.forbes.com/profile/kathy-warden/?sh=7fce74ee6695 Archived] 2024-03-13.</ref> The company has approximately 100,000 employees.<ref>[https://www.northropgrumman.com/who-we-are/frequently-asked-questions “Frequently Asked Questions.”] Northrop Grumman. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240111060426/https://www.northropgrumman.com/who-we-are/frequently-asked-questions Archived] 2024-01-11.</ref><ref>[https://www.fool.com/earnings/call-transcripts/2024/01/25/northrop-grumman-noc-q4-2023-earnings-call-transcr/ “Northrop Grumman (NOC) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript.”] The Motley Fool. January 25, 2024. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240313142222/https://www.fool.com/earnings/call-transcripts/2024/01/25/northrop-grumman-noc-q4-2023-earnings-call-transcr/ Archived] 2024-03-13.<br />
<br />
</ref><br />
<br />
According to [[Open Secrets]], in the 2020 U.S. election cycle, [[Political action committee|PACs]] and individuals associated with Northrop Grumman contributed $3,517,253 toward [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democrats]] and $3,147,821 toward [[Republican Party (United States)|Republicans]].<ref>[https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/northrop-grumman/totals?id=D000000170 "Northrop Grumman: Totals."] Open Secrets. [https://web.archive.org/web/20231116170900/https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/northrop-grumman/totals?id=D000000170 Archived] 2023-11-16. </ref><br />
<br />
According to the [[American Friends Service Committee]] (AFSC), a non-violent peace activist organization, Northrop Grumman "manufactures multiple weapon systems used by the [[Israel Defense Forces|Israeli military]] against [[State of Palestine|Palestinian]] civilians, and was instrumental in developing [[United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement|ICE]]'s deportation machine."<ref>[https://investigate.afsc.org/company/northrop-grumman "Northrop Grumman Corp."] Investigate, Economic Activism Program, American Friends Service Committee. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240313131343/https://investigate.afsc.org/company/northrop-grumman Archived] 2024-03-13.</ref><br />
<br />
Northrop Grumman has been ranked among the top water polluters in the "Toxic 100 Water Polluters" index by the Political Economy Research Institute of the University of Massachusetts Amherst for multiple years.<ref>Michael Ash, James K. Boyce, Rich Puchalsky. [https://peri.umass.edu/publication/item/1674-naming-worst-u-s-corporate-polluters "Naming Worst U.S. Corporate Polluters."] Political Economy Research Institute, University of Massachusetts Amherst. December 18, 2022. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240313121848/https://peri.umass.edu/publication/item/1674-naming-worst-u-s-corporate-polluters Archived] 2023-03-13.</ref><ref>Michael Ash, James K. Boyce, Rich Puchalsky. [https://peri.umass.edu/publication/item/1560-toxic-100-names-top-climate-air-and-water-polluters-2021 "Toxic 100 Names Top Climate, Air, and Water Polluters-2021."] Political Economy Research Institute, University of Massachusetts Amherst. December 14, 2021. [https://web.archive.org/web/20231003172433/https://peri.umass.edu/publication/item/1560-toxic-100-names-top-climate-air-and-water-polluters-2021 Archived] 2023-10-03.</ref><br />
<br />
As reported by Eyes on the Ties, CEO Kathy Warden took in over $61 million in total compensation from 2020 to 2022. Eyes on the Ties notes that Warden also sits on the board of pharmaceutical company [[Merck]] and is a member of [[Business Roundtable]],<ref>[https://news.littlesis.org/2023/10/26/corporate-enablers-of-israels-war-on-gaza/ “Corporate Enablers of Israel’s War on Gaza.”] Eyes on the Ties, Littlesis.org. October 26, 2023. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240106112036/https://news.littlesis.org/2023/10/26/corporate-enablers-of-israels-war-on-gaza/ Archived] 2024-01-06.</ref> a lobbying group made up exclusively of CEOs.<ref>[https://www.businessroundtable.org/about-us “About Us.”] Businessroundtable.org.</ref><ref>[https://thebeautifultruth.org/the-basics/what-is-the-business-roundtable/ “What Is the Business Roundtable?”] The Beautiful Truth. February 16, 2022. [https://web.archive.org/web/20231130202908/https://thebeautifultruth.org/the-basics/what-is-the-business-roundtable/ Archived] 2023-11-30.</ref><br />
<br />
== See also ==<br />
<br />
* [[Military–industrial complex|Military-industrial complex]]<br />
* [[MICIMATT]]<br />
* [[Lockheed Martin Corporation|Lockheed Martin]]<br />
* [[Raytheon]]<br />
<br />
== References ==<br />
<references /></div>
Verda.Majo
https://en.prolewiki.org/index.php?title=File:Northrop_Grumman_Sign_after_protest.jpg&diff=64172
File:Northrop Grumman Sign after protest.jpg
2024-03-13T16:49:28Z
<p>Verda.Majo: </p>
<hr />
<div>Sign outside of a Northrop Grumman office complex after pro-Palestinian demonstrators gathered to protest weapons sales to Israel.<br />
<br />
Source: "Pro-Palestinian demonstrators blockade military suppliers in UK, US." Al Jazeera. https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2023/11/10/tens-of-thousands-pray-and-march-in-support-of-palestinians</div>
Verda.Majo
https://en.prolewiki.org/index.php?title=Northrop_Grumman&diff=64158
Northrop Grumman
2024-03-13T14:59:13Z
<p>Verda.Majo: added the amount of employees and some info about the CEO</p>
<hr />
<div>'''Northrop Grumman Corporation''', or '''Northrop Grumman''', is one of the world's top defense companies,<ref>[https://people.defensenews.com/top-100/ "Top 100 Defense Companies."] DefenseNews.</ref> with the [[United States Department of Defense]] and [[United States Intelligence Community|intelligence community]] being its primary clients.<ref>Bernal, Kyle. [https://executivegov.com/articles/what-are-the-top-northrop-grumman-government-contracts/ “What Are the Top Northrop Grumman Government Contracts?”] ExecutiveGov. November 8, 2022. [https://web.archive.org/web/20231201151045/https://executivegov.com/articles/what-are-the-top-northrop-grumman-government-contracts/ Archived] 2023-12-01.</ref><ref>[https://dsm.forecastinternational.com/2024/03/01/top-100-defense-contractors-2023/ “Top 100 Defense Contractors 2023.”] Defense Security Monitor, Forecast International. March 1, 2024. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240313135155/https://dsm.forecastinternational.com/2024/03/01/top-100-defense-contractors-2023/ Archived] 2023-03-13.</ref> It is headquartered in Falls Church, [[Commonwealth of Virginia|Virginia]], [[United States of America|USA]]. Since 2019, [[Kathy Warden]] has been the company's Chairman, President, and CEO.<ref>[https://www.forbes.com/companies/northrop-grumman/?sh=602399213c84 "Profile: Northrop Grumman."] [[Forbes]]. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240313050530/https://www.forbes.com/companies/northrop-grumman/?sh=602399213c84 Archived] 2024-03-13.</ref><ref>[https://www.forbes.com/profile/kathy-warden/?sh=7fce74ee6695 "Profile: Kathy Warden."] Forbes. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240313050123/https://www.forbes.com/profile/kathy-warden/?sh=7fce74ee6695 Archived] 2024-03-13.</ref> The company has approximately 100,000 employees.<ref>[https://www.northropgrumman.com/who-we-are/frequently-asked-questions “Frequently Asked Questions.”] Northrop Grumman. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240111060426/https://www.northropgrumman.com/who-we-are/frequently-asked-questions Archived] 2024-01-11.</ref><ref>[https://www.fool.com/earnings/call-transcripts/2024/01/25/northrop-grumman-noc-q4-2023-earnings-call-transcr/ “Northrop Grumman (NOC) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript.”] The Motley Fool. January 25, 2024. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240313142222/https://www.fool.com/earnings/call-transcripts/2024/01/25/northrop-grumman-noc-q4-2023-earnings-call-transcr/ Archived] 2024-03-13.<br />
<br />
</ref><br />
<br />
According to [[Open Secrets]], in the 2020 U.S. election cycle, [[Political action committee|PACs]] and individuals associated with Northrop Grumman contributed $3,517,253 toward [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democrats]] and $3,147,821 toward [[Republican Party (United States)|Republicans]].<ref>[https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/northrop-grumman/totals?id=D000000170 "Northrop Grumman: Totals."] Open Secrets. [https://web.archive.org/web/20231116170900/https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/northrop-grumman/totals?id=D000000170 Archived] 2023-11-16. </ref><br />
<br />
According to the [[American Friends Service Committee]] (AFSC), a non-violent peace activist organization, Northrop Grumman "manufactures multiple weapon systems used by the [[Israel Defense Forces|Israeli military]] against [[State of Palestine|Palestinian]] civilians, and was instrumental in developing [[United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement|ICE]]'s deportation machine."<ref>[https://investigate.afsc.org/company/northrop-grumman "Northrop Grumman Corp."] Investigate, Economic Activism Program, American Friends Service Committee. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240313131343/https://investigate.afsc.org/company/northrop-grumman Archived] 2024-03-13.</ref><br />
<br />
Northrop Grumman has been ranked among the top water polluters in the "Toxic 100 Water Polluters" index by the Political Economy Research Institute of the University of Massachusetts Amherst for multiple years.<ref>Michael Ash, James K. Boyce, Rich Puchalsky. [https://peri.umass.edu/publication/item/1674-naming-worst-u-s-corporate-polluters "Naming Worst U.S. Corporate Polluters."] Political Economy Research Institute, University of Massachusetts Amherst. December 18, 2022. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240313121848/https://peri.umass.edu/publication/item/1674-naming-worst-u-s-corporate-polluters Archived] 2023-03-13.</ref><ref>Michael Ash, James K. Boyce, Rich Puchalsky. [https://peri.umass.edu/publication/item/1560-toxic-100-names-top-climate-air-and-water-polluters-2021 "Toxic 100 Names Top Climate, Air, and Water Polluters-2021."] Political Economy Research Institute, University of Massachusetts Amherst. December 14, 2021. [https://web.archive.org/web/20231003172433/https://peri.umass.edu/publication/item/1560-toxic-100-names-top-climate-air-and-water-polluters-2021 Archived] 2023-10-03.</ref><br />
<br />
As reported by Eyes on the Ties, CEO Kathy Warden took in over $61 million in total compensation from 2020 to 2022. Eyes on the Ties notes that Warden also sits on the board of pharmaceutical company [[Merck]] and is a member of [[Business Roundtable]],<ref>[https://news.littlesis.org/2023/10/26/corporate-enablers-of-israels-war-on-gaza/ “Corporate Enablers of Israel’s War on Gaza.”] Eyes on the Ties, Littlesis.org. October 26, 2023. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240106112036/https://news.littlesis.org/2023/10/26/corporate-enablers-of-israels-war-on-gaza/ Archived] 2024-01-06.</ref> a lobbying group made up exclusively of CEOs.<ref>[https://www.businessroundtable.org/about-us “About Us.”] Businessroundtable.org.</ref><ref>[https://thebeautifultruth.org/the-basics/what-is-the-business-roundtable/ “What Is the Business Roundtable?”] The Beautiful Truth. February 16, 2022. [https://web.archive.org/web/20231130202908/https://thebeautifultruth.org/the-basics/what-is-the-business-roundtable/ Archived] 2023-11-30.</ref><br />
<br />
== See also ==<br />
<br />
* [[Military–industrial complex|Military-industrial complex]]<br />
* [[MICIMATT]]<br />
* [[Lockheed Martin Corporation|Lockheed Martin]]<br />
* [[Raytheon]]<br />
<br />
== References ==<br />
<references /></div>
Verda.Majo
https://en.prolewiki.org/index.php?title=Northrop_Grumman&diff=64157
Northrop Grumman
2024-03-13T13:19:31Z
<p>Verda.Majo: Created basic page</p>
<hr />
<div>'''Northrop Grumman Corporation''', or '''Northrop Grumman''', is one of the world's top defense companies,<ref>[https://people.defensenews.com/top-100/ "Top 100 Defense Companies."] DefenseNews.</ref> with the [[United States Department of Defense]] and [[United States Intelligence Community|intelligence community]] being its primary clients.<ref>Bernal, Kyle. [https://executivegov.com/articles/what-are-the-top-northrop-grumman-government-contracts/ “What Are the Top Northrop Grumman Government Contracts?”] ExecutiveGov. November 8, 2022. [https://web.archive.org/web/20231201151045/https://executivegov.com/articles/what-are-the-top-northrop-grumman-government-contracts/ Archived] 2023-12-01.</ref> It is headquartered in Falls Church, [[Commonwealth of Virginia|Virginia]], [[United States of America|USA]]. Since 2019, [[Kathy Warden]] has been the company's Chairman, President, and CEO.<ref>[https://www.forbes.com/companies/northrop-grumman/?sh=602399213c84 "Profile: Northrop Grumman."] [[Forbes]]. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240313050530/https://www.forbes.com/companies/northrop-grumman/?sh=602399213c84 Archived] 2024-03-13.</ref><ref>[https://www.forbes.com/profile/kathy-warden/?sh=7fce74ee6695 "Profile: Kathy Warden."] Forbes. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240313050123/https://www.forbes.com/profile/kathy-warden/?sh=7fce74ee6695 Archived] 2024-03-13.</ref> According to [[Open Secrets]], in the 2020 U.S. election cycle, [[Political action committee|PACs]] and individuals associated with Northrop Grumman contributed $3,517,253 toward [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democrats]] and $3,147,821 toward [[Republican Party (United States)|Republicans]].<ref>[https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/northrop-grumman/totals?id=D000000170 "Northrop Grumman: Totals."] Open Secrets. [https://web.archive.org/web/20231116170900/https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/northrop-grumman/totals?id=D000000170 Archived] 2023-11-16. </ref><br />
<br />
According to the [[American Friends Service Committee]] (AFSC), a non-violent peace activist organization, Northrop Grumman "manufactures multiple weapon systems used by the [[Israel Defense Forces|Israeli military]] against [[State of Palestine|Palestinian]] civilians, and was instrumental in developing [[United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement|ICE]]'s deportation machine."<ref>[https://investigate.afsc.org/company/northrop-grumman "Northrop Grumman Corp."] Investigate, Economic Activism Program, American Friends Service Committee. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240313131343/https://investigate.afsc.org/company/northrop-grumman Archived] 2024-03-13.</ref><br />
<br />
Northrop Grumman has been ranked among the top water polluters in the "Toxic 100 Water Polluters" index by the Political Economy Research Institute of the University of Massachusetts Amherst for multiple years.<ref>Michael Ash, James K. Boyce, Rich Puchalsky. [https://peri.umass.edu/publication/item/1674-naming-worst-u-s-corporate-polluters "Naming Worst U.S. Corporate Polluters."] Political Economy Research Institute, University of Massachusetts Amherst. December 18, 2022. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240313121848/https://peri.umass.edu/publication/item/1674-naming-worst-u-s-corporate-polluters Archived] 2023-03-13.</ref><ref>Michael Ash, James K. Boyce, Rich Puchalsky. [https://peri.umass.edu/publication/item/1560-toxic-100-names-top-climate-air-and-water-polluters-2021 "Toxic 100 Names Top Climate, Air, and Water Polluters-2021."] Political Economy Research Institute, University of Massachusetts Amherst. December 14, 2021. [https://web.archive.org/web/20231003172433/https://peri.umass.edu/publication/item/1560-toxic-100-names-top-climate-air-and-water-polluters-2021 Archived] 2023-10-03.</ref><br />
<br />
== See also ==<br />
<br />
* [[Military–industrial complex|Military-industrial complex]]<br />
* [[MICIMATT]]<br />
* [[Lockheed Martin Corporation|Lockheed Martin]]<br />
* [[Raytheon]]<br />
<br />
== References ==<br />
<references /></div>
Verda.Majo
https://en.prolewiki.org/index.php?title=Anti-base_movement&diff=64119
Anti-base movement
2024-03-12T14:18:53Z
<p>Verda.Majo: created page and added basic info</p>
<hr />
<div>'''Anti-base movement''' is a term<ref>{{Citation|author=David Vine|year=2019|title=No Bases? Assessing the Impact of Social Movements Challenging US Foreign Military Bases|title-url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/701042|quote=I use the term “antibase movement” because it is widely used by movement members and scholars and because such movements, strictly speaking, are “anti-” in the sense that they are opposed to some aspect of the life of a base or its personnel.|pdf=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdf/10.1086/701042|publisher=Current Anthropology|volume=Volume 60, Number S19}}</ref> which refers to various movements which focus on opposing aspects of military bases, which can range from opposition to specific activities of bases or base personnel, to opposing their presence or construction in particular locations, to opposing their existence in general. It can also refer to these movements collectively.<ref>Yeo, Andrew. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/27735112 "Not in Anyone's Backyard: The Emergence and Identity of a Transnational Anti-Base Network."] International Studies Quarterly, Vol. 53, No. 3 (Sep., 2009), pp. 571-594. Oxford University Press.</ref><br />
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A common type of anti-base movement is a local movement opposing a foreign base in their territory. Given that the majority of foreign military bases around the world are [[United States of America|United States]] bases,<ref>David Vine, Patterson Deppen and Leah Bolger. [https://quincyinst.org/research/drawdown-improving-u-s-and-global-security-through-military-base-closures-abroad/ "Drawdown: Improving U.S. and Global Security Through Military Base Closures Abroad."] Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, September 20, 2021. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240312130118/https://quincyinst.org/research/drawdown-improving-u-s-and-global-security-through-military-base-closures-abroad/ Archived] 2024-03-12.</ref><ref>Jawad, Ashar. [https://www.insidermonkey.com/blog/5-countries-with-the-most-overseas-military-bases-1237758/5/ "5 Countries With the Most Overseas Military Bases."] Insider Monkey, December 15, 2023.</ref><ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amusB9j7Oz4 "Why 90% Of Foreign Military Bases Are American."] AJ+ on YouTube, Jan 13, 2022.</ref> many anti-base movements around the world have been directed at U.S. bases.<br />
<br />
== References ==<br />
<references /></div>
Verda.Majo
https://en.prolewiki.org/index.php?title=Republic_of_Korea&diff=64093
Republic of Korea
2024-03-11T16:24:01Z
<p>Verda.Majo: /* Unconverted long-term prisoners */ tried to condense this section somewhat, changed the accompanying image, and provided link to the new main article on it</p>
<hr />
<div>{{Infobox country|name=Republic of Korea|population_estimate_year=2019|population_estimate=51,709,098|area_km2=100,363|established_date1=1948 August 15|established_event1=First Republic|image_map=Statesian neocolonial occupation of Korea.svg|map_width=260|official_languages=Korean|leader_name3=Kim Jin-pyo|native_name=대한민국|image_flag=Flag of South Korea.svg|leader_title3=Speaker of the National Assembly|leader_name2=Han Duck-soo|leader_title2=Prime Minister|leader_name1=[[Yoon Suk-yeol]]|leader_title1=President|image_coat=ROK emblem.svg|capital=Seoul|government_type=Unitary corporatocratic republic|currency=Korean Republic won (₩) (KRW)|official_website=https://www.korea.net/|mode_of_production=[[Capitalism]]}}<br />
The so-called '''Republic of Korea''' ('''ROK'''), also known as '''Capitalist Korea''' or '''South Korea''', is a [[Bourgeois state|bourgeois liberal republic]] that serves as a [[United States of America|U.S.]] puppet state<ref>{{Citation|author=Stephen Gowans|year=2018|title=Patriots, Traitors and Empires: The Story of Korea’s Struggle for Freedom|chapter=The Empire of Japan|page=45|pdf=https://ipfs.io/ipfs/bafykbzaced4iiga4ngtxusr2civjxewbili5jne2sbpefbx2s3im2kphattzc?filename=Stephen%20Gowans%20-%20Patriots%2C%20Traitors%20and%20Empires_%20The%20Story%20of%20Korea%E2%80%99s%20Struggle%20for%20Freedom-Baraka%20Books%20%282018%29.pdf|city=Montreal|publisher=Baraka Books|isbn=9781771861427|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=8435F6FF91279531705764823FDC2A7F}}</ref> and [[Neocolonialism|colony]]<ref name=":23" /> located on the southern portion of the [[Korea|Korean Peninsula]]. The northern part of the peninsula is governed by the [[Democratic People's Republic of Korea|Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)]], also known as People's Korea. <br />
<br />
According to the south Korean [[People's Democracy Party]] (민중민주당), writing in a 2020 [[Liberation School]] article, "south Korea is a complete colony occupied by the U.S. military, is politically oppressed by the U.S., and is economically subordinate to [[Imperialism|imperialist]] countries, including the U.S. After the military coup of 1961, the rule of fascist military dictatorships continued for 30 years, and since then a pro-US [[Neoliberalism|neoliberal]] regime has operated in the country. It is severely exploiting the [[Proletariat|workers]], [[Peasantry|farmers]], and all the people."<ref name=":23">People's Democracy Party and Liberation School. [https://www.liberationschool.org/korean-war-70-years/ “70 Years Too Long: The Struggle to End the Korean War – Liberation School.”] ''Liberation School – Revolutionary Marxism for a New Generation of Fighters'', 25 June 2020. [https://web.archive.org/web/2/https://www.liberationschool.org/korean-war-70-years/ Archived].<br />
<br />
</ref><br />
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According to the same party, the Korean reunification and peace struggle is contingent on the withdrawal of U.S. troops, and therefore U.S. military withdrawal from south Korea is "the most desperate and preferred struggle task for the whole Korean nation to solve.<ref name=":23" /> <br />
<br />
Since its inception, the ROK has been riddled with corruption and political scandals. All four living former south Korean presidents have been sentenced to prison for various crimes ranging from abuse of authority to bribery and embezzlement.<ref name="aei">{{Web citation|date=2018-10-09|title=South Korea's troubling history of jailing ex-presidents|url=https://www.aei.org/foreign-and-defense-policy/asia/south-koreas-troubling-history-of-jailing-ex-presidents/|newspaper=American Enterprise Institute}}</ref><ref>{{Web citation|date=2021-02-10|title=Former South Korean president sentenced to prison|url=https://www.dw.com/en/former-south-korean-president-sentenced-to-prison/a-55779280|newspaper=Deutsche Welle}}</ref><ref>{{Web citation|date=2013-08-22|title=Ex-president Roh Tae-woo to pay remainder of massive fine|newspaper=The Chosunilbo}}</ref><ref>{{Web citation|date=2017-02-07|title=South Korea: President's impeachment on a background of political scandal|url=http://perspective.usherbrooke.ca/bilan/servlet/BMAnalyse?codeAnalyse=2320|newspaper=Perspective Monde}}</ref><ref name="bbcsource">{{Web citation|date=2018-10-05|title=South Korea ex-leader jailed for 15 years|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-45756561|newspaper=[[BBC|BBC News]]}}</ref><br />
<br />
==History==<br />
<br />
=== Early history and Japanese occupation ===<br />
{{Main article|Korea}}<br />
Korea "had been a single nation for at least 1,000 years with a continuous society, language and political system" and "remained independent despite 500 years of efforts of bigger powers to dominate it" until the [[Japanese Empire|Japanese]] annexation in 1910, and later the post-[[Second World War|World War II]] division of Korea into North and South.<ref name=":14" /><br />
<br />
During Japanese occupation era, economic depression merged with anti-colonial demands, and communists and anarchists began meeting in the borderlands of Russia, China, and Korea. On March 1, 1919 a massive Korean independence protest movement was launched. Since 1931, nationalist and communist guerrillas struggled in the mountains of Manchuria against the Japanese, and [[Kim Il-sung|Kim Il-Sung]] emerged as a particularly effective leader during this period.<ref>Ford, Derek. [https://www.liberationschool.org/the-chongryon-movement-the-struggle-of-koreans-in-japan/ “Chongryon: The Struggle of Koreans in Japan – Liberation School.”] ''Liberation School – Revolutionary Marxism for a New Generation of Fighters'', 30 Jan. 2019.</ref><br />
<br />
Before Japan’s defeat in the Pacific War in August 1945, Korea had a rice-based colonial economy that had been tightly controlled in the interest of creating a rice surplus to feed Japan. In particular, the southern part of the peninsula was predominantly agricultural and supplied a greater portion of the food for all of Korea. It was considered the “rice bowl” of the country. Since rice came mainly from south Korea, the southern part of the Korean peninsula maintained a much higher population density.<ref name=":15">Kim Jinwung. A ''Policy of Amateurism: The Rice Policy of the U.S. Army Military''. Government in Korea, 1945-1948. Korea Journal, Summer 2007.https://kj.accesson.kr/assets/pdf/8153/journal-47-2-208.pdf</ref><br />
<br />
===US occupation===<br />
[[File:The Japanese flag in front of the Japanese Government-General of Korea building in Seoul is replaced with the U.S. flag..png|thumb|314x314px|U.S. forces lower the Japanese flag in Seoul and replace it with the U.S. flag.]]<br />
After [[Kim Il-sung]] liberated Korea from the Japanese Empire, in an "outburst of meetings and organizing" that "came out into the open all over Korea" after Japanese surrender, activists throughout the Korean peninsula began to plan and organize to replace Japanese rule and dominance. Groups of local people gathered in most villages and cities and sought ways to replace the police and pro-Japanese administrators with people who had resisted Japanese rule.<ref name=":14" /> A left-leaning nationwide organization established by Koreans known as the Alliance for National government as well as many local People's Committees enjoyed widespread popular support throughout the country. However, the U.S. Military Government in Korea (USAMGIK) did not recognize the new state declared by the People’s Committees, and Korea was divided across the 38th parallel by two American officers who had never been to Korea.<ref>{{Citation|author=Don Oberdorfer, Robert Carlin|year=2014|title=The Two Koreas: A Contemporary History|chapter=|section=|page=5|quote=|pdf=|city=|publisher=|isbn=9780465031238|doi=|lg=|mia=|title-url=|chapter-url=|trans-title=|trans-lang=}}</ref> The U.S. occupation of the southern half of Korea was announced in Proclamation No. 1 by General of the Army Douglas MacArthur on Sept. 7, 1945, with the statement that “All powers of Government over the territory of Korea south of 38 degrees north latitude and the people thereof will be for the present exercised under my authority.”<ref>{{News citation|newspaper=Jeju 4.3 Peace Foundation|title=Liberation from Japan in 1945|date=2018|url=http://jeju43peace.org/historytruth/fact-truth/factstruth_article2/}}</ref><br />
<br />
In "A Policy of Amateurism: The Rice Policy of the U.S. Army Military''"'', Kim Jinwung writes:<blockquote>When news arrived that the United States was planning to occupy southern Korea, [Yeo Un-hyeong's Committee for the Preparation of Korean Independence] called a national convention in Seoul on September 6 to give his regime the stamp of legitimacy. Yeo and his followers wanted to quicken the process of establishing a new government before the Americans arrived. Yeo proclaimed the establishment of the Korean People’s Republic, with a cabinet that included distinguished nationalists of all political persuasions, right and left. But the body was clearly influenced by the left, with Communists playing key roles.<ref name=":15" /></blockquote>However, the U.S. refused to recognize this organization, and General John R. Hodge, the Commanding General of U.S. Army Forces in Korea, outlawed the people’s committees and created new local councils under conservative control.<ref name=":15" /> In an article titled "People's Republic of Korea: Jeju, 1945-1946", Jay Hauben describes the situation:<blockquote>On Sept. 8, 21 US warships arrived in Incheon to supervise in the name of the Allies the surrender of the Japanese Governor-General of Korea and the 200,000 Japanese military personnel and their equipment and property south of the 38th parallel. US General John Hodge commanded the US landing. The US party was met by an English speaking committee of the PRK [People's Republic of Korea] to welcome it to Korea in the name of the people and newly emerging government of Korea. General Hodge refused to meet with them. His mission was to head the United States Military Government In Korea (USAMGIK) and he would not accept that there was already a newly forming government of Korea.<ref name=":14" /></blockquote>Due to the People’s Committees enjoying such widespread popular support, the USAMGIK resorted to dissolving the committees by force so that the U.S. could effectively rule the country.<ref name=":0">{{News citation|newspaper=Jeju 4.3 Peace Foundation|title=Who ruled over the Korean Peninsula?|date=2018|url=http://jeju43peace.org/historytruth/fact-truth/factstruth_article3/|retrieved=2022-07-23}}</ref> As noted by Hauben, "The USAMGIK had as its mission to prevent a Korean government friendly to socialism or communism or leftism in general. That mission required that the left leaning majority of the Korean people had to be diverted."<ref name=":14" /><br />
[[File:1946 South Korean opinion poll about socialism, communism, and capitalism.png|thumb|An opinion poll appearing in the Dong-A Ilbo newspaper on August 13, 1946 showed a majority of respondents favoring socialism and less than 15% supporting capitalism.|341x341px]]<br />
In August 1946, the newspaper Dong-A Ilbo published the results of various opinion polls seeking information about the kind of government the people of Korea wanted. Of those surveyed, when asked about which system they agreed with, 14% of respondents answered "capitalism" (1,189 people), 70% answered "socialism" (6,037 people), 7% answered "communism" (574 people), and 8% responded "do not know" (653 people).<ref>[https://db.history.go.kr/id/dh_003_1946_08_13_0070 "1946년 8월 13일 軍政廳輿論局, 朝鮮國民이 어떠한 종류의 政府를 요망하는지 여론을 조사" ("August 13, 1946. Surveys the public opinion on what kind of military service the people of the military and government demand.")] 동아일보 1946년 08월 13일. (Dong-A Ilbo, August 13, 1946). 자료대한민국사 제3권. (Source Korea History Vol. 3). Korean History Database. 국사편찬위원회. (National Institute of Korean History). [https://web.archive.org/web/20220825114505/https://db.history.go.kr/id/dh_003_1946_08_13_0070 Archived] 2022-08-25.</ref><ref>[https://newslibrary.naver.com/viewer/index.naver?articleId=1946081300209203003&editNo=1&printCount=1&publishDate=1946-08-13&officeId=00020&pageNo=3&printNo=7053&publishType=00020 "軍政廳輿論局調査(군정청여론국조사)."] Dong-A Ilbo August 13, 1946. Page 3. Naver 뉴스 라이브러리 (Naver News Library).</ref><br />
<br />
Following General MacArthur's Proclamation No. 1, the USAMGIK became the official ruling body of south Korea (in the eyes of the U.S.), from 1945 to 1948, until the establishment of the Republic of Korea on Aug. 15, 1948. Through this series of events, the Korean Peninsula was divided along the 38th parallel, the South was occupied by the United States, the People's Committees were suppressed, many Japanese colonial era collaborator police and officials were placed back into positions of power, and a [[Fascism|fascist]] dictatorship led by Harvard graduate [[Syngman Rhee]] was installed.<ref>{{News citation|journalist=|date=|title=Syngman Rhee|url=https://www.doopedia.co.kr/doopedia/master/master.do?_method=view&MAS_IDX=101013000746262|newspaper=Doopedia|archive-url=|archive-date=|retrieved=}}</ref> <br />
<br />
==== Suppressed criticism in official U.S. military history of Korean War and U.S. occupation of Korea ====<br />
In the work ''From Occupation to War: Cold War Legacies of US: Army Historical Studies of the Occupation and Korean War'', Seoul National University professor Chung Yong Wook writes that "a divergent understanding" of this era "was repressed or rooted out by force in the US and around the ‘free world'" due to the official U.S. history of the war being written in the context of the emerging Cold War. Military historian Richard Robinson, who wrote a work critical of the U.S. role in Korea, ''Betrayal of a Nation'', was unable to find a publisher for his work and it remained in manuscript form. I.F. Stone's work ''The Hidden History of the Korean War'' (1952) which was also critical of U.S. conduct in Korea was removed from many libraries. Professor Chung notes that "military historians were not, in essence, allowed to criticize information given to them, nor did they have leeway in interpreting and critiquing facts, they were left only to describe ''sanitized'' history" at all stages of the information-gathering and history-writing process.<ref>Chung, Yong Wook. From Occupation to War; Cold War Legacies of US Army Historical Studies of the Occupation and Korean War. Korea Journal, vol. 60, no. 2 (summer 2020): 14–54. doi: 10.25024/kj.2020.60.2.14 © The Academy of Korean Studies, 2020. URL: https://kj.accesson.kr/assets/pdf/8518/journal-60-2-14.pdf [https://web.archive.org/web/20220725044626/https://kj.accesson.kr/assets/pdf/8518/journal-60-2-14.pdf Archive URL]. Suppression of counter-narratives ("Abstract" p. 15, PDF p.1); "sanitized history" (p. 20, PDF p. 7)</ref><br />
<br />
According to Richard Robinson, who had been working as a historian for the military during the occupation, the official American military history of the occupation is "highly prejudiced and inaccurate" adding that the official U.S. histories were "written upon explicit orders not even to imply criticism of anything American" and says that "if the truth were known, the American occupation of south Korea was incredibly bungled by an incompetent and corrupt administration—all in the name of American democracy."<ref name=":5">Robinson, Richard. Cited in Chung, Yong Wook. ''From Occupation to War; Cold War Legacies of US Army Historical Studies of the Occupation and Korean War''. Korea Journal, vol. 60, no. 2 (summer 2020): 14–54. doi: 10.25024/kj.2020.60.2.14 © The Academy of Korean Studies, 2020 URL: https://kj.accesson.kr/assets/pdf/8518/journal-60-2-14.pdf</ref> Robinson had his work suppressed as he expressed criticism of the U.S. military government's failures in Korea and eventually was compelled to leave the country.<ref name=":5" /><ref>{{News citation|author=김환균|newspaper=미디어오늘 (Media Today)|title='미국의 배반'이 미국에서 금서가 된 이유. (Why "American Betrayal" is Banned Reading in the U.S.)|date=2004-08-09|url=http://www.mediatoday.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=25874|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220724050252/http://www.mediatoday.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=25874|archive-date=2022-07-24|retrieved=2022-07-24}}</ref><br />
<br />
==== USAMGIK disregards People's Committee's rice management, establishes rice "free market" ====<br />
During Japanese colonial rule, the Japanese placed rigid controls on the people of Korea to build up a food surplus. When the U.S. forces arrived in south Korea, they found that "Japanese control over rice had been loosened or altogether abolished" and that instead, "the [[People's Republic of Korea (1945–1946)|Korean People’s Republic]] (KPR) and people’s committees managed food stocks, and according to American accounts, 'after the Koreans drove the Japanese police out, [the leaders of the KPR and people’s committees] took over the rice collection machinery and were operating it successfully when the Americans arrived.'"<ref name=":15" /> As the Americans largely did not acknowledge the authority of the People's Committees and were trying to establish an [[Anti-communism|anti-communist]] government in south Korea, they struck down the management system that had been operating under the People's Committees and replaced it with a "free market" in rice. In Ordinance 19, USAMGIK describes this as "giving to every man, woman and child within the country equal opportunity to enjoy his just and fair share of great wealth which this beautiful nation has been endowed".<ref>Office of the Military Governor, United States Army Forces in Korea. [https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/USAMGIK_Ordinance_19 Ordinance Number 19]. 1945-10-30. </ref><ref name=":15" /> <br />
<br />
In "A Policy of Amateurism: The Rice Policy of the U.S. Army Military''"'', Kim Jinwung describes the results of the free market policy of the USAMGIK:<blockquote>The immediate effect of the free market policy was a steep rise in the price of rice and resultant hoarding and speculation. Poor distribution of food led to food shortages and hunger in cities, despite a bumper harvest in 1945. Additionally, the rice-based south Korean economy inevitably began to suffer from massive inflation. It was quite natural then that the black-market should grow and prosper; it was expected that the lure of black market prices would stimulate the flow of rice into the black market. The result was that “rice disappeared almost entirely from the market.” Through its free market policy, the U.S. military government lost the main strength of the south Korean economy—its ability to extract large surpluses of grain—and caused in its stead spiraling inflation, near starvation in early 1946, and a general economic breakdown. The price of a bushel of rice increased from 9.4 yen in September 1945 to 2,800 yen in September 1946. Landlords, police and other government officials, and wealthy individuals engaged in speculation on a wholesale basis.<ref name=":15" /></blockquote>In the wake of this policy, USAMGIK was "flooded with complaints and petitions from Koreans demanding that price control and rationing be resumed and that the American military government take drastic action to stop rice hoarding."<ref name=":15" /> However, it seemed to many that USAMGIK was "reluctant to move against the principal hoarders" due to them being Korean businessmen who the government who had been relying on for advice.<ref name=":15" /> By 1946, the U.S. rescinded the free market and implemented rice rationing. A U.S. summation of the U.S. army military government activities in Korea stated that public attention was "focused on the threat of hunger" at this time.<ref>Commander-in-Chief, United States Army Forces, Pacific. ''[https://www8.cao.go.jp/okinawa/okinawasen/pdf/b0604002_09/b0604002_09.pdf Summation of United States Military Government Activities in Korea, No. 6].'' March 1946. </ref> As the situation continued, U.S. rice rations eventually fell to half of the ration size that had been received under the Japanese colonial administration during World War II, and newspapers published accounts of famine and starvation, further disaster only being averted by eventual shipments of U.S. grains as emergency relief. In addition, "the deteriorating food situation forced the Americans to revive the old Japanese rice collection system" which was unpopular with farmers.<ref name=":15" /> The USAMGIK eventually formed local boards composed of local police officials, elders, businessmen, and landlords approved by the USAMGIK to manage the collection of rice quotas, but created no system for appeal to adjust the quotas. Under this program, many farmers were arrested or faced violence for not meeting their quotas.<ref name=":15" /> <br />
<br />
==== Re-appointment of Japanese colonial officials under U.S. occupation ====<br />
The USAMGIK had a policy of rehiring officers from the Japanese colonial era, which it tried to justify by the need to implement effective governance. This failure to prosecute officers who had collaborated with the Japanese and re-instatement of their power increased public resentment against the U.S. regime.<ref name=":0" /> Instead of fully enjoying their independence, people were being victimized by the same oppressive police officers and corrupt public officials as under Japanese colonial authority.<ref name=":1">{{News citation|newspaper=Jeju 4.3 Peace Foundation|title=Jeju’s political climate following liberation|date=2018|url=http://jeju43peace.org/historytruth/fact-truth/factstruth_article4/}}</ref> The U.S. occupiers created an army staffed by former Japanese officers and rebuilt the [[Korean National Police]] (KNP) of the Japanese occupation era.<ref name=":110">{{Citation|author=Stephen Gowans|year=2018|title=Patriots, Traitors and Empires: The Story of Korea’s Struggle for Freedom|chapter=The War Against Communists of the South|page=95–99|pdf=https://ipfs.io/ipfs/bafykbzaced4iiga4ngtxusr2civjxewbili5jne2sbpefbx2s3im2kphattzc?filename=Stephen%20Gowans%20-%20Patriots%2C%20Traitors%20and%20Empires_%20The%20Story%20of%20Korea%E2%80%99s%20Struggle%20for%20Freedom-Baraka%20Books%20%282018%29.pdf|city=Montreal|publisher=Baraka Books|isbn=9781771861427|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=8435F6FF91279531705764823FDC2A7F}}</ref><br />
<br />
==== Conflict between occupation forces and people's committees ====<br />
Richard Robinson, the chief of the Public Opinion Section of the Department of Information of the USAMGIK, who had been present in Korea and contributing to the official U.S. military historical record at the time, later gave his observations about the People's Committees and the USAMGIK's policy of rehiring officers from the Japanese colonial era:<blockquote>It was safe to say that for the most part the local People's Committees in these early days were of the genuine grassroots democratic variety and represented a spontaneous urge of the people to govern themselves. . . . They resented orders from the Military Government to turn the administration of local government over to American Army officers and their appointed Korean counterparts, many of whom were considered to be Japanese collaborators. It seemed like a reversion to what had gone before. Bloodshed ensued in many communities as local People's Committees defied the Military Government and refused to abandon government offices. Koreans and Americans met in pitched battles, and not a few Koreans met violent death in the struggle.<ref name=":4">Robinson, Richard. Cited in Mark J. Scher (1973) ''U.S. policy in Korea 1945–1948: A Neocolonial model takes shape.'' Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars, 5:4, 17-27, DOI: 10.1080/14672715.1973.10406346. <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.1080/14672715.1973.1040634</nowiki> URL: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/14672715.1973.10406346</ref></blockquote>Robinson then gives an example of an incident which he refers to as "typical" of this period. According to Robinson, in the small community of Namwon in North Jeolla province, the Japanese had turned over considerable property to the local People's Committee just prior to the arrival of the Americans. The U.S. military government then demanded the property, but the People's Committee refused to turn it over to the U.S. military government. Robinson states that five leaders of the Committee were arrested by the local Korean police, adding that "the police chief was captured and beaten by Committee members and the police station attacked by a large crowd of irate citizens." He says that the station was guarded by American troops, and that when the Koreans refused to disband, "the Americans advanced with fixed bayonets," resulting in two Koreans being killed and several injured.<ref name=":4" /><br />
<br />
Within a year of the U.S. occupation, uprisings began in 80 cities and hundreds of villages. After the suppression of the People's Republic of Korea, widespread [[Strike action|strikes]] and protests began followed by a guerrilla movement. By December 1947, the KNP had arrested over 21,000 leftists, and the amount of political prisoners was more than under the Japanese occupation. By 1948, resistance forces controlled most of the inland villages in south Korea. The KNP arrested so many people that it ran out of space in prisons and forced an additional 70,000 people, including 30,000 communists, into concentration camps. By 1950, the south Korean government and U.S. occupation forces killed between 100,000 and 200,000 dissidents.<ref name=":110" /><br />
===First Republic (1948–1960) ===<br />
[[File:Syngman Rhee.jpg|thumb|264x264px|Syngman Rhee (Korean: 이승만), president of the ROK First Republic from 1948-1960, was described as an "extreme rightist" in a 1948 [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] report.<ref name=":20">{{News citation|newspaper=Wilson Center Digital Archive|title=March 18, 1948 Central Intelligence Agency, ORE 15/48, 'The Current Situation in Korea'|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220729051304/https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/220065.pdf?v=d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e|retrieved=2022-07-29|Archive=History and Public Policy Program Digital Archive, Record Group 263, Records of the Central Intelligence Agency|url=https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/220065.pdf?v=d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e}}</ref>]]After rejecting [[Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (1922–1991)|Soviet]] proposals for all-Korean elections, the United States created a UN committee of [[Canada]], [[Commonwealth of Australia|Australia]], the [[Republic of the Philippines|Philippines]], and the defeated [[Kuomintang]] from [[People's Republic of China|China]] to supervise elections in the southern zone. Koreans from all parts of the nation organized a National Unity Conference in [[Pyongyang]] that met three weeks before the US-sponsored elections. Many [[Left-wing politics|leftist]] parties and some [[Right-wing politics|right-wing]] parties boycotted the elections. The Korean National Police and right-wing thugs attacked communists, while people who did not vote would lose their land and ration cards. [[Syngman Rhee]] won the rigged elections and took power as the first president of the south. During the elections, [[Kim Sok-won]] led a parade in Seoul of 2,500 Koreans who had collaborated with the Japanese.<br />
<br />
The First Republic was the government of south Korea from August 1948 to April 1960. Syngman Rhee ruled for the entire existence of the first republic. The first republic was characterized by Rhee's authoritarianism and corruption, limited economic development, strong anti-communism, and by the late 1950s, by growing political instability and public opposition to Rhee.<br />
<br />
Prior to being flown in to Korea by the OSS (precursor to the CIA), Rhee had been living in the United States for over thirty-five years, earning an M.A. at Harvard and a Ph.D. at Princeton.<ref name=":21">{{Citation|author=Max Hastings|year=1988|title=The Korean War|title-url=https://archive.org/details/koreanwar00hast_0/page/32/mode/2up|chapter=Origins of a Tragedy|page=32, 33-34|quote=Syngman Rhee was born in 1875, the son of a genealogical scholar. He failed the civil service exams several times before becoming a student of English. Between 1899 and 1904 he was imprisoned for political activities. On his release, he went to the United States, where he studied for some years, earning an M.A. at Harvard and a Ph.D. at Princeton—the first Korean to receive an American doctorate. After a brief return to his homeland in 1910, Rhee once more settled in America. He remained there for the next thirty-five years, lobbying relentlessly for American support for Korean independence, financed by the contributions of Korean patriots. (p.32)}}</ref> According to Max Hastings, in ''The Korean War'':<blockquote>Rhee's backing from the Military Government was a decisive force in his rise to power. [...] There is no murkier episode in the history of the American occupation than the return of Rhee to Seoul. The Military Government firmly denied not only complicity but prior knowledge of this. Yet all the evidence now suggests that General Hodge and his staff participated in a carefully orchestrated conspiracy to bring back Rhee, despite the refusal of the State Department to grant him a passport. A former deputy director of the wartime OSS, Preston Goodfellow, prevailed upon the State Department to provide Rhee with documentation. There appears to have been at least a measure of corruption in this transaction. Rhee got to know Goodfellow during the war, when the Korean mendaciously suggested to the American that he could provide agents for operations behind the Japanese lines. After the war it seems almost certain that Goodfellow assisted and raised money for Rhee in return for the promise of commercial concessions in Korea when the doctor gained power. Rhee flew to Seoul in one of MacArthur's aircraft. Despite the vigorous denials of the U.S. Army in the Far East, it seems likely that he met secretly with both the Supreme Commander and Hodge during his stopover in Tokyo. Rhee, it is apparent, was their nominee for the leadership of a Korean civilian government.<ref name=":21" /></blockquote>A 1948 CIA report wrote that "there is every prospect that Rhee's accession to power will be followed by intra-party cleavages and by the ruthless suppression of all non-Rhee Rightist, Moderate, and Leftist opposition," characterizing Rhee as an "imported expatriate politician" and "extreme rightist" and demagogue "bent on autocratic rule", who would be an "unpopular" figure who would play into communist propaganda due to his extreme rightist orientation, and stating that the U.S. throwing their full support behind him could potentially be "a source of future embarrassment to US policy in the Far East."<ref name=":20" /><br />
<br />
During the First Republic, the number of U.S. troops decreased, but many intelligence officers and combat specialists continued to occupy south Korea. Resistance against the occupation continued to grow, reaching 3,500 to 6,000 guerrilla fighters by early 1949. Rhee created the National Guidance League to make leftists to reject reunification and forced 300,000 people to join. He also created the [[National Security Law]], which still exists today and criminalizes recognition of the DPRK as a legitimate state. Almost 190,000 people, including members of the National Assembly, were arrested under this law up to December 1949.<ref name=":1102">{{Citation|author=Stephen Gowans|year=2018|title=Patriots, Traitors and Empires: The Story of Korea’s Struggle for Freedom|chapter=The Political Partition of Korea|page=115–116|pdf=https://ipfs.io/ipfs/bafykbzaced4iiga4ngtxusr2civjxewbili5jne2sbpefbx2s3im2kphattzc?filename=Stephen%20Gowans%20-%20Patriots%2C%20Traitors%20and%20Empires_%20The%20Story%20of%20Korea%E2%80%99s%20Struggle%20for%20Freedom-Baraka%20Books%20%282018%29.pdf|city=Montreal|publisher=Baraka Books|isbn=9781771861427|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=8435F6FF91279531705764823FDC2A7F}}</ref><br />
<br />
==== Jeju People's Committee ====<br />
After liberation from Japanese colonization, the Jeju People’s Committee was formed with the head of the Farmers' Guild and the Fishermens' Guild as its leaders. According to the Jeju 4.3 Peace Foundation, "In every aspect, the Jeju People’s Committee was the only political party and the only government in Jeju" after liberation from the Japanese. E. Grant Meade, a USAMGIK officer, said, “The Jeju People’s Committee was the only political party in the island and the only organization acting like a government.”<ref name=":1" /> The committees had the respect and support from most villagers. Committee members were known in their communities from their long years as school teachers, union leaders and for resistance to Japanese abuses or for their organizing work in Japan. When the USAMGIK arrived on Jeju, it found that the Jeju People’s Committee and all the village and county People’s Committees were functioning successfully as a de facto government with popular support. The USAMGIK did not disturb or challenge this de facto government. This was unusual because the USAMGIK had as its mission to insure that a right leaning government hostile to socialism emerged in Korea.<ref name=":14">{{News citation|author=Jay Hauben|newspaper=The Jeju Weekly|title=People's Republic of Korea: Jeju, 1945-1946|date=2011-08-20|url=http://www.jejuweekly.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=1865|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220723035033/http://www.jejuweekly.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=1865|archive-date=2022-07-23|retrieved=2022-07-23}}</ref> Unlike in the mainland, where the People's Committees were immediately disregarded and systematically dismantled by the USAMGIK, the People's Committee on Jeju Island remained intact for a longer period, serving as the island's main governmental body until 1948 when it, too, was violently dismantled in conjunction with the process of the Republic of Korea being officially established that year.<br />
<br />
==== Jeju Uprising and Massacre ====<br />
{{Main article|Jeju Uprising}}[[File:Northwest Youth League logo 백골부대 정신을 계승한 서북청년단 기.jpg|thumb|262x262px|Banner of the Northwest Youth League, a right-wing paramilitary group who assisted government forces in the mass murder of Jeju islanders in the name of anti-communism.<ref name=":7">{{News citation|author=Lauren Flenniken|newspaper=The Jeju Weekly|title=The Northwest Youth League|date=2011-04-10|url=http://www.jejuweekly.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=1435|retrieved=2022-07-25|quote=Despite the Northwest Youth League lacking legal backing to exercise their power, President Rhee and the KDP allowed the group to use aggressive force against supposed Communists without restrictions. [...] Professor Bruce Cumings of the University of Chicago states that at the time, Jeju’s local government and police were comprised mostly of mainlanders who “worked together with ultra-rightest party terrorists,” otherwise known as the Northwest Youth League.}}</ref>]]<br />
In 1948, in a series of events known variously as the Jeju Uprising, the Jeju 4.3 Incident, and the Jeju Massacre, an uprising occurred on Jeju Island, followed by a scorched earth style retaliation undertaken by government forces and right-wing paramilitary groups to root out communist influence on the island. The Jeju massacre was the second largest massacre in south Korea's modern history,<ref name=":8">{{News citation|author=Song Jung Hee|newspaper=The Jeju Weekly|title=Islanders still mourn April 3 massacre|date=2010-03-31|url=http://www.jejuweekly.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=657}}</ref> the death toll listed by the Jeju 4.3 Peace Foundation being approximately 30,000 people, or one-tenth of the island's population.<ref name=":9">{{News citation|newspaper=Jeju 4.3 Peace Foundation|title=Background to the Jeju 4·3 Uprising and Massacre|date=2018|url=http://jeju43peace.org/historytruth/fact-truth/factstruth-article1/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220723024308/http://jeju43peace.org/historytruth/fact-truth/factstruth-article1/|archive-date=2022-07-23}}</ref> <br />
<br />
Although the People’s Committees in other regions were either dissolved by the USAMGIK or operated under different names, the Jeju People’s Committee remained intact and enjoyed strong support. This was largely due to the pro-Japanese faction being relatively weak in Jeju. Many people who had fought for independence against the Japanese returned to their hometowns and became members of the People’s Committee in Jeju.<ref name=":1" /> However, Many Jeju islanders resisted the division of the Korean Peninsula and strongly protested the first election that was scheduled for May 10, 1948, that would confirm the formation of the Republic of Korea south of the 38th parallel. Their resistance to the division of the peninsula and the establishment of the Southern regime triggered a brutal suppression by government forces. <br />
<br />
According to The Jeju 4·3 Incident Investigation Report, "In around the middle of November 1948, uncompromising repression operations were carried out. Under these operations, a curfew was imposed on the residents of the upland areas and if anyone broke it, he or she was executed without exception. From the middle of November 1948 to February 1949, for about four months, the anti-guerrilla expeditions burned down the upland villages and killed the residents collectively. [...] During this period, the casualties were the highest and most of the upland villages were literally burnt to the ground."<ref>{{Citation|author=Jeju 4·3 Peace Foundation|year=2003|title=The Jeju 4·3 Incident Investigation Report|page=469|pdf=https://jeju43peace.or.kr/cmm/fms/FileDown.do?atchFileId=FILE_00000000000071265Cu0&fileSn=0|publisher=The National Committee for Investigation<br />
of the Truth about the Jeju April 3 Incident}}</ref> A combination of government forces and violent far-right paramilitary groups, notably the far-right anti-communist Northwest Youth League, carried out these attacks.<ref name=":7" /><br />
[[File:Jeju 4.3 Camellia flower.png|thumb|The camellia flower can be seen in the island of Jeju as a symbol of the 4.3 incident's victims. '''Above:''' A camellia flower pin. '''Below:''' Camellia flowers forming the shape of Jeju Island.]]<br />
<br />
===== Death toll of Jeju massacre and long-term imprisonment of Jeju islanders =====<br />
Because the facts of the Jeju massacre were officially suppressed for over fifty years, only coming to light in January 2000 when a Special Act was decreed by the south Korean Government calling for an official investigation of the incident, an official death toll could not be established until that time. Additionally, discoveries of mass grave execution sites, such as the mass grave uncovered in 2008 near Jeju Airport, illustrate the difficulty of calculating the massacre's true toll.<ref name=":8" /> According to a report by the National Commission on the Jeju April 3 Incident, 25,000 to 30,000 people were killed or simply vanished, with upwards of 4,000 more fleeing to Japan as the government sought to quell the uprising. As the island’s population was at most 300,000 at the time, the official toll was one-tenth of the inhabitants. However, some Jeju people claim that as many as 40,000 islanders were killed in the suppression.<ref name=":8" /> Some estimates claim as many as 60,000 people may have been killed by the end of these events.<ref>{{News citation|journalist=|date=2000-06-18|title=Ghosts of Cheju|url=|newspaper=Newsweek|archive-url=https://www.newsweek.com/ghosts-cheju-160665|archive-date=|retrieved=2021-21-30}}</ref> The 30,000 death figure, or one in every 10 Jeju residents at the time, is a common figure given for how many people lost their lives during this period, and is the one cited on the Jeju 4.3 Peace Foundation website.<ref name=":9" /> <br />
<br />
One result of the decades-long suppression of the facts of the massacre is the long-term imprisonment of Jeju islanders arrested on suspicion of being communists during the conflict. Many of those arrested on these charges died in captivity. Others remained in prison for up to 20 years, and those who had been released were not cleared of their criminal records, and were ostracized by the community or disadvantaged in their job applications for having criminal records. Decades after being arrested, some of the remaining victims had their names legally cleared of the charges in 2019, due to a ruling that found that the military court of the time did not follow proper legal procedures, made groundless charges, and that there were no court records found from the time explaining why those arrested were given such harsh sentences.<ref>{{News citation|author=Lee Suh-yoon|newspaper=The Korea Times|title=Jeju massacre victims get their names cleared in court|date=2019-01-17|url=https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2019/01/251_262242.html|quote=The suit was filed by 18 plaintiffs who were jailed after being branded as communist insurgents ― with around 2,500 others ― during the ideological conflict that flared up on the southern island after Korea's independence from Japan. Many died in captivity. Even after surviving the massacre and imprisonment, the plaintiffs were ostracized by the community or disadvantaged in their job applications for having criminal records. [...] The plaintiffs demanded a retrial in 2017, saying they were arrested and imprisoned for up to 20 years without fair procedure. There were no court records found from the time explaining why the plaintiffs were given such harsh sentences.}}</ref><br />
<br />
==== Fatherland Liberation War (1950–1953) ====<br />
<blockquote>''See also: [[Korean War]], [[List of atrocities commited by the United States of America#Korean War|List of atrocities committed by the United States of America#Korean War]]''</blockquote>This period is generally referred to in English as the "Korean War", in DPRK as the "Fatherland Liberation War" (Korean: 조국해방전쟁), and in south Korea as the "6.25 War" (Korean: 6·25 전쟁). In China it is sometimes referred to as the "Korean War", and some specific battles are referred to as the "War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea" (Chinese: 抗美援朝战争). This period is also referred to by some in English as "The Forgotten War" or "The Unknown War." <br />
<br />
In the U.S., the war was initially described as a "police action" as the United States never formally declared war on its opponents.<ref>Truman, Harry S. (29 June 1950). "The President's News Conference of June 29, 1950. Teachingamericanhistory.org. [https://web.archive.org/web/20101226063925/http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?document=594 Archive link].</ref> According to the U.S. Department of State's Office of the Historian, "When north Korea invaded south Korea in June 1950, the United States sponsored a "police action"—a war in all but name—under the auspices of the United Nations. The Department of State coordinated U.S. strategic decisions with the other 16 countries contributing troops to the fighting. In addition, the Department worked closely with the government of Syngman Rhee, encouraging him to implement reform so that the UN claim of defending democracy in Korea would be accurate." The U.S. Department of State's description of the war notes that "The Korean War was difficult to fight and unpopular domestically" and that "The American public tired of a war without victory."<ref>A Short History of the Department of State. "NSC-68 and the Korean War." Office of the Historian, Foreign Service Institute, U.S. Department of State. URL: https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/short-history/koreanwar [https://web.archive.org/web/20220725043544/https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/short-history/koreanwar Archive link].</ref><br />
<br />
The People's Democracy Party (PDP) of south Korea characterizes the conditions that led to the Korean War as follows:<blockquote>Objectively, there were 2,617 attacks from the South to the North during the year of 1949 under pro-U.S. and far-right Rhee Seung-man regime. Therefore, it cannot be viewed that the war broke out exactly on June 25th, 1950. The U.S. military government forcefully dissolved the people’s committees that were formed as independent South Corean people’s organizations and exhaustively massacred and oppressed the national liberation movement forces and patriotic and democratic forces after the U.S. army came into South Corea in September 1945 as an occupation force. <br />
<br />
All the people except the minimum of pro-U.S. and far-right forces held the “Joint Meeting of Representatives of Political Parties and Social Organizations in the North and South of Korea” in April 1948, in Pyongyang, and decided to immediately withdraw the U.S. military and to establish a unified government by the Corean nation’s power and initiative.<br />
<br />
However, the single government of the South was established by the U.S. and the intervention of the UN, which was under the domination of the U.S. Then, North Corea had to establish their own government. The condition for an outbreak of the Corean War had developed.<ref name=":23" /></blockquote>The PDP stated that the U.S. had become the head of imperialist forces after World War II, and Korea was the first country it invaded. The PDP characterizes the war as a battle between the Korean nation and U.S. imperialism, and also notes that "it was the first war that U.S. imperialism fought against a small country and lost."<ref name=":23" /><br />
<br />
Alan Winnington, a British correspondent in China and Korea for the ''Daily Worker,'' provides a description of the apparent ignorance of U.S. soldiers at the outset of the war, by interviewing POWs caught by the People's Army. Winnington writes:<blockquote>I asked every prisoner I met: “Why are you fighting in Korea?” Not one could give a clear answer. Most said: “I don’t know.” Some said: “It’s something to do with the United Nations, they told us.”<br />
<br />
A few had heard of Rhee. None knew of Kim Ir Sen. With one or two exceptions, Privates—nearly all teen-agers—said they had joined the army to “see the world”, “get out of the draft” or “save some money”. Their general view of the Korean war was summed up by Edward Sorea, nineteen-year-old Private of San Bernardino, California. He said: “I just wanted to travel. It was peace-time. Who in hell thought there would be a war? One drops on you from out of a clear sky.” <br />
<br />
You cannot find one American soldier who is concerned whether America wins the war or not—rather you meet many who want the Koreans to win quickly so that they can “get back home". “Win or lose”, they say, “American people have nothing to gain". Soldiers like that make bad fighters—just how bad can be seen by taking a trip down the main road from Kumchon, near the 38th Parallel, to Yongdong, near Taegu, in the South.<ref name=":24">{{Web citation|author=Alan Winnington|newspaper=The Daily Worker|title=I Saw The Truth In Korea: Facts and photographs that will shock Britain|date=September 1950|url=https://www.docdroid.net/8z73fQZ/i-saw-the-truth-in-korea-readingt-ver-pdf|quote=The Daily Worker sent me to Korea to get the facts at first hand and report them to the British public. And so I arrived in Korea on July 16 and stayed for five weeks. <br />
<br />
Of course, before I went I knew that the Americans were bombing heavily and fighting badly. I knew that Syngman Rhee's troops only existed as scattered units and there was no longer a “South Korean Army”; that effectively this was a war between America and Korea. These facts were common knowledge in the world, but I admit I was mentally unprepared for all I found. <br />
<br />
After all, five years ago we and the Russians were allies of the Americans in the war against the Nazis. Since then, Roosevelt and his colleagues have gone and atomic diplomacy has taken their place. But still, what I saw Americans doing in Korea shook me to my heels. I suppose all my life I’ve been listening to propaganda about America being a civilised nation and some of this must have sunk in. Somehow, I never quite thought of Americans doing exactly what the Nazis did until I saw it with my own eyes. <br />
<br />
We still talk of Coventry as an example of malicious and futile bombing, but the Americans have gone far ahead of the Nazis in what they politely term “Saturation Bombing”. The American style of waging war in Korea is on the same pattern as the Nazis but, bearing in mind the size of the country, even more savage and just as stupid. <br />
<br />
Wonsan is a much smaller town than Coventry, not nearly as large as the London suburb; of Walthamstow. During its first heavy raid in July, B.29 Superfortresses flung 500 tons of high explosive bombs into the town—sixty tons more than Coventry got on that terrible night ten years ago. No targets were aimed at. MacArthur’s communiqué admitted that there was “heavy cloud" which “prevented the evaluation of the effect of the raid”. Actually, visibility was nil at the time, for it was raining hard. In Coventry there were 1,000 casualties that night. During the first raid on Wonsan there were 1,249 killed and the northern half of the town was wiped out In August the raid was repeated, wiping out the other half. No other military objective was claimed than that this town was a rail centre. A thousand tons of bombs; a town obliterated; over 4,000 casualties in all; tens of thousands made homeless and bereaved—all to damage a rail -track. Does it make sense? This is bombing in the fashion that no British town ever met. I saw Coventry and I was in London all through the ‘blitz and I saw Wonsan after these raids. It was far worse than the worst the Nazis ever did.}}</ref></blockquote>Winnington contrasts the apparent cluelessness and lack of resolve of American troops with his observations of the attitudes of Koreans:<blockquote>[T]he ghastly destruction of homes and lives that has gone with it has made the whole nation furious. Even former apologists of America are now their bitter enemies.<br />
<br />
On roads you can meet men by the hundred who tell you: “My home was bombed in . . . so I sent my wife and children to relatives in the country and I’m oil to volunteer.” In Wonsan, the wife and children of a worker, Wan Wun Chu, were killed in a raid while he was at work. “They are dead and I cannot call them back,” he said. “If I die it is little now. But I would give my last drop of blood to get revenge and drive those murdering dogs from our country. They tell me my place is in production and I will work my fingers to the bone to produce more for the army.”<br />
<br />
Every village I visited proudly told me not only how many men had gone into the army but also how many volunteers were waiting to be accepted. There is no lack of the finest quality fighting men; men who were bred in the countless thousands of mountains that cover Korea; volunteers who know why they want to win.<ref name=":24" /></blockquote>Winnington sums up his 1950 assessment of the Korean War's outbreak by saying "Korea has repudiated Syngman Rhee and the Americans. All the Korean people want Korea to be reunited and ruled by Koreans. No regime can exist that has been repudiated by the people and this war can only be won by the Koreans just as the war in China could only be won by the people. This is one of the iron facts of the twentieth century. [...] In China the pattern was the same; America supported the most corrupt and hated enemies of the people, led by Chiang Kai-shek, backed them with more than ‘$6 billion, sent them military aid and advisers—and produced their great fiasco. [...] It is America which has invaded Korea. To defend the interests of Morgan and Rockefeller, of Dupont and the steel barons, to restore the land to the feudal landlords, to drive the people back to penury, to maintain a war base against the peaceful Soviet Union."<ref name=":24" /><br />
<br />
===== Support for DPRK among south Koreans during the war =====<br />
[[File:CIA document pages 1 and 2.jpg|thumb|1950 CIA document stating that more than 50% of Seoul students were actively aiding communists, many volunteering for the Northern Army, and that the working class of Seoul generally supported the North.<ref name=":6" />]]<br />
The Korean War and the following decades were characterized by massive arrest campaigns and mass killings to suppress communists as well as anyone else suspected of opposing the highly unpopular Southern regime. In 1950, when the DPRK attempted to reunify the country, Rhee's forces retreated and killed at least another 60,000 supposed communist sympathizers.<ref>{{Citation|author=Kim Dong-Choon|year=2004|title=Forgotten war, forgotten massacres--the Korean War (1950-1953) as licensed mass killings|chapter=|section=|page=|quote=|pdf=https://www.academia.edu/6417696|city=|publisher=Journal of Genocide Research|isbn=|doi=|lg=|mia=|title-url=|chapter-url=|trans-title=|trans-lang=}}</ref> <br />
<br />
In a 1950 CIA memorandum, after the Northern Army had taken over Seoul, Central Intelligence Director and U.S. Navy Rear Admiral R.H. Hillenkoeter reported that "over 50% of Seoul's students are actively aiding the Communist invaders, with many voluntarily enlisting in the Northern Army" and that among Seoul's population, "the working class generally supports the Northern Koreans, while merchants are neutral and the intelligentsia continue to be pro-Southern," adding that the streets of Seoul were "crowded [...] with youths engaging in Communist demonstrations.<ref name=":6">{{News citation|author=R.H. Hillenkoeter, Director of Central Intelligence|newspaper=CIA Memorandum|title=The Korean Situation|date=1950-7-19|url=https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/1950-07-19b.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220723030500/https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/1950-07-19b.pdf|archive-date=2022-07-23|quote=Past failure of the Republic of Korea to win the support of its restless student class may lie behind reports that over 50% of Seoul's students are actively aiding the Communist invaders, with many voluntarily enlisting in the Northern Army. Apparently attracted by the glamor of a winning army, the morale of these recruits may suffer rapidly if the going gets tough. Among others elements of Seoul's population, the working class generally supports the Northern Koreans, while merchants are neutral and the intelligentsia continue to be pro-Southern. A former Seoul policeman reports that North Korean troops and police are rather inconspicuous in Seoul. Commercially, the city is nearly "dead"; stores are closed except for two department stores and some greengrocers. The streets, however, are crowded, especially with youths engaging in Communist demonstrations.}}</ref><br />
<br />
The People's Democratic Party of south Korea, interviewed in 2020, said that "almost all workers and peasants in the South rejected the U.S. military" and added that "According to North Corea’s data, about 400,00 peoples in the South voluntarily enlisted in the North Corean military when the Corean war started."<ref name=":23" /> <br />
<br />
According to Kim Sin Gyu, a north Korean correspondent present in Seoul at the time: "When the city was first liberated, the citizens of Seoul welcomed the Korean People's Army. I remember hearing people say, 'We heard the north Korean communist soldiers were a monstrous rabble, with the horns of devils and red faces. But seeing them now, they are the same as us. The soldiers are young and brave and handsome.'"<ref name=":11">''Korea: The Unknown War.'' TV Documentary Series. Episode 2: "An Arrogant Display of Strength." Thames Television, 1988. Aired on WGBH Boston, 1990. (URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVCuku3Ldi0)</ref><br />
<br />
Alan Winnington, a ''Daily Worker'' correspondent present in Korea in 1950, wrote:<blockquote>Every evening, the countryside of Korea, especially in the South, boils with life. Hundreds of thousands of peasants and townfolk converge on roads and in a matter of hours have repaired the bomb damage of the previous day by the sheer weight of limitless, willing human labour. While that is going on, hundreds of thousands of others are resuming their trek south from where they stopped at dawn; managing countless oxcarts over remote by-ways; carrying loads of food and munitions on their backs. All these reconstruction and transport workers are volunteers, unpaid, providing their own food and materials, with their own militia to protect them from stray enemy troops, self-supporting, familiar with the terrain and determined to put an end to foreign occupation of their country. <br />
<br />
[...] In places where I checked the figures, I found that practically every available man and many of the women had taken part in one or other side of the Civilian War Service. Below the Parallel, in Koyang County near Seoul, in twelve days 54,085 men had volunteered out of a total population of only 180,000. During the advance of the People’s Army in this area, the local People’s Committee had mobilised 1,000 oxcarts in a single night for a transport emergency. I personally never met a peasant—except old and infirm—who had not helped the army in some way. And in cities, every evening you can see the reconstruction workers gathering in their thousands with spades, crowbars and ropes. At least half of these are women, who refuse to be kept out of even the heaviest and most dangerous work of rescue and fire-fighting during the raids.<ref name=":24" /> </blockquote><br />
<br />
===== U.S. war crimes =====<br />
<blockquote>''See also: [[List of atrocities commited by the United States of America#Korean War|List of atrocities committed by the United States of America#Korean War]]''</blockquote>During the Korean War, U.S. troops killed large numbers of Korean civilians and engaged in copious firebombing with napalm, and, as was eventually revealed through declassified documents, had at certain times a policy of deliberately firing on south Korean refugee groups approaching its lines.<ref name=":12">{{News citation|author=Youkyung Lee|newspaper=Associated Press|title=S. Korean who forced US to admit massacre has died|date=2014-08-07|url=https://apnews.com/article/108b4bd1dc854caeaf5f9349fcd5a176|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220726115036/https://apnews.com/article/108b4bd1dc854caeaf5f9349fcd5a176|quote=On July 26, 1950, outside the central South Korean village of No Gun Ri, hundreds of civilians from nearby villages, ordered south by U.S. troops, were stopped by a dug-in battalion of the U.S. 7th Cavalry Regiment, and then were attacked without warning by U.S. warplanes. Survivors fled under a railroad overpass, where for the next three days they were fired on by 7th Cavalry troops. [...] in January 2001 the Army acknowledged the No Gun Ri killings but assigned no blame, calling it a “deeply regrettable accompaniment to a war.” [...] In 2006 it emerged that among incriminating documents omitted from the 2001 U.S. report was a declassified letter from the U.S. ambassador in South Korea, dated the day the No Gun Ri killings began, saying the Army had adopted a policy of firing on refugee groups approaching its lines.}}</ref> In an article of the Asia-Pacific Journal, Kim Dong choon writes that "Few are aware that the Korean authorities as well as US and allied forces massacred hundreds of thousands of south Korean civilians at the dawn of the Korean War".<ref>{{News citation|author=Kim Dong choon|newspaper=The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus|title=The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Korea: Uncovering the Hidden Korean War. The Other War: Korean War Massacres.|date=2010-03-01|url=https://apjjf.org/-Kim-Dong-choon/3314/article.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220726125030/https://apjjf.org/-Kim-Dong-choon/3314/article.html|archive-date=2022-07-26|retrieved=2022-07-26}}</ref> There were also incidents of U.S. pilots ignoring their orders to stay within Korea and flying beyond its borders, strafing military targets in China and the Soviet Union.<ref name=":11" /><br />
<br />
According to U.S. Naval Captain Walter Karig, in his book ''Battle Report: The War in Korea'':<blockquote>[W]e killed civilians, friendly civilians, and bombed their homes; fired whole villages with the occupants--women and children and ten times as many hidden Communist soldiers--under showers of napalm, and the pilots came back to their ships stinking of vomit twisted from their vitals by the shock of what they had to do.<ref>Walter Karig; Malcolm W Cagle; Frank A Manson; et al (1952). ''Battle Report: The War in Korea'' (pp. 111-112). New York: Rinehart.</ref></blockquote>United States Air Force General Curtis LeMay, commander of the U.S.'s Strategic Air Command, gave a similar description of the U.S. military's conduct in Korea, saying:<blockquote>[W]e went over there and fought the war and eventually burned down every town in North Korea [...] some way or another, and some in south Korea, too. We even burned down Pusan—an accident, but we burned it down anyway. The Marines started a battle down there with no enemy in sight. Over a period of three years or so, we killed off—what—twenty percent of the population of Korea as direct casualties of war, or from starvation and exposure?<ref>Richard H. Kohn and Joseph P. Harahan (1988). ''[https://media.defense.gov/2010/Sep/29/2001329790/-1/-1/0/AFD-100929-052.pdf Strategic Air Warfare: an interview with generals Curtis E. LeMay, Leon W. Johnson, David A. Burchinal, and Jack J. Catton]'' (p. 88). Washington, D.C.: Office of Air Force History, United States Air Force. <small>ISBN 0-912799-56-0</small></ref></blockquote>In a 1950 pamphlet entitled "I Saw the Truth in Korea", written by Alan Winnington, correspondent in China and Korea for the ''Daily Worker'', Winnington describes the actions of U.S. forces in Korea, documenting massacres with photographs and describing the aftermath of bombings:<blockquote>[F]ive years ago we and the Russians were allies of the Americans in the war against the Nazis. Since then, Roosevelt and his colleagues have gone and atomic diplomacy has taken their place. But still, what I saw Americans doing in Korea shook me to my heels. I suppose all my life I’ve been listening to propaganda about America being a civilised nation and some of this must have sunk in. Somehow, I never quite thought of Americans doing exactly what the Nazis did until I saw it with my own eyes. [...] A thousand tons of bombs; a town obliterated; over 4,000 casualties in all; tens of thousands made homeless and bereaved—all to damage a rail-track. Does it make sense? This is bombing in the fashion that no British town ever met. I saw Coventry and I was in London all through the ‘blitz and I saw Wonsan after these raids. It was far worse than the worst the Nazis ever did.<ref name=":24" /></blockquote>In addition to the U.S. military's practice of fire-bombing civilian targets and firing on refugees, many south Korean civilian casualties occurred due to the American soldiers' inability to tell apart North and south Koreans. As described by an anonymous U.S. officer on the U.S. Defense Department radio program called "Time for Defense", "What makes it so difficult over here is that you can't tell the damn north Koreans from the south Koreans, and that's caused a lot of slaughter" ([[:File:Anonymous U.S. officer describes Korean war.mp4|audio file]]).<ref>''Korea: The Unknown War.'' TV Documentary Series. Episode 2: "An Arrogant Display of Strength." Thames Television, 1988. Aired on WGBH Boston, 1990. (URL: <nowiki>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVCuku3Ldi0</nowiki>)</ref> It may be argued that the policy of firing on groups of refugees was a result of this, as described in the 1988 documentary ''Korea: The Unknown War'', which observes that "American troops found it difficult to distinguish friend from foe," and that "the North Koreans had infiltrated refugee columns, and in the ensuing confusion, innocent civilians became casualties." According to the documentary, one American general allegedly commented, "If they look organized, shoot at them."<ref name=":11" /><br />
[[File:U.S. documents showing refugee policy early in Korean War.jpg|thumb|364x364px|'''Left:''' An unsigned Air Force memo from July 25, 1950 seeking alternatives on the policy of "strafing civilian refugees" which "is sure to receive wide publicity and may cause embarrassment to the U.S. Air Force and U.S. government." '''Right:''' A July 26, 1950 letter from the American embassy to the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State saying, "If refugees do appear from the north of US lines they will receive warning shots, and if they then persist in advancing they will be shot."]]<br />
One example of the U.S. policy of firing on groups of refugees is the incident of the Nogeun-ri massacre, also written as No Gun Ri (Korean: 노근리). The incident was little-known outside Korea until publication of an Associated Press story in 1999 in which U.S. veterans corroborated survivors' accounts, and details gradually became more widely known. In July 1950, American soldiers shot "hundreds of helpless civilians under a railroad bridge".<ref name=":13">{{News citation|author=Sang-Hun Choe, Charles J. Hanley and Martha Mendoza|newspaper=Washington Post|title=U.S. Massacre of Civilians in Korean War Described|date=1999-09-30|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/daily/sept99/skorea30.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220726121945/https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/daily/sept99/skorea30.htm|retrieved=2022-07-26}}</ref> U.S. veterans spoke of 100 or 200 or "hundreds" dead and described "a preponderance of women, children and old men among the victims", while Korean witnesses said 300 were killed at the bridge and 100 in a preceding air attack. One Korean witness commented that "the American soldiers played with our lives like boys playing with flies." One of the U.S. veterans described it as "wholesale slaughter."<ref name=":13" /> <br />
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Although this incident had gone unacknowledged for decades, in 2001 the U.S. Army acknowledged the killings, calling them a "regrettable accompaniment to a war." In 2006, it was revealed that among documents omitted from the 2001 U.S. report, there was a declassified letter from the U.S. ambassador in south Korea, dated the day the Nogeun-ri killings began, saying the Army had adopted a policy of firing on refugee groups approaching its lines.<ref name=":12" /> Some U.S. veterans have also described other refugee killings as well, when U.S. commanders ordered their troops to shoot civilians as a defense against disguised enemy soldiers, and declassified U.S. Air Force reports allegedly show that pilots also sometimes deliberately attacked "people in white" (referring to white peasant garb), suspecting that disguised north Korean soldiers were among them.<ref name=":13" /><br />
<br />
==== Armistice Agreement (1953) ====<br />
The armistice was signed on 27 July 1953. The signed armistice established the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), the de facto new border between the two nations, put into force a cease-fire, and finalized repatriation of prisoners of war. The DMZ runs close to the 38th parallel and has continued to separate north and south Korea since the Korean Armistice Agreement was signed in 1953.<br />
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==== U.S. abrogation of armistice paragraph 13d, introduction of nuclear weapons into South ====<br />
Paragraph 13d of the agreement mandated that neither side introduce new weapons into Korea. At a meeting in 1957, the U.S. informed the north Korean representatives that the United Nations Command no longer considered itself bound by paragraph 13d of the armistice,<ref>{{News citation|newspaper=Time Magazine|title=Korea: The End of 13d|date=1957-07-01|url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,809583,00.html|archive-date=https://web.archive.org/web/20220728030416/https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,809583,00.html|quote=One afternoon last week in the stuffy green Quonset hut that is the heart of the scrubby no man's land of Panmunjom, three U.S. generals, a British brigadier and a Republic of Korea air-force officer coldly confronted 40 North Korean commissars and military men. "I have a statement to make," began Major General Homer L. Litzenberg, U.S.M.C., in a level voice. Then, while the Communists listened attentively, he told them that the U.N. Command no longer felt bound by subparagraph 13D of the Korean armistice agreement—the clause limiting introduction of new weapons into Korea.}}</ref> and in 1958 the U.S. abrogated paragraph 13d of the armistice by introducing nuclear weapons into south Korea.<ref>{{News citation|author=Lee Jae-Bong|newspaper=The Asia-Pacific Journal|title=US Deployment of Nuclear Weapons in 1950s South Korea & North Korea's Nuclear Development: Toward Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula|date=2009-02-07|url=https://apjjf.org/-Lee-Jae-Bong/3053/article.html}}</ref><br />
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==== End of the First Republic ====<br />
In 1960, Rhee was forced to resign due to mass protests across the nation after the body of a student killed by police was found floating in the harbor.<ref>{{Citation|author=|year=|title=Cause of the 4.19 Revolution|chapter=|section=|page=|quote=|pdf=|city=|publisher=|isbn=|doi=|lg=|mia=|title-url=https://archive.ph/20120707225356/http://100.naver.com/100.nhn?docid=726618|chapter-url=|trans-title=|trans-lang=}}</ref> As a result of this, he fled to [[Honolulu]], [[Hawaii]], where he remained in exile until his death.<br />
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===Second Republic (1960–1961)===<br />
[[File:Park Chung Hee Japan.png|thumb|Park Chung-hee, the leader of the third and early fourth republics, in a Japanese military uniform]]<br />
After Rhee's overthrow, bourgeois democracy was briefly restored under president [[Yun Bo-seon]].<ref>{{News citation|journalist=|date=|title=The Democratic Interlude|url=http://countrystudies.us/south-korea/12.htm|newspaper=Library of Congress|archive-url=|archive-date=|retrieved=}}</ref> The second republic was founded during the April Revolution mass protests against President Syngman Rhee, succeeding the first republic and establishing a parliamentary government. After thirteen months it was overthrown by the south Korean Army in the May 16 coup led by [[Park Chung-hee]]. Park had fought for the Japanese during the occupation and took the Japanese name Takagi Masao.<ref>{{Citation|author=Stephen Gowans|year=2018|title=Patriots, Traitors and Empires: The Story of Korea’s Struggle for Freedom|chapter=The Patriot|page=67|pdf=https://ipfs.io/ipfs/bafykbzaced4iiga4ngtxusr2civjxewbili5jne2sbpefbx2s3im2kphattzc?filename=Stephen%20Gowans%20-%20Patriots%2C%20Traitors%20and%20Empires_%20The%20Story%20of%20Korea%E2%80%99s%20Struggle%20for%20Freedom-Baraka%20Books%20%282018%29.pdf|city=Montreal|publisher=Baraka Books|isbn=9781771861427|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=8435F6FF91279531705764823FDC2A7F}}</ref> In 1961, the ROK declared all [[Socialist state|socialist states]] its enemies and founded the [[Korean Central Intelligence Agency|KCIA]], a brutal secret police agency that routinely imprisoned and tortured dissidents. The KCIA required [[Trade union|union]] leaders to pledge loyalty to the state.<ref name=":1103" /><br />
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=== Third Republic (1963–1972) ===<br />
The Third Republic was founded on the dissolution of the Supreme Council for National Reconstruction that overthrew the Second Republic and established a military government in May 1961 when, on May 16, General [[Park Chung-hee]], the father of future president [[Park Geun-hye]] and former [[Empire of Japan (1868–1947)|Japanese]] collaborator, took power in a military coup. After serving for two years as chairman of the military junta, he was elected president in 1963, which is considered to be the start of the Third Republic. Park ruled as a military dictator for 18 years and sent 320,000 troops to support the [[Republic of Vietnam (1955–1975)|South Vietnamese]] puppet state in the [[Vietnam War]]. <br />
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==== Korean DMZ conflict ====<br />
The Korean DMZ conflict was a series of low-level armed clashes between north Korean forces and the forces of south Korea and the United States, largely occurring between 1966 and 1969 at the Korean DMZ.<br />
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=== Fourth Republic (1972–1981) ===<br />
[[File:Gwangju riot police.png|thumb|Riot troops attacking protestors during the Gwangju uprising]]<br />
The Fourth Republic was founded on the approval of the Yushin Constitution in the 1972 constitutional referendum, codifying the ''de facto'' dictatorial powers held by President Park Chung-hee. The Fourth Republic entered a period of political instability under Park's successor, Choi Kyu-hah, and the escalating martial law declared after Park's death. Choi was unofficially overthrown by [[Chun Doo-hwan]] in a coup d'état of December Twelfth in December 1979, and began the armed suppression of the [[May 18 uprising|Gwangju Democratization Movement]] against martial law. <br />
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After Park Chung-hee's assassination on 26 October 1979, General Chun Doo-hwan took power. During his presidency he perpetrated the largest massacre of Korean civilians since the Korean war. In May 1980, protests against martial law began in [[Gwangju]], which were met with special warfare troops. Estimates vary as to the amount of casualties, but they range from 165 at the most conservative, to over 300. Some also claim that up to 2,300 civilians were killed in the Gwangju massacre, in response to the May 18 uprising also known as the Gwangju uprising.<ref>{{News citation|author=K. J. Noh|newspaper=Hampton Institute|title=South Korean Dictator Dies, Western Media Resurrects a Myth|date=2020-12-02|url=https://www.hamptonthink.org/read/south-korean-dictator-dies-western-media-resurrects-a-myth|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220519190752/https://www.hamptonthink.org/read/south-korean-dictator-dies-western-media-resurrects-a-myth|archive-date=2022-05-19|retrieved=2022-06-02}}</ref><br />
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An article in ''The Nation'' states that the 10-day revolt known as the Gwangju uprising was triggered when students and other citizens protesting the military coup were attacked by airborne special forces "with a viciousness and cruelty that Koreans had not experienced since the darkest days of the Korean War." The article further states that "The armed resistance by Gwangju’s citizen militia liberated the city from the marauding troops. The townspeople, freed from decades of military rule, kept their city running, buried their dead, and transformed themselves into a self-organized system of mutual aid they now call the Gwangju Commune." On May 27 Korean Army troops were released from their usual duties on the border with DPRK to reoccupy Gwangju. The official death toll from the uprising stands at 165, but residents believe that more than 300 people were killed, with dozens still unaccounted for.<ref>Tim Shorrock and Injeong Kim. [https://www.thenation.com/article/world/two-days-in-may-that-shattered-korean-democracy/ “2 Days in May That Shattered Korean Democracy.”] The Nation. May 28, 2020. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220909162444/https://www.thenation.com/article/world/two-days-in-may-that-shattered-korean-democracy/ Archived] 2022-09-09.</ref><br />
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The Fourth Republic was dissolved on the adoption of a new constitution in March 1981 and replaced with the fifth Republic of Korea.<br />
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=== Fifth Republic (1981–1987) ===<br />
The fifth republic was established in March 1981 by Chun Doo-hwan. The fifth republic faced growing opposition from the democratization movement of the Gwangju Uprising, and the June Democracy Movement of 1987 resulted in the election of Roh Tae-woo in the December 1987 presidential election. The fifth republic was dissolved three days after the election upon the adoption of a new constitution that laid the foundations for the relatively stable democratic system of the current sixth Republic of Korea.<br />
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=== Sixth Republic (1987–present) ===<br />
The Sixth Republic was established in 1987 with Roh Tae-woo as its first president<ref>{{News citation|newspaper=두산백과 (Doopedia)|title=제6공화국 (Sixth Republic)|url=https://terms.naver.com/entry.naver?docId=1141297&cid=40942&categoryId=33385|retrieved=2022-07-24}}</ref> and sixth president of south Korea from 1988 to 1993. Roh's election was the first direct presidential election in 16 years. His presidency was followed by Kim Young-sam (in office 1993–1998), the first civilian to hold the office in over 30 years. After this came the presidency of Kim Dae-jung (in office 1998–2003), known for his "Sunshine Policy" of engagement through dialogue and economic and cultural exchanges with north Korea.<ref>{{News citation|author=Hyonhee Shin|newspaper=Reuters|title=Vindication: Architects of South Korea's 'Sunshine' policy on North say it's paying off|date=2018-06-11|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-usa-sunshinepolicy-idUSKBN1J60PP}}</ref> This was followed by the presidencies of Roh Moo-hyun (in office 2003–2008), and Lee Myung-bak (in office 2008–2013). <br />
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South Korea's next president, Park Geun-hye (in office 2013–2017), is the daughter of former dictator Park Chung-hee. Park Geun-hye was in office as the 11th president of Korea until she was impeached and convicted on corruption charges following public demonstrations, commonly known as the Candlelight Revolution or Candlelight Demonstrations. She became the first south Korean president to be removed from power by impeachment, and was sentenced to 24 years in prison, but received a pardon and was released in 2021 after serving just under 5 years.<ref>{{News citation|author=Hyonhee Shin|newspaper=Reuters|title=S.Korea's disgraced ex-president Park freed after nearly 5 years in prison|date=2021-12-31|url=https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/skoreas-disgraced-ex-president-park-freed-after-nearly-5-years-prison-2021-12-31/}}</ref> Park Geun-hye's presidency was followed by Moon Jae-in (in office 2017–2022). The 13th and current president of Korea is Yoon Suk-yeol of the conservative People Power Party.<br />
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==Politics==<br />
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=== Military command ===<br />
Since the [[Korean War|Korean war]] ended in 1953 with a ceasefire, the US has maintained control over the south Korean military.<ref>Swanström, N. (2021, April 27). ''Not a Sovereignty Issue: Understanding the Transition of Military Operational Control between the United States and South Korea''. Institute for Security and Development Policy. https://isdp.eu/publication/not-a-sovereignty-issue-understanding-the-transition-of-military-operational-control-between-the-united-states-and-south-korea/</ref><ref name=":16">{{News citation|author=Kathryn Botto|newspaper=Carnegie Endowment for International Peace|title=Why Doesn’t South Korea Have Full Control Over Its Military?|date=2019-08-21|url=https://carnegieendowment.org/2019/08/21/why-doesn-t-south-korea-have-full-control-over-its-military-pub-79702}}</ref><ref name=":17">Kelly, R. E. (2017, February 27). ''Why US control of the South Korean military is here to stay''. The Interpreter. <nowiki>https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/why-us-control-south-korean-military-here-stay</nowiki></ref><ref name=":18">{{News citation|author=Clint Work|newspaper=Stimson|title=No More Delays: Why It’s Time to Move Forward With Wartime OPCON Transition|date=June 21, 2022|url=https://www.stimson.org/2022/no-more-delays-why-its-time-to-move-forward-with-wartime-opcon-transition/|quote=The history and evolution of the US-ROK military command architecture reveal the inherent push and pull at the heart of the US-ROK alliance. Over time, the U.S. has encouraged the ROK to take on a more robust role in its own defense and within the alliance’s command architecture. However, U.S. officials have also been equally hesitant to relinquish too much control too quickly. Simply put, Washington has had trouble navigating the outer edges of its own authority within the alliance command structure as it simultaneously and discordantly pushes and pulls back Seoul in the process.}}</ref><ref name=":19">{{News citation|newspaper=United States Forces Korea|title=Combined Forces Command|url=https://www.usfk.mil/About/CFC/#Commanders|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220728035053/https://www.usfk.mil/About/CFC/|archive-date=2022-07-28|quote=The CFC is commanded by a four-star U.S. general, with a four-star ROK Army general as deputy commander. Throughout the command structure, binational manning is readily apparent: if the chief of a staff section is Korean, the deputy is American and vice versa. This integrated structure exists within the component commands as well as the headquarters. All CFC components are tactically integrated through continuous combined and joint planning, training and exercises.}}</ref> ''US Forces Korea'' were integrated with ROK forces into a ''Combined Forces Command'', which was in turn integrated into the [[United Nations]] Command. All three commands are headed by the same person, a four-star US general<ref name=":17" /><ref name=":19" /> (currently General Paul J. LaCamera<ref>{{Web citation|newspaper=United States Forces Korea|title=Commander UNC/CFC/USFK|url=https://www.usfk.mil/About/Leadership/Article-View/Article/1685489/commander-unccfcusfk/}}</ref> who took functions in 2021).<br />
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South Korea has operational control (referred to as OPCON) of its military under armistice conditions, but the United States would take over in wartime, and the U.S. combatant commander would be able to direct, organize, employ, assign command functions to, or suspend the duty of subordinate South Korean commanders and forces. In essence, if war breaks out on the Korean Peninsula, south Korea would supply the overwhelming majority of the fighting force, which would then be placed under U.S. operational control.<ref name=":16" /> <br />
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Throughout the history of the US-ROK arrangement, the U.S. and ROK have engaged in a back-and-forth trying to determine what degree of control each party should have under this relationship, with the U.S. often showing a reluctance to relinquish control over the ROK's military, and ROK leaders at times expressing a wish to have more control over their own military, and at other times expressing acceptance of the U.S.'s authority over the ROK military in wartime.<ref name=":18" /><br />
=== NATO alliance ===<br />
[[File:Mark Esper suggesting NATO for Asia.png|thumb|Mark Esper, former [[United States Department of Defense|U.S. Secretary of Defense]] and [[Raytheon]] lobbyist, delivering a speech at Think Tank 2022, which was focused on issues facing the Korean peninsula. Esper stated, "It is said that the United States does not seek to build a, quote, "[[North Atlantic Treaty Organization|NATO]] for Asia". And I say, 'Why not?'"<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":2" />]]<br />
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On February 26, 2022 (KST), former U.S. Secretary of Defense and Raytheon weapons manufacturer lobbyist, Mark Esper, delivered a speech at the 4th Think Tank 2022 Forum,<ref name=":2">{{News citation|author=Dr. William Selig|newspaper=Universal Peace Federation|title=4th Think Tank 2022 Forum Features Former U.S. Secretary of Defense|date=2022-02-26|url=https://www.upf.org/peace-and-security-reports/10012-4th-think-tank-2022-forum-featured-hon-mark-esper-former-u-s-secretary-of-defense|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220723061325/https://www.upf.org/peace-and-security-reports/10012-4th-think-tank-2022-forum-featured-hon-mark-esper-former-u-s-secretary-of-defense|archive-date=2022-07-23|retrieved=2022-07-23}}</ref> which is a think tank associated with Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon,<ref>{{News citation|newspaper=Think Tank 2022|title=Co-Founder Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon|url=http://thinktank2022.org/founder/HakJaHanMoon.php}}</ref> the wife of late millionaire<ref>{{News citation|newspaper=Celebrity Net Worth|title=Sun Myung Moon Net Worth|url=https://www.celebritynetworth.com/richest-celebrities/authors/sun-myung-moon-net-worth/|quote=Sun Myung Moon was a Korean religious leader, businessman, and media mogul who had a net worth of $900 million at the time of his death. Sun Myung Moon was best known for founding the Unification movement and authoring its conservative theology of the "Divine Principle." [...] Some considered him a cult leader.}}</ref> Rev. Sun Myung Moon, founder and self-proclaimed messiah of the generally right-wing, anti-communist [[Unification Church]].<ref>{{News citation|author=Conal Urquhart|newspaper=The Guardian|title=Sun Myung Moon, founder of the Moonies, dies in South Korea|date=2012-09-03|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/sep/03/moonies-sun-myung-moon-dies|quote=Moon saw himself as a messiah and created a church that became a worldwide movement and claims to have around 3 million members, including 100,000 in the United States. [...] He was jailed for five years by the North Korean government in 1948, but escaped in 1950 when his guards fled as United Nations troops advanced. He was an active anti-Communist throughout the cold war.}}</ref> Speaking at this event, weapons industry lobbyist Esper emphasized the need for full cooperation between the U.S., south Korea, and Japan in the face of challenges posed by north Korea and China, saying:<blockquote>It is said that the United States does not seek to build a, quote, "NATO for Asia". And I say, "Why not?" We should have lofty goals and high expectations and not let history and distance confound us. America's European allies overcame a brutal history to form a collective security arrangement to deal with [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (1917–1991)|Soviet Russia]]. There's no reason why the same can't happen in the Indo-Pacific as we increasingly face off against a recalcitrant north Korea and aggressive communist China.<ref name=":3">Esper, Mark. 4th Think Tank 2022 Forum. "Hon. Mart[sic] Esper, 27th United States Secretary of Defense keynote address." Think Tank 2022. Uploaded April 13, 2022. URL:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfKih9aabsk (NATO-related quote begins at 16:36)</ref></blockquote>Esper stated that he is a "big believer" in the quadrilateral security dialogue known as "The Quad" a strategic security dialogue between [[Commonwealth of Australia|Australia]], [[Republic of India|India]], Japan, and the United States that is maintained by talks between member countries, which Esper says is "rightly viewed as a unified response to China's rising military and economic power." He states, "I believe south Korea should be the next partner to join the Quad, transitioning it into the Quint."<ref name=":3" /><br />
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The former Raytheon lobbyist and defense company Epirus Inc. board member then went on to say that "America's allies and partners need to invest at least two percent of their GDP for defense and invest in the right capabilities," listing long-range precision strike capabilities, air and missile defenses, advanced submarines, and fifth generation fighter aircraft as examples, and noting that the Republic of Korea has already met this two percent mark.<ref name=":3" /> Esper describes that these weapons investments will help the region deter Chinese and north Korean "aggression" and states that a "reinvigorated work plan with the DPRK should begin with the complete verifiable and irreversible denuclearization of the North."<ref name=":2" /><br />
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In June 2022, the south Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol declared he will participate in the 3rd [[NATO Summit]] of 2022.<ref>{{News citation|newspaper=Kyodo News|title=Yoon to attend NATO summit, 1st time for S. Korean president|date=2022-06-22|url=https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2022/06/968e985e4c76-yoon-to-attend-nato-summit-1st-time-for-s-korean-president.html}}</ref> The director of the National Security Office Kim Sung-han declared not much later that south Korea will establish a "diplomatic mission" to NATO in Brussels to coincide with President Yoon Suk-yeol's participation in the Summit. According to Sung-han, this mission will make south Korea "able to increase information sharing and strengthen our networks with NATO allies and partners and establish a Europe platform that is worthy of our [global] status".<ref>{{News citation|newspaper=Korea JoongAng Daily|title=Korea to open diplomatic mission to NATO|date=2022-06-22|url=https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2022/06/22/national/politics/Korea-Nato-Summit-Yoon-Sukyeol/20220622191349616.html}}</ref><br />
<br />
=== Unconverted long-term prisoners ===<br />
[[File:Unconverted long-term prisoners in south Korea.jpg|thumb|A demonstration calling for a second repatriation of unconverted long-term prisoners in south Korea. The sign reads "Call for second repatriation of non-converted long-term prisoners" ("비전향장기수 2차 송환 촉구").]]<br />
''Main article: [[Unconverted long-term prisoners]]''<br />
<br />
Unconverted long-term prisoners is a term which refers to political prisoners imprisoned in south Korea, generally on charges of "anti-state" activities or views in support of communism or DPRK. While in prison, many of them were held in solitary confinement and subjected to extensive torture while being pressured to sign a "conversion" statement renouncing communist or left-wing ideology.<ref>{{News citation|newspaper=BBC News|title=Solitary: Tough test of survival instinct|date=1999-02-25|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/286070.stm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220725155633/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/286070.stm}}</ref> In the 1990s, some of the unconverted prisoners began being released. Some chose to remain in south Korea while others sought to be repatriated to DPRK.<ref name=":10">Kim Dong-won. ''Repatriation'' (2003). Documentary. URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xu2mEvU29Q</ref> Some were able to return to DPRK, notably 63 of them in the year 2000,<ref name=":28">[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/907307.stm "Korean communists go home."] BBC News, 2 September, 2000. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240311153647/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/907307.stm Archived] 2024-03-11.</ref><ref>{{News citation|newspaper=파이낸셜 뉴스 (Financial News)|title=북한, 비전향장기수 북송 21주년 맞아 생존 장기수들 조명 (North Korea celebrates 21st anniversary of repatriation of non-converted long-term prisoners to North Korea)|date=2021-09-06|url=https://www.fnnews.com/news/202109061041393026}}</ref> but others remained in the South, being denied their requests for repatriation.<ref>{{News citation|author=Kang Jin-kyu|newspaper=Korea JoongAng Daily|title=Spies who can't come in from the cold|date=2016-08-07|url=https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2016/08/07/politics/Spies-who-cant-come-in-from-the-cold/3022316.html}}</ref> <br />
Those who returned to the DPRK were met with celebrations and awards,<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20191124030603/http://www.kcna.co.jp/item/2000/200009/news09/04.htm "National reunification prizes awarded to unconverted long-term prisoners"], [[Korean Central News Agency]], 2000-09-04. Archived 2019-11-19.</ref> while those remaining in south Korea faced difficulties including ongoing health issues from their long imprisonment, living in poverty, not being given social security numbers,<ref name=":10" /> and being subjected to ROK state surveillance under the Security Surveillance Act.<ref name=":22">{{Web citation|author=Liberation School|newspaper=Liberation School|title=Still fighting for Korea’s liberation: An interview with Ahn Hak-sop|date=Jul 27, 2022|url=https://www.liberationschool.org/interview-with-ahn-hak-sop/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/2/https://www.liberationschool.org/interview-with-ahn-hak-sop/}}</ref> <br />
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Many who participated in the repatriation in the year 2000 and many of those who remained in south Korea made their decisions based on their impression at the time that there was going to be more freedom of movement between ROK and DPRK thereafter. In an interview with [[Liberation School]], former prisoner Ahn Hak-sop, who chose to remain in the South when the 2000 repatriation happened, said one of his reasons was that he "thought it was a temporary situation." Anh also notes regarding two prisoners released alongside him, that "Those comrades went to the North because they thought that shortly there would be free movement between the two states. They went to the North to study and thought they would come back later." Regarding his own intention to stay in the south temporarily, Anh elaborated: "[T]here were young progressive people here in the South, and they asked me to stay. [...] We have to keep struggling here for the withdrawal of US army, the peace treaty, and peaceful reunification. I decided to stay here to fight for these goals. In 1952, I came here to liberate the southern half of the peninsula, and I need to stay here and continue that struggle."<ref name=":22" /><br />
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Those who oppose or criticize the repatriation of these former prisoners generally do so on grounds of demanding that DPRK start repatriating people back to the south as well.<ref name=":28" /><br />
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=== National Security Law ===<br />
The National Security Law is a south Korean law enforced since 1948 with the avowed purpose "to secure the security of the State and the subsistence and freedom of nationals, by regulating any anticipated activities compromising the safety of the State." Behaviors or speeches in favor of the DPRK or communism can be punished by the National Security Law. In an article from The Diplomat, it was referred to as a "Cold War holdover" that "allows the government to selectively prosecute anyone who 'praises, incites or propagates the activities of an anti-government organization'" which the article describes as "a deliberately vague clause that broadly implies the north Korean state and its sympathizers." The article continues, explaining "Under Article 7, individuals have been prosecuted and imprisoned for merely possessing north Korean publications or satirically tweeting north Korean propaganda. In recent years this clause has been harshly criticized by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, who claim the government abuses the law to repress dissenting voices."<ref>{{News citation|author=Meredith Shaw and Joseph Yi.|newspaper=The Diplomat|title=Will Yoon Suk-yeol Finally Reform South Korea’s National Security Law?|date=2022-03-15|url=https://thediplomat.com/2022/03/will-yoon-suk-yeol-finally-reform-south-koreas-national-security-law/}}</ref><br />
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=== Anti-imperialist, anti-U.S., and pro-unification struggle in south Korea ===<br />
[[File:Unification Vanguard of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions Anti-US Demonstration.png|thumb|318x318px|The Unification Vanguard of the [[Korean Confederation of Trade Unions]] unfurls large banners reading "This land is our land, YANKEE GO HOME" and "Stop practicing for a war of aggression" in an August 2022 demonstration against US-ROK joint military exercises.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXCK3s-vic8 "23기 민주노총 중앙통일선봉대 활동영상" ("23rd KCTU Central Unification Vanguard Activity Video")]. 민주노총 (Confederation of Trade Unions). Aug 14, 2022. YouTube.</ref><ref>김준. (Kim Jun). [http://worknworld.kctu.org/news/articleView.html?idxno=500588 "쌍용훈련 재개 예고에 23기 중앙통선대, 포항 한미연합상륙훈련장 지휘소 기습점거투쟁" ("23rd Central Telecommunication Battalion, Pohang ROK-U.S. Combined Amphibious Training Center Command Post, Surprise Occupation Struggle to Announce Resumption of Ssangyong Training").] 노동과세계. 2022.08.12. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220828050027/http://worknworld.kctu.org/news/articleView.html?idxno=500588 Archived] 2022-08-28.</ref>]]<br />
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According to the People's Democracy Party (PDP), a revolutionary workers' party in south Korea, the continued U.S. military occupation of south Korea is the primary barrier to peaceful reunification of the Korean peninsula. The PDP, co-authoring a 2020 ''Liberation School'' article, writes:<blockquote>The peace of the Corean Peninsula is possible only after the withdrawal of the U.S. troops. The U.S. troops are occupation forces in South Corea and invading army to North Corea. So their withdrawal is the most desperate and preferred struggle task for the whole Corean nation to solve. The present war crisis escalating to a high level proves that peace in the Corean peninsula cannot be realized unless the U.S. troops are withdrawn from South Corea.<br />
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As long as the U.S. troops are stationed in South Corea and war exercises are conducted against North Corea, the prospect for peace is bound to be dark. We are convinced from our historical experience that if we develop the struggles for the withdrawal of the U.S. troops into a popular uprising of the South Corean people, and if the whole Corean nation can struggle together in great unity, we can withdraw the U.S. troops from South Corea.<br />
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[...] True peace is possible only without imperialism; the head of imperialism is the U.S. We have an opinion that a true peace movement should be an anti-imperialist movement and an anti-U.S. movement. We believe that the progressive and peace-loving forces of the world can and must conduct an anti-imperialist, anti-war struggle, to halt all wars in the world by U.S. troops and to withdraw all U.S. troops stationed overseas. The key is the formation of an anti-imperialist, anti-U.S. united front and anti-imperialist, anti-U.S. joint action.<ref name=":23" /></blockquote><br />
[[File:South Korean students rush the U.S. Ambassador’s official residence, 2019.png|thumb|South Korean students surprise rushing U.S. Ambassador [[Harry Harris]]' official residence in 2019, using ladders to climb over the wall, with signs saying “leave this land” and shouting "Stop interfering with our domestic affairs" and "We don’t need U.S. troops."<ref name=":26">Shin, Hyonhee. 2019. [https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-northkorea-southkorea-idUSKBN1WX0Z6 “South Korean Students Climb into U.S. Envoy’s Residence in Protest against Troop Presence.”] U.S. October 18, 2019. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230325105702/https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-northkorea-southkorea-idUSKBN1WX0Z6 Archived] 2023-03-25.</ref><ref name=":27">오마이TV. 2019. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Del06vXK8nk “순식간에 미대사관저 담장 넘어간 대학생들.”] YouTube Video. [https://web.archive.org/web/20221018101952/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Del06vXK8nk&feature=youtu.be Archive link].</ref>]]<br />
In 2019, 19 south Korean students were detained after several used a ladder to climb over the wall into the grounds of the U.S. Ambassador [[Harry Harris]]' residence in Seoul in protest against the U.S. troop presence in the country. A spokesman for the US Embassy in Seoul said that approximately 20 Korean nationals illegally entered the official residential compound of the U.S. Ambassador and attempted to forcibly enter the residence itself. In a video broadcast from inside the compound, the activists accused the United States of demanding a 500% increase in the cost of keeping some 28,500 troops in south Korea, holding a banner saying "Leave this soil, Harris" and shouted "Stop interfering with our domestic affairs!" "Get out!" and "We don’t need U.S. troops!" before being marched out of the residence by police. The students had also attempted to break into the U.S. Embassy in Seoul in 2018, before being stopped by police. A Reuters article notes that the student group also "held a forum to present their 'research findings' on the achievements of North Korean leader [[Kim Jong-un|Kim Jong Un]], lauding him as a caring and influential leader."<ref name=":26" /><ref name=":27" /> <br />
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[[Nodutdol]] (Korean: 노듯돌), an [[Anti-imperialism|anti-imperialist]], pro-unification organization of diasporic Koreans,<ref>[https://nodutdol.org/about/ “About.”] Nodutdol. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230401142208/https://nodutdol.org/about/ Archived] 2023-04-01.</ref> notes in their 2020 pamphlet "Sanctions of Empire" that Ambassador Harry Harris has been obstructive toward inter-Korean reconciliation, blocking efforts by the [[Moon Jae-in]] administration to develop tourism into the DPRK, claiming that "independent" tourism plans would have to undergo US consultation, emphasizing that the items inside south Korean tourists' luggage could violate [[Economic sanctions|sanctions]].<ref>[https://nodutdol.org/sanctions-of-empire/ "제국의 제재 - Sanctions of Empire."] [[Nodutdol]]. October 20, 2020. [https://nodutdol.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Sanctions-of-Empire.pdf PDF]. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220520095404/https://nodutdol.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Sanctions-of-Empire.pdf Archive].</ref><br />
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On Jeju Island, located off the southern tip of the Korean peninsula, a decade-long protest of the construction of a naval base has been ongoing. Activists noted in a 2013 statement that the base will only worsen the likelihood of Koreans being pulled into a US-China conflict: "Jeju naval base will be an outpost of the U.S. maritime military alliance, together with Japan, targeting China, rather than a strategic point of independent national defense. With the U.S. [[Pivot to Asia]] strategy, the chances of South Korea’s getting pulled into conflicts between the U.S. and China increase."<ref>[https://www.peoplepower21.org/english/1080148 <nowiki>“[Publication] No Naval Base on Jeju Island! - 참여연대 -.”</nowiki>] 참여연대. October 7, 2013. [https://web.archive.org/web/20210414023914/http://www.peoplepower21.org/English/1080148 Archive link].</ref> Although the base eventually completed construction, protestors continued to oppose it with demonstrations and attempted entries into it, saying that although it is nominally a south Korean base, it is "a place where cutting-edge strategic assets in the US military can stop by whenever they please according to American interests."<ref>[https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_international/820635.html “American Nuclear Submarine Enters Jeju Naval Base.”] Hankyoreh. Hani.co.kr. 2017. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230325090226/https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_international/820635.html Archived] 2023-03-25.</ref> In 2020, an activist was arrested for trespassing on the base and destroying government property.<ref>Elizabeth Shim. [https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2020/03/30/South-Korea-arrests-protester-for-infiltrating-Jeju-Naval-Base/2991585585755/ “South Korea Arrests Protester for Infiltrating Jeju Naval Base.”] UPI. March 30, 2020. [https://web.archive.org/web/20200814001452/https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2020/03/30/South-Korea-arrests-protester-for-infiltrating-Jeju-Naval-Base/2991585585755/ Archived].</ref><br />
[[File:People rally to protest against the planned South Korea-U.S. military drills in Seoul, South Korea, Aug. 13, 2022.jpg|thumb|People rally against the ROK-US military drills, Aug. 13, 2022. Banners say "Stop war exercises! No to USA!" (Korean: 전쟁연습 중단! 미국 반대!)]]<br />
On August 13, 2022, thousands of south Korean unionists and their progressive supporters rallied in downtown Seoul to protest against joint US-south Korea war game exercises. In a video uploaded by [[Press TV]], Oh Eun-Jung of the National Teachers Union was quoted as saying "The threat of nuclear war is growing on the Korean peninsula, conservative forces of Yoon Suk-yeol in south Korea and those in the U.S. are frantically conducting aggressive war drills in the sky, the land, and the sea, and are about to start large-scale military exercises, aimed at the invasion of north Korea. We must stamp out this behavior of anti-reunification forces." In the same video, construction worker Lee Seung-Woo stated, "We not only oppose the war exercises, but we want the U.S. Forces Korea, which is actually controlling and interfering with the Korean peninsula to leave this land. We believe that only then will the eighty million Koreans from both north and south be able to live peacefully."<ref>Frank Smith. [https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2022/08/13/687322/South-Korean-unionists-protest-US-South-Korea-war-games “‘South Korean Unionists Protest US-South Korea War Games.’”] PressTV News. August 13, 2022. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220826124551/https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2022/08/13/687322/South-Korean-unionists-protest-US-South-Korea-war-games Archived] 2022-08-28.</ref><br />
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The media company [[Sovereignty Broadcast]] (Korean: 주권방송), additionally going by the name 615tv on some of its social media accounts, uploads educational and informative videos its to YouTube page regarding the peace and unification struggle in Korea. According to the channel's about page, it is an internet media company that deals with peace and unification on the Korean Peninsula and various current affairs topics in Korea.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/c/The615tv/about About Sovereignty Broadcast]. Sovereignty Broadcast. YouTube.</ref><br />
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=== Censorship ===<br />
Until 1973, images of [[Kim Il-sung]] were banned in south Korea. The southern secret police falsely claimed that Kim was an impostor who had not been involved in the guerrilla resistance against Japan. In 1989, the police state arrested an average of 3.3 Koreans every day under anti-communist censorship laws. Many [[Anti-capitalism|anti-capitalist]] books are banned, even some by non-[[Marxism|Marxists]]. In 2011, southern authorities deleted over 67,000 internet posts that were critical of the ROK or United States. Left-wing music such as the ''Song of the Red Flag'' (which is even used by the [[Social democracy|social democratic]] [[Labour Party (UK)|UK Labour Party]]) is also illegal under the National Security Law.<ref name=":1103">{{Citation|author=Stephen Gowans|year=2018|title=Patriots, Traitors and Empires: The Story of Korea’s Struggle for Freedom|chapter=The Anti-Communist Police State|page=136–145|pdf=https://ipfs.io/ipfs/bafykbzaced4iiga4ngtxusr2civjxewbili5jne2sbpefbx2s3im2kphattzc?filename=Stephen%20Gowans%20-%20Patriots%2C%20Traitors%20and%20Empires_%20The%20Story%20of%20Korea%E2%80%99s%20Struggle%20for%20Freedom-Baraka%20Books%20%282018%29.pdf|city=Montreal|publisher=Baraka Books|isbn=9781771861427|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=8435F6FF91279531705764823FDC2A7F}}</ref><br />
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=== Government-sanctioned prostitution and sex trafficking victims ===<br />
[[File:Women who were encouraged by the South Korean government to work as prostitutes near US military bases hold a press conference outside of the Seoul High Court in the Seocho neighborhood.jpg|thumb|Women who were encouraged by the South Korean government to work as prostitutes near US military bases hold a press conference outside of the Seoul High Court in the Seocho neighborhood following a court ruling on their case on Feb. 8, 2018.]]<br />
As described in a 2019 article by journalist [[Tim Shorrock]], "between the end of the Korean War and the early 1990s, more than one million Korean women were caught up in a state-controlled prostitution industry" that was operated by and for the benefit of the U.S. military. They worked in special zones surrounding U.S. bases, in areas licensed by the south Korean government, reserved exclusively for American troops, and monitored and policed by the U.S. Army. Shorrock explains that the system was designed to strengthen the U.S.-south Korean alliance and boost the morale of U.S. military personnel, and for south Korea to bring in foreign currency, with prostitution for this purpose being encouraged as a woman’s patriotic duty to the state. These zones, called ''kijichon'' (Korean: 기지촌; "military camp town"), were established around 31 U.S. Army, Air Force, and Navy bases in South Korea. Shorrock writes that "in Gyonggi province, which extends from south of Seoul up to the DMZ and was home to the majority of U.S. bases, some 10,000 sex workers were registered every year from 1953 to the late 1980s."<ref name=":25">[[Tim Shorrock|Shorrock, Tim]]. 2019. [https://newrepublic.com/article/155707/united-states-military-prostitution-south-korea-monkey-house “Welcome to the Monkey House.”] The New Republic. December 2, 2019. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230322174621/https://newrepublic.com/article/155707/united-states-military-prostitution-south-korea-monkey-house Archived] 2023-03-22.</ref><br />
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In 2018, Lee Beom-gyun, a judge on an appellate court in Seoul, agreed that the south Korean government had actively encouraged prostitution to boost ties with the United States. Lee ruled that the Korean state "operated and managed" the military camp towns to contribute to the "maintenance of a military alliance essential for national security" and abetted the industry "through patriotic education praising prostitutes as 'patriots who bring in foreign currency.'" He concluded that the government had violated the human rights of its citizens and denounced the practice of segregating "camp town prostitutes in forced internment facilities or through the indiscriminate administration of penicillin, which carries serious physical side effects."<ref name=":25" /><ref>[http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_international/831625.html “Court Finds That South Korean Government Encouraged Prostitution near US Military Bases.”] 2018. Hani.co.kr. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230325113713/http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_international/831625.html Archived] 2023-03-25.</ref><br />
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The 2019 article describes one sex worker's experience in this system:<blockquote>One former sex worker starkly laid out the conditions faced by many ''kijichon'' women in a documentary film produced by Durebang. “A pimp sold me to a U.S. camp town,” she recalled. “Inside a warehouse, I was raped. The police sent me to the Monkey House, where American medics gave us injections” of penicillin and other drugs to prevent the spread of STDs. After her release, she was required to wear a plastic badge showing she’d been tested—“cunt tags,” she called them. All sex workers and bar owners were required to hang these registration certificates on the walls of their establishments as well.<ref name=":25" /></blockquote>Choi Hee-shin, a community organizer who grew up in Dongducheon, which surrounds the U.S. Camp Casey, was quoted in the same 2019 article saying, “Lots of people are ashamed of what happened in the camp towns, and want to forget," further stating, "But people like me, we can't forget. The U.S.-South Korean alliance depended on these comfort women."<br />
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According to Wellesley Professor Katharine H.S. Moon in ''Sex Among Allies'', a history of military prostitution in south Korea, the "overwhelming majority" of prostitutes in the camp towns were either orphans or abandoned children. Moon estimates in her book that at the peak of U.S. troop strength in the 1980s, the ''kijichon'' economy contributed 5 percent of South Korea’s gross domestic product. Once they were recruited to the camp towns, women found themselves trapped by debt. They carried out their sex work in rooms they had to rent from the bar owners. They also had to buy all their supplies, including their bed, their clothes, and the phonographs they set up to entertain their American clients.<br />
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Shorrock explains that many of the Koreans who seek justice for camp-town sex workers refer to them as [[comfort women]], a term which commonly refers to women whom the Japanese Imperial Army kidnapped and forced to work in military brothels called "comfort stations" during the Second World War. However, the Korean public has generally refrained from treating the kijichon women as victims of imperialism in the manner of the comfort women. Park Jeong-mi, a professor at Chungbuk National University, argues that this sentiment is unfair, and in her research she has found a direct historical link between the Japanese and American systems, as the U.S. military government created an administrative state that was dominated by Koreans who had collaborated with Japan's colonial rulers. The shift from Japanese- to American-coerced sex work was an easy transition, she said: "High-ranking Korean officials who served under Japanese colonial rule were familiar with the comfort station system." Under U.S. pressure, Park said, the south Korean government licensed the bars and clubs that hired the women who entertained the U.S. troops, likening those establishments to de facto brothels.<ref name=":25" /><br />
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=== Sexism ===<br />
Women are only paid half as much as men for the same job.<ref name=":1222">{{Citation|author=[[Vijay Prashad]]|year=2008|title=The Darker Nations: A People's History of the Third World|chapter=Singapore|page=248|pdf=https://cloudflare-ipfs.com/ipfs/bafykbzaceascnzh26r5d6uitjjs2z7rflhaxlt7rboz5whzdf76qg6xxvecqq?filename=%28A%20New%20Press%20People%27s%20history%29%20Vijay%20Prashad%20-%20The%20darker%20nations_%20a%20people%27s%20history%20of%20the%20third%20world-The%20New%20Press%20%282008%29.pdf|publisher=The New Press|isbn=9781595583420|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=9B40B96E830128A7FE0E0E887C06829F}}</ref><br />
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==Rising anti-capitalism==<br />
In recent years, the term '''"'''[[Hell Joseon]]" or "Hell Korea" (Korean: 헬조선) has become popular to describe the social anxiety and discontent surrounding high unemployment and poor working conditions.<ref>[http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/739886.html Lashing out at “Hell Joseon”, young’uns drive ruling party’s election beatdown]</ref><ref>[https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/young-south-koreans-call-their-country-hell-and-look-for-ways-out/2016/01/30/34737c06-b967-11e5-85cd-5ad59bc19432_story.html Young South Koreans call their country ‘hell’ and look for ways out] by the [[Washington Post]]</ref> <br />
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south Korean media has also increasingly included narratives of class antagonism which have been popular successes for Western audiences, with films such as ''Snowpiercer'' (2013)<ref>[https://newmultitude.org/snowpiercer-class-consciousness/ THE TRAIN IS CAPITALISM- SNOWPIERCER AND CLASS CONSCIOUNESS]</ref> and ''Parasite'' (2019)<ref>[https://medium.com/incluvie/parasite-and-capitalism-what-the-film-says-about-the-pursuit-of-wealth-993fa7ce7ee1 Parasite and Capitalism: What the Film Says About the Pursuit of Wealth]</ref> and the popular TV show ''Squid Game'' (2021).<ref>[https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/squid-game-the-rise-of-anti-capitalist-entertainment/ar-AAPaOHG Squid Game & The Rise Of Anti-Capitalist Entertainment]</ref><ref>[https://www.gen-zine.com/post/thesquidgame “The Squid Game”: Anti-Capitalism and Netflix]</ref><ref>[https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/elaminabdelmahmoud/squid-game-netflix-review-lupin-international “Squid Game” Works Because Capitalism Is A Global Scourge]</ref><br />
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With increasing economic stratification, social [[alienation]], and lack of opportunity among young people entering the work force, south Korea has a rate of mental health issues and suicide that is among the highest in the developed world.<ref>{{News citation|author=Katrin Park|newspaper=Foreign Policy|title=South Korea Is No Country for Young People|date=2021-10-5|url=https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/11/05/south-korea-suicide-rates-mental-illness-squid-game/}}</ref> This undoubtedly is resulting in the development of [[class consciousness]].<br />
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The [[bourgeois media]] (in south Korea and in the US) carefully ensures that all criticism of capitalism stops just short of providing concrete solutions, lest people become interested in [[socialism]] and its [[Successes of socialism|various successes around the world]].<br />
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Labor militancy is also on the rise as 500k south Korean workers walked off in a one-day [[general strike]], protesting against rampant [[exploitation]] by the [[Gig worker|gig economy]], high costs of housing, and the highest annual working hours in the OECD.<ref>[https://therealnews.com/half-a-million-south-korean-workers-walk-off-jobs-in-general-strike HALF A MILLION SOUTH KOREAN WORKERS WALK OFF JOBS IN GENERAL STRIKE] on [https://therealnews.com/half-a-million-south-korean-workers-walk-off-jobs-in-general-strike The Real News Network]</ref><br />
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==References==<br />
<references /><br />
[[Category:Illegal states]]<br />
[[Category:Global north]]<br />
[[Category:Puppet states]]<br />
[[Category:Neocolonial outposts]]<br />
[[Category:Asian countries]]</div>
Verda.Majo
https://en.prolewiki.org/index.php?title=Unconverted_long-term_prisoners&diff=64092
Unconverted long-term prisoners
2024-03-11T15:58:23Z
<p>Verda.Majo: adding more info and sources</p>
<hr />
<div>[[File:Unconverted long-term prisoners in south Korea.jpg|thumb|A demonstration calling for a second repatriation of unconverted long-term prisoners in south Korea. The sign reads "Call for second repatriation of non-converted long-term prisoners" ("비전향장기수 2차 송환 촉구").<ref>장동욱 (Jang Dong-wook). [http://www.saramilbo.com/5940 “비전향장기수 2차 송환 촉구.”] ("Call for second repatriation of non-converted long-term prisoners.") 사람일보. (Saram Ilbo.) 2006-09-02. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240311145007/http://www.saramilbo.com/5940 Archived] 2024-03-11.</ref>]]<br />
'''Unconverted long-term prisoners''' is a term which refers to [[Political prisoner|political prisoners]] imprisoned in [[Republic of Korea|south Korea]], generally on charges of "anti-state" activities or views in support of [[communism]] or [[Democratic People's Republic of Korea|DPRK]].<ref name=":1">[https://www.amnesty.org/es/documents/asa25/033/1993/en/ “South Korea: Unfair Trial and Torture: Long-Term Political Prisoners.”] [[Amnesty International]], September 30, 1993.</ref><ref name=":6">"National reunification prizes awarded to unconverted long-term prisoners", [[Korean Central News Agency]], 2000-09-04. [https://web.archive.org/web/20191124030603/http://www.kcna.co.jp/item/2000/200009/news09/04.htm Archived] 2019-11-19.</ref> The term commonly refers to people who were mostly arrested from the 1950s to 1980s and imprisoned and tortured for decades and who refused to sign a "conversion" statement renouncing communist or [[Left–right political spectrum|left-wing]] ideology, which had been a condition for their release.<ref>Amnesty International, [https://www.refworld.org/reference/annualreport/amnesty/1999/en/24250 Amnesty International Report 1999 - Korea, -, 1 January 1999]. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240311065515/https://www.refworld.org/reference/annualreport/amnesty/1999/en/24250 Archived] 2024-03-11.</ref> In the 1990s, some of the prisoners began being released. Some chose to remain in south Korea while others sought to be repatriated to DPRK.<ref name=":0">Kim Dong-won. ''Repatriation'' (2003). Documentary. URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xu2mEvU29Q</ref><br />
<br />
== Imprisonment and torture ==<br />
The individuals arrested by the southern regime on charges of anti-state activities faced unfair trials,<ref name=":1" /> torture,<ref name=":1" /> and isolation,<ref name=":2">[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/286070.stm "Solitary: Tough test of survival instinct."] [[British Broadcasting Corporation|BBC]] News. February 25, 1999. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240311083202/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/286070.stm Archived] 2024-03-11.</ref> with some of them being imprisoned for over 40 years.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":8">[https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/news/1995/nov/15/worlds-longest-held-political-prisoner-released/ "World’s Longest Held Political Prisoner Released."] Prison Legal News, 1995-11-15. [https://web.archive.org/web/20231001182401/https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/news/1995/nov/15/worlds-longest-held-political-prisoner-released/ Archived] 2023-10-01.</ref><ref name=":3">[https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/388611.html “Truth Commission Confirms Yushin-Era Violations on Prisoners’ Freedom of Conscience.”] Hankyoreh, 2009-11-19. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240311105516/https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/388611.html Archived] 2024-03-11.</ref> While some of the prisoners were arrested for actual acts of espionage,<ref name=":4">Kang Jin-kyu (2016-08-07). [https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2016/08/07/politics/Spies-who-cant-come-in-from-the-cold/3022316.html "Spies who can't come in from the cold"] ''Korea JoongAng Daily''. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230208033225/https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2016/08/07/politics/Spies-who-cant-come-in-from-the-cold/3022316.html Archived] 2023-02-08.</ref> others have been described as [[Prisoner of conscience|prisoners of conscience]], with organizations such as [[Amnesty International]] stating in a 1993 document that some of the prisoners were "held solely for peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of expression and association" while also stating that prisoners "appear to have been tortured during interrogation" and were "convicted largely on the basis of these coerced confessions after an unfair trial" and raising concerns that they had been denied lawyers during their interrogations.<ref name=":1" /><br />
<br />
In 2009, south Korean news outlet Hankyoreh reported that south Korea's Truth and Reconciliation Commission released a statement which concluded that the conversion tactics which had been used on left-wing prisoners during the Yushin era of the 1970s constituted state violence and that acts of brutality were used to convert left-wing prisoners.<ref name=":3" /><br />
<br />
=== "Conversion" statements ===<br />
Until 1998, the prisoners were pressured to sign statements of "conversion" renouncing communist ideology as a condition of being released. Many prisoners refused to sign, later becoming referred to as "unconverted" prisoners.<ref name=":0" /> The requirement to sign a conversion statement was substituted in 1998 with a "Pledge to Obey the Law" which was eventually discontinued in 2003.<ref name=":3" /><br />
<br />
Among those who did sign the "conversion" statement as a condition of release, there are accounts such as that of Park Hee-sung, who said that his so-called "conversion" was the result of physical torture, and that he meant none of it,<ref name=":4" /> or the case of Kim Young-sik, who commented on his own experience with torture in the 2003 documentary [[Repatriation (film)|''Repatriation'']], "torturing you and forcing you to renounce your belief, can you really call that conversion?"<ref name=":0" /> Kim Young-sik was also quoted in a 2018 article saying of this forced conversion via torture, "I'm still very angry [...] How could they torture me to force me to give up an ideology that I believe is correct?"<ref name=":7">Kim, Hyung-jin. [https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/southern-exposure-the-north-koreans-longing-to-be-sent-home-20180523-p4zh0h.html “Southern Exposure: The North Koreans Longing to Be Sent Home.”] The Sydney Morning Herald. May 24, 2018. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240311103437/https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/southern-exposure-the-north-koreans-longing-to-be-sent-home-20180523-p4zh0h.html Archived] 2024-03-11. </ref><br />
<br />
Former prisoner Anh Hak-sop recounted similar methods of pressure to renounce his beliefs, including bribery and torture, in an interview with [[Liberation School]]: "First they tried to make theoretical arguments against the DPRK. But they couldn’t defend their beliefs to me. After that, they tried to bribe me with property. After that, there was torture."<ref name=":5" /><br />
<br />
=== Torture ===<br />
The methods of torture recounted by various victims include waterboarding,<ref name=":7" /> being forced to eat off the floor with hands cuffed behind their backs,<ref name=":7" /> being spun while hanging from the ceiling,<ref name=":7" /> beatings,<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":9">Kristof, Nicholas D. [https://www.nytimes.com/1995/08/20/world/free-in-seoul-after-44-years-and-still-defiant.html?pagewanted=all "Free in Seoul after 44 Years, and Still Defiant."] [[The New York Times]]. Aug. 20, 1995. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240311152015/https://www.nytimes.com/1995/08/20/world/free-in-seoul-after-44-years-and-still-defiant.html?pagewanted=all Archived] 2024-03-11.</ref> prolonged solitary confinement,<ref name=":2" /> water being thrown in the room in winter,<ref name=":5" /> clothing and bedding being taken away,<ref name=":5" /> starvation,<ref name=":9" /> prisoners being "expected to wash themselves with their own urine",<ref name=":9" /> and denial of medical and dental care.<ref name=":1" /> The 1993 Amnesty International document noted that the long-term prisoners were often kept in poor conditions and that some were suffering ill health due to their long term imprisonment and a reported lack of adequate medical care. The document also mentions that those who refused to sign the conversion statement generally suffered even worse treatment than the other prisoners.<ref name=":1" /> An article from 1999 by the BBC states that "Life inside was almost entirely spent in dark and cold cells and medical attention was scarce. Torture sometimes took the form of being locked up with a particularly sadistic prisoner."<ref name=":2" /><br />
<br />
According to a 1995 [[Prison Legal News]] article, unconverted prisoner Kim Sun Myung, who had been in captivity for over 43 years, had been beaten, starved, threatened with execution, watched his fellow prisoners die, was kept in solitary confinement for decades, and was denied medical care by prison doctors as he went blind from cataracts. Commenting with regard to the torture upon his release, Kim said: "They say that when you hammer steel, it only gets harder. Well, when you hit people, you just turn them into enemies, and they become stronger."<ref name=":8" /><br />
<br />
== Repatriation movement ==<br />
[[File:Repatriation demonstration for unconverted long-term prisoners vop.co.kr.jpg|thumb|Members of the preparatory group for the 20th anniversary of the repatriation of non-converted prisoners hold a press conference in front of the government complex in Seoul to urge the second repatriation (2020).<ref>Photo by 김철수 (Kim Cheoulsu). [https://www.vop.co.kr/A00001510809.html <nowiki>민중의소리 (Voice of the People). 인도적조치 비전향장기수 송환하라[포토] (Repatriate non-converted long-term prisoners for humanitarian measures [Photo]).</nowiki>] 2020-09-08.</ref>]]<br />
Of the former prisoners who sought repatriation to DPRK, some were eventually able to be repatriated, notably 63 of them in the year 2000.<ref name=":7" /> However, others remained in the south, being denied their requests for repatriation.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":4" /> The 63 individuals who were repatriated in September of 2000 were celebrated in [[Pyongyang]] and awarded [[National Reunification Prize|National Reunification Prizes]].<ref name=":6" /> At the time, the prisoners ranged in age from 66 to 90 years old.<ref name=":10">[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/907307.stm "Korean communists go home."] BBC News, 2 September, 2000. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240311153647/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/907307.stm Archived] 2024-03-11.</ref><br />
<br />
A Liberation School interview with a former prisoner, Ahn Hak-sop, reveals that many who participated in the repatriation in the year 2000 and many of those who remained in south Korea made their decisions based on their impression at the time that there was going to be more freedom of movement between ROK and DPRK thereafter. Ahn, who chose to remain in the south when the 2000 repatriation happened, said one of his reasons was that he "thought it was a temporary situation." Anh also notes regarding two prisoners released alongside him who were repatriated, that "[T]hose comrades went to the North because they thought that shortly there would be free movement between the two states. They went to the North to study and thought they would come back later." Regarding his own intention to stay in the south temporarily, Anh elaborated: "[T]here were young [[Progressivism|progressive]] people here in the South, and they asked me to stay. [...] We have to keep struggling here for the withdrawal of US army, the peace treaty, and peaceful reunification. I decided to stay here to fight for these goals. In 1952, I came here to liberate the southern half of the peninsula, and I need to stay here and continue that struggle."<ref name=":5">Liberation School (Jul 27, 2022). [https://www.liberationschool.org/interview-with-ahn-hak-sop/ "Still fighting for Korea’s liberation: An interview with Ahn Hak-sop"] ''Liberation School''. [https://web.archive.org/web/2/https://www.liberationschool.org/interview-with-ahn-hak-sop/ Archived] from the original.</ref><br />
<br />
Those who oppose or criticize the repatriation of these former prisoners generally do so on grounds of demanding that DPRK repatriate people to the south as well.<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":10" /><br />
<br />
== Persecution and surveillance ==<br />
The unconverted long-term prisoners who were released have faced various difficulties while living in south Korea, ranging from ongoing health issues from their imprisonment, to not being given social security numbers, living in poverty, and being subjected to state surveillance. In some cases, their families have also suffered persecution during and after their relative's imprisonment.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":7" /><ref name=":9" /><br />
<br />
Giving examples of the forms of persecution and surveillance he faced, former prisoner Anh Hak-sop explained, "[T]here are security police who follow me. Whenever there is a problem with the North and South, they raid my house and stand guard outside my property. One time at a demonstration, [[Conservatism|conservative]] forces attacked me. The police did nothing to protect me. Every week or every other week, the police come to my house and ask about my activities, who has visited my house, and so on. Once every other month I need to report to them about what I did, who I met, and who visited me. Every two years I need to go to court."<ref name=":5" /><br />
<br />
== See also ==<br />
<br />
* [[Repatriation (film)]]<br />
<br />
== References ==<br />
<references /></div>
Verda.Majo
https://en.prolewiki.org/index.php?title=Unconverted_long-term_prisoners&diff=64091
Unconverted long-term prisoners
2024-03-11T15:08:34Z
<p>Verda.Majo: continuing to add info, added a photo and added to surveillance section</p>
<hr />
<div>[[File:Unconverted long-term prisoners in south Korea.jpg|thumb|A demonstration calling for a second repatriation of unconverted long-term prisoners in south Korea. The sign reads "Call for second repatriation of non-converted long-term prisoners" ("비전향장기수 2차 송환 촉구").<ref>장동욱 (Jang Dong-wook). [http://www.saramilbo.com/5940 “비전향장기수 2차 송환 촉구.”] ("Call for second repatriation of non-converted long-term prisoners.") 사람일보. (Saram Ilbo.) 2006-09-02. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240311145007/http://www.saramilbo.com/5940 Archived] 2024-03-11.</ref>]]<br />
'''Unconverted long-term prisoners''' is a term which refers to [[Political prisoner|political prisoners]] imprisoned in [[Republic of Korea|south Korea]], generally on charges of "anti-state" activities or views in support of [[communism]] or [[Democratic People's Republic of Korea|DPRK]].<ref name=":1">[https://www.amnesty.org/es/documents/asa25/033/1993/en/ “South Korea: Unfair Trial and Torture: Long-Term Political Prisoners.”] [[Amnesty International]], September 30, 1993.</ref><ref name=":6">"National reunification prizes awarded to unconverted long-term prisoners", [[Korean Central News Agency]], 2000-09-04. [https://web.archive.org/web/20191124030603/http://www.kcna.co.jp/item/2000/200009/news09/04.htm Archived] 2019-11-19.</ref> The term commonly refers to people who were mostly arrested from the 1950s to 1980s and imprisoned and tortured for decades and who refused to sign a "conversion" statement renouncing communist or [[Left–right political spectrum|left-wing]] ideology, which had been a condition for their release.<ref>Amnesty International, [https://www.refworld.org/reference/annualreport/amnesty/1999/en/24250 Amnesty International Report 1999 - Korea, -, 1 January 1999]. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240311065515/https://www.refworld.org/reference/annualreport/amnesty/1999/en/24250 Archived] 2024-03-11.</ref> In the 1990s, some of the prisoners began being released. Some chose to remain in south Korea while others sought to be repatriated to DPRK.<ref name=":0">Kim Dong-won. ''Repatriation'' (2003). Documentary. URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xu2mEvU29Q</ref><br />
<br />
== Imprisonment and torture ==<br />
The individuals arrested by the southern regime on charges of anti-state activities faced unfair trials,<ref name=":1" /> torture,<ref name=":1" /> and isolation,<ref name=":2">[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/286070.stm "Solitary: Tough test of survival instinct."] [[British Broadcasting Corporation|BBC]] News. February 25, 1999. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240311083202/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/286070.stm Archived] 2024-03-11.</ref> with some of them being imprisoned for over 40 years.<ref name=":2" /><ref>[https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/news/1995/nov/15/worlds-longest-held-political-prisoner-released/ "World’s Longest Held Political Prisoner Released."] Prison Legal News, 1995-11-15. [https://web.archive.org/web/20231001182401/https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/news/1995/nov/15/worlds-longest-held-political-prisoner-released/ Archived] 2023-10-01.</ref><ref name=":3">[https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/388611.html “Truth Commission Confirms Yushin-Era Violations on Prisoners’ Freedom of Conscience.”] Hankyoreh, 2009-11-19. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240311105516/https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/388611.html Archived] 2024-03-11.</ref> While some of the prisoners were arrested for actual acts of espionage,<ref name=":4">Kang Jin-kyu (2016-08-07). [https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2016/08/07/politics/Spies-who-cant-come-in-from-the-cold/3022316.html "Spies who can't come in from the cold"] ''Korea JoongAng Daily''. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230208033225/https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2016/08/07/politics/Spies-who-cant-come-in-from-the-cold/3022316.html Archived] 2023-02-08.</ref> others have been described as [[Prisoner of conscience|prisoners of conscience]], with organizations such as [[Amnesty International]] stating in a 1993 document that some of the prisoners were "held solely for peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of expression and association" while also stating that prisoners "appear to have been tortured during interrogation" and were "convicted largely on the basis of these coerced confessions after an unfair trial" and raising concerns that they had been denied lawyers during their interrogations.<ref name=":1" /><br />
<br />
In 2009, south Korean news outlet Hankyoreh reported that south Korea's Truth and Reconciliation Commission released a statement which concluded that the conversion tactics which had been used on left-wing prisoners during the Yushin era of the 1970s constituted state violence and that acts of brutality were used to convert left-wing prisoners.<ref name=":3" /><br />
<br />
=== "Conversion" statements ===<br />
Until 1998, the prisoners were pressured to sign statements of "conversion" renouncing communist ideology as a condition of being released. Many prisoners refused to sign, later becoming referred to as "unconverted" prisoners.<ref name=":0" /> The requirement to sign a conversion statement was substituted in 1998 with a "Pledge to Obey the Law" which was eventually discontinued in 2003.<ref name=":3" /><br />
<br />
Among those who did sign the "conversion" statement as a condition of release, there are accounts such as that of Park Hee-sung, who said that his so-called "conversion" was the result of physical torture, and that he meant none of it,<ref name=":4" /> or the case of Kim Young-sik, who commented on his own experience with torture in the 2003 documentary [[Repatriation (film)|''Repatriation'']], "torturing you and forcing you to renounce your belief, can you really call that conversion?"<ref name=":0" /> Kim Young-sik was also quoted in a 2018 article saying of this forced conversion via torture, "I'm still very angry [...] How could they torture me to force me to give up an ideology that I believe is correct?"<ref name=":7">Kim, Hyung-jin. [https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/southern-exposure-the-north-koreans-longing-to-be-sent-home-20180523-p4zh0h.html “Southern Exposure: The North Koreans Longing to Be Sent Home.”] The Sydney Morning Herald. May 24, 2018. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240311103437/https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/southern-exposure-the-north-koreans-longing-to-be-sent-home-20180523-p4zh0h.html Archived] 2024-03-11. </ref><br />
<br />
Former prisoner Anh Hak-sop recounted similar methods of pressure to renounce his beliefs, including bribery and torture, in an interview with [[Liberation School]]: "First they tried to make theoretical arguments against the DPRK. But they couldn’t defend their beliefs to me. After that, they tried to bribe me with property. After that, there was torture."<ref name=":5" /><br />
<br />
=== Torture ===<br />
The methods of torture recounted by various victims include waterboarding,<ref name=":7" /> being forced to eat off the floor with hands cuffed behind their backs,<ref name=":7" /> being spun while hanging from the ceiling,<ref name=":7" /> beatings,<ref name=":2" /> prolonged solitary confinement,<ref name=":2" /> water being thrown in the room in winter,<ref name=":5" /> clothing and bedding being taken away,<ref name=":5" /> and denial of medical and dental care.<ref name=":1" /> The 1993 Amnesty International document noted that the long-term prisoners were often kept in poor conditions and that some were suffering ill health due to their long term imprisonment and a reported lack of adequate medical care. The document also mentions that those who refused to sign the conversion statement generally suffered even worse treatment than the other prisoners.<ref name=":1" /> An article from 1999 by the BBC states that "Life inside was almost entirely spent in dark and cold cells and medical attention was scarce. Torture sometimes took the form of being locked up with a particularly sadistic prisoner."<ref name=":2" /><br />
<br />
== Repatriation movement ==<br />
[[File:Repatriation demonstration for unconverted long-term prisoners vop.co.kr.jpg|thumb|Members of the preparatory group for the 20th anniversary of the repatriation of non-converted prisoners hold a press conference in front of the government complex in Seoul to urge the second repatriation (2020).<ref>Photo by 김철수 (Kim Cheoulsu). [https://www.vop.co.kr/A00001510809.html <nowiki>민중의소리 (Voice of the People). 인도적조치 비전향장기수 송환하라[포토] (Repatriate non-converted long-term prisoners for humanitarian measures [Photo]).</nowiki>] 2020-09-08.</ref>]]<br />
Of the former prisoners who sought repatriation to DPRK, some were eventually able to be repatriated, notably 63 of them in the year 2000.<ref name=":7" /> However, others remained in the south, being denied their requests for repatriation.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":4" /> The 63 individuals who were repatriated in 2000 were celebrated in [[Pyongyang]] and awarded [[National Reunification Prize|National Reunification Prizes]].<ref name=":6" /><br />
<br />
A Liberation School interview with a former prisoner, Ahn Hak-sop, reveals that many who participated in the repatriation in the year 2000 and many of those who remained in south Korea made their decisions based on their impression at the time that there was going to be more freedom of movement between ROK and DPRK thereafter. Ahn, who chose to remain in the south when the 2000 repatriation happened, said one of his reasons was that he "thought it was a temporary situation." Anh also notes regarding two prisoners released alongside him who were repatriated, that "[T]hose comrades went to the North because they thought that shortly there would be free movement between the two states. They went to the North to study and thought they would come back later." Regarding his own intention to stay in the south temporarily, Anh elaborated: "[T]here were young [[Progressivism|progressive]] people here in the South, and they asked me to stay. [...] We have to keep struggling here for the withdrawal of US army, the peace treaty, and peaceful reunification. I decided to stay here to fight for these goals. In 1952, I came here to liberate the southern half of the peninsula, and I need to stay here and continue that struggle."<ref name=":5">Liberation School (Jul 27, 2022). [https://www.liberationschool.org/interview-with-ahn-hak-sop/ "Still fighting for Korea’s liberation: An interview with Ahn Hak-sop"] ''Liberation School''. [https://web.archive.org/web/2/https://www.liberationschool.org/interview-with-ahn-hak-sop/ Archived] from the original.</ref><br />
<br />
Those who oppose or criticize the repatriation of these former prisoners generally do so on grounds of demanding that DPRK repatriate people to the south as well.<ref name=":4" /><br />
<br />
== Persecution and surveillance ==<br />
The unconverted long-term prisoners who were released have faced various difficulties while living in south Korea, ranging from ongoing health issues from their imprisonment, to not being given social security numbers, living in poverty, and being subjected to state surveillance. In some cases, their families have also suffered persecution during and after their relative's imprisonment.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":7" /><br />
<br />
Giving examples of the forms of persecution and surveillance he faced, former prisoner Anh Hak-sop explained, "[T]here are security police who follow me. Whenever there is a problem with the North and South, they raid my house and stand guard outside my property. One time at a demonstration, conservative forces attacked me. The police did nothing to protect me. Every week or every other week, the police come to my house and ask about my activities, who has visited my house, and so on. Once every other month I need to report to them about what I did, who I met, and who visited me. Every two years I need to go to court."<ref name=":5" /><br />
<br />
== See also ==<br />
<br />
* [[Repatriation (film)]]<br />
<br />
== References ==<br />
<references /></div>
Verda.Majo
https://en.prolewiki.org/index.php?title=File:Unconverted_long-term_prisoners_in_south_Korea.jpg&diff=64090
File:Unconverted long-term prisoners in south Korea.jpg
2024-03-11T14:55:50Z
<p>Verda.Majo: </p>
<hr />
<div>A demonstration calling for a second repatriation of unconverted long-term prisoners in south Korea. The sign reads "Call for second repatriation of non-converted long-term prisoners" ("비전향장기수 2차 송환 촉구")<br />
<br />
Source: 장동욱. "비전향장기수 2차 송환 촉구" 사람일보. (Saram Ilbo.) 2006-09-02. http://www.saramilbo.com/5940 Archive link: https://web.archive.org/web/20240311145007/http://www.saramilbo.com/5940</div>
Verda.Majo
https://en.prolewiki.org/index.php?title=Unconverted_long-term_prisoners&diff=64089
Unconverted long-term prisoners
2024-03-11T13:35:35Z
<p>Verda.Majo: </p>
<hr />
<div>[[File:Repatriation demonstration for unconverted long-term prisoners vop.co.kr.jpg|thumb|Members of the preparatory group for the 20th anniversary of the repatriation of non-converted prisoners hold a press conference in front of the government complex in Seoul to urge the second repatriation (2020).<ref>Photo by 김철수 (Kim Cheoulsu). [https://www.vop.co.kr/A00001510809.html <nowiki>민중의소리 (Voice of the People). 인도적조치 비전향장기수 송환하라[포토] (Repatriate non-converted long-term prisoners for humanitarian measures [Photo]).</nowiki>] 2020-09-08.</ref>]]<br />
'''Unconverted long-term prisoners''' is a term which refers to [[Political prisoner|political prisoners]] imprisoned in [[Republic of Korea|south Korea]], generally on charges of "anti-state" activities or views in support of [[communism]] or [[Democratic People's Republic of Korea|DPRK]].<ref name=":1">[https://www.amnesty.org/es/documents/asa25/033/1993/en/ “South Korea: Unfair Trial and Torture: Long-Term Political Prisoners.”] [[Amnesty International]], September 30, 1993.</ref><ref name=":6">"National reunification prizes awarded to unconverted long-term prisoners", [[Korean Central News Agency]], 2000-09-04. [https://web.archive.org/web/20191124030603/http://www.kcna.co.jp/item/2000/200009/news09/04.htm Archived] 2019-11-19.</ref> The term commonly refers to people who were mostly arrested from the 1950s to 1980s and imprisoned and tortured for decades and who refused to sign a "conversion" statement renouncing communist or [[Left–right political spectrum|left-wing]] ideology, which had been a condition for their release.<ref>Amnesty International, [https://www.refworld.org/reference/annualreport/amnesty/1999/en/24250 Amnesty International Report 1999 - Korea, -, 1 January 1999]. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240311065515/https://www.refworld.org/reference/annualreport/amnesty/1999/en/24250 Archived] 2024-03-11.</ref> In the 1990s, some of the prisoners began being released. Some chose to remain in south Korea while others sought to be repatriated to DPRK.<ref name=":0">Kim Dong-won. ''Repatriation'' (2003). Documentary. URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xu2mEvU29Q</ref><br />
<br />
== Imprisonment and torture ==<br />
The individuals arrested by the southern regime on charges of anti-state activities faced unfair trials,<ref name=":1" /> torture,<ref name=":1" /> and isolation,<ref name=":2">[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/286070.stm "Solitary: Tough test of survival instinct."] [[British Broadcasting Corporation|BBC]] News. February 25, 1999. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240311083202/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/286070.stm Archived] 2024-03-11.</ref> with some of them being imprisoned for over 40 years.<ref name=":2" /><ref>[https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/news/1995/nov/15/worlds-longest-held-political-prisoner-released/ "World’s Longest Held Political Prisoner Released."] Prison Legal News, 1995-11-15. [https://web.archive.org/web/20231001182401/https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/news/1995/nov/15/worlds-longest-held-political-prisoner-released/ Archived] 2023-10-01.</ref><ref name=":3">[https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/388611.html “Truth Commission Confirms Yushin-Era Violations on Prisoners’ Freedom of Conscience.”] Hankyoreh, 2009-11-19. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240311105516/https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/388611.html Archived] 2024-03-11.</ref> While some of the prisoners were arrested for actual acts of espionage,<ref name=":4">Kang Jin-kyu (2016-08-07). [https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2016/08/07/politics/Spies-who-cant-come-in-from-the-cold/3022316.html "Spies who can't come in from the cold"] ''Korea JoongAng Daily''. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230208033225/https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2016/08/07/politics/Spies-who-cant-come-in-from-the-cold/3022316.html Archived] 2023-02-08.</ref> others have been described as [[Prisoner of conscience|prisoners of conscience]], with organizations such as [[Amnesty International]] stating in a 1993 document that some of the prisoners were "held solely for peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of expression and association" while also stating that prisoners "appear to have been tortured during interrogation" and were "convicted largely on the basis of these coerced confessions after an unfair trial" and raising concerns that they had been denied lawyers during their interrogations.<ref name=":1" /><br />
<br />
In 2009, south Korean news outlet Hankyoreh reported that south Korea's Truth and Reconciliation Commission released a statement which concluded that the conversion tactics which had been used on left-wing prisoners during the Yushin era of the 1970s constituted state violence and that acts of brutality were used to convert left-wing prisoners.<ref name=":3" /><br />
<br />
=== "Conversion" statements ===<br />
Until 1998, the prisoners were pressured to sign statements of "conversion" renouncing communist ideology as a condition of being released. Many prisoners refused to sign, later becoming referred to as "unconverted" prisoners.<ref name=":0" /> The requirement to sign a conversion statement was substituted in 1998 with a "Pledge to Obey the Law" which was eventually discontinued in 2003.<ref name=":3" /><br />
<br />
Among those who did sign the "conversion" statement as a condition of release, there are accounts such as that of Park Hee-sung, who said that his so-called "conversion" was the result of physical torture, and that he meant none of it,<ref name=":4" /> or the case of Kim Young-sik, who commented on his own experience with torture in the 2003 documentary [[Repatriation (film)|''Repatriation'']], "torturing you and forcing you to renounce your belief, can you really call that conversion?"<ref name=":0" /> Kim Young-sik was also quoted in a 2018 article saying of this forced conversion via torture, "I'm still very angry [...] How could they torture me to force me to give up an ideology that I believe is correct?"<ref name=":7">Kim, Hyung-jin. [https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/southern-exposure-the-north-koreans-longing-to-be-sent-home-20180523-p4zh0h.html “Southern Exposure: The North Koreans Longing to Be Sent Home.”] The Sydney Morning Herald. May 24, 2018. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240311103437/https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/southern-exposure-the-north-koreans-longing-to-be-sent-home-20180523-p4zh0h.html Archived] 2024-03-11. </ref><br />
<br />
Former prisoner Anh Hak-sop recounted similar methods of pressure to renounce his beliefs, including bribery and torture, in an interview with [[Liberation School]]: "First they tried to make theoretical arguments against the DPRK. But they couldn’t defend their beliefs to me. After that, they tried to bribe me with property. After that, there was torture."<ref name=":5" /><br />
<br />
=== Torture ===<br />
The methods of torture recounted by various victims include waterboarding,<ref name=":7" /> being forced to eat off the floor with hands cuffed behind their backs,<ref name=":7" /> being spun while hanging from the ceiling,<ref name=":7" /> beatings,<ref name=":2" /> prolonged solitary confinement,<ref name=":2" /> water being thrown in the room in winter,<ref name=":5" /> clothing and bedding being taken away,<ref name=":5" /> and denial of medical and dental care.<ref name=":1" /> The 1993 Amnesty International document noted that the long-term prisoners were often kept in poor conditions and that some were suffering ill health due to their long term imprisonment and a reported lack of adequate medical care. The document also mentions that those who refused to sign the conversion statement generally suffered even worse treatment than the other prisoners.<ref name=":1" /> An article from 1999 by the BBC states that "Life inside was almost entirely spent in dark and cold cells and medical attention was scarce. Torture sometimes took the form of being locked up with a particularly sadistic prisoner."<ref name=":2" /><br />
<br />
== Repatriation movement ==<br />
Of the former prisoners who sought repatriation to DPRK, some were eventually able to be repatriated, notably 63 of them in the year 2000.<ref name=":7" /> However, others remained in the south, being denied their requests for repatriation.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":4" /> The 63 individuals who were repatriated in 2000 were celebrated in [[Pyongyang]] and awarded [[National Reunification Prize|National Reunification Prizes]].<ref name=":6" /><br />
<br />
A Liberation School interview with a former prisoner, Ahn Hak-sop, reveals that many who participated in the repatriation in the year 2000 and many of those who remained in south Korea made their decisions based on their impression at the time that there was going to be more freedom of movement between ROK and DPRK thereafter. Ahn, who chose to remain in the south when the 2000 repatriation happened, said one of his reasons was that he "thought it was a temporary situation." Anh also notes regarding two prisoners released alongside him who were repatriated, that "[T]hose comrades went to the North because they thought that shortly there would be free movement between the two states. They went to the North to study and thought they would come back later." Regarding his own intention to stay in the south temporarily, Anh elaborated: "[T]here were young [[Progressivism|progressive]] people here in the South, and they asked me to stay. [...] We have to keep struggling here for the withdrawal of US army, the peace treaty, and peaceful reunification. I decided to stay here to fight for these goals. In 1952, I came here to liberate the southern half of the peninsula, and I need to stay here and continue that struggle."<ref name=":5">Liberation School (Jul 27, 2022). [https://www.liberationschool.org/interview-with-ahn-hak-sop/ "Still fighting for Korea’s liberation: An interview with Ahn Hak-sop"] ''Liberation School''. [https://web.archive.org/web/2/https://www.liberationschool.org/interview-with-ahn-hak-sop/ Archived] from the original.</ref><br />
<br />
Those who oppose or criticize the repatriation of these former prisoners generally do so on grounds of demanding that DPRK repatriate people to the south as well.<ref name=":4" /><br />
<br />
== Persecution and surveillance ==<br />
<br />
== See also ==<br />
<br />
* [[Repatriation (film)]]<br />
<br />
== References ==<br />
<references /></div>
Verda.Majo
https://en.prolewiki.org/index.php?title=Unconverted_long-term_prisoners&diff=64088
Unconverted long-term prisoners
2024-03-11T11:10:47Z
<p>Verda.Majo: /* Imprisonment and torture */ adding more info</p>
<hr />
<div>[[File:Repatriation demonstration for unconverted long-term prisoners vop.co.kr.jpg|thumb|Members of the preparatory group for the 20th anniversary of the repatriation of non-converted prisoners hold a press conference in front of the government complex in Seoul to urge the second repatriation (2020).<ref>Photo by 김철수 (Kim Cheoulsu). [https://www.vop.co.kr/A00001510809.html <nowiki>민중의소리 (Voice of the People). 인도적조치 비전향장기수 송환하라[포토] (Repatriate non-converted long-term prisoners for humanitarian measures [Photo]).</nowiki>] 2020-09-08.</ref>]]<br />
'''Unconverted long-term prisoners''' is a term which refers to [[Political prisoner|political prisoners]] imprisoned in [[Republic of Korea|south Korea]], generally on charges of "anti-state" activities or views in support of [[communism]] or [[Democratic People's Republic of Korea|DPRK]].<ref name=":1">[https://www.amnesty.org/es/documents/asa25/033/1993/en/ “South Korea: Unfair Trial and Torture: Long-Term Political Prisoners.”] [[Amnesty International]], September 30, 1993.</ref><ref>"National reunification prizes awarded to unconverted long-term prisoners", [[Korean Central News Agency]], 2000-09-04. [https://web.archive.org/web/20191124030603/http://www.kcna.co.jp/item/2000/200009/news09/04.htm Archived] 2019-11-19.</ref> The term commonly refers to people who were mostly arrested from the 1950s to 1980s and imprisoned and tortured for decades and who refused to sign a "conversion" statement renouncing communist or [[Left–right political spectrum|left-wing]] ideology, which had been a condition for their release.<ref>Amnesty International, [https://www.refworld.org/reference/annualreport/amnesty/1999/en/24250 Amnesty International Report 1999 - Korea, -, 1 January 1999]. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240311065515/https://www.refworld.org/reference/annualreport/amnesty/1999/en/24250 Archived] 2024-03-11.</ref> In the 1990s, some of the prisoners began being released. Some chose to remain in south Korea while others sought to be repatriated to DPRK.<ref name=":0">Kim Dong-won. ''Repatriation'' (2003). Documentary. URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xu2mEvU29Q</ref><br />
<br />
== Imprisonment and torture ==<br />
The individuals arrested by the southern regime on charges of anti-state activities faced unfair trials,<ref name=":1" /> torture,<ref name=":1" /> and isolation,<ref name=":2">[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/286070.stm "Solitary: Tough test of survival instinct."] [[British Broadcasting Corporation|BBC]] News. February 25, 1999. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240311083202/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/286070.stm Archived] 2024-03-11.</ref> with some of them being imprisoned for over 40 years.<ref name=":2" /><ref>[https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/news/1995/nov/15/worlds-longest-held-political-prisoner-released/ "World’s Longest Held Political Prisoner Released."] Prison Legal News, 1995-11-15. [https://web.archive.org/web/20231001182401/https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/news/1995/nov/15/worlds-longest-held-political-prisoner-released/ Archived] 2023-10-01.</ref><ref name=":3">[https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/388611.html “Truth Commission Confirms Yushin-Era Violations on Prisoners’ Freedom of Conscience.”] Hankyoreh, 2009-11-19. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240311105516/https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/388611.html Archived] 2024-03-11.</ref> While some of the prisoners were arrested for actual acts of espionage,<ref name=":4">Kang Jin-kyu (2016-08-07). [https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2016/08/07/politics/Spies-who-cant-come-in-from-the-cold/3022316.html "Spies who can't come in from the cold"] ''Korea JoongAng Daily''. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230208033225/https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2016/08/07/politics/Spies-who-cant-come-in-from-the-cold/3022316.html Archived] 2023-02-08.</ref> others have been described as [[Prisoner of conscience|prisoners of conscience]], with organizations such as [[Amnesty International]] stating in a 1993 document that some of the prisoners were "held solely for peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of expression and association" while also stating that prisoners "appear to have been tortured during interrogation" and were "convicted largely on the basis of these coerced confessions after an unfair trial" and raising concerns that they had been denied lawyers during their interrogations.<ref name=":1" /><br />
<br />
In 2009, south Korean news outlet Hankyoreh reported that south Korea's Truth and Reconciliation Commission released a statement which concluded that the conversion tactics which had been used on left-wing prisoners during the Yushin era of the 1970s constituted state violence and that acts of brutality were used to convert left-wing prisoners.<ref name=":3" /><br />
<br />
=== "Conversion" statements ===<br />
Until 1998, the prisoners were pressured to sign statements of "conversion" renouncing communist ideology as a condition of being released. Many prisoners refused to sign, later becoming referred to as "unconverted" prisoners.<ref name=":0" /> The requirement to sign a conversion statement was substituted in 1998 with a "Pledge to Obey the Law" which was eventually discontinued in 2003.<ref name=":3" /><br />
<br />
Among those who did sign the "conversion" statement as a condition of release, there are accounts such as that of Park Hee-sung, who said that his so-called "conversion" was the result of physical torture, and that he meant none of it,<ref name=":4" /> or the case of Kim Young-sik, who commented on his own experience with torture in the 2003 documentary [[Repatriation (film)|''Repatriation'']], "torturing you and forcing you to renounce your belief, can you really call that conversion?"<ref name=":0" /> Kim Young-sik was also quoted in a 2018 article saying of this forced conversion via torture, "I'm still very angry [...] How could they torture me to force me to give up an ideology that I believe is correct?"<ref>Kim, Hyung-jin. [https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/southern-exposure-the-north-koreans-longing-to-be-sent-home-20180523-p4zh0h.html “Southern Exposure: The North Koreans Longing to Be Sent Home.”] The Sydney Morning Herald. May 24, 2018. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240311103437/https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/southern-exposure-the-north-koreans-longing-to-be-sent-home-20180523-p4zh0h.html Archived] 2024-03-11. </ref><br />
<br />
Former prisoner Anh Hak-sop recounted similar methods of pressure to renounce his beliefs, including bribery and torture, in an interview with [[Liberation School]]: "First they tried to make theoretical arguments against the DPRK. But they couldn’t defend their beliefs to me. After that, they tried to bribe me with property. After that, there was torture."<ref name=":5" /><br />
<br />
== Repatriation movement ==<br />
Of the former prisoners who sought repatriation to DPRK, some were eventually able to be repatriated, notably many of them in the year 2000. However, others remained in the south, being denied their requests for repatriation.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":4" /><br />
<br />
A Liberation School interview with a former prisoner, Ahn Hak-sop, reveals that many who participated in the repatriation in the year 2000 and many of those who remained in south Korea made their decisions based on their impression at the time that there was going to be more freedom of movement between ROK and DPRK thereafter. Ahn, who chose to remain in the south when the 2000 repatriation happened, said one of his reasons was that he "thought it was a temporary situation." Anh also notes regarding two prisoners released alongside him who were repatriated, that "[T]hose comrades went to the North because they thought that shortly there would be free movement between the two states. They went to the North to study and thought they would come back later." Regarding his own intention to stay in the south temporarily, Anh elaborated: "[T]here were young [[Progressivism|progressive]] people here in the South, and they asked me to stay. [...] We have to keep struggling here for the withdrawal of US army, the peace treaty, and peaceful reunification. I decided to stay here to fight for these goals. In 1952, I came here to liberate the southern half of the peninsula, and I need to stay here and continue that struggle."<ref name=":5">Liberation School (Jul 27, 2022). [https://www.liberationschool.org/interview-with-ahn-hak-sop/ "Still fighting for Korea’s liberation: An interview with Ahn Hak-sop"] ''Liberation School''. [https://web.archive.org/web/2/https://www.liberationschool.org/interview-with-ahn-hak-sop/ Archived] from the original.</ref><br />
<br />
== Persecution and surveillance ==<br />
<br />
== See also ==<br />
<br />
* [[Repatriation (film)]]<br />
<br />
== References ==<br />
<references /></div>
Verda.Majo
https://en.prolewiki.org/index.php?title=Unconverted_long-term_prisoners&diff=64075
Unconverted long-term prisoners
2024-03-11T08:08:17Z
<p>Verda.Majo: continuing to move info over</p>
<hr />
<div>[[File:Repatriation demonstration for unconverted long-term prisoners vop.co.kr.jpg|thumb|Members of the preparatory group for the 20th anniversary of the repatriation of non-converted prisoners hold a press conference in front of the government complex in Seoul to urge the second repatriation (2020).<ref>Photo by 김철수 (Kim Cheoulsu). [https://www.vop.co.kr/A00001510809.html <nowiki>민중의소리 (Voice of the People). 인도적조치 비전향장기수 송환하라[포토] (Repatriate non-converted long-term prisoners for humanitarian measures [Photo]).</nowiki>] 2020-09-08.</ref>]]<br />
'''Unconverted long-term prisoners''' is a term which refers to [[Political prisoner|political prisoners]] imprisoned in [[Republic of Korea|south Korea]], generally on charges of "anti-state" activities or views in support of [[communism]] or [[Democratic People's Republic of Korea|DPRK]].<ref>[https://www.amnesty.org/es/documents/asa25/033/1993/en/ “South Korea: Unfair Trial and Torture: Long-Term Political Prisoners.”] [[Amnesty International]], September 30, 1993.</ref><ref>"National reunification prizes awarded to unconverted long-term prisoners", [[Korean Central News Agency]], 2000-09-04. [https://web.archive.org/web/20191124030603/http://www.kcna.co.jp/item/2000/200009/news09/04.htm Archived] 2019-11-19.</ref> The term commonly refers to people who were mostly arrested from the 1950s to 1980s and imprisoned and tortured for decades and who refused to sign a "conversion" statement renouncing communist or [[Left–right political spectrum|left-wing]] ideology, which had been a condition for their release.<ref>Amnesty International, [https://www.refworld.org/reference/annualreport/amnesty/1999/en/24250 Amnesty International Report 1999 - Korea, -, 1 January 1999]. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240311065515/https://www.refworld.org/reference/annualreport/amnesty/1999/en/24250 Archived] 2024-03-11.</ref> In the 1990s, some of the prisoners began being released. Some chose to remain in south Korea while others sought to be repatriated to DPRK.<ref name=":0">Kim Dong-won. ''Repatriation'' (2003). Documentary. URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xu2mEvU29Q</ref><br />
<br />
== Imprisonment and torture ==<br />
<br />
== Repatriation movement ==<br />
Of the former prisoners who sought repatriation to DPRK, some were eventually able to be repatriated, notably many of them in the year 2000. However, others remained in the south, being denied their requests for repatriation.<ref name=":0" /><br />
<br />
A [[Liberation School]] interview with a former prisoner, Ahn Hak-sop, reveals that many who participated in the repatriation in the year 2000 and many of those who remained in south Korea made their decisions based on their impression at the time that there was going to be more freedom of movement between ROK and DPRK thereafter. Ahn, who chose to remain in the south when the 2000 repatriation happened, said one of his reasons was that he "thought it was a temporary situation." Anh also notes regarding two prisoners released alongside him who were repatriated, that "[T]hose comrades went to the North because they thought that shortly there would be free movement between the two states. They went to the North to study and thought they would come back later." Regarding his own intention to stay in the south temporarily, Anh elaborated: "[T]here were young [[Progressivism|progressive]] people here in the South, and they asked me to stay. [...] We have to keep struggling here for the withdrawal of US army, the peace treaty, and peaceful reunification. I decided to stay here to fight for these goals. In 1952, I came here to liberate the southern half of the peninsula, and I need to stay here and continue that struggle."<ref>Liberation School (Jul 27, 2022). [https://www.liberationschool.org/interview-with-ahn-hak-sop/ "Still fighting for Korea’s liberation: An interview with Ahn Hak-sop"] ''Liberation School''. [https://web.archive.org/web/2/https://www.liberationschool.org/interview-with-ahn-hak-sop/ Archived] from the original.</ref><br />
<br />
== Persecution and surveillance ==<br />
<br />
== See also ==<br />
<br />
* [[Repatriation (film)]]<br />
<br />
== References ==<br />
<references /></div>
Verda.Majo
https://en.prolewiki.org/index.php?title=Unconverted_long-term_prisoners&diff=64073
Unconverted long-term prisoners
2024-03-11T07:05:30Z
<p>Verda.Majo: Preparing to move the info from the ROK and DPRK pages onto a single page and revise it (WIP)</p>
<hr />
<div>[[File:Repatriation demonstration for unconverted long-term prisoners vop.co.kr.jpg|thumb|Members of the preparatory group for the 20th anniversary of the repatriation of non-converted prisoners hold a press conference in front of the government complex in Seoul to urge the second repatriation (2020).<ref>Photo by 김철수 (Kim Cheoulsu). [https://www.vop.co.kr/A00001510809.html <nowiki>민중의소리 (Voice of the People). 인도적조치 비전향장기수 송환하라[포토] (Repatriate non-converted long-term prisoners for humanitarian measures [Photo]).</nowiki>] 2020-09-08.</ref>]]<br />
'''Unconverted long-term prisoners''' is a term which refers to [[Political prisoner|political prisoners]] imprisoned in [[Republic of Korea|south Korea]], generally on charges of "anti-state" activities or views in support of [[communism]] or [[Democratic People's Republic of Korea|DPRK]].<ref>[https://www.amnesty.org/es/documents/asa25/033/1993/en/ “South Korea: Unfair Trial and Torture: Long-Term Political Prisoners.”] [[Amnesty International]], September 30, 1993.</ref><ref>"National reunification prizes awarded to unconverted long-term prisoners", [[Korean Central News Agency]], 2000-09-04. [https://web.archive.org/web/20191124030603/http://www.kcna.co.jp/item/2000/200009/news09/04.htm Archived] 2019-11-19.</ref> The term commonly refers to people who were mostly arrested from the 1950s to 1980s and imprisoned and tortured for decades and who refused to sign a "conversion" statement renouncing communist or [[Left–right political spectrum|left-wing]] ideology, which had been a condition for their release.<ref>Amnesty International, [https://www.refworld.org/reference/annualreport/amnesty/1999/en/24250 Amnesty International Report 1999 - Korea, -, 1 January 1999]. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240311065515/https://www.refworld.org/reference/annualreport/amnesty/1999/en/24250 Archived] 2024-03-11.</ref><br />
<br />
== See also ==<br />
<br />
* [[Repatriation (film)]]<br />
<br />
== References ==<br />
<references /></div>
Verda.Majo
https://en.prolewiki.org/index.php?title=Republic_of_Korea&diff=64072
Republic of Korea
2024-03-11T06:30:44Z
<p>Verda.Majo: /* Government-sanctioned prostitution and sex trafficking victims */ trying to fix my earlier poorly cited addition to this section and eventually re-write it. WIP</p>
<hr />
<div>{{Infobox country|name=Republic of Korea|population_estimate_year=2019|population_estimate=51,709,098|area_km2=100,363|established_date1=1948 August 15|established_event1=First Republic|image_map=Statesian neocolonial occupation of Korea.svg|map_width=260|official_languages=Korean|leader_name3=Kim Jin-pyo|native_name=대한민국|image_flag=Flag of South Korea.svg|leader_title3=Speaker of the National Assembly|leader_name2=Han Duck-soo|leader_title2=Prime Minister|leader_name1=[[Yoon Suk-yeol]]|leader_title1=President|image_coat=ROK emblem.svg|capital=Seoul|government_type=Unitary corporatocratic republic|currency=Korean Republic won (₩) (KRW)|official_website=https://www.korea.net/|mode_of_production=[[Capitalism]]}}<br />
The so-called '''Republic of Korea''' ('''ROK'''), also known as '''Capitalist Korea''' or '''South Korea''', is a [[Bourgeois state|bourgeois liberal republic]] that serves as a [[United States of America|U.S.]] puppet state<ref>{{Citation|author=Stephen Gowans|year=2018|title=Patriots, Traitors and Empires: The Story of Korea’s Struggle for Freedom|chapter=The Empire of Japan|page=45|pdf=https://ipfs.io/ipfs/bafykbzaced4iiga4ngtxusr2civjxewbili5jne2sbpefbx2s3im2kphattzc?filename=Stephen%20Gowans%20-%20Patriots%2C%20Traitors%20and%20Empires_%20The%20Story%20of%20Korea%E2%80%99s%20Struggle%20for%20Freedom-Baraka%20Books%20%282018%29.pdf|city=Montreal|publisher=Baraka Books|isbn=9781771861427|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=8435F6FF91279531705764823FDC2A7F}}</ref> and [[Neocolonialism|colony]]<ref name=":23" /> located on the southern portion of the [[Korea|Korean Peninsula]]. The northern part of the peninsula is governed by the [[Democratic People's Republic of Korea|Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)]], also known as People's Korea. <br />
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According to the south Korean [[People's Democracy Party]] (민중민주당), writing in a 2020 [[Liberation School]] article, "south Korea is a complete colony occupied by the U.S. military, is politically oppressed by the U.S., and is economically subordinate to [[Imperialism|imperialist]] countries, including the U.S. After the military coup of 1961, the rule of fascist military dictatorships continued for 30 years, and since then a pro-US [[Neoliberalism|neoliberal]] regime has operated in the country. It is severely exploiting the [[Proletariat|workers]], [[Peasantry|farmers]], and all the people."<ref name=":23">People's Democracy Party and Liberation School. [https://www.liberationschool.org/korean-war-70-years/ “70 Years Too Long: The Struggle to End the Korean War – Liberation School.”] ''Liberation School – Revolutionary Marxism for a New Generation of Fighters'', 25 June 2020. [https://web.archive.org/web/2/https://www.liberationschool.org/korean-war-70-years/ Archived].<br />
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According to the same party, the Korean reunification and peace struggle is contingent on the withdrawal of U.S. troops, and therefore U.S. military withdrawal from south Korea is "the most desperate and preferred struggle task for the whole Korean nation to solve.<ref name=":23" /> <br />
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Since its inception, the ROK has been riddled with corruption and political scandals. All four living former south Korean presidents have been sentenced to prison for various crimes ranging from abuse of authority to bribery and embezzlement.<ref name="aei">{{Web citation|date=2018-10-09|title=South Korea's troubling history of jailing ex-presidents|url=https://www.aei.org/foreign-and-defense-policy/asia/south-koreas-troubling-history-of-jailing-ex-presidents/|newspaper=American Enterprise Institute}}</ref><ref>{{Web citation|date=2021-02-10|title=Former South Korean president sentenced to prison|url=https://www.dw.com/en/former-south-korean-president-sentenced-to-prison/a-55779280|newspaper=Deutsche Welle}}</ref><ref>{{Web citation|date=2013-08-22|title=Ex-president Roh Tae-woo to pay remainder of massive fine|newspaper=The Chosunilbo}}</ref><ref>{{Web citation|date=2017-02-07|title=South Korea: President's impeachment on a background of political scandal|url=http://perspective.usherbrooke.ca/bilan/servlet/BMAnalyse?codeAnalyse=2320|newspaper=Perspective Monde}}</ref><ref name="bbcsource">{{Web citation|date=2018-10-05|title=South Korea ex-leader jailed for 15 years|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-45756561|newspaper=[[BBC|BBC News]]}}</ref><br />
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==History==<br />
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=== Early history and Japanese occupation ===<br />
{{Main article|Korea}}<br />
Korea "had been a single nation for at least 1,000 years with a continuous society, language and political system" and "remained independent despite 500 years of efforts of bigger powers to dominate it" until the [[Japanese Empire|Japanese]] annexation in 1910, and later the post-[[Second World War|World War II]] division of Korea into North and South.<ref name=":14" /><br />
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During Japanese occupation era, economic depression merged with anti-colonial demands, and communists and anarchists began meeting in the borderlands of Russia, China, and Korea. On March 1, 1919 a massive Korean independence protest movement was launched. Since 1931, nationalist and communist guerrillas struggled in the mountains of Manchuria against the Japanese, and [[Kim Il-sung|Kim Il-Sung]] emerged as a particularly effective leader during this period.<ref>Ford, Derek. [https://www.liberationschool.org/the-chongryon-movement-the-struggle-of-koreans-in-japan/ “Chongryon: The Struggle of Koreans in Japan – Liberation School.”] ''Liberation School – Revolutionary Marxism for a New Generation of Fighters'', 30 Jan. 2019.</ref><br />
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Before Japan’s defeat in the Pacific War in August 1945, Korea had a rice-based colonial economy that had been tightly controlled in the interest of creating a rice surplus to feed Japan. In particular, the southern part of the peninsula was predominantly agricultural and supplied a greater portion of the food for all of Korea. It was considered the “rice bowl” of the country. Since rice came mainly from south Korea, the southern part of the Korean peninsula maintained a much higher population density.<ref name=":15">Kim Jinwung. A ''Policy of Amateurism: The Rice Policy of the U.S. Army Military''. Government in Korea, 1945-1948. Korea Journal, Summer 2007.https://kj.accesson.kr/assets/pdf/8153/journal-47-2-208.pdf</ref><br />
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===US occupation===<br />
[[File:The Japanese flag in front of the Japanese Government-General of Korea building in Seoul is replaced with the U.S. flag..png|thumb|314x314px|U.S. forces lower the Japanese flag in Seoul and replace it with the U.S. flag.]]<br />
After [[Kim Il-sung]] liberated Korea from the Japanese Empire, in an "outburst of meetings and organizing" that "came out into the open all over Korea" after Japanese surrender, activists throughout the Korean peninsula began to plan and organize to replace Japanese rule and dominance. Groups of local people gathered in most villages and cities and sought ways to replace the police and pro-Japanese administrators with people who had resisted Japanese rule.<ref name=":14" /> A left-leaning nationwide organization established by Koreans known as the Alliance for National government as well as many local People's Committees enjoyed widespread popular support throughout the country. However, the U.S. Military Government in Korea (USAMGIK) did not recognize the new state declared by the People’s Committees, and Korea was divided across the 38th parallel by two American officers who had never been to Korea.<ref>{{Citation|author=Don Oberdorfer, Robert Carlin|year=2014|title=The Two Koreas: A Contemporary History|chapter=|section=|page=5|quote=|pdf=|city=|publisher=|isbn=9780465031238|doi=|lg=|mia=|title-url=|chapter-url=|trans-title=|trans-lang=}}</ref> The U.S. occupation of the southern half of Korea was announced in Proclamation No. 1 by General of the Army Douglas MacArthur on Sept. 7, 1945, with the statement that “All powers of Government over the territory of Korea south of 38 degrees north latitude and the people thereof will be for the present exercised under my authority.”<ref>{{News citation|newspaper=Jeju 4.3 Peace Foundation|title=Liberation from Japan in 1945|date=2018|url=http://jeju43peace.org/historytruth/fact-truth/factstruth_article2/}}</ref><br />
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In "A Policy of Amateurism: The Rice Policy of the U.S. Army Military''"'', Kim Jinwung writes:<blockquote>When news arrived that the United States was planning to occupy southern Korea, [Yeo Un-hyeong's Committee for the Preparation of Korean Independence] called a national convention in Seoul on September 6 to give his regime the stamp of legitimacy. Yeo and his followers wanted to quicken the process of establishing a new government before the Americans arrived. Yeo proclaimed the establishment of the Korean People’s Republic, with a cabinet that included distinguished nationalists of all political persuasions, right and left. But the body was clearly influenced by the left, with Communists playing key roles.<ref name=":15" /></blockquote>However, the U.S. refused to recognize this organization, and General John R. Hodge, the Commanding General of U.S. Army Forces in Korea, outlawed the people’s committees and created new local councils under conservative control.<ref name=":15" /> In an article titled "People's Republic of Korea: Jeju, 1945-1946", Jay Hauben describes the situation:<blockquote>On Sept. 8, 21 US warships arrived in Incheon to supervise in the name of the Allies the surrender of the Japanese Governor-General of Korea and the 200,000 Japanese military personnel and their equipment and property south of the 38th parallel. US General John Hodge commanded the US landing. The US party was met by an English speaking committee of the PRK [People's Republic of Korea] to welcome it to Korea in the name of the people and newly emerging government of Korea. General Hodge refused to meet with them. His mission was to head the United States Military Government In Korea (USAMGIK) and he would not accept that there was already a newly forming government of Korea.<ref name=":14" /></blockquote>Due to the People’s Committees enjoying such widespread popular support, the USAMGIK resorted to dissolving the committees by force so that the U.S. could effectively rule the country.<ref name=":0">{{News citation|newspaper=Jeju 4.3 Peace Foundation|title=Who ruled over the Korean Peninsula?|date=2018|url=http://jeju43peace.org/historytruth/fact-truth/factstruth_article3/|retrieved=2022-07-23}}</ref> As noted by Hauben, "The USAMGIK had as its mission to prevent a Korean government friendly to socialism or communism or leftism in general. That mission required that the left leaning majority of the Korean people had to be diverted."<ref name=":14" /><br />
[[File:1946 South Korean opinion poll about socialism, communism, and capitalism.png|thumb|An opinion poll appearing in the Dong-A Ilbo newspaper on August 13, 1946 showed a majority of respondents favoring socialism and less than 15% supporting capitalism.|341x341px]]<br />
In August 1946, the newspaper Dong-A Ilbo published the results of various opinion polls seeking information about the kind of government the people of Korea wanted. Of those surveyed, when asked about which system they agreed with, 14% of respondents answered "capitalism" (1,189 people), 70% answered "socialism" (6,037 people), 7% answered "communism" (574 people), and 8% responded "do not know" (653 people).<ref>[https://db.history.go.kr/id/dh_003_1946_08_13_0070 "1946년 8월 13일 軍政廳輿論局, 朝鮮國民이 어떠한 종류의 政府를 요망하는지 여론을 조사" ("August 13, 1946. Surveys the public opinion on what kind of military service the people of the military and government demand.")] 동아일보 1946년 08월 13일. (Dong-A Ilbo, August 13, 1946). 자료대한민국사 제3권. (Source Korea History Vol. 3). Korean History Database. 국사편찬위원회. (National Institute of Korean History). [https://web.archive.org/web/20220825114505/https://db.history.go.kr/id/dh_003_1946_08_13_0070 Archived] 2022-08-25.</ref><ref>[https://newslibrary.naver.com/viewer/index.naver?articleId=1946081300209203003&editNo=1&printCount=1&publishDate=1946-08-13&officeId=00020&pageNo=3&printNo=7053&publishType=00020 "軍政廳輿論局調査(군정청여론국조사)."] Dong-A Ilbo August 13, 1946. Page 3. Naver 뉴스 라이브러리 (Naver News Library).</ref><br />
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Following General MacArthur's Proclamation No. 1, the USAMGIK became the official ruling body of south Korea (in the eyes of the U.S.), from 1945 to 1948, until the establishment of the Republic of Korea on Aug. 15, 1948. Through this series of events, the Korean Peninsula was divided along the 38th parallel, the South was occupied by the United States, the People's Committees were suppressed, many Japanese colonial era collaborator police and officials were placed back into positions of power, and a [[Fascism|fascist]] dictatorship led by Harvard graduate [[Syngman Rhee]] was installed.<ref>{{News citation|journalist=|date=|title=Syngman Rhee|url=https://www.doopedia.co.kr/doopedia/master/master.do?_method=view&MAS_IDX=101013000746262|newspaper=Doopedia|archive-url=|archive-date=|retrieved=}}</ref> <br />
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==== Suppressed criticism in official U.S. military history of Korean War and U.S. occupation of Korea ====<br />
In the work ''From Occupation to War: Cold War Legacies of US: Army Historical Studies of the Occupation and Korean War'', Seoul National University professor Chung Yong Wook writes that "a divergent understanding" of this era "was repressed or rooted out by force in the US and around the ‘free world'" due to the official U.S. history of the war being written in the context of the emerging Cold War. Military historian Richard Robinson, who wrote a work critical of the U.S. role in Korea, ''Betrayal of a Nation'', was unable to find a publisher for his work and it remained in manuscript form. I.F. Stone's work ''The Hidden History of the Korean War'' (1952) which was also critical of U.S. conduct in Korea was removed from many libraries. Professor Chung notes that "military historians were not, in essence, allowed to criticize information given to them, nor did they have leeway in interpreting and critiquing facts, they were left only to describe ''sanitized'' history" at all stages of the information-gathering and history-writing process.<ref>Chung, Yong Wook. From Occupation to War; Cold War Legacies of US Army Historical Studies of the Occupation and Korean War. Korea Journal, vol. 60, no. 2 (summer 2020): 14–54. doi: 10.25024/kj.2020.60.2.14 © The Academy of Korean Studies, 2020. URL: https://kj.accesson.kr/assets/pdf/8518/journal-60-2-14.pdf [https://web.archive.org/web/20220725044626/https://kj.accesson.kr/assets/pdf/8518/journal-60-2-14.pdf Archive URL]. Suppression of counter-narratives ("Abstract" p. 15, PDF p.1); "sanitized history" (p. 20, PDF p. 7)</ref><br />
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According to Richard Robinson, who had been working as a historian for the military during the occupation, the official American military history of the occupation is "highly prejudiced and inaccurate" adding that the official U.S. histories were "written upon explicit orders not even to imply criticism of anything American" and says that "if the truth were known, the American occupation of south Korea was incredibly bungled by an incompetent and corrupt administration—all in the name of American democracy."<ref name=":5">Robinson, Richard. Cited in Chung, Yong Wook. ''From Occupation to War; Cold War Legacies of US Army Historical Studies of the Occupation and Korean War''. Korea Journal, vol. 60, no. 2 (summer 2020): 14–54. doi: 10.25024/kj.2020.60.2.14 © The Academy of Korean Studies, 2020 URL: https://kj.accesson.kr/assets/pdf/8518/journal-60-2-14.pdf</ref> Robinson had his work suppressed as he expressed criticism of the U.S. military government's failures in Korea and eventually was compelled to leave the country.<ref name=":5" /><ref>{{News citation|author=김환균|newspaper=미디어오늘 (Media Today)|title='미국의 배반'이 미국에서 금서가 된 이유. (Why "American Betrayal" is Banned Reading in the U.S.)|date=2004-08-09|url=http://www.mediatoday.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=25874|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220724050252/http://www.mediatoday.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=25874|archive-date=2022-07-24|retrieved=2022-07-24}}</ref><br />
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==== USAMGIK disregards People's Committee's rice management, establishes rice "free market" ====<br />
During Japanese colonial rule, the Japanese placed rigid controls on the people of Korea to build up a food surplus. When the U.S. forces arrived in south Korea, they found that "Japanese control over rice had been loosened or altogether abolished" and that instead, "the [[People's Republic of Korea (1945–1946)|Korean People’s Republic]] (KPR) and people’s committees managed food stocks, and according to American accounts, 'after the Koreans drove the Japanese police out, [the leaders of the KPR and people’s committees] took over the rice collection machinery and were operating it successfully when the Americans arrived.'"<ref name=":15" /> As the Americans largely did not acknowledge the authority of the People's Committees and were trying to establish an [[Anti-communism|anti-communist]] government in south Korea, they struck down the management system that had been operating under the People's Committees and replaced it with a "free market" in rice. In Ordinance 19, USAMGIK describes this as "giving to every man, woman and child within the country equal opportunity to enjoy his just and fair share of great wealth which this beautiful nation has been endowed".<ref>Office of the Military Governor, United States Army Forces in Korea. [https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/USAMGIK_Ordinance_19 Ordinance Number 19]. 1945-10-30. </ref><ref name=":15" /> <br />
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In "A Policy of Amateurism: The Rice Policy of the U.S. Army Military''"'', Kim Jinwung describes the results of the free market policy of the USAMGIK:<blockquote>The immediate effect of the free market policy was a steep rise in the price of rice and resultant hoarding and speculation. Poor distribution of food led to food shortages and hunger in cities, despite a bumper harvest in 1945. Additionally, the rice-based south Korean economy inevitably began to suffer from massive inflation. It was quite natural then that the black-market should grow and prosper; it was expected that the lure of black market prices would stimulate the flow of rice into the black market. The result was that “rice disappeared almost entirely from the market.” Through its free market policy, the U.S. military government lost the main strength of the south Korean economy—its ability to extract large surpluses of grain—and caused in its stead spiraling inflation, near starvation in early 1946, and a general economic breakdown. The price of a bushel of rice increased from 9.4 yen in September 1945 to 2,800 yen in September 1946. Landlords, police and other government officials, and wealthy individuals engaged in speculation on a wholesale basis.<ref name=":15" /></blockquote>In the wake of this policy, USAMGIK was "flooded with complaints and petitions from Koreans demanding that price control and rationing be resumed and that the American military government take drastic action to stop rice hoarding."<ref name=":15" /> However, it seemed to many that USAMGIK was "reluctant to move against the principal hoarders" due to them being Korean businessmen who the government who had been relying on for advice.<ref name=":15" /> By 1946, the U.S. rescinded the free market and implemented rice rationing. A U.S. summation of the U.S. army military government activities in Korea stated that public attention was "focused on the threat of hunger" at this time.<ref>Commander-in-Chief, United States Army Forces, Pacific. ''[https://www8.cao.go.jp/okinawa/okinawasen/pdf/b0604002_09/b0604002_09.pdf Summation of United States Military Government Activities in Korea, No. 6].'' March 1946. </ref> As the situation continued, U.S. rice rations eventually fell to half of the ration size that had been received under the Japanese colonial administration during World War II, and newspapers published accounts of famine and starvation, further disaster only being averted by eventual shipments of U.S. grains as emergency relief. In addition, "the deteriorating food situation forced the Americans to revive the old Japanese rice collection system" which was unpopular with farmers.<ref name=":15" /> The USAMGIK eventually formed local boards composed of local police officials, elders, businessmen, and landlords approved by the USAMGIK to manage the collection of rice quotas, but created no system for appeal to adjust the quotas. Under this program, many farmers were arrested or faced violence for not meeting their quotas.<ref name=":15" /> <br />
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==== Re-appointment of Japanese colonial officials under U.S. occupation ====<br />
The USAMGIK had a policy of rehiring officers from the Japanese colonial era, which it tried to justify by the need to implement effective governance. This failure to prosecute officers who had collaborated with the Japanese and re-instatement of their power increased public resentment against the U.S. regime.<ref name=":0" /> Instead of fully enjoying their independence, people were being victimized by the same oppressive police officers and corrupt public officials as under Japanese colonial authority.<ref name=":1">{{News citation|newspaper=Jeju 4.3 Peace Foundation|title=Jeju’s political climate following liberation|date=2018|url=http://jeju43peace.org/historytruth/fact-truth/factstruth_article4/}}</ref> The U.S. occupiers created an army staffed by former Japanese officers and rebuilt the [[Korean National Police]] (KNP) of the Japanese occupation era.<ref name=":110">{{Citation|author=Stephen Gowans|year=2018|title=Patriots, Traitors and Empires: The Story of Korea’s Struggle for Freedom|chapter=The War Against Communists of the South|page=95–99|pdf=https://ipfs.io/ipfs/bafykbzaced4iiga4ngtxusr2civjxewbili5jne2sbpefbx2s3im2kphattzc?filename=Stephen%20Gowans%20-%20Patriots%2C%20Traitors%20and%20Empires_%20The%20Story%20of%20Korea%E2%80%99s%20Struggle%20for%20Freedom-Baraka%20Books%20%282018%29.pdf|city=Montreal|publisher=Baraka Books|isbn=9781771861427|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=8435F6FF91279531705764823FDC2A7F}}</ref><br />
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==== Conflict between occupation forces and people's committees ====<br />
Richard Robinson, the chief of the Public Opinion Section of the Department of Information of the USAMGIK, who had been present in Korea and contributing to the official U.S. military historical record at the time, later gave his observations about the People's Committees and the USAMGIK's policy of rehiring officers from the Japanese colonial era:<blockquote>It was safe to say that for the most part the local People's Committees in these early days were of the genuine grassroots democratic variety and represented a spontaneous urge of the people to govern themselves. . . . They resented orders from the Military Government to turn the administration of local government over to American Army officers and their appointed Korean counterparts, many of whom were considered to be Japanese collaborators. It seemed like a reversion to what had gone before. Bloodshed ensued in many communities as local People's Committees defied the Military Government and refused to abandon government offices. Koreans and Americans met in pitched battles, and not a few Koreans met violent death in the struggle.<ref name=":4">Robinson, Richard. Cited in Mark J. Scher (1973) ''U.S. policy in Korea 1945–1948: A Neocolonial model takes shape.'' Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars, 5:4, 17-27, DOI: 10.1080/14672715.1973.10406346. <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.1080/14672715.1973.1040634</nowiki> URL: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/14672715.1973.10406346</ref></blockquote>Robinson then gives an example of an incident which he refers to as "typical" of this period. According to Robinson, in the small community of Namwon in North Jeolla province, the Japanese had turned over considerable property to the local People's Committee just prior to the arrival of the Americans. The U.S. military government then demanded the property, but the People's Committee refused to turn it over to the U.S. military government. Robinson states that five leaders of the Committee were arrested by the local Korean police, adding that "the police chief was captured and beaten by Committee members and the police station attacked by a large crowd of irate citizens." He says that the station was guarded by American troops, and that when the Koreans refused to disband, "the Americans advanced with fixed bayonets," resulting in two Koreans being killed and several injured.<ref name=":4" /><br />
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Within a year of the U.S. occupation, uprisings began in 80 cities and hundreds of villages. After the suppression of the People's Republic of Korea, widespread [[Strike action|strikes]] and protests began followed by a guerrilla movement. By December 1947, the KNP had arrested over 21,000 leftists, and the amount of political prisoners was more than under the Japanese occupation. By 1948, resistance forces controlled most of the inland villages in south Korea. The KNP arrested so many people that it ran out of space in prisons and forced an additional 70,000 people, including 30,000 communists, into concentration camps. By 1950, the south Korean government and U.S. occupation forces killed between 100,000 and 200,000 dissidents.<ref name=":110" /><br />
===First Republic (1948–1960) ===<br />
[[File:Syngman Rhee.jpg|thumb|264x264px|Syngman Rhee (Korean: 이승만), president of the ROK First Republic from 1948-1960, was described as an "extreme rightist" in a 1948 [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] report.<ref name=":20">{{News citation|newspaper=Wilson Center Digital Archive|title=March 18, 1948 Central Intelligence Agency, ORE 15/48, 'The Current Situation in Korea'|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220729051304/https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/220065.pdf?v=d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e|retrieved=2022-07-29|Archive=History and Public Policy Program Digital Archive, Record Group 263, Records of the Central Intelligence Agency|url=https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/220065.pdf?v=d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e}}</ref>]]After rejecting [[Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (1922–1991)|Soviet]] proposals for all-Korean elections, the United States created a UN committee of [[Canada]], [[Commonwealth of Australia|Australia]], the [[Republic of the Philippines|Philippines]], and the defeated [[Kuomintang]] from [[People's Republic of China|China]] to supervise elections in the southern zone. Koreans from all parts of the nation organized a National Unity Conference in [[Pyongyang]] that met three weeks before the US-sponsored elections. Many [[Left-wing politics|leftist]] parties and some [[Right-wing politics|right-wing]] parties boycotted the elections. The Korean National Police and right-wing thugs attacked communists, while people who did not vote would lose their land and ration cards. [[Syngman Rhee]] won the rigged elections and took power as the first president of the south. During the elections, [[Kim Sok-won]] led a parade in Seoul of 2,500 Koreans who had collaborated with the Japanese.<br />
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The First Republic was the government of south Korea from August 1948 to April 1960. Syngman Rhee ruled for the entire existence of the first republic. The first republic was characterized by Rhee's authoritarianism and corruption, limited economic development, strong anti-communism, and by the late 1950s, by growing political instability and public opposition to Rhee.<br />
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Prior to being flown in to Korea by the OSS (precursor to the CIA), Rhee had been living in the United States for over thirty-five years, earning an M.A. at Harvard and a Ph.D. at Princeton.<ref name=":21">{{Citation|author=Max Hastings|year=1988|title=The Korean War|title-url=https://archive.org/details/koreanwar00hast_0/page/32/mode/2up|chapter=Origins of a Tragedy|page=32, 33-34|quote=Syngman Rhee was born in 1875, the son of a genealogical scholar. He failed the civil service exams several times before becoming a student of English. Between 1899 and 1904 he was imprisoned for political activities. On his release, he went to the United States, where he studied for some years, earning an M.A. at Harvard and a Ph.D. at Princeton—the first Korean to receive an American doctorate. After a brief return to his homeland in 1910, Rhee once more settled in America. He remained there for the next thirty-five years, lobbying relentlessly for American support for Korean independence, financed by the contributions of Korean patriots. (p.32)}}</ref> According to Max Hastings, in ''The Korean War'':<blockquote>Rhee's backing from the Military Government was a decisive force in his rise to power. [...] There is no murkier episode in the history of the American occupation than the return of Rhee to Seoul. The Military Government firmly denied not only complicity but prior knowledge of this. Yet all the evidence now suggests that General Hodge and his staff participated in a carefully orchestrated conspiracy to bring back Rhee, despite the refusal of the State Department to grant him a passport. A former deputy director of the wartime OSS, Preston Goodfellow, prevailed upon the State Department to provide Rhee with documentation. There appears to have been at least a measure of corruption in this transaction. Rhee got to know Goodfellow during the war, when the Korean mendaciously suggested to the American that he could provide agents for operations behind the Japanese lines. After the war it seems almost certain that Goodfellow assisted and raised money for Rhee in return for the promise of commercial concessions in Korea when the doctor gained power. Rhee flew to Seoul in one of MacArthur's aircraft. Despite the vigorous denials of the U.S. Army in the Far East, it seems likely that he met secretly with both the Supreme Commander and Hodge during his stopover in Tokyo. Rhee, it is apparent, was their nominee for the leadership of a Korean civilian government.<ref name=":21" /></blockquote>A 1948 CIA report wrote that "there is every prospect that Rhee's accession to power will be followed by intra-party cleavages and by the ruthless suppression of all non-Rhee Rightist, Moderate, and Leftist opposition," characterizing Rhee as an "imported expatriate politician" and "extreme rightist" and demagogue "bent on autocratic rule", who would be an "unpopular" figure who would play into communist propaganda due to his extreme rightist orientation, and stating that the U.S. throwing their full support behind him could potentially be "a source of future embarrassment to US policy in the Far East."<ref name=":20" /><br />
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During the First Republic, the number of U.S. troops decreased, but many intelligence officers and combat specialists continued to occupy south Korea. Resistance against the occupation continued to grow, reaching 3,500 to 6,000 guerrilla fighters by early 1949. Rhee created the National Guidance League to make leftists to reject reunification and forced 300,000 people to join. He also created the [[National Security Law]], which still exists today and criminalizes recognition of the DPRK as a legitimate state. Almost 190,000 people, including members of the National Assembly, were arrested under this law up to December 1949.<ref name=":1102">{{Citation|author=Stephen Gowans|year=2018|title=Patriots, Traitors and Empires: The Story of Korea’s Struggle for Freedom|chapter=The Political Partition of Korea|page=115–116|pdf=https://ipfs.io/ipfs/bafykbzaced4iiga4ngtxusr2civjxewbili5jne2sbpefbx2s3im2kphattzc?filename=Stephen%20Gowans%20-%20Patriots%2C%20Traitors%20and%20Empires_%20The%20Story%20of%20Korea%E2%80%99s%20Struggle%20for%20Freedom-Baraka%20Books%20%282018%29.pdf|city=Montreal|publisher=Baraka Books|isbn=9781771861427|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=8435F6FF91279531705764823FDC2A7F}}</ref><br />
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==== Jeju People's Committee ====<br />
After liberation from Japanese colonization, the Jeju People’s Committee was formed with the head of the Farmers' Guild and the Fishermens' Guild as its leaders. According to the Jeju 4.3 Peace Foundation, "In every aspect, the Jeju People’s Committee was the only political party and the only government in Jeju" after liberation from the Japanese. E. Grant Meade, a USAMGIK officer, said, “The Jeju People’s Committee was the only political party in the island and the only organization acting like a government.”<ref name=":1" /> The committees had the respect and support from most villagers. Committee members were known in their communities from their long years as school teachers, union leaders and for resistance to Japanese abuses or for their organizing work in Japan. When the USAMGIK arrived on Jeju, it found that the Jeju People’s Committee and all the village and county People’s Committees were functioning successfully as a de facto government with popular support. The USAMGIK did not disturb or challenge this de facto government. This was unusual because the USAMGIK had as its mission to insure that a right leaning government hostile to socialism emerged in Korea.<ref name=":14">{{News citation|author=Jay Hauben|newspaper=The Jeju Weekly|title=People's Republic of Korea: Jeju, 1945-1946|date=2011-08-20|url=http://www.jejuweekly.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=1865|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220723035033/http://www.jejuweekly.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=1865|archive-date=2022-07-23|retrieved=2022-07-23}}</ref> Unlike in the mainland, where the People's Committees were immediately disregarded and systematically dismantled by the USAMGIK, the People's Committee on Jeju Island remained intact for a longer period, serving as the island's main governmental body until 1948 when it, too, was violently dismantled in conjunction with the process of the Republic of Korea being officially established that year.<br />
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==== Jeju Uprising and Massacre ====<br />
{{Main article|Jeju Uprising}}[[File:Northwest Youth League logo 백골부대 정신을 계승한 서북청년단 기.jpg|thumb|262x262px|Banner of the Northwest Youth League, a right-wing paramilitary group who assisted government forces in the mass murder of Jeju islanders in the name of anti-communism.<ref name=":7">{{News citation|author=Lauren Flenniken|newspaper=The Jeju Weekly|title=The Northwest Youth League|date=2011-04-10|url=http://www.jejuweekly.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=1435|retrieved=2022-07-25|quote=Despite the Northwest Youth League lacking legal backing to exercise their power, President Rhee and the KDP allowed the group to use aggressive force against supposed Communists without restrictions. [...] Professor Bruce Cumings of the University of Chicago states that at the time, Jeju’s local government and police were comprised mostly of mainlanders who “worked together with ultra-rightest party terrorists,” otherwise known as the Northwest Youth League.}}</ref>]]<br />
In 1948, in a series of events known variously as the Jeju Uprising, the Jeju 4.3 Incident, and the Jeju Massacre, an uprising occurred on Jeju Island, followed by a scorched earth style retaliation undertaken by government forces and right-wing paramilitary groups to root out communist influence on the island. The Jeju massacre was the second largest massacre in south Korea's modern history,<ref name=":8">{{News citation|author=Song Jung Hee|newspaper=The Jeju Weekly|title=Islanders still mourn April 3 massacre|date=2010-03-31|url=http://www.jejuweekly.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=657}}</ref> the death toll listed by the Jeju 4.3 Peace Foundation being approximately 30,000 people, or one-tenth of the island's population.<ref name=":9">{{News citation|newspaper=Jeju 4.3 Peace Foundation|title=Background to the Jeju 4·3 Uprising and Massacre|date=2018|url=http://jeju43peace.org/historytruth/fact-truth/factstruth-article1/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220723024308/http://jeju43peace.org/historytruth/fact-truth/factstruth-article1/|archive-date=2022-07-23}}</ref> <br />
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Although the People’s Committees in other regions were either dissolved by the USAMGIK or operated under different names, the Jeju People’s Committee remained intact and enjoyed strong support. This was largely due to the pro-Japanese faction being relatively weak in Jeju. Many people who had fought for independence against the Japanese returned to their hometowns and became members of the People’s Committee in Jeju.<ref name=":1" /> However, Many Jeju islanders resisted the division of the Korean Peninsula and strongly protested the first election that was scheduled for May 10, 1948, that would confirm the formation of the Republic of Korea south of the 38th parallel. Their resistance to the division of the peninsula and the establishment of the Southern regime triggered a brutal suppression by government forces. <br />
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According to The Jeju 4·3 Incident Investigation Report, "In around the middle of November 1948, uncompromising repression operations were carried out. Under these operations, a curfew was imposed on the residents of the upland areas and if anyone broke it, he or she was executed without exception. From the middle of November 1948 to February 1949, for about four months, the anti-guerrilla expeditions burned down the upland villages and killed the residents collectively. [...] During this period, the casualties were the highest and most of the upland villages were literally burnt to the ground."<ref>{{Citation|author=Jeju 4·3 Peace Foundation|year=2003|title=The Jeju 4·3 Incident Investigation Report|page=469|pdf=https://jeju43peace.or.kr/cmm/fms/FileDown.do?atchFileId=FILE_00000000000071265Cu0&fileSn=0|publisher=The National Committee for Investigation<br />
of the Truth about the Jeju April 3 Incident}}</ref> A combination of government forces and violent far-right paramilitary groups, notably the far-right anti-communist Northwest Youth League, carried out these attacks.<ref name=":7" /><br />
[[File:Jeju 4.3 Camellia flower.png|thumb|The camellia flower can be seen in the island of Jeju as a symbol of the 4.3 incident's victims. '''Above:''' A camellia flower pin. '''Below:''' Camellia flowers forming the shape of Jeju Island.]]<br />
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===== Death toll of Jeju massacre and long-term imprisonment of Jeju islanders =====<br />
Because the facts of the Jeju massacre were officially suppressed for over fifty years, only coming to light in January 2000 when a Special Act was decreed by the south Korean Government calling for an official investigation of the incident, an official death toll could not be established until that time. Additionally, discoveries of mass grave execution sites, such as the mass grave uncovered in 2008 near Jeju Airport, illustrate the difficulty of calculating the massacre's true toll.<ref name=":8" /> According to a report by the National Commission on the Jeju April 3 Incident, 25,000 to 30,000 people were killed or simply vanished, with upwards of 4,000 more fleeing to Japan as the government sought to quell the uprising. As the island’s population was at most 300,000 at the time, the official toll was one-tenth of the inhabitants. However, some Jeju people claim that as many as 40,000 islanders were killed in the suppression.<ref name=":8" /> Some estimates claim as many as 60,000 people may have been killed by the end of these events.<ref>{{News citation|journalist=|date=2000-06-18|title=Ghosts of Cheju|url=|newspaper=Newsweek|archive-url=https://www.newsweek.com/ghosts-cheju-160665|archive-date=|retrieved=2021-21-30}}</ref> The 30,000 death figure, or one in every 10 Jeju residents at the time, is a common figure given for how many people lost their lives during this period, and is the one cited on the Jeju 4.3 Peace Foundation website.<ref name=":9" /> <br />
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One result of the decades-long suppression of the facts of the massacre is the long-term imprisonment of Jeju islanders arrested on suspicion of being communists during the conflict. Many of those arrested on these charges died in captivity. Others remained in prison for up to 20 years, and those who had been released were not cleared of their criminal records, and were ostracized by the community or disadvantaged in their job applications for having criminal records. Decades after being arrested, some of the remaining victims had their names legally cleared of the charges in 2019, due to a ruling that found that the military court of the time did not follow proper legal procedures, made groundless charges, and that there were no court records found from the time explaining why those arrested were given such harsh sentences.<ref>{{News citation|author=Lee Suh-yoon|newspaper=The Korea Times|title=Jeju massacre victims get their names cleared in court|date=2019-01-17|url=https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2019/01/251_262242.html|quote=The suit was filed by 18 plaintiffs who were jailed after being branded as communist insurgents ― with around 2,500 others ― during the ideological conflict that flared up on the southern island after Korea's independence from Japan. Many died in captivity. Even after surviving the massacre and imprisonment, the plaintiffs were ostracized by the community or disadvantaged in their job applications for having criminal records. [...] The plaintiffs demanded a retrial in 2017, saying they were arrested and imprisoned for up to 20 years without fair procedure. There were no court records found from the time explaining why the plaintiffs were given such harsh sentences.}}</ref><br />
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==== Fatherland Liberation War (1950–1953) ====<br />
<blockquote>''See also: [[Korean War]], [[List of atrocities commited by the United States of America#Korean War|List of atrocities committed by the United States of America#Korean War]]''</blockquote>This period is generally referred to in English as the "Korean War", in DPRK as the "Fatherland Liberation War" (Korean: 조국해방전쟁), and in south Korea as the "6.25 War" (Korean: 6·25 전쟁). In China it is sometimes referred to as the "Korean War", and some specific battles are referred to as the "War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea" (Chinese: 抗美援朝战争). This period is also referred to by some in English as "The Forgotten War" or "The Unknown War." <br />
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In the U.S., the war was initially described as a "police action" as the United States never formally declared war on its opponents.<ref>Truman, Harry S. (29 June 1950). "The President's News Conference of June 29, 1950. Teachingamericanhistory.org. [https://web.archive.org/web/20101226063925/http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?document=594 Archive link].</ref> According to the U.S. Department of State's Office of the Historian, "When north Korea invaded south Korea in June 1950, the United States sponsored a "police action"—a war in all but name—under the auspices of the United Nations. The Department of State coordinated U.S. strategic decisions with the other 16 countries contributing troops to the fighting. In addition, the Department worked closely with the government of Syngman Rhee, encouraging him to implement reform so that the UN claim of defending democracy in Korea would be accurate." The U.S. Department of State's description of the war notes that "The Korean War was difficult to fight and unpopular domestically" and that "The American public tired of a war without victory."<ref>A Short History of the Department of State. "NSC-68 and the Korean War." Office of the Historian, Foreign Service Institute, U.S. Department of State. URL: https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/short-history/koreanwar [https://web.archive.org/web/20220725043544/https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/short-history/koreanwar Archive link].</ref><br />
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The People's Democracy Party (PDP) of south Korea characterizes the conditions that led to the Korean War as follows:<blockquote>Objectively, there were 2,617 attacks from the South to the North during the year of 1949 under pro-U.S. and far-right Rhee Seung-man regime. Therefore, it cannot be viewed that the war broke out exactly on June 25th, 1950. The U.S. military government forcefully dissolved the people’s committees that were formed as independent South Corean people’s organizations and exhaustively massacred and oppressed the national liberation movement forces and patriotic and democratic forces after the U.S. army came into South Corea in September 1945 as an occupation force. <br />
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All the people except the minimum of pro-U.S. and far-right forces held the “Joint Meeting of Representatives of Political Parties and Social Organizations in the North and South of Korea” in April 1948, in Pyongyang, and decided to immediately withdraw the U.S. military and to establish a unified government by the Corean nation’s power and initiative.<br />
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However, the single government of the South was established by the U.S. and the intervention of the UN, which was under the domination of the U.S. Then, North Corea had to establish their own government. The condition for an outbreak of the Corean War had developed.<ref name=":23" /></blockquote>The PDP stated that the U.S. had become the head of imperialist forces after World War II, and Korea was the first country it invaded. The PDP characterizes the war as a battle between the Korean nation and U.S. imperialism, and also notes that "it was the first war that U.S. imperialism fought against a small country and lost."<ref name=":23" /><br />
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Alan Winnington, a British correspondent in China and Korea for the ''Daily Worker,'' provides a description of the apparent ignorance of U.S. soldiers at the outset of the war, by interviewing POWs caught by the People's Army. Winnington writes:<blockquote>I asked every prisoner I met: “Why are you fighting in Korea?” Not one could give a clear answer. Most said: “I don’t know.” Some said: “It’s something to do with the United Nations, they told us.”<br />
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A few had heard of Rhee. None knew of Kim Ir Sen. With one or two exceptions, Privates—nearly all teen-agers—said they had joined the army to “see the world”, “get out of the draft” or “save some money”. Their general view of the Korean war was summed up by Edward Sorea, nineteen-year-old Private of San Bernardino, California. He said: “I just wanted to travel. It was peace-time. Who in hell thought there would be a war? One drops on you from out of a clear sky.” <br />
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You cannot find one American soldier who is concerned whether America wins the war or not—rather you meet many who want the Koreans to win quickly so that they can “get back home". “Win or lose”, they say, “American people have nothing to gain". Soldiers like that make bad fighters—just how bad can be seen by taking a trip down the main road from Kumchon, near the 38th Parallel, to Yongdong, near Taegu, in the South.<ref name=":24">{{Web citation|author=Alan Winnington|newspaper=The Daily Worker|title=I Saw The Truth In Korea: Facts and photographs that will shock Britain|date=September 1950|url=https://www.docdroid.net/8z73fQZ/i-saw-the-truth-in-korea-readingt-ver-pdf|quote=The Daily Worker sent me to Korea to get the facts at first hand and report them to the British public. And so I arrived in Korea on July 16 and stayed for five weeks. <br />
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Of course, before I went I knew that the Americans were bombing heavily and fighting badly. I knew that Syngman Rhee's troops only existed as scattered units and there was no longer a “South Korean Army”; that effectively this was a war between America and Korea. These facts were common knowledge in the world, but I admit I was mentally unprepared for all I found. <br />
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After all, five years ago we and the Russians were allies of the Americans in the war against the Nazis. Since then, Roosevelt and his colleagues have gone and atomic diplomacy has taken their place. But still, what I saw Americans doing in Korea shook me to my heels. I suppose all my life I’ve been listening to propaganda about America being a civilised nation and some of this must have sunk in. Somehow, I never quite thought of Americans doing exactly what the Nazis did until I saw it with my own eyes. <br />
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We still talk of Coventry as an example of malicious and futile bombing, but the Americans have gone far ahead of the Nazis in what they politely term “Saturation Bombing”. The American style of waging war in Korea is on the same pattern as the Nazis but, bearing in mind the size of the country, even more savage and just as stupid. <br />
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Wonsan is a much smaller town than Coventry, not nearly as large as the London suburb; of Walthamstow. During its first heavy raid in July, B.29 Superfortresses flung 500 tons of high explosive bombs into the town—sixty tons more than Coventry got on that terrible night ten years ago. No targets were aimed at. MacArthur’s communiqué admitted that there was “heavy cloud" which “prevented the evaluation of the effect of the raid”. Actually, visibility was nil at the time, for it was raining hard. In Coventry there were 1,000 casualties that night. During the first raid on Wonsan there were 1,249 killed and the northern half of the town was wiped out In August the raid was repeated, wiping out the other half. No other military objective was claimed than that this town was a rail centre. A thousand tons of bombs; a town obliterated; over 4,000 casualties in all; tens of thousands made homeless and bereaved—all to damage a rail -track. Does it make sense? This is bombing in the fashion that no British town ever met. I saw Coventry and I was in London all through the ‘blitz and I saw Wonsan after these raids. It was far worse than the worst the Nazis ever did.}}</ref></blockquote>Winnington contrasts the apparent cluelessness and lack of resolve of American troops with his observations of the attitudes of Koreans:<blockquote>[T]he ghastly destruction of homes and lives that has gone with it has made the whole nation furious. Even former apologists of America are now their bitter enemies.<br />
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On roads you can meet men by the hundred who tell you: “My home was bombed in . . . so I sent my wife and children to relatives in the country and I’m oil to volunteer.” In Wonsan, the wife and children of a worker, Wan Wun Chu, were killed in a raid while he was at work. “They are dead and I cannot call them back,” he said. “If I die it is little now. But I would give my last drop of blood to get revenge and drive those murdering dogs from our country. They tell me my place is in production and I will work my fingers to the bone to produce more for the army.”<br />
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Every village I visited proudly told me not only how many men had gone into the army but also how many volunteers were waiting to be accepted. There is no lack of the finest quality fighting men; men who were bred in the countless thousands of mountains that cover Korea; volunteers who know why they want to win.<ref name=":24" /></blockquote>Winnington sums up his 1950 assessment of the Korean War's outbreak by saying "Korea has repudiated Syngman Rhee and the Americans. All the Korean people want Korea to be reunited and ruled by Koreans. No regime can exist that has been repudiated by the people and this war can only be won by the Koreans just as the war in China could only be won by the people. This is one of the iron facts of the twentieth century. [...] In China the pattern was the same; America supported the most corrupt and hated enemies of the people, led by Chiang Kai-shek, backed them with more than ‘$6 billion, sent them military aid and advisers—and produced their great fiasco. [...] It is America which has invaded Korea. To defend the interests of Morgan and Rockefeller, of Dupont and the steel barons, to restore the land to the feudal landlords, to drive the people back to penury, to maintain a war base against the peaceful Soviet Union."<ref name=":24" /><br />
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===== Support for DPRK among south Koreans during the war =====<br />
[[File:CIA document pages 1 and 2.jpg|thumb|1950 CIA document stating that more than 50% of Seoul students were actively aiding communists, many volunteering for the Northern Army, and that the working class of Seoul generally supported the North.<ref name=":6" />]]<br />
The Korean War and the following decades were characterized by massive arrest campaigns and mass killings to suppress communists as well as anyone else suspected of opposing the highly unpopular Southern regime. In 1950, when the DPRK attempted to reunify the country, Rhee's forces retreated and killed at least another 60,000 supposed communist sympathizers.<ref>{{Citation|author=Kim Dong-Choon|year=2004|title=Forgotten war, forgotten massacres--the Korean War (1950-1953) as licensed mass killings|chapter=|section=|page=|quote=|pdf=https://www.academia.edu/6417696|city=|publisher=Journal of Genocide Research|isbn=|doi=|lg=|mia=|title-url=|chapter-url=|trans-title=|trans-lang=}}</ref> <br />
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In a 1950 CIA memorandum, after the Northern Army had taken over Seoul, Central Intelligence Director and U.S. Navy Rear Admiral R.H. Hillenkoeter reported that "over 50% of Seoul's students are actively aiding the Communist invaders, with many voluntarily enlisting in the Northern Army" and that among Seoul's population, "the working class generally supports the Northern Koreans, while merchants are neutral and the intelligentsia continue to be pro-Southern," adding that the streets of Seoul were "crowded [...] with youths engaging in Communist demonstrations.<ref name=":6">{{News citation|author=R.H. Hillenkoeter, Director of Central Intelligence|newspaper=CIA Memorandum|title=The Korean Situation|date=1950-7-19|url=https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/1950-07-19b.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220723030500/https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/1950-07-19b.pdf|archive-date=2022-07-23|quote=Past failure of the Republic of Korea to win the support of its restless student class may lie behind reports that over 50% of Seoul's students are actively aiding the Communist invaders, with many voluntarily enlisting in the Northern Army. Apparently attracted by the glamor of a winning army, the morale of these recruits may suffer rapidly if the going gets tough. Among others elements of Seoul's population, the working class generally supports the Northern Koreans, while merchants are neutral and the intelligentsia continue to be pro-Southern. A former Seoul policeman reports that North Korean troops and police are rather inconspicuous in Seoul. Commercially, the city is nearly "dead"; stores are closed except for two department stores and some greengrocers. The streets, however, are crowded, especially with youths engaging in Communist demonstrations.}}</ref><br />
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The People's Democratic Party of south Korea, interviewed in 2020, said that "almost all workers and peasants in the South rejected the U.S. military" and added that "According to North Corea’s data, about 400,00 peoples in the South voluntarily enlisted in the North Corean military when the Corean war started."<ref name=":23" /> <br />
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According to Kim Sin Gyu, a north Korean correspondent present in Seoul at the time: "When the city was first liberated, the citizens of Seoul welcomed the Korean People's Army. I remember hearing people say, 'We heard the north Korean communist soldiers were a monstrous rabble, with the horns of devils and red faces. But seeing them now, they are the same as us. The soldiers are young and brave and handsome.'"<ref name=":11">''Korea: The Unknown War.'' TV Documentary Series. Episode 2: "An Arrogant Display of Strength." Thames Television, 1988. Aired on WGBH Boston, 1990. (URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVCuku3Ldi0)</ref><br />
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Alan Winnington, a ''Daily Worker'' correspondent present in Korea in 1950, wrote:<blockquote>Every evening, the countryside of Korea, especially in the South, boils with life. Hundreds of thousands of peasants and townfolk converge on roads and in a matter of hours have repaired the bomb damage of the previous day by the sheer weight of limitless, willing human labour. While that is going on, hundreds of thousands of others are resuming their trek south from where they stopped at dawn; managing countless oxcarts over remote by-ways; carrying loads of food and munitions on their backs. All these reconstruction and transport workers are volunteers, unpaid, providing their own food and materials, with their own militia to protect them from stray enemy troops, self-supporting, familiar with the terrain and determined to put an end to foreign occupation of their country. <br />
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[...] In places where I checked the figures, I found that practically every available man and many of the women had taken part in one or other side of the Civilian War Service. Below the Parallel, in Koyang County near Seoul, in twelve days 54,085 men had volunteered out of a total population of only 180,000. During the advance of the People’s Army in this area, the local People’s Committee had mobilised 1,000 oxcarts in a single night for a transport emergency. I personally never met a peasant—except old and infirm—who had not helped the army in some way. And in cities, every evening you can see the reconstruction workers gathering in their thousands with spades, crowbars and ropes. At least half of these are women, who refuse to be kept out of even the heaviest and most dangerous work of rescue and fire-fighting during the raids.<ref name=":24" /> </blockquote><br />
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===== U.S. war crimes =====<br />
<blockquote>''See also: [[List of atrocities commited by the United States of America#Korean War|List of atrocities committed by the United States of America#Korean War]]''</blockquote>During the Korean War, U.S. troops killed large numbers of Korean civilians and engaged in copious firebombing with napalm, and, as was eventually revealed through declassified documents, had at certain times a policy of deliberately firing on south Korean refugee groups approaching its lines.<ref name=":12">{{News citation|author=Youkyung Lee|newspaper=Associated Press|title=S. Korean who forced US to admit massacre has died|date=2014-08-07|url=https://apnews.com/article/108b4bd1dc854caeaf5f9349fcd5a176|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220726115036/https://apnews.com/article/108b4bd1dc854caeaf5f9349fcd5a176|quote=On July 26, 1950, outside the central South Korean village of No Gun Ri, hundreds of civilians from nearby villages, ordered south by U.S. troops, were stopped by a dug-in battalion of the U.S. 7th Cavalry Regiment, and then were attacked without warning by U.S. warplanes. Survivors fled under a railroad overpass, where for the next three days they were fired on by 7th Cavalry troops. [...] in January 2001 the Army acknowledged the No Gun Ri killings but assigned no blame, calling it a “deeply regrettable accompaniment to a war.” [...] In 2006 it emerged that among incriminating documents omitted from the 2001 U.S. report was a declassified letter from the U.S. ambassador in South Korea, dated the day the No Gun Ri killings began, saying the Army had adopted a policy of firing on refugee groups approaching its lines.}}</ref> In an article of the Asia-Pacific Journal, Kim Dong choon writes that "Few are aware that the Korean authorities as well as US and allied forces massacred hundreds of thousands of south Korean civilians at the dawn of the Korean War".<ref>{{News citation|author=Kim Dong choon|newspaper=The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus|title=The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Korea: Uncovering the Hidden Korean War. The Other War: Korean War Massacres.|date=2010-03-01|url=https://apjjf.org/-Kim-Dong-choon/3314/article.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220726125030/https://apjjf.org/-Kim-Dong-choon/3314/article.html|archive-date=2022-07-26|retrieved=2022-07-26}}</ref> There were also incidents of U.S. pilots ignoring their orders to stay within Korea and flying beyond its borders, strafing military targets in China and the Soviet Union.<ref name=":11" /><br />
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According to U.S. Naval Captain Walter Karig, in his book ''Battle Report: The War in Korea'':<blockquote>[W]e killed civilians, friendly civilians, and bombed their homes; fired whole villages with the occupants--women and children and ten times as many hidden Communist soldiers--under showers of napalm, and the pilots came back to their ships stinking of vomit twisted from their vitals by the shock of what they had to do.<ref>Walter Karig; Malcolm W Cagle; Frank A Manson; et al (1952). ''Battle Report: The War in Korea'' (pp. 111-112). New York: Rinehart.</ref></blockquote>United States Air Force General Curtis LeMay, commander of the U.S.'s Strategic Air Command, gave a similar description of the U.S. military's conduct in Korea, saying:<blockquote>[W]e went over there and fought the war and eventually burned down every town in North Korea [...] some way or another, and some in south Korea, too. We even burned down Pusan—an accident, but we burned it down anyway. The Marines started a battle down there with no enemy in sight. Over a period of three years or so, we killed off—what—twenty percent of the population of Korea as direct casualties of war, or from starvation and exposure?<ref>Richard H. Kohn and Joseph P. Harahan (1988). ''[https://media.defense.gov/2010/Sep/29/2001329790/-1/-1/0/AFD-100929-052.pdf Strategic Air Warfare: an interview with generals Curtis E. LeMay, Leon W. Johnson, David A. Burchinal, and Jack J. Catton]'' (p. 88). Washington, D.C.: Office of Air Force History, United States Air Force. <small>ISBN 0-912799-56-0</small></ref></blockquote>In a 1950 pamphlet entitled "I Saw the Truth in Korea", written by Alan Winnington, correspondent in China and Korea for the ''Daily Worker'', Winnington describes the actions of U.S. forces in Korea, documenting massacres with photographs and describing the aftermath of bombings:<blockquote>[F]ive years ago we and the Russians were allies of the Americans in the war against the Nazis. Since then, Roosevelt and his colleagues have gone and atomic diplomacy has taken their place. But still, what I saw Americans doing in Korea shook me to my heels. I suppose all my life I’ve been listening to propaganda about America being a civilised nation and some of this must have sunk in. Somehow, I never quite thought of Americans doing exactly what the Nazis did until I saw it with my own eyes. [...] A thousand tons of bombs; a town obliterated; over 4,000 casualties in all; tens of thousands made homeless and bereaved—all to damage a rail-track. Does it make sense? This is bombing in the fashion that no British town ever met. I saw Coventry and I was in London all through the ‘blitz and I saw Wonsan after these raids. It was far worse than the worst the Nazis ever did.<ref name=":24" /></blockquote>In addition to the U.S. military's practice of fire-bombing civilian targets and firing on refugees, many south Korean civilian casualties occurred due to the American soldiers' inability to tell apart North and south Koreans. As described by an anonymous U.S. officer on the U.S. Defense Department radio program called "Time for Defense", "What makes it so difficult over here is that you can't tell the damn north Koreans from the south Koreans, and that's caused a lot of slaughter" ([[:File:Anonymous U.S. officer describes Korean war.mp4|audio file]]).<ref>''Korea: The Unknown War.'' TV Documentary Series. Episode 2: "An Arrogant Display of Strength." Thames Television, 1988. Aired on WGBH Boston, 1990. (URL: <nowiki>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVCuku3Ldi0</nowiki>)</ref> It may be argued that the policy of firing on groups of refugees was a result of this, as described in the 1988 documentary ''Korea: The Unknown War'', which observes that "American troops found it difficult to distinguish friend from foe," and that "the North Koreans had infiltrated refugee columns, and in the ensuing confusion, innocent civilians became casualties." According to the documentary, one American general allegedly commented, "If they look organized, shoot at them."<ref name=":11" /><br />
[[File:U.S. documents showing refugee policy early in Korean War.jpg|thumb|364x364px|'''Left:''' An unsigned Air Force memo from July 25, 1950 seeking alternatives on the policy of "strafing civilian refugees" which "is sure to receive wide publicity and may cause embarrassment to the U.S. Air Force and U.S. government." '''Right:''' A July 26, 1950 letter from the American embassy to the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State saying, "If refugees do appear from the north of US lines they will receive warning shots, and if they then persist in advancing they will be shot."]]<br />
One example of the U.S. policy of firing on groups of refugees is the incident of the Nogeun-ri massacre, also written as No Gun Ri (Korean: 노근리). The incident was little-known outside Korea until publication of an Associated Press story in 1999 in which U.S. veterans corroborated survivors' accounts, and details gradually became more widely known. In July 1950, American soldiers shot "hundreds of helpless civilians under a railroad bridge".<ref name=":13">{{News citation|author=Sang-Hun Choe, Charles J. Hanley and Martha Mendoza|newspaper=Washington Post|title=U.S. Massacre of Civilians in Korean War Described|date=1999-09-30|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/daily/sept99/skorea30.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220726121945/https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/daily/sept99/skorea30.htm|retrieved=2022-07-26}}</ref> U.S. veterans spoke of 100 or 200 or "hundreds" dead and described "a preponderance of women, children and old men among the victims", while Korean witnesses said 300 were killed at the bridge and 100 in a preceding air attack. One Korean witness commented that "the American soldiers played with our lives like boys playing with flies." One of the U.S. veterans described it as "wholesale slaughter."<ref name=":13" /> <br />
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Although this incident had gone unacknowledged for decades, in 2001 the U.S. Army acknowledged the killings, calling them a "regrettable accompaniment to a war." In 2006, it was revealed that among documents omitted from the 2001 U.S. report, there was a declassified letter from the U.S. ambassador in south Korea, dated the day the Nogeun-ri killings began, saying the Army had adopted a policy of firing on refugee groups approaching its lines.<ref name=":12" /> Some U.S. veterans have also described other refugee killings as well, when U.S. commanders ordered their troops to shoot civilians as a defense against disguised enemy soldiers, and declassified U.S. Air Force reports allegedly show that pilots also sometimes deliberately attacked "people in white" (referring to white peasant garb), suspecting that disguised north Korean soldiers were among them.<ref name=":13" /><br />
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==== Armistice Agreement (1953) ====<br />
The armistice was signed on 27 July 1953. The signed armistice established the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), the de facto new border between the two nations, put into force a cease-fire, and finalized repatriation of prisoners of war. The DMZ runs close to the 38th parallel and has continued to separate north and south Korea since the Korean Armistice Agreement was signed in 1953.<br />
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==== U.S. abrogation of armistice paragraph 13d, introduction of nuclear weapons into South ====<br />
Paragraph 13d of the agreement mandated that neither side introduce new weapons into Korea. At a meeting in 1957, the U.S. informed the north Korean representatives that the United Nations Command no longer considered itself bound by paragraph 13d of the armistice,<ref>{{News citation|newspaper=Time Magazine|title=Korea: The End of 13d|date=1957-07-01|url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,809583,00.html|archive-date=https://web.archive.org/web/20220728030416/https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,809583,00.html|quote=One afternoon last week in the stuffy green Quonset hut that is the heart of the scrubby no man's land of Panmunjom, three U.S. generals, a British brigadier and a Republic of Korea air-force officer coldly confronted 40 North Korean commissars and military men. "I have a statement to make," began Major General Homer L. Litzenberg, U.S.M.C., in a level voice. Then, while the Communists listened attentively, he told them that the U.N. Command no longer felt bound by subparagraph 13D of the Korean armistice agreement—the clause limiting introduction of new weapons into Korea.}}</ref> and in 1958 the U.S. abrogated paragraph 13d of the armistice by introducing nuclear weapons into south Korea.<ref>{{News citation|author=Lee Jae-Bong|newspaper=The Asia-Pacific Journal|title=US Deployment of Nuclear Weapons in 1950s South Korea & North Korea's Nuclear Development: Toward Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula|date=2009-02-07|url=https://apjjf.org/-Lee-Jae-Bong/3053/article.html}}</ref><br />
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==== End of the First Republic ====<br />
In 1960, Rhee was forced to resign due to mass protests across the nation after the body of a student killed by police was found floating in the harbor.<ref>{{Citation|author=|year=|title=Cause of the 4.19 Revolution|chapter=|section=|page=|quote=|pdf=|city=|publisher=|isbn=|doi=|lg=|mia=|title-url=https://archive.ph/20120707225356/http://100.naver.com/100.nhn?docid=726618|chapter-url=|trans-title=|trans-lang=}}</ref> As a result of this, he fled to [[Honolulu]], [[Hawaii]], where he remained in exile until his death.<br />
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===Second Republic (1960–1961)===<br />
[[File:Park Chung Hee Japan.png|thumb|Park Chung-hee, the leader of the third and early fourth republics, in a Japanese military uniform]]<br />
After Rhee's overthrow, bourgeois democracy was briefly restored under president [[Yun Bo-seon]].<ref>{{News citation|journalist=|date=|title=The Democratic Interlude|url=http://countrystudies.us/south-korea/12.htm|newspaper=Library of Congress|archive-url=|archive-date=|retrieved=}}</ref> The second republic was founded during the April Revolution mass protests against President Syngman Rhee, succeeding the first republic and establishing a parliamentary government. After thirteen months it was overthrown by the south Korean Army in the May 16 coup led by [[Park Chung-hee]]. Park had fought for the Japanese during the occupation and took the Japanese name Takagi Masao.<ref>{{Citation|author=Stephen Gowans|year=2018|title=Patriots, Traitors and Empires: The Story of Korea’s Struggle for Freedom|chapter=The Patriot|page=67|pdf=https://ipfs.io/ipfs/bafykbzaced4iiga4ngtxusr2civjxewbili5jne2sbpefbx2s3im2kphattzc?filename=Stephen%20Gowans%20-%20Patriots%2C%20Traitors%20and%20Empires_%20The%20Story%20of%20Korea%E2%80%99s%20Struggle%20for%20Freedom-Baraka%20Books%20%282018%29.pdf|city=Montreal|publisher=Baraka Books|isbn=9781771861427|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=8435F6FF91279531705764823FDC2A7F}}</ref> In 1961, the ROK declared all [[Socialist state|socialist states]] its enemies and founded the [[Korean Central Intelligence Agency|KCIA]], a brutal secret police agency that routinely imprisoned and tortured dissidents. The KCIA required [[Trade union|union]] leaders to pledge loyalty to the state.<ref name=":1103" /><br />
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=== Third Republic (1963–1972) ===<br />
The Third Republic was founded on the dissolution of the Supreme Council for National Reconstruction that overthrew the Second Republic and established a military government in May 1961 when, on May 16, General [[Park Chung-hee]], the father of future president [[Park Geun-hye]] and former [[Empire of Japan (1868–1947)|Japanese]] collaborator, took power in a military coup. After serving for two years as chairman of the military junta, he was elected president in 1963, which is considered to be the start of the Third Republic. Park ruled as a military dictator for 18 years and sent 320,000 troops to support the [[Republic of Vietnam (1955–1975)|South Vietnamese]] puppet state in the [[Vietnam War]]. <br />
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==== Korean DMZ conflict ====<br />
The Korean DMZ conflict was a series of low-level armed clashes between north Korean forces and the forces of south Korea and the United States, largely occurring between 1966 and 1969 at the Korean DMZ.<br />
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=== Fourth Republic (1972–1981) ===<br />
[[File:Gwangju riot police.png|thumb|Riot troops attacking protestors during the Gwangju uprising]]<br />
The Fourth Republic was founded on the approval of the Yushin Constitution in the 1972 constitutional referendum, codifying the ''de facto'' dictatorial powers held by President Park Chung-hee. The Fourth Republic entered a period of political instability under Park's successor, Choi Kyu-hah, and the escalating martial law declared after Park's death. Choi was unofficially overthrown by [[Chun Doo-hwan]] in a coup d'état of December Twelfth in December 1979, and began the armed suppression of the [[May 18 uprising|Gwangju Democratization Movement]] against martial law. <br />
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After Park Chung-hee's assassination on 26 October 1979, General Chun Doo-hwan took power. During his presidency he perpetrated the largest massacre of Korean civilians since the Korean war. In May 1980, protests against martial law began in [[Gwangju]], which were met with special warfare troops. Estimates vary as to the amount of casualties, but they range from 165 at the most conservative, to over 300. Some also claim that up to 2,300 civilians were killed in the Gwangju massacre, in response to the May 18 uprising also known as the Gwangju uprising.<ref>{{News citation|author=K. J. Noh|newspaper=Hampton Institute|title=South Korean Dictator Dies, Western Media Resurrects a Myth|date=2020-12-02|url=https://www.hamptonthink.org/read/south-korean-dictator-dies-western-media-resurrects-a-myth|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220519190752/https://www.hamptonthink.org/read/south-korean-dictator-dies-western-media-resurrects-a-myth|archive-date=2022-05-19|retrieved=2022-06-02}}</ref><br />
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An article in ''The Nation'' states that the 10-day revolt known as the Gwangju uprising was triggered when students and other citizens protesting the military coup were attacked by airborne special forces "with a viciousness and cruelty that Koreans had not experienced since the darkest days of the Korean War." The article further states that "The armed resistance by Gwangju’s citizen militia liberated the city from the marauding troops. The townspeople, freed from decades of military rule, kept their city running, buried their dead, and transformed themselves into a self-organized system of mutual aid they now call the Gwangju Commune." On May 27 Korean Army troops were released from their usual duties on the border with DPRK to reoccupy Gwangju. The official death toll from the uprising stands at 165, but residents believe that more than 300 people were killed, with dozens still unaccounted for.<ref>Tim Shorrock and Injeong Kim. [https://www.thenation.com/article/world/two-days-in-may-that-shattered-korean-democracy/ “2 Days in May That Shattered Korean Democracy.”] The Nation. May 28, 2020. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220909162444/https://www.thenation.com/article/world/two-days-in-may-that-shattered-korean-democracy/ Archived] 2022-09-09.</ref><br />
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The Fourth Republic was dissolved on the adoption of a new constitution in March 1981 and replaced with the fifth Republic of Korea.<br />
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=== Fifth Republic (1981–1987) ===<br />
The fifth republic was established in March 1981 by Chun Doo-hwan. The fifth republic faced growing opposition from the democratization movement of the Gwangju Uprising, and the June Democracy Movement of 1987 resulted in the election of Roh Tae-woo in the December 1987 presidential election. The fifth republic was dissolved three days after the election upon the adoption of a new constitution that laid the foundations for the relatively stable democratic system of the current sixth Republic of Korea.<br />
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=== Sixth Republic (1987–present) ===<br />
The Sixth Republic was established in 1987 with Roh Tae-woo as its first president<ref>{{News citation|newspaper=두산백과 (Doopedia)|title=제6공화국 (Sixth Republic)|url=https://terms.naver.com/entry.naver?docId=1141297&cid=40942&categoryId=33385|retrieved=2022-07-24}}</ref> and sixth president of south Korea from 1988 to 1993. Roh's election was the first direct presidential election in 16 years. His presidency was followed by Kim Young-sam (in office 1993–1998), the first civilian to hold the office in over 30 years. After this came the presidency of Kim Dae-jung (in office 1998–2003), known for his "Sunshine Policy" of engagement through dialogue and economic and cultural exchanges with north Korea.<ref>{{News citation|author=Hyonhee Shin|newspaper=Reuters|title=Vindication: Architects of South Korea's 'Sunshine' policy on North say it's paying off|date=2018-06-11|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-usa-sunshinepolicy-idUSKBN1J60PP}}</ref> This was followed by the presidencies of Roh Moo-hyun (in office 2003–2008), and Lee Myung-bak (in office 2008–2013). <br />
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South Korea's next president, Park Geun-hye (in office 2013–2017), is the daughter of former dictator Park Chung-hee. Park Geun-hye was in office as the 11th president of Korea until she was impeached and convicted on corruption charges following public demonstrations, commonly known as the Candlelight Revolution or Candlelight Demonstrations. She became the first south Korean president to be removed from power by impeachment, and was sentenced to 24 years in prison, but received a pardon and was released in 2021 after serving just under 5 years.<ref>{{News citation|author=Hyonhee Shin|newspaper=Reuters|title=S.Korea's disgraced ex-president Park freed after nearly 5 years in prison|date=2021-12-31|url=https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/skoreas-disgraced-ex-president-park-freed-after-nearly-5-years-prison-2021-12-31/}}</ref> Park Geun-hye's presidency was followed by Moon Jae-in (in office 2017–2022). The 13th and current president of Korea is Yoon Suk-yeol of the conservative People Power Party.<br />
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==Politics==<br />
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=== Military command ===<br />
Since the [[Korean War|Korean war]] ended in 1953 with a ceasefire, the US has maintained control over the south Korean military.<ref>Swanström, N. (2021, April 27). ''Not a Sovereignty Issue: Understanding the Transition of Military Operational Control between the United States and South Korea''. Institute for Security and Development Policy. https://isdp.eu/publication/not-a-sovereignty-issue-understanding-the-transition-of-military-operational-control-between-the-united-states-and-south-korea/</ref><ref name=":16">{{News citation|author=Kathryn Botto|newspaper=Carnegie Endowment for International Peace|title=Why Doesn’t South Korea Have Full Control Over Its Military?|date=2019-08-21|url=https://carnegieendowment.org/2019/08/21/why-doesn-t-south-korea-have-full-control-over-its-military-pub-79702}}</ref><ref name=":17">Kelly, R. E. (2017, February 27). ''Why US control of the South Korean military is here to stay''. The Interpreter. <nowiki>https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/why-us-control-south-korean-military-here-stay</nowiki></ref><ref name=":18">{{News citation|author=Clint Work|newspaper=Stimson|title=No More Delays: Why It’s Time to Move Forward With Wartime OPCON Transition|date=June 21, 2022|url=https://www.stimson.org/2022/no-more-delays-why-its-time-to-move-forward-with-wartime-opcon-transition/|quote=The history and evolution of the US-ROK military command architecture reveal the inherent push and pull at the heart of the US-ROK alliance. Over time, the U.S. has encouraged the ROK to take on a more robust role in its own defense and within the alliance’s command architecture. However, U.S. officials have also been equally hesitant to relinquish too much control too quickly. Simply put, Washington has had trouble navigating the outer edges of its own authority within the alliance command structure as it simultaneously and discordantly pushes and pulls back Seoul in the process.}}</ref><ref name=":19">{{News citation|newspaper=United States Forces Korea|title=Combined Forces Command|url=https://www.usfk.mil/About/CFC/#Commanders|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220728035053/https://www.usfk.mil/About/CFC/|archive-date=2022-07-28|quote=The CFC is commanded by a four-star U.S. general, with a four-star ROK Army general as deputy commander. Throughout the command structure, binational manning is readily apparent: if the chief of a staff section is Korean, the deputy is American and vice versa. This integrated structure exists within the component commands as well as the headquarters. All CFC components are tactically integrated through continuous combined and joint planning, training and exercises.}}</ref> ''US Forces Korea'' were integrated with ROK forces into a ''Combined Forces Command'', which was in turn integrated into the [[United Nations]] Command. All three commands are headed by the same person, a four-star US general<ref name=":17" /><ref name=":19" /> (currently General Paul J. LaCamera<ref>{{Web citation|newspaper=United States Forces Korea|title=Commander UNC/CFC/USFK|url=https://www.usfk.mil/About/Leadership/Article-View/Article/1685489/commander-unccfcusfk/}}</ref> who took functions in 2021).<br />
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South Korea has operational control (referred to as OPCON) of its military under armistice conditions, but the United States would take over in wartime, and the U.S. combatant commander would be able to direct, organize, employ, assign command functions to, or suspend the duty of subordinate South Korean commanders and forces. In essence, if war breaks out on the Korean Peninsula, south Korea would supply the overwhelming majority of the fighting force, which would then be placed under U.S. operational control.<ref name=":16" /> <br />
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Throughout the history of the US-ROK arrangement, the U.S. and ROK have engaged in a back-and-forth trying to determine what degree of control each party should have under this relationship, with the U.S. often showing a reluctance to relinquish control over the ROK's military, and ROK leaders at times expressing a wish to have more control over their own military, and at other times expressing acceptance of the U.S.'s authority over the ROK military in wartime.<ref name=":18" /><br />
=== NATO alliance ===<br />
[[File:Mark Esper suggesting NATO for Asia.png|thumb|Mark Esper, former [[United States Department of Defense|U.S. Secretary of Defense]] and [[Raytheon]] lobbyist, delivering a speech at Think Tank 2022, which was focused on issues facing the Korean peninsula. Esper stated, "It is said that the United States does not seek to build a, quote, "[[North Atlantic Treaty Organization|NATO]] for Asia". And I say, 'Why not?'"<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":2" />]]<br />
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On February 26, 2022 (KST), former U.S. Secretary of Defense and Raytheon weapons manufacturer lobbyist, Mark Esper, delivered a speech at the 4th Think Tank 2022 Forum,<ref name=":2">{{News citation|author=Dr. William Selig|newspaper=Universal Peace Federation|title=4th Think Tank 2022 Forum Features Former U.S. Secretary of Defense|date=2022-02-26|url=https://www.upf.org/peace-and-security-reports/10012-4th-think-tank-2022-forum-featured-hon-mark-esper-former-u-s-secretary-of-defense|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220723061325/https://www.upf.org/peace-and-security-reports/10012-4th-think-tank-2022-forum-featured-hon-mark-esper-former-u-s-secretary-of-defense|archive-date=2022-07-23|retrieved=2022-07-23}}</ref> which is a think tank associated with Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon,<ref>{{News citation|newspaper=Think Tank 2022|title=Co-Founder Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon|url=http://thinktank2022.org/founder/HakJaHanMoon.php}}</ref> the wife of late millionaire<ref>{{News citation|newspaper=Celebrity Net Worth|title=Sun Myung Moon Net Worth|url=https://www.celebritynetworth.com/richest-celebrities/authors/sun-myung-moon-net-worth/|quote=Sun Myung Moon was a Korean religious leader, businessman, and media mogul who had a net worth of $900 million at the time of his death. Sun Myung Moon was best known for founding the Unification movement and authoring its conservative theology of the "Divine Principle." [...] Some considered him a cult leader.}}</ref> Rev. Sun Myung Moon, founder and self-proclaimed messiah of the generally right-wing, anti-communist [[Unification Church]].<ref>{{News citation|author=Conal Urquhart|newspaper=The Guardian|title=Sun Myung Moon, founder of the Moonies, dies in South Korea|date=2012-09-03|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/sep/03/moonies-sun-myung-moon-dies|quote=Moon saw himself as a messiah and created a church that became a worldwide movement and claims to have around 3 million members, including 100,000 in the United States. [...] He was jailed for five years by the North Korean government in 1948, but escaped in 1950 when his guards fled as United Nations troops advanced. He was an active anti-Communist throughout the cold war.}}</ref> Speaking at this event, weapons industry lobbyist Esper emphasized the need for full cooperation between the U.S., south Korea, and Japan in the face of challenges posed by north Korea and China, saying:<blockquote>It is said that the United States does not seek to build a, quote, "NATO for Asia". And I say, "Why not?" We should have lofty goals and high expectations and not let history and distance confound us. America's European allies overcame a brutal history to form a collective security arrangement to deal with [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (1917–1991)|Soviet Russia]]. There's no reason why the same can't happen in the Indo-Pacific as we increasingly face off against a recalcitrant north Korea and aggressive communist China.<ref name=":3">Esper, Mark. 4th Think Tank 2022 Forum. "Hon. Mart[sic] Esper, 27th United States Secretary of Defense keynote address." Think Tank 2022. Uploaded April 13, 2022. URL:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfKih9aabsk (NATO-related quote begins at 16:36)</ref></blockquote>Esper stated that he is a "big believer" in the quadrilateral security dialogue known as "The Quad" a strategic security dialogue between [[Commonwealth of Australia|Australia]], [[Republic of India|India]], Japan, and the United States that is maintained by talks between member countries, which Esper says is "rightly viewed as a unified response to China's rising military and economic power." He states, "I believe south Korea should be the next partner to join the Quad, transitioning it into the Quint."<ref name=":3" /><br />
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The former Raytheon lobbyist and defense company Epirus Inc. board member then went on to say that "America's allies and partners need to invest at least two percent of their GDP for defense and invest in the right capabilities," listing long-range precision strike capabilities, air and missile defenses, advanced submarines, and fifth generation fighter aircraft as examples, and noting that the Republic of Korea has already met this two percent mark.<ref name=":3" /> Esper describes that these weapons investments will help the region deter Chinese and north Korean "aggression" and states that a "reinvigorated work plan with the DPRK should begin with the complete verifiable and irreversible denuclearization of the North."<ref name=":2" /><br />
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In June 2022, the south Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol declared he will participate in the 3rd [[NATO Summit]] of 2022.<ref>{{News citation|newspaper=Kyodo News|title=Yoon to attend NATO summit, 1st time for S. Korean president|date=2022-06-22|url=https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2022/06/968e985e4c76-yoon-to-attend-nato-summit-1st-time-for-s-korean-president.html}}</ref> The director of the National Security Office Kim Sung-han declared not much later that south Korea will establish a "diplomatic mission" to NATO in Brussels to coincide with President Yoon Suk-yeol's participation in the Summit. According to Sung-han, this mission will make south Korea "able to increase information sharing and strengthen our networks with NATO allies and partners and establish a Europe platform that is worthy of our [global] status".<ref>{{News citation|newspaper=Korea JoongAng Daily|title=Korea to open diplomatic mission to NATO|date=2022-06-22|url=https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2022/06/22/national/politics/Korea-Nato-Summit-Yoon-Sukyeol/20220622191349616.html}}</ref><br />
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=== Unconverted long-term prisoners ===<br />
Unconverted long-term prisoners is the north Korean term for northern loyalists imprisoned in south Korea who never renounced their support for DPRK. Many of them were arrested as spies, and some spent over 40 years in prison for their refusal to disavow the DPRK. While in prison, many of them were held in solitary confinement and subjected to extensive torture.<ref>{{News citation|newspaper=BBC News|title=Solitary: Tough test of survival instinct|date=1999-02-25|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/286070.stm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220725155633/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/286070.stm}}</ref> They were referred to only as "converts" and "converts-to-be", reflecting that refusal to convert was considered a non-option.<ref name=":10">Kim Dong-won. ''Repatriation'' (2003). Documentary. URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xu2mEvU29Q</ref> In the late 1990s, amnesty was declared for certain elderly and ill prisoners. <br />
[[File:Repatriation demonstration for unconverted long-term prisoners vop.co.kr.jpg|thumb|Members of the preparatory group for the 20th anniversary of the repatriation of non-converted prisoners hold a press conference in front of the government complex in Seoul to urge the second repatriation (2020).<ref>Photo by 김철수 (Kim Cheoulsu). 민중의소리 (Voice of the People). [https://www.vop.co.kr/A00001510809.html <nowiki>인도적조치 비전향장기수 송환하라[포토] (Repatriate non-converted long-term prisoners for humanitarian measures [Photo]).</nowiki>] 2020-09-08. </ref>]]<br />
A 1995 article by Prison Legal News stated that one such prisoner, Kim Sun Myung, "had the unhappy distinction of being the world's longest held political prisoner," having served 43 years. A steadfast communist, Kim "could have been released decades earlier had he renounced his political beliefs" but remained unconverted instead. According to Prison Legal News, "Over the years Kim was beaten, starved, tortured, threatened with execution and watched his fellow prisoners die at the hands of south Korean government agents yet he did not capitulate" and that after his release, he commented "They say that when you hammer steel, it only gets harder. Well, when you hit people, you just turn them into enemies, and they become stronger." When asked about whether his faith in communism was shaken due to to events in Eastern Europe and the development of south Korea, he was "nonplused", and upon being shown skyscrapers in Seoul, he commented: "this kind of thing doesn't impress me, because there are still a lot of poor people. These tall buildings are the labor of poor people. Did you ever see any rich people digging on a construction site? The fight against poverty goes on."<ref>{{News citation|newspaper=Prison Legal News|title=World's Longest Held Political Prisoner Released|date=1995-11-15|url=https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/news/1995/nov/15/worlds-longest-held-political-prisoner-released/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220725160053/https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/news/1995/nov/15/worlds-longest-held-political-prisoner-released/}}</ref><br />
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As the unconverted long-term prisoners began to be released, many of them sought repatriation to the DPRK. Some were able to return to DPRK, notably many of them in the year 2000,<ref>{{News citation|newspaper=파이낸셜 뉴스 (Financial News)|title=북한, 비전향장기수 북송 21주년 맞아 생존 장기수들 조명 (North Korea celebrates 21st anniversary of repatriation of non-converted long-term prisoners to North Korea)|date=2021-09-06|url=https://www.fnnews.com/news/202109061041393026}}</ref> but others remain in the South, being denied their requests for repatriation.<ref>{{News citation|author=Kang Jin-kyu|newspaper=Korea JoongAng Daily|title=Spies who can't come in from the cold|date=2016-08-07|url=https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2016/08/07/politics/Spies-who-cant-come-in-from-the-cold/3022316.html}}</ref> Those who returned to the DPRK were met with celebrations and fanfare welcoming them as heroes, while those remaining in south Korea generally live in poverty and in nursing homes, some without social security numbers.<ref name=":10" /> Some, who are native to the South, have strained relationships with their families, who may have suffered legal repercussions as a result of having a convicted spy as a family member, or for not reporting them. Those who are from the North often have no family to connect with in the South. As the prisoners tend to be elderly, many of their immediate relatives have passed away. These former unconverted political prisoners, upon being released, are also subjected to ROK state surveillance under the Security Surveillance Act. Giving examples of this, former political prisoner Anh Hak-sop explained in a 2020 ''Liberation School'' interview, "[T]here are security police who follow me. Whenever there is a problem with the North and South, they raid my house and stand guard outside my property. One time at a demonstration, conservative forces attacked me. The police did nothing to protect me. Every week or every other week, the police come to my house and ask about my activities, who has visited my house, and so on. Once every other month I need to report to them about what I did, who I met, and who visited me. Every two years I need to go to court."<ref name=":22">{{Web citation|author=Liberation School|newspaper=Liberation School|title=Still fighting for Korea’s liberation: An interview with Ahn Hak-sop|date=Jul 27, 2022|url=https://www.liberationschool.org/interview-with-ahn-hak-sop/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/2/https://www.liberationschool.org/interview-with-ahn-hak-sop/}}</ref><br />
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Additionally, many who participated in the repatriation in the year 2000 and many of those who remained in south Korea made their decisions based on their impression at the time that there was going to be more freedom of movement between ROK and DPRK thereafter. According to Ahn Hak-sop, who chose to remain in the South when the 2000 repatriation happened, said one of his reasons was that he "thought it was a temporary situation." Anh also notes that "Those comrades went to the North because they thought that shortly there would be free movement between the two states. They went to the North to study and thought they would come back later." Regarding his own intention to stay in the south temporarily, Anh elaborated: "[T]here were young progressive people here in the South, and they asked me to stay. [...] We have to keep struggling here for the withdrawal of US army, the peace treaty, and peaceful reunification. I decided to stay here to fight for these goals. In 1952, I came here to liberate the southern half of the peninsula, and I need to stay here and continue that struggle."<ref name=":22" /><br />
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Those who oppose the repatriation of these former prisoners generally do so on grounds of demanding that DPRK start repatriating people back to the south as well. In 2003, south Korean director Kim Dong-won released ''[[Repatriation (film)|Repatriation]]'', a documentary about the unconverted prisoners and their experiences, based on more than 12 years and 800 hours of filming. The film documents their views on Korea's partition, their daily hardships as they attempt to adjust to south Korean society, as well as their struggle for repatriation.<ref>Yoon, Cindy (2003-03-28), [https://asiasociety.org/kim-dong-wons-film-north-korean-prisoners-held-south-korea "Kim Dong Won's Film on North Korean Prisoners Held in South Korea"], ''Asia Society''. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220725151533/https://asiasociety.org/kim-dong-wons-film-north-korean-prisoners-held-south-korea Archive link]</ref><br />
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=== National Security Law ===<br />
The National Security Law is a south Korean law enforced since 1948 with the avowed purpose "to secure the security of the State and the subsistence and freedom of nationals, by regulating any anticipated activities compromising the safety of the State." Behaviors or speeches in favor of the DPRK or communism can be punished by the National Security Law. In an article from The Diplomat, it was referred to as a "Cold War holdover" that "allows the government to selectively prosecute anyone who 'praises, incites or propagates the activities of an anti-government organization'" which the article describes as "a deliberately vague clause that broadly implies the north Korean state and its sympathizers." The article continues, explaining "Under Article 7, individuals have been prosecuted and imprisoned for merely possessing north Korean publications or satirically tweeting north Korean propaganda. In recent years this clause has been harshly criticized by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, who claim the government abuses the law to repress dissenting voices."<ref>{{News citation|author=Meredith Shaw and Joseph Yi.|newspaper=The Diplomat|title=Will Yoon Suk-yeol Finally Reform South Korea’s National Security Law?|date=2022-03-15|url=https://thediplomat.com/2022/03/will-yoon-suk-yeol-finally-reform-south-koreas-national-security-law/}}</ref><br />
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=== Anti-imperialist, anti-U.S., and pro-unification struggle in south Korea ===<br />
[[File:Unification Vanguard of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions Anti-US Demonstration.png|thumb|318x318px|The Unification Vanguard of the [[Korean Confederation of Trade Unions]] unfurls large banners reading "This land is our land, YANKEE GO HOME" and "Stop practicing for a war of aggression" in an August 2022 demonstration against US-ROK joint military exercises.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXCK3s-vic8 "23기 민주노총 중앙통일선봉대 활동영상" ("23rd KCTU Central Unification Vanguard Activity Video")]. 민주노총 (Confederation of Trade Unions). Aug 14, 2022. YouTube.</ref><ref>김준. (Kim Jun). [http://worknworld.kctu.org/news/articleView.html?idxno=500588 "쌍용훈련 재개 예고에 23기 중앙통선대, 포항 한미연합상륙훈련장 지휘소 기습점거투쟁" ("23rd Central Telecommunication Battalion, Pohang ROK-U.S. Combined Amphibious Training Center Command Post, Surprise Occupation Struggle to Announce Resumption of Ssangyong Training").] 노동과세계. 2022.08.12. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220828050027/http://worknworld.kctu.org/news/articleView.html?idxno=500588 Archived] 2022-08-28.</ref>]]<br />
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According to the People's Democracy Party (PDP), a revolutionary workers' party in south Korea, the continued U.S. military occupation of south Korea is the primary barrier to peaceful reunification of the Korean peninsula. The PDP, co-authoring a 2020 ''Liberation School'' article, writes:<blockquote>The peace of the Corean Peninsula is possible only after the withdrawal of the U.S. troops. The U.S. troops are occupation forces in South Corea and invading army to North Corea. So their withdrawal is the most desperate and preferred struggle task for the whole Corean nation to solve. The present war crisis escalating to a high level proves that peace in the Corean peninsula cannot be realized unless the U.S. troops are withdrawn from South Corea.<br />
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As long as the U.S. troops are stationed in South Corea and war exercises are conducted against North Corea, the prospect for peace is bound to be dark. We are convinced from our historical experience that if we develop the struggles for the withdrawal of the U.S. troops into a popular uprising of the South Corean people, and if the whole Corean nation can struggle together in great unity, we can withdraw the U.S. troops from South Corea.<br />
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[...] True peace is possible only without imperialism; the head of imperialism is the U.S. We have an opinion that a true peace movement should be an anti-imperialist movement and an anti-U.S. movement. We believe that the progressive and peace-loving forces of the world can and must conduct an anti-imperialist, anti-war struggle, to halt all wars in the world by U.S. troops and to withdraw all U.S. troops stationed overseas. The key is the formation of an anti-imperialist, anti-U.S. united front and anti-imperialist, anti-U.S. joint action.<ref name=":23" /></blockquote><br />
[[File:South Korean students rush the U.S. Ambassador’s official residence, 2019.png|thumb|South Korean students surprise rushing U.S. Ambassador [[Harry Harris]]' official residence in 2019, using ladders to climb over the wall, with signs saying “leave this land” and shouting "Stop interfering with our domestic affairs" and "We don’t need U.S. troops."<ref name=":26">Shin, Hyonhee. 2019. [https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-northkorea-southkorea-idUSKBN1WX0Z6 “South Korean Students Climb into U.S. Envoy’s Residence in Protest against Troop Presence.”] U.S. October 18, 2019. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230325105702/https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-northkorea-southkorea-idUSKBN1WX0Z6 Archived] 2023-03-25.</ref><ref name=":27">오마이TV. 2019. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Del06vXK8nk “순식간에 미대사관저 담장 넘어간 대학생들.”] YouTube Video. [https://web.archive.org/web/20221018101952/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Del06vXK8nk&feature=youtu.be Archive link].</ref>]]<br />
In 2019, 19 south Korean students were detained after several used a ladder to climb over the wall into the grounds of the U.S. Ambassador [[Harry Harris]]' residence in Seoul in protest against the U.S. troop presence in the country. A spokesman for the US Embassy in Seoul said that approximately 20 Korean nationals illegally entered the official residential compound of the U.S. Ambassador and attempted to forcibly enter the residence itself. In a video broadcast from inside the compound, the activists accused the United States of demanding a 500% increase in the cost of keeping some 28,500 troops in south Korea, holding a banner saying "Leave this soil, Harris" and shouted "Stop interfering with our domestic affairs!" "Get out!" and "We don’t need U.S. troops!" before being marched out of the residence by police. The students had also attempted to break into the U.S. Embassy in Seoul in 2018, before being stopped by police. A Reuters article notes that the student group also "held a forum to present their 'research findings' on the achievements of North Korean leader [[Kim Jong-un|Kim Jong Un]], lauding him as a caring and influential leader."<ref name=":26" /><ref name=":27" /> <br />
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[[Nodutdol]] (Korean: 노듯돌), an [[Anti-imperialism|anti-imperialist]], pro-unification organization of diasporic Koreans,<ref>[https://nodutdol.org/about/ “About.”] Nodutdol. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230401142208/https://nodutdol.org/about/ Archived] 2023-04-01.</ref> notes in their 2020 pamphlet "Sanctions of Empire" that Ambassador Harry Harris has been obstructive toward inter-Korean reconciliation, blocking efforts by the [[Moon Jae-in]] administration to develop tourism into the DPRK, claiming that "independent" tourism plans would have to undergo US consultation, emphasizing that the items inside south Korean tourists' luggage could violate [[Economic sanctions|sanctions]].<ref>[https://nodutdol.org/sanctions-of-empire/ "제국의 제재 - Sanctions of Empire."] [[Nodutdol]]. October 20, 2020. [https://nodutdol.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Sanctions-of-Empire.pdf PDF]. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220520095404/https://nodutdol.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Sanctions-of-Empire.pdf Archive].</ref><br />
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On Jeju Island, located off the southern tip of the Korean peninsula, a decade-long protest of the construction of a naval base has been ongoing. Activists noted in a 2013 statement that the base will only worsen the likelihood of Koreans being pulled into a US-China conflict: "Jeju naval base will be an outpost of the U.S. maritime military alliance, together with Japan, targeting China, rather than a strategic point of independent national defense. With the U.S. [[Pivot to Asia]] strategy, the chances of South Korea’s getting pulled into conflicts between the U.S. and China increase."<ref>[https://www.peoplepower21.org/english/1080148 <nowiki>“[Publication] No Naval Base on Jeju Island! - 참여연대 -.”</nowiki>] 참여연대. October 7, 2013. [https://web.archive.org/web/20210414023914/http://www.peoplepower21.org/English/1080148 Archive link].</ref> Although the base eventually completed construction, protestors continued to oppose it with demonstrations and attempted entries into it, saying that although it is nominally a south Korean base, it is "a place where cutting-edge strategic assets in the US military can stop by whenever they please according to American interests."<ref>[https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_international/820635.html “American Nuclear Submarine Enters Jeju Naval Base.”] Hankyoreh. Hani.co.kr. 2017. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230325090226/https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_international/820635.html Archived] 2023-03-25.</ref> In 2020, an activist was arrested for trespassing on the base and destroying government property.<ref>Elizabeth Shim. [https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2020/03/30/South-Korea-arrests-protester-for-infiltrating-Jeju-Naval-Base/2991585585755/ “South Korea Arrests Protester for Infiltrating Jeju Naval Base.”] UPI. March 30, 2020. [https://web.archive.org/web/20200814001452/https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2020/03/30/South-Korea-arrests-protester-for-infiltrating-Jeju-Naval-Base/2991585585755/ Archived].</ref><br />
[[File:People rally to protest against the planned South Korea-U.S. military drills in Seoul, South Korea, Aug. 13, 2022.jpg|thumb|People rally against the ROK-US military drills, Aug. 13, 2022. Banners say "Stop war exercises! No to USA!" (Korean: 전쟁연습 중단! 미국 반대!)]]<br />
On August 13, 2022, thousands of south Korean unionists and their progressive supporters rallied in downtown Seoul to protest against joint US-south Korea war game exercises. In a video uploaded by [[Press TV]], Oh Eun-Jung of the National Teachers Union was quoted as saying "The threat of nuclear war is growing on the Korean peninsula, conservative forces of Yoon Suk-yeol in south Korea and those in the U.S. are frantically conducting aggressive war drills in the sky, the land, and the sea, and are about to start large-scale military exercises, aimed at the invasion of north Korea. We must stamp out this behavior of anti-reunification forces." In the same video, construction worker Lee Seung-Woo stated, "We not only oppose the war exercises, but we want the U.S. Forces Korea, which is actually controlling and interfering with the Korean peninsula to leave this land. We believe that only then will the eighty million Koreans from both north and south be able to live peacefully."<ref>Frank Smith. [https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2022/08/13/687322/South-Korean-unionists-protest-US-South-Korea-war-games “‘South Korean Unionists Protest US-South Korea War Games.’”] PressTV News. August 13, 2022. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220826124551/https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2022/08/13/687322/South-Korean-unionists-protest-US-South-Korea-war-games Archived] 2022-08-28.</ref><br />
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The media company [[Sovereignty Broadcast]] (Korean: 주권방송), additionally going by the name 615tv on some of its social media accounts, uploads educational and informative videos its to YouTube page regarding the peace and unification struggle in Korea. According to the channel's about page, it is an internet media company that deals with peace and unification on the Korean Peninsula and various current affairs topics in Korea.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/c/The615tv/about About Sovereignty Broadcast]. Sovereignty Broadcast. YouTube.</ref><br />
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=== Censorship ===<br />
Until 1973, images of [[Kim Il-sung]] were banned in south Korea. The southern secret police falsely claimed that Kim was an impostor who had not been involved in the guerrilla resistance against Japan. In 1989, the police state arrested an average of 3.3 Koreans every day under anti-communist censorship laws. Many [[Anti-capitalism|anti-capitalist]] books are banned, even some by non-[[Marxism|Marxists]]. In 2011, southern authorities deleted over 67,000 internet posts that were critical of the ROK or United States. Left-wing music such as the ''Song of the Red Flag'' (which is even used by the [[Social democracy|social democratic]] [[Labour Party (UK)|UK Labour Party]]) is also illegal under the National Security Law.<ref name=":1103">{{Citation|author=Stephen Gowans|year=2018|title=Patriots, Traitors and Empires: The Story of Korea’s Struggle for Freedom|chapter=The Anti-Communist Police State|page=136–145|pdf=https://ipfs.io/ipfs/bafykbzaced4iiga4ngtxusr2civjxewbili5jne2sbpefbx2s3im2kphattzc?filename=Stephen%20Gowans%20-%20Patriots%2C%20Traitors%20and%20Empires_%20The%20Story%20of%20Korea%E2%80%99s%20Struggle%20for%20Freedom-Baraka%20Books%20%282018%29.pdf|city=Montreal|publisher=Baraka Books|isbn=9781771861427|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=8435F6FF91279531705764823FDC2A7F}}</ref><br />
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=== Government-sanctioned prostitution and sex trafficking victims ===<br />
[[File:Women who were encouraged by the South Korean government to work as prostitutes near US military bases hold a press conference outside of the Seoul High Court in the Seocho neighborhood.jpg|thumb|Women who were encouraged by the South Korean government to work as prostitutes near US military bases hold a press conference outside of the Seoul High Court in the Seocho neighborhood following a court ruling on their case on Feb. 8, 2018.]]<br />
As described in a 2019 article by journalist [[Tim Shorrock]], "between the end of the Korean War and the early 1990s, more than one million Korean women were caught up in a state-controlled prostitution industry" that was operated by and for the benefit of the U.S. military. They worked in special zones surrounding U.S. bases, in areas licensed by the south Korean government, reserved exclusively for American troops, and monitored and policed by the U.S. Army. Shorrock explains that the system was designed to strengthen the U.S.-south Korean alliance and boost the morale of U.S. military personnel, and for south Korea to bring in foreign currency, with prostitution for this purpose being encouraged as a woman’s patriotic duty to the state. These zones, called ''kijichon'' (Korean: 기지촌; "military camp town"), were established around 31 U.S. Army, Air Force, and Navy bases in South Korea. Shorrock writes that "in Gyonggi province, which extends from south of Seoul up to the DMZ and was home to the majority of U.S. bases, some 10,000 sex workers were registered every year from 1953 to the late 1980s."<ref name=":25">[[Tim Shorrock|Shorrock, Tim]]. 2019. [https://newrepublic.com/article/155707/united-states-military-prostitution-south-korea-monkey-house “Welcome to the Monkey House.”] The New Republic. December 2, 2019. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230322174621/https://newrepublic.com/article/155707/united-states-military-prostitution-south-korea-monkey-house Archived] 2023-03-22.</ref><br />
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In 2018, Lee Beom-gyun, a judge on an appellate court in Seoul, agreed that the south Korean government had actively encouraged prostitution to boost ties with the United States. Lee ruled that the Korean state "operated and managed" the military camp towns to contribute to the "maintenance of a military alliance essential for national security" and abetted the industry "through patriotic education praising prostitutes as 'patriots who bring in foreign currency.'" He concluded that the government had violated the human rights of its citizens and denounced the practice of segregating "camp town prostitutes in forced internment facilities or through the indiscriminate administration of penicillin, which carries serious physical side effects."<ref name=":25" /><ref>[http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_international/831625.html “Court Finds That South Korean Government Encouraged Prostitution near US Military Bases.”] 2018. Hani.co.kr. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230325113713/http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_international/831625.html Archived] 2023-03-25.</ref><br />
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The 2019 article describes one sex worker's experience in this system:<blockquote>One former sex worker starkly laid out the conditions faced by many ''kijichon'' women in a documentary film produced by Durebang. “A pimp sold me to a U.S. camp town,” she recalled. “Inside a warehouse, I was raped. The police sent me to the Monkey House, where American medics gave us injections” of penicillin and other drugs to prevent the spread of STDs. After her release, she was required to wear a plastic badge showing she’d been tested—“cunt tags,” she called them. All sex workers and bar owners were required to hang these registration certificates on the walls of their establishments as well.<ref name=":25" /></blockquote>Choi Hee-shin, a community organizer who grew up in Dongducheon, which surrounds the U.S. Camp Casey, was quoted in the same 2019 article saying, “Lots of people are ashamed of what happened in the camp towns, and want to forget," further stating, "But people like me, we can't forget. The U.S.-South Korean alliance depended on these comfort women."<br />
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According to Wellesley Professor Katharine H.S. Moon in ''Sex Among Allies'', a history of military prostitution in south Korea, the "overwhelming majority" of prostitutes in the camp towns were either orphans or abandoned children. Moon estimates in her book that at the peak of U.S. troop strength in the 1980s, the ''kijichon'' economy contributed 5 percent of South Korea’s gross domestic product. Once they were recruited to the camp towns, women found themselves trapped by debt. They carried out their sex work in rooms they had to rent from the bar owners. They also had to buy all their supplies, including their bed, their clothes, and the phonographs they set up to entertain their American clients.<br />
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Shorrock explains that many of the Koreans who seek justice for camp-town sex workers refer to them as [[comfort women]], a term which commonly refers to women whom the Japanese Imperial Army kidnapped and forced to work in military brothels called "comfort stations" during the Second World War. However, the Korean public has generally refrained from treating the kijichon women as victims of imperialism in the manner of the comfort women. Park Jeong-mi, a professor at Chungbuk National University, argues that this sentiment is unfair, and in her research she has found a direct historical link between the Japanese and American systems, as the U.S. military government created an administrative state that was dominated by Koreans who had collaborated with Japan's colonial rulers. The shift from Japanese- to American-coerced sex work was an easy transition, she said: "High-ranking Korean officials who served under Japanese colonial rule were familiar with the comfort station system." Under U.S. pressure, Park said, the south Korean government licensed the bars and clubs that hired the women who entertained the U.S. troops, likening those establishments to de facto brothels.<ref name=":25" /><br />
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=== Sexism ===<br />
Women are only paid half as much as men for the same job.<ref name=":1222">{{Citation|author=[[Vijay Prashad]]|year=2008|title=The Darker Nations: A People's History of the Third World|chapter=Singapore|page=248|pdf=https://cloudflare-ipfs.com/ipfs/bafykbzaceascnzh26r5d6uitjjs2z7rflhaxlt7rboz5whzdf76qg6xxvecqq?filename=%28A%20New%20Press%20People%27s%20history%29%20Vijay%20Prashad%20-%20The%20darker%20nations_%20a%20people%27s%20history%20of%20the%20third%20world-The%20New%20Press%20%282008%29.pdf|publisher=The New Press|isbn=9781595583420|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=9B40B96E830128A7FE0E0E887C06829F}}</ref><br />
<br />
==Rising anti-capitalism==<br />
In recent years, the term '''"'''[[Hell Joseon]]" or "Hell Korea" (Korean: 헬조선) has become popular to describe the social anxiety and discontent surrounding high unemployment and poor working conditions.<ref>[http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/739886.html Lashing out at “Hell Joseon”, young’uns drive ruling party’s election beatdown]</ref><ref>[https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/young-south-koreans-call-their-country-hell-and-look-for-ways-out/2016/01/30/34737c06-b967-11e5-85cd-5ad59bc19432_story.html Young South Koreans call their country ‘hell’ and look for ways out] by the [[Washington Post]]</ref> <br />
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south Korean media has also increasingly included narratives of class antagonism which have been popular successes for Western audiences, with films such as ''Snowpiercer'' (2013)<ref>[https://newmultitude.org/snowpiercer-class-consciousness/ THE TRAIN IS CAPITALISM- SNOWPIERCER AND CLASS CONSCIOUNESS]</ref> and ''Parasite'' (2019)<ref>[https://medium.com/incluvie/parasite-and-capitalism-what-the-film-says-about-the-pursuit-of-wealth-993fa7ce7ee1 Parasite and Capitalism: What the Film Says About the Pursuit of Wealth]</ref> and the popular TV show ''Squid Game'' (2021).<ref>[https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/squid-game-the-rise-of-anti-capitalist-entertainment/ar-AAPaOHG Squid Game & The Rise Of Anti-Capitalist Entertainment]</ref><ref>[https://www.gen-zine.com/post/thesquidgame “The Squid Game”: Anti-Capitalism and Netflix]</ref><ref>[https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/elaminabdelmahmoud/squid-game-netflix-review-lupin-international “Squid Game” Works Because Capitalism Is A Global Scourge]</ref><br />
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With increasing economic stratification, social [[alienation]], and lack of opportunity among young people entering the work force, south Korea has a rate of mental health issues and suicide that is among the highest in the developed world.<ref>{{News citation|author=Katrin Park|newspaper=Foreign Policy|title=South Korea Is No Country for Young People|date=2021-10-5|url=https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/11/05/south-korea-suicide-rates-mental-illness-squid-game/}}</ref> This undoubtedly is resulting in the development of [[class consciousness]].<br />
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The [[bourgeois media]] (in south Korea and in the US) carefully ensures that all criticism of capitalism stops just short of providing concrete solutions, lest people become interested in [[socialism]] and its [[Successes of socialism|various successes around the world]].<br />
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Labor militancy is also on the rise as 500k south Korean workers walked off in a one-day [[general strike]], protesting against rampant [[exploitation]] by the [[Gig worker|gig economy]], high costs of housing, and the highest annual working hours in the OECD.<ref>[https://therealnews.com/half-a-million-south-korean-workers-walk-off-jobs-in-general-strike HALF A MILLION SOUTH KOREAN WORKERS WALK OFF JOBS IN GENERAL STRIKE] on [https://therealnews.com/half-a-million-south-korean-workers-walk-off-jobs-in-general-strike The Real News Network]</ref><br />
<br />
==References==<br />
<references /><br />
[[Category:Illegal states]]<br />
[[Category:Global north]]<br />
[[Category:Puppet states]]<br />
[[Category:Neocolonial outposts]]<br />
[[Category:Asian countries]]</div>
Verda.Majo
https://en.prolewiki.org/index.php?title=United_States_imperialism&diff=62700
United States imperialism
2024-02-08T10:34:00Z
<p>Verda.Majo: /* Further reading */ added link to Washington Bullets under further reading</p>
<hr />
<div>[[File:US wars map.png|thumb|370x370px|Map of U.S. wars and other military actions (coups, assassinations, etc.) since 1776]]<br />
[[File:US invasion graph.png|thumb|363x363px|Chart of U.S. invasions by region and time period from 1776 to 2017]]<br />
[[File:US military interventions map.png|thumb|388x388px|Red countries have been invaded or militarily intervened in by the United States since 1798.]]<br />
'''United States imperialism''' consists of policies aimed at extending the economic, political, cultural and military influence of the [[United States of America]] over areas beyond its boundaries, especially considering the [[Marxism|Marxist]] definition of [[imperialism]] as originally defined by [[Vladimir Lenin|Lenin]], but other aspects of imperialism as well, such as military operations and economic terrorism. <br />
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Doctrines followed (and sometimes proposed by the [[Government of the United States of America|U.S. government]] itself since its inception) such as [[Manifest Destiny]], the [[Monroe Doctrine]], the [[Roosevelt Corollary]], the [[Big Stick]], the [[Wolfowitz Doctrine]], the [[National Security Doctrine]], etc. and events such as the conquest of the west, the [[Mexican–Statesian War|Mexican war]], the banana wars, the [[Spanish–Statesian War|Spanish-Cuban-Statesian war]] and, more recently, the [[Vietnam War]], the [[United States embargo against Cuba|U.S. blockade]] against [[Republic of Cuba|Cuba]], the [[war in Afghanistan]], etc. have made "American imperialism" a term accepted by the greater part of the international community.<br />
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The United States has interfered in the elections of 45 foreign countries<ref>{{Citation|author=Dov Levin|year=2020|title=Meddling in the Ballot Box|chapter=|section=|page=|quote=|pdf=|city=|publisher=Carnegie Mellon University|isbn=|doi=|lg=|mia=|title-url=|chapter-url=|trans-title=|trans-lang=}}</ref> and organized over 132 [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] and military interventions around the world since 1890,<ref>{{Citation|author=Zoltán Grossman|year=|title=U.S. Military Interventions since 1890: From Wounded Knee to Syria|chapter=|section=|page=|quote=|pdf=https://sites.evergreen.edu/zoltan/wp-content/uploads/sites/358/2019/11/InterventionsList2019.pdf|city=|publisher=|isbn=|doi=|lg=|mia=|title-url=|chapter-url=|trans-title=|trans-lang=}}</ref> in addition to almost 100 before 1890.<ref name=":1" /> <br />
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== History ==<br />
Between 1798 and 1827, the United States participated 23 military interventions, including in [[Greece]], [[Libya]], and [[Cuba]]. It did 71 interventions between 1831 and 1896 on all continents except [[Antarctica]]. The U.S. did 40 interventions between 1898 and 1919.<ref name=":1">{{Citation|author=Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz|year=2014|title=An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States|chapter=US Triumphalism and Peacetime Colonialism|page=162|pdf=https://www.lcps.org/cms/lib/VA01000195/Centricity/Domain/10601/An%20Indigenous%20Peoples%20History%20of%20the%20United%20States%20Ortiz.pdf|city=Boston|publisher=Beacon Press Books|series=ReVisioning American History}}</ref><br />
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According to a report by the Congressional Research Service, a US government institution that compiles information on behalf of Congress, the United States launched at least 251 military interventions between 1991 and 2022. The report documented another 218 US military interventions between 1798 and 1990. This adds up to a total of 469 US military interventions since 1798 that have been acknowledged by the Congress. Of the total 469 documented foreign military interventions, the Congressional Research Service noted that the US government only formally declared war 11 times, in just five separate wars.<ref>Barbara Salazar and Sofia Plagakis. [https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R42738 "Instances of Use of United States Armed Forces Abroad, 1798-2022."] R42738. March 8, 2022. Congressional Research Service. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220809063230/https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R42738 Archived] 2022-08-09.</ref> In an analysis of the report, journalist [[Ben Norton|Benjamin Norton]] noted that the data excludes the independence war been US settlers and the British empire, any military deployments between 1776 and 1798, excludes the deployment of the US military forces against Indigenous peoples, when they were systematically ethnically cleansed in the violent process of westward settler-colonial expansion, and the US Civil War, and further noted that all of these numbers are conservative estimates, because they do not include US special operations, covert actions, or domestic deployments.<ref>Norton, Benjamin. 2022. [https://multipolarista.com/2022/09/13/us-251-military-interventions-1991/ “US Launched 251 Military Interventions since 1991, and 469 since 1798.”] Multipolarista. September 13, 2022. [https://web.archive.org/web/2/https://multipolarista.com/2022/09/13/us-251-military-interventions-1991/ Archived] 2022-09-16.</ref><br />
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=== Early history ===<br />
<blockquote>''See also: [[List of atrocities commited by the United States of America#Genocide of indigenous peoples of the United States]]''</blockquote>[[File:USA settler expansion.png|thumb|Annexation of native land starting in 1783]]<br />
In its early existence, the United States was focused on [[Settler colonialism|settler-colonial]] expansion across the [[North America|North American]] continent through acts of genocide against the indigenous North American people, in order to secure ever-increasing amounts of territory and natural resources for the Euro-American settlers. Accompanying this process was the U.S. involvement in and perpetuation of the Atlantic [[Slavery|slave]] trade, a lengthy period in which enslaved [[Africa|African]] peoples were brought to the Americas to be used and exchanged as property by Euro-American settlers in order to work on the lands which were being methodically wrested from the indigenous population.<br />
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In 1898, under the guise of helping [[Republic of Cuba|Cuba]] gain independence, U.S. imperialism invaded and seized control of Cuba from [[Kingdom of Spain|Spain]]. It seized other Spanish colonies as well, including [[Commonwealth of Puerto Rico|Puerto Rico]], [[Guam]], and the [[Republic of the Philippines|Philippines]] during the same offensive.<ref name=":12">Becker, Brian. [https://www2.liberationschool.org/from-inter-imperialist-war-to-global-class-war-understanding-distinct-stages-of-imperialism/ “From Inter-Imperialist War to Global Class War: Understanding Distinct Stages of Imperialism.”] Liberation School. July 20, 2018. [https://web.archive.org/web/20221014031056/https://www2.liberationschool.org/from-inter-imperialist-war-to-global-class-war-understanding-distinct-stages-of-imperialism/ Archived] 2022-10-14.</ref><br />
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=== First World War ===<br />
{{Main article|First World War}}The United States occupied Cuba from 1906 to 1909, in 1912, and from 1917 to 1922. It occupied the [[Dominican Republic]] in 1903, 1904, and 1914 and from 1916 to 1924; [[Republic of Haiti|Haiti]] from 1915 to 1934; [[Republic of Honduras|Honduras]] in 1903, 1907, 1911, 1912, 1919, 1920, 1924, and 1925; [[Republic of Nicaragua|Nicaragua]] from 1909 to 1910 and 1912 to 1933; [[Republic of Guatemala|Guatemala]] in 1920; [[Republic of Costa Rica|Costa Rica]] in 1921; and [[Republic of El Salvador|El Salvador]] in 1932. In 1920, [[Franklin Roosevelt]] said that the USA controlled the votes of all six Central American countries in the proposed [[League of Nations]].<ref name=":0222">{{Citation|author=David Vine|year=2020|title=The United States of War|chapter=The Military Opens Doors|page=210–1|city=Oakland|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=9780520972070|lg=http://library.lol/main/191568BFAC73F009132DB00ECD0F0F05}}</ref><br />
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=== Second World War ===<br />
{{Main article|Second World War}}<br />
While functioning as a military ally of the Soviet Union and providing equipment and funds, the United States and Britain refused the opening of a military front in Western Europe that would have helped the Soviet Union by forcing [[Adolf Hitler|Hitler]] to divert and divide his troops, tanks, and planes. Instead, the United States and Britain opened an offensive in Africa and Asia, where the colonies were. The United States was the only major capitalist power to emerge undamaged from the Second World War, and it became the leader of world capitalism.<ref name=":12" /><br />
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=== Cold War ===<br />
{{Main article|Cold War}}<br />
Following the Second World War, the United States set out to create a worldwide imperialist united front to defeat the forces of communism and socialism that had taken state power in numerous countries and sought to place world capitalism under its own hegemonic leadership. Instead of punishing Axis powers [[Japan]] and [[Federal Republic of Germany|Germany]] after the war, the United States planned to revive their economies and restore the political power of the defeated elites in both countries. The United States occupied Japan and Germany militarily, turning them into bulwarks in a global anti-communist, anti-Soviet front. <br />
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In 1949, the United States created NATO which grouped all of the imperialist countries of Europe together under the [[United States Department of Defense|Pentagon]]’s leadership. The United States extended this new system of anti-communist alliances during the Eisenhower administration (1953-1961) with the creation of SEATO for Southeast Asia (1954) and the Baghdad Pact (CENTO) for the Middle East (1955). <br />
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Once the Soviet Union had successfully developed its own nuclear weapons program and had, at great economic and social cost to its socialist economy, reached some degree of military equality with the United States, the United States opted for an alternative strategy that it labeled "containment." While containment implied a defensive strategy, in reality this was really a non-stop war against the national liberation movements and a policy of subversion inside the socialist countries. The United States treated every genuine national liberation movement as a potential ally of the USSR. They carried out a multitude of covert wars and other actions to prevent national liberation movements from succeeding and to maintain U.S. hegemony.<ref name=":12" /><br />
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In her 1962 book ''Cash and Violence in Laos and Vietnam'', [[Anna Louise Strong]] described U.S. imperialist expansion into the Pacific after the Second World War as falling into three stages:<blockquote>America’s expansion in force into the southwest Pacific began with the defeat of Japan in the second world war. One may note three stages, each taking about five years. In the first stage, in the 1940s, the U.S. took over the Japanese island bases and absorbed properties of Britain and [[French Republic|France]], its war-time allies. In the second stage, after the rise in 1949 of the Chinese People’s Republic, USSR did not even take back all the territory lost by the Russian tsar in the first world war, while America, by taking the island bases and by the growth of her air and naval power, turned both the Atlantic and Pacific into “American Lakes.” [...] The third stage began with the [[1954 Geneva Conference|Geneva Agreements of 1954]], which speeded Washington’s take-over of French interests in French Indo-China.<ref name=":14">Anna Louise Strong. ''[https://archive.org/details/anna-louise-strong-cash-and-violence-in-laos-and-vietnam Cash and Violence in Laos and Vietnam]''. 1962.</ref></blockquote>The concept of transforming the Pacific ocean into a "lake" via U.S. dominance of the region, in order to create a "vast moat" to protect the U.S. from its enemies, particularly [[People's Republic of China|China]], is also referenced in a 1951 speech to U.S. Congress by General [[Douglas MacArthur]].<ref>MacArthur, Douglas. [https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/douglasmacarthurfarewelladdress.htm “American Rhetoric: General Douglas MacArthur -- Farewell Address to Congress.”] Americanrhetoric.com. [https://web.archive.org/web/20221104024041/https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/douglasmacarthurfarewelladdress.htm Archived] 2022-11-04.</ref><br />
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Strong also explained how the containment policy of the Cold War seamlessly turned into a rationale for crushing any movement against U.S. imperialism by labelling their resistance and desires for sovereignty as communist, saying of the Cold War in 1962 that it "has grown from fever to frenzy, so that to outlaw Communists is proper, to 'contain' Communists by jail or armed cordon is basic strategy, and to kill Communists a holy deed. From this it is a slight step to call any dark-skinned peasants 'Communists' if they refuse to give their country's independence with both hands to America for a military base."<ref name=":14" /><br />
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=== 1991–present ===<br />
Since the fall of the [[Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (1922–1991)|Soviet Union]], the United States has been engaged in constant war, and now has a bipartisan military outlook based on permanent war. For example, in 1992, Paul Wolfowitz, then the U.S. undersecretary of defense policy, supervised the drafting of a strategic document for the post [[Cold War]] world. It was written as a strictly internal document, and proclaims that "Our first objective is to prevent the re-emergence of a new rival" and says that "First the U.S. must show the leadership necessary to establish and protect a new order that holds the promise of convincing potential competitors that they need not aspire to a greater role or pursue a more aggressive posture to protect their legitimate interests. Second, in the non-defense areas, we must account sufficiently for the interests of the advanced industrial nations to discourage them from challenging our leadership or seeking to overturn the established political and economic order. Finally, we must maintain the mechanisms for deterring potential competitors from even aspiring to a larger regional or global role." The document stressed that it was important to convey "the sense that the world order is ultimately backed by the U.S." The document explicitly broke with the concept of [[containment]], and instead advocated that the U.S. should use its unrivaled military to preemptively attack and overthrow "rogue states" that "could seriously unsettle international relations."<ref name=":13">Ben Becker and Mazda Majidi. [https://www2.liberationschool.org/the-unipolar-era-of-imperialism/ “The Unipolar Era of Imperialism and Its Potential Undoing – Liberation School.”] Liberation School. July 27, 2018. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220402182839/https://www.liberationschool.org/the-unipolar-era-of-imperialism/ Archived] 2022-04-02.<br />
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</ref> <br />
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The overthrow of the Soviet Union and [[Eastern Europe|Eastern European]] socialist countries created a windfall of profit for Western banks and corporations, as they rushed in to privatize these countries' previously socialized property. Additionally, immediately after the fall of the Soviet Union the U.S. attacked [[Republic of Iraq|Iraq]], and then in the [[Bill Clinton|Clinton]] years [[Federal Republic of Somalia|Somalia]], [[Republic of the Sudan|Sudan]], [[Republic of Haiti|Haiti]], and [[Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (1945–1992)|Yugoslavia]]. After launching a war against [[Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan|Afghanistan]] in 2001, [[George Bush|Bush]] declared an "Axis of Evil" consisting of Iraq, [[Islamic Republic of Iran|Iran]] and [[Democratic People's Republic of Korea|DPRK]], a list of targets for further regime change efforts. Months later Undersecretary of State [[John Bolton]] listed [[Syrian Arab Republic|Syria]], [[State of Libya|Libya]], and [[Republic of Cuba|Cuba]] as additional "rogue states" to be targeted. In 2011, the United States led the [[North Atlantic Treaty Organization|NATO]] alliance to carry out a massive bombing war in Libya.<ref name=":12" /><br />
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An article published by [[Liberation School]] observes that "While the political style of Bush and [[Barack Obama|Obama]] [and [[Donald Trump|Trump]]] could not be more different, this hit list has generally been consistent from one administration to the next. Washington has used a combination of economic warfare, subterfuge, and direct military aggression to pursue regime change."<ref name=":13" /><br />
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== Death toll ==<br />
<blockquote>''See also: [[List of atrocities commited by the United States of America|List of atrocities committed by the United States of America]]''</blockquote>Austin Murphy estimates that U.S. imperialism and [[colonialism]] have intentionally killed over 11 million unarmed civilians, including five million indigenous people, a million [[Republic of the Philippines|Filipinos]], 500,000 [[German Reich (1933–1945)|German]] and [[Empire of Japan (1868–1947)|Japanese]] people, over 500,000 [[Indonesia|Indonesians]], over a million each of [[Vietnam|Vietnamese]], [[Iraq|Iraqis]], and [[Korea|Koreans]], and over 500,000 [[Cambodia|Cambodians]]. This is a low estimate and Murphy acknowledges that the deaths of indigenous people in North America alone is over 18 million.<ref name=":0">{{Citation|author=Austin Murphy|year=2000|title=The Triumph of Evil|chapter=Introduction|page=22–24, 37–40|pdf=https://mltheory.files.wordpress.com/2017/06/austin-murphy-the-triumph-of-evil.pdf|publisher=European Press Academic Publishing|isbn=8883980026}}</ref><br />
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== Military bases ==<br />
[[File:US military bases.png|thumb|Map of U.S. military bases and troops deployed abroad.|374x374px]]<br />
[[File:US military bases map.png|thumb|374x374px|Map of U.S. military bases and naval fleets]]<br />
[[File:Hawaiian independence protest.png|thumb|Hawaiians protesting against the US occupation of their nation]]<br />
The United States has 750 military bases around the world in at least 80 countries. It also has 173,000 troops deployed in foreign countries. The country with the most U.S. military presence besides the U.S. itself is [[Japan]], with 120 bases and over 53,000 troops. Japan is followed by [[Federal Republic of Germany|Germany]] and then [[Republic of Korea|south Korea]].<ref>{{News citation|newspaper=[[Monthly Review]]|title=Mapping U.S. Imperialism|date=2022-06-06|url=https://mronline.org/2022/06/06/mapping-u-s-imperialism/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220614004514/https://mronline.org/2022/06/06/mapping-u-s-imperialism/|archive-date=2022-06-14|retrieved=2022-06-17}}</ref><br />
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During the Second World War, the USA relied mainly on local workers to build its bases and worked for as low as 10 cents per day or were paid in food rations. The Navy built 288 bases in the Atlantic Ocean, 195 in the Pacific, and 11 in the Indian Ocean.<ref name=":02222">{{Citation|author=David Vine|year=2020|title=The United States of War|chapter=Empire of Bases|page=248–9|city=Oakland|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=9780520972070|lg=http://library.lol/main/191568BFAC73F009132DB00ECD0F0F05}}</ref> <br />
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In addition to having bases and troops in South Korea, the U.S. military has maintained command over the South Korean military since the Korean War in the 1950s. South Korea has operational control of its military under armistice conditions, but the United States would take over in wartime, and the U.S. combatant commander would be able to direct, organize, employ, assign command functions to, or suspend the duty of subordinate South Korean commanders and forces. In essence, if war breaks out on the Korean Peninsula, South Korea would supply the overwhelming majority of the fighting force, which would then be placed under U.S. operational control.<ref>Swanström, N. (2021, April 27). ''Not a Sovereignty Issue: Understanding the Transition of Military Operational Control between the United States and South Korea''. Institute for Security and Development Policy. <nowiki>https://isdp.eu/publication/not-a-sovereignty-issue-understanding-the-transition-of-military-operational-control-between-the-united-states-and-south-korea/</nowiki></ref><ref>[["Combined Forces Command". United States Forces Korea. Archived from the original on 2022-07-28.|"Combined Forces Command"]]. ''United States Forces Korea''. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220728035053/https://www.usfk.mil/About/CFC/ Archived] from the original on 2022-07-28.</ref><ref>Kelly, R. E. (2017, February 27). ''Why US control of the South Korean military is here to stay''. The Interpreter. <nowiki>https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/why-us-control-south-korean-military-here-stay</nowiki></ref><br />
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=== Anti-base and U.S. military withdrawal movements ===<br />
In places where U.S. troops are stationed, numerous controversies have arisen due to the many crimes and incidents of misconduct of U.S. personnel as well as the environmental pollution generated by U.S. bases, as well as the erosion of national sovereignty that occurs with the U.S. military presence in host countries, and the international provocations and tensions that occur when countries collaborate with US military exercises. The [[anti-base movement]] seeks the withdrawal of U.S. troops and removal of U.S. bases from the many territories they occupy. <br />
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[[Okinawa Prefecture|Okinawa]] in Japan is a prominent example of anti-base activism and sentiment. Although Okinawa makes up less than 1% of Japan's land area, it contains three-quarters of the U.S. military bases in Japan and 30,000 U.S. soldiers<ref>Moé Yonamine (2017-07-27). [https://www.zinnedproject.org/if-we-knew-our-history/fighting-for-okinawa/ "Fighting for Okinawa — My Home, Not a Military Base"] ''Zinn Education Project''. [https://web.archive.org/web/20210516012227/https://www.zinnedproject.org/if-we-knew-our-history/fighting-for-okinawa/ Archived] from the original on 2021-05-16. Retrieved 2022-09-27.</ref> and has seen tens of thousands of citizens protesting against the presence of U.S. bases there.<ref>Andrea Germanos (2016-06-20). [https://www.mintpressnews.com/anger-past-limit-tens-thousands-rally-us-bases-okinawa/217349/ "‘Our Anger Is Past Its Limit’: Tens Of Thousands Rally Against US Bases In Okinawa"] ''[[MintPress News]]''. [https://web.archive.org/web/20210126213048/https://www.mintpressnews.com/anger-past-limit-tens-thousands-rally-us-bases-okinawa/217349/ Archived] from the original on 2021-01-26. Retrieved 2022-09-27.</ref> The struggle in Okinawa represents only one facet of the larger global struggle against U.S. bases but provides an illustrative example of the issues faced by people living in US-occupied territory.<br />
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The crimes of U.S. military personnel and U.S. civilian contractors working in base areas include numerous killings and sexual assault crimes committed against the citizens of the countries where they are stationed. In mainland Japan and overseas, people are aware of only a few of these crimes, notably the sexual assault of a 12-year-old girl by three U.S. service members in 1995 and the sexual assault and murder of a 20-year-old woman by a former Marine in 2016. However, members of [[Okinawa Women Act Against Military Violence]] have compiled an ongoing chronology of U.S. military sexual assaults of Okinawan women and have uncovered how the earliest attacks started soon after the U.S. invasion of Okinawa in 1945 and have continued unabated to the present day. The total number of victims runs into the hundreds, but the organization's co-chair Suzuyo Takazato, quoted in a 2021 article, says many cases remain hidden. According to Takazato, "Both the U.S. and Japanese governments want to minimize people’s awareness of the number of crimes committed by U.S. service members on Okinawa. They think if this information becomes public, it will harm U.S.-Japan relations."<ref>Mitchell, Jon. [https://theintercept.com/2021/10/03/okinawa-sexual-crimes-us-military/ “NCIS Case Files Reveal Undisclosed U.S. Military Sex Crimes in Okinawa.”] The Intercept. October 3, 2021. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220806191815/https://theintercept.com/2021/10/03/okinawa-sexual-crimes-us-military/ Archived] 2022-08-06.</ref><br />
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Many crimes have also been committed by U.S. military personnel against citizens in south Korea, another host of considerable US military presence. Notable incidents include the widely publicized brutal sexual assault and murder case of Yoon Geumi in 1992,<ref>[https://fpif.org/anti-base_movements_in_south_korea/ “Anti-Base Movements in South Korea: Comparative Perspective on the Asia-Pacific”] Foreign Policy in Focus. June 23, 2010. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220330040529/https://fpif.org/anti-base_movements_in_south_korea/ Archived] 2022-03-30.</ref> and the case of two young Korean girls were fatally struck by armored US military vehicles in 2002.<ref>[http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_international/537291.html “Tenth Anniversary of Girls Killed by US Military Armored Vehicle.”] 2012. Hankyoreh. Hani.co.kr.</ref> <br />
[[File:Unification Vanguard of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions Anti-US Demonstration.png|thumb|329x329px|The Unification Vanguard of the [[Korean Confederation of Trade Unions]] unfurls large banners reading "This land is our land, YANKEE GO HOME" and "Stop practicing for a war of aggression" in an August 2022 demonstration against US-ROK joint military exercises.]]<br />
Kooni Firing Range in Maehyangri also highlights the hazards of hosting U.S. bases for south Koreans. Before the 2005 closure, residents fought for years to have the range shut down. The resistance movement gained momentum every time an errant bomb killed or injured a Maehyangri resident. Throughout Kooni's time in use, 10 people were killed and more were seriously injured in bombing accidents. In 1967, a pregnant woman lost her life after being hit by a bomb while digging for oysters. The following year, a group of five children was hit with a bomb while playing on the beach. Four of them died from their injuries. The U.S. Air Force made no known effort to clean up the countless bombs that were left after decades of practice drills. Used shells would disintegrate and bleed chemicals into the ground and water. In a study of soil in the area, the South Korean defense ministry found lead, cadmium and copper that exceeded permissible levels. In addition, the firing range was not public knowledge until 1988, the year of Korea's democratization. Before that, media coverage on the range was forbidden.<ref>[https://en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN20120905010200315 "Bombing ends, but village still not free from past."] Yonhap News Agency. September 12, 2012. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220927084225/https://en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN20120905010200315 Archived] 2022-09-27.<br />
<br />
</ref> <br />
<br />
Protests against U.S. military presence in Korea as well as against US-ROK military cooperation occur regularly among south Korea's citizens. For example, on August 13, 2022, thousands of south Korean unionists and their progressive supporters rallied to protest against joint US-south Korea war game exercises and U.S. military presence in south Korea. In an interview, demonstrator Lee Seung-Woo stated, "We not only oppose the war exercises, but we want the U.S. Forces Korea, which is actually controlling and interfering with the Korean peninsula to leave this land. We believe that only then will the eighty million Koreans from both north and south be able to live peacefully."<ref>Frank Smith. [https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2022/08/13/687322/South-Korean-unionists-protest-US-South-Korea-war-games “‘South Korean Unionists Protest US-South Korea War Games.’”] PressTV News. August 13, 2022. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220826124551/https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2022/08/13/687322/South-Korean-unionists-protest-US-South-Korea-war-games Archived] 2022-08-28.</ref><br />
<br />
Additionally, in South Korea, between the end of the Korean War and the early 1990s, more than one million Korean women were caught up in a state-controlled prostitution industry, in special zones surrounding U.S. bases licensed by the South Korean government, reserved exclusively for American troops, and monitored and policed by the U.S. Army. Lee Beom-gyun, a judge on an appellate court in Seoul, has agreed that the South Korean government actively encouraged prostitution to boost ties with the United States. Lee ruled that the Korean state “operated and managed” the military camp towns to contribute to the “maintenance of a military alliance essential for national security” and abetted the industry “through patriotic education praising prostitutes as ‘patriots who bring in foreign currency.’” Some estimates state that at the peak of U.S. troop strength in the 1980s, the U.S. base town prostitution economy contributed 5 percent of South Korea’s gross domestic product.<ref>Shorrock, Tim. [https://newrepublic.com/article/155707/united-states-military-prostitution-south-korea-monkey-house “Welcome to the Monkey House.”] The New Republic. December 2, 2019. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220926021611/https://newrepublic.com/article/155707/united-states-military-prostitution-south-korea-monkey-house Archived] 2022-09-26.</ref><br />
[[File:Hawaiians protest fuel contamination from U.S. military Red Hill facility.jpg|thumb|342x342px|Demonstrators in Hawaii protest the fuel contamination from U.S. Navy facility and call for the demilitarization of Hawaii.<ref>[https://www.staradvertiser.com/2021/12/10/photo-gallery/protest-held-at-state-capitol-over-navys-handling-of-red-hill-fuel-contamination/ “Protest Held at State Capitol over Navy’s Handling of Red Hill Fuel Contamination.”] Honolulu Star-Advertiser. December 11, 2021. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220927081559/https://www.staradvertiser.com/2021/12/10/photo-gallery/protest-held-at-state-capitol-over-navys-handling-of-red-hill-fuel-contamination/ Archived] 2022-09-27.</ref>]]<br />
Throughout [[Oceania]], there have been many movements to oppose the presence of U.S. military facilities. In [[Hawaii]], the environmental degradation and resulting public health problems created by U.S. bases has been an ongoing issue. A notable case of this can be seen with the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility, where a petroleum leak was found to have contaminated [[Honolulu]]'s drinking water supply.<ref>Treisman, Rachel. [https://www.npr.org/2021/12/15/1064514935/water-contamination-hawaii “Thousands Displaced from Oahu Military Base due to Contamination in Navy Water System.”] NPR.org. December 15, 2021. </ref> According to an article by [[Breakthrough News]], the Navy claimed that the site of the polluting oil wells was critical for the "mission readiness" of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command with what the US military has considered to be "increasing aggression" from Russia and China.<ref>[https://breakthroughnews.org/hawaiians-demand-justice-after-pollution-of-water-source-from-navy-facility/ "Hawaiians Demand Justice after Pollution of Water Source from Navy Facility."] [[Breakthrough News]]. 2021. [https://web.archive.org/web/2/https://breakthroughnews.org/hawaiians-demand-justice-after-pollution-of-water-source-from-navy-facility/ Archived] 2022-08-23.</ref> A 2022 article by the Honolulu Civil Beat states that the commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet said Oahu residents had been right to believe Red Hill was unsafe, and that the results of two U.S. Pacific Fleet investigations into the disaster reveal that a leak on May 6 was much worse than was initially reported.<ref>Jedra, Christina. 2022. [https://www.civilbeat.org/2022/06/red-hill-investigations-the-navy-failed-to-prevent-and-respond-to-fuel-contamination/ “Red Hill Investigations: The Navy Failed to Prevent and Respond to Fuel Contamination.”] Honolulu Civil Beat. July 2022. [https://web.archive.org/web/2/https://www.civilbeat.org/2022/06/red-hill-investigations-the-navy-failed-to-prevent-and-respond-to-fuel-contamination/ Archived] 2022-08-23.</ref><br />
<br />
== Economic domination ==<br />
[[File:Economic sanctions map by SanctionsKill.org.png|thumb|A map of countries facing economic sanctions imposed by the United States, according to SanctionsKill.org.]]<br />
The United States bourgeoisie uses various economic methods to shape and control the development and economic policies of other nations and force them into subordination and perpetual debt and under-development. This can be seen through institutions such as the [[The World Bank|World Bank]] and the [[International Monetary Fund]] (IMF), institutions in which the U.S. plays a key role in managing. [[Economic sanctions]] are another major method by which the United States manipulates and destroys the economic development of other countries. Freezing or seizure of assets, often under the guise of sanctions, is another method commonly used by the United States to stifle and disrupt foreign economies and enrich its own by excluding its own companies and institutions from sanctions while freezing and confiscating the assets of the target country.<ref name=":2">Smith, Lauren. [https://mronline.org/2020/03/10/united-states-imposed-economic-sanctions-the-big-heist/ “United States Imposed Economic Sanctions: The Big Heist”] MR Online. March 10, 2020. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220907150816/https://mronline.org/2020/03/10/united-states-imposed-economic-sanctions-the-big-heist/ Archived] 2022-09-08. </ref><ref name=":3">[https://www.rt.com/news/450057-cynical-sanctions-us-lavrov-venezuela/ “‘Cynical’ US Sanctions Meant to Confiscate Venezuela’s Assets – Lavrov.”] RT International. RT. January 29, 2019. [https://web.archive.org/web/2/https://www.rt.com/news/450057-cynical-sanctions-us-lavrov-venezuela/ Archived] version.</ref><ref name=":4">Galant, Michael. [https://cepr.net/cepr-sanctions-watch-may-june-2022/ “CEPR Sanctions Watch, May-June 2022”] Center for Economic and Policy Research. July 8, 2022. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220907145545/https://cepr.net/cepr-sanctions-watch-may-june-2022/ Archived] 2022-09-07.</ref><br />
<br />
=== World Bank ===<br />
{{Main article|World Bank}}<br />
Since its origin, the president of the World Bank has been a US citizen proposed by its government. The US is also the only country to have a ''de facto'' right of veto at the World Bank, which is headquartered in Washington, D.C.<ref>Toussaint, Eric. 2020. [https://www.cadtm.org/Domination-of-the-United-States-on-the-World-Bank “Domination of the United States on the World Bank – CADTM.”] Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt.</ref> Countries must also join the International Monetary Fund to be eligible to join the World Bank Group.<ref>[https://www.worldbank.org/en/about/history/the-world-bank-group-and-the-imf “The World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).”] 2018. World Bank. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220720132811/https://www.worldbank.org/en/about/history/the-world-bank-group-and-the-imf Archived] 2022-07-20.</ref><br />
<br />
Historian and political scientist Eric Toussaint asserts that the unstated agenda of the World Bank is to "subordinate the public and private spheres of all human societies to the capitalist imperative of seeking maximum profit" which results in stagnation and deterioration of the living conditions of a great majority of the world’s population, concurrently with greater and greater concentration of wealth, as well as contributing to the deterioration of the natural environment.<ref>Toussaint, Eric. 2022. [https://www.cadtm.org/World-Bank-and-IMF-76-Years-is-Enough-Abolition “World Bank and IMF: 76 Years Is Enough! Abolition! – CADTM.”] CADTM. August 11, 2022. [https://web.archive.org/web/20211231013242/https://www.cadtm.org/World-Bank-and-IMF-76-Years-is-Enough-Abolition Archive].</ref><br />
<br />
=== International Monetary Fund ===<br />
{{Main article|International Monetary Fund}}<br />
According to a 2016 article by the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) regarding voting shares in the IMF, the U.S. "dwarfs all other member countries’ voting shares" and the CEPR's co-director stated that "IMF governance structure [...] ensures that the U.S. and Europe will continue to control the Fund."<ref>[https://cepr.net/press-release/us-and-europe-continue-to-maintain-control-of-imf-despite-small-changes-in-voting-structure/ “US and Europe Continue to Maintain Control of IMF despite Small Changes in Voting Structure - Center for Economic and Policy Research.”] February 6, 2020. .<br />
<br />
</ref><br />
<br />
Former IMF senior economist Davison Budhoo wrote that through extensive and systematic statistical fraud the IMF imposes its policies on developing countries. He explained that the IMF "manipulated, blatantly and systematically, certain key statistical indices so as to put ourselves in a position where we could make very false pronouncements about economic and financial performance" and that the consequences of these policies led to massive poverty and starvation, noting that the IMF's policies are made in "utter disregard to local conditions" and lead countries to "self destruct" and "unleash unstoppable economic and social chaos". He also stated that the routine policy packages of the IMF "can never serve, under any set of circumstances, the cause of financial balance and economic growth" and "can only serve to accentuate world tensions, expand even further the already bulging ranks of the poverty-stricken and destitute of the [[Global North and South|South]]".<ref>Budhoo, Davison. [https://tsd.naomiklein.org/files/resources/pdfs/budhoo.pdf "Enough is Enough."] 1988. [https://web.archive.org/web/2/https://tsd.naomiklein.org/files/resources/pdfs/budhoo.pdf Archived] 2022-05-16.</ref> <br />
<br />
During the 1980s and 90s, the IMF dramatically expanded its reach by making assistance conditional on borrowers committing to extensive market reforms. During what are known as the Third World Debt Crisis, the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997–98, and the collapse of the Soviet Union, the IMF exercised enormous pressure on states in receipt of loans, demanding they commit to austerity and major transformations of their domestic economies. Failing to agree to these terms not only jeopardized the IMF’s assistance; it also jeopardized access to other sources of foreign capital, since the existence of a prior arrangement with the IMF was used by other lenders to determine a country’s creditworthiness. It is by this method that the IMF brings countries into subordination under U.S. dominance. Although the IMF's policies are certainly heavily influenced by [[neoliberalism]], they are also an extension of older [[Colonialism|colonial]] and imperialist methods of domination that can be traced back to long before the 1980s and 90s.<ref>Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins. [https://www.thenation.com/article/culture/the-rotten-roots-of-global-economic-governance/ “The Rotten Roots of the IMF and the World Bank.”] ''The Nation'', 15 June 2022. [https://web.archive.org/web/2/https://www.thenation.com/article/culture/the-rotten-roots-of-global-economic-governance/ Archived].<br />
<br />
</ref><br />
<br />
=== Economic sanctions ===<br />
{{Main article|Economic sanctions}}<br />
According to Sanctions Kill in a 2021 article, US sanctions affect a third of humanity with more than 8,000 measures impacting more than 40 countries and that the U.S. far exceeds any other country in the number of countries they have strangled with economic sanctions.<ref>W, Jim. Feb. 2, 2021. [https://sanctionskill.org/2021/02/02/sanctions-fact-sheet-39-countries/ “Sanctions Fact Sheet/over 40 Countries | Sanctions Kill.”] Sanctionskill.org. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220907145836/https://sanctionskill.org/2021/02/02/sanctions-fact-sheet-39-countries/ Archived] 2022-09-07.</ref> Lauren Smith notes in Monthly Review Online that it is not unilateral sanctions imposed by the U.S. alone that devastate a targeted country, it is the imposition of secondary sanctions upon foreign third parties that represents the final blow to its economy and people. These measures threaten to cut off foreign countries, governments, companies, financial institutions and individuals from the U.S. financial system if they engage in prohibited transactions with a sanctioned target—irrespective as to whether or not that activity impacts the United States directly.<ref name=":2" /><br />
<br />
In an internal memo regarding Cuba, U.S. officials discussed how imposing "economic dissatisfaction and hardship" on Cuba would be an effective means of deposing the communist government, stating that because Castro enjoyed majority support among the people, their only option to reduce support for him would be "to bring about hunger, desperation and overthrow of government" by "denying money and supplies to Cuba, to decrease monetary and real wages".<ref name=":9">[https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1958-60v06/d499 "Memorandum From the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs (Mallory) to the Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs (Rubottom)."] Foreign Relations of the United States, 1958–1960, Cuba, Volume vi - Office of the Historian. State.gov. U.S. Department of State. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220806052659/https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1958-60v06/d499 Archived] 2022-08-14.</ref> The US embargo of Cuba is one of the oldest and strictest of all US sanctions regimes, prohibiting nearly all trade, travel, and financial transactions since the early 1960s.<ref name=":4" /><br />
<br />
=== Freezing and seizure of assets ===<br />
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov claims that the U.S. simply confiscates Venezuela’s money under the guise of sanctions, noting that the U.S. is experienced in such illegal affairs, giving Iraq, Libya, Iran, Cuba, Nicaragua, and Panama as examples. According to Lavrov, "US companies operating in Venezuela are excluded from the sanctions regime. Simply put they want to overthrow the government and gain profits at the same time."<ref name=":3" /><br />
<br />
In 2003, President Bush signed an order to take possession of the Iraqi government assets that were frozen in 1990, before the Persian Gulf War. As a result, seventeen of the world’s biggest financial institutions were told by the Treasury Department to hand over $1.7 billion in frozen Iraqi assets that the U.S. government intended to place in an account at the NY Fed.<ref name=":2" /><br />
<br />
In 2015, it was announced that $67 billion in Libya’s assets remained frozen from 2011. In 2018, it was announced that Libya’s assets had decreased to $34 billion. The UN Libya Experts Panel is “looking for answers” to explain the disappearance of $33 billion in frozen assets.<ref name=":2" /><br />
<br />
Since 2021, the U.S. [[Joe Biden|Biden]] administration has blocked Afghanistan’s central bank from accessing roughly $7 billion in its foreign reserves held in the US. Along with sanctions on government officials and a cutoff of aid, this has contributed to a severe collapse of Afghanistan’s economy.<ref name=":4" /><br />
<br />
== Unconventional and covert warfare ==<br />
[[File:CIA torture map.png|thumb|Map of countries that participated in the CIA's torture program as of 2013]]<br />
Unconventional warfare consists of military and quasi-military operations other than conventional warfare, and may use covert forces, subversion, or guerrilla warfare. This is typically done to avoid escalation into conventional warfare as well as international conventions. Covert or unconventional warfare may be conducted to enable a resistance movement or insurgency to coerce, disrupt, or overthrow a government or occupying power by operating through or with an underground, auxiliary, and guerrilla force. Unconventional means are regularly used in service of the U.S.'s primary strategies against revolutionary, anti-imperialist, and communist influence, which include "containment" (preventing the spread of communism and communist influence) and "[[rollback]]" (forcing a change in the major policies of a state, usually by regime change). <br />
<br />
In Afghanistan, the [[Jimmy Carter|Carter]] administration began providing covert military assistance to Afghanistan's [[Mujahideen]] in an effort to drive the Soviets out of the nation and to raise the military and political cost of Soviet presence in Afghanistan.<br />
[[File:Activists from the School of Americas Watch engage in protest.jpg|thumb|Activists engage in a protest against the training of Latin American officers in [[War crimes|illegal tactics]] in Ft. Benning, [[Georgia (U.S. State)|Georgia]]'s Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, commonly (and formerly) known as the [[School of the Americas]] (SOA).<ref>[https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Thousands-Protest-US-Military-Training-at-25th-Annual-SOA-Vigil-20151120-0031.html “US: Thousands Protest Military Training at 25th Annual SOA Vigil.”] Telesurenglish.net. teleSUR. 20 November, 2015. [https://web.archive.org/web/20200117023138/https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Thousands-Protest-US-Military-Training-at-25th-Annual-SOA-Vigil-20151120-0031.html Archived] 2020-01-17.</ref>]]<br />
Under the [[Reagan Doctrine]] and the regime-change policy of rollback, the United States provided overt and covert aid to anti-communist guerrillas and resistance movements in an effort to "roll back" anti-imperialist governments in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The doctrine was part of the administration's overall strategy to win the Cold War, after the policy of containment was deemed insufficient and that "rollback" of revolutionary governments was necessary. Neoconservative Jeane Kirkpatrick argued in 1979 that Third World revolutions were illegitimate and the products of Soviet expansion, an example of a common justification for the rollback strategy. According to political analysts Thomas Bodenheimer and Robert Gould, "it was the [[Heritage Foundation]] that translated theory into concrete policy. Heritage targeted nine nations for rollback: Afghanistan, [[Republic of Angola|Angola]], [[Kingdom of Cambodia|Cambodia]], [[Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia|Ethiopia]], [[Islamic Republic of Iran|Iran]], [[Lao People's Democratic Republic|Laos]], [[State of Libya|Libya]], [[Republic of Nicaragua|Nicaragua]], and [[Socialist Republic of Vietnam|Vietnam]]".<ref name=":10">Bodenheimer, Thomas; Gould, Robert. [https://archive.org/details/rollbackrightwin00bode/page/82/mode/2up ''Rollback!: Right-wing Power in U.S. Foreign Policy''.] South End Press. 1 July 1999. p. 82. ISBN <bdi>0896083454</bdi>.</ref> <br />
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For instance, the U.S. supported the [[Contras]] in Nicaragua as part of the rollback strategy. From an early stage, the rebels received financial and military support from the United States government, and their military significance decisively depended on it. After US support was banned by Congress, the Reagan administration covertly continued it. These illegal activities culminated in the [[Iran–Contra affair]], in which U.S. senior administration officials secretly facilitated the sale of arms to Iran, hoping to use the proceeds of the arms sale to fund the right-wing Contras in Nicaragua.<br />
<br />
=== Information and psychological operations ===<br />
''See also: [[Central Intelligence Agency]], [[Operation Mockingbird]], [[CIA influence on public opinion]]''<br />
<br />
The United States uses a multitude of tactics in controlling the flow of information in order to achieve its political warfare goals, through numerous agencies, agents, and front organizations such as many NGOs and broadcasting organizations. These propaganda campaigns are directed at both the U.S. public as well as internationally. These operations provide support for the military and economic goals of the U.S. and help the U.S. stoke and conduct [[Colour revolution|color revolutions]] to overthrow foreign governments. <br />
<br />
== Mass surveillance ==<br />
[[File:5 eyes 9 eyes 14 eyes.png|thumb|Members of the [[Five Eyes]] and other international surveillance organizations]]<br />
The U.S. [[National Security Agency]] is involved in mass surveillance programs targeting the [[Kingdom of Denmark|Danish]], [[Kingdom of the Netherlands|Dutch]], [[French Republic|French]], [[Federal Republic of Germany|German]], [[Kingdom of Norway|Norwegian]], and [[Kingdom of Sweden|Swedish]] populations,<ref>{{Web citation|date=2020-12-10|title=Outposts of the U.S. Surveillance Empire: Denmark and Beyond|url=https://covertactionmagazine.com/2020/12/10/outposts-of-the-u-s-surveillance-empire-denmark-and-beyond/|newspaper=[[CovertAction Magazine]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221023041347/https://covertactionmagazine.com/2020/12/10/outposts-of-the-u-s-surveillance-empire-denmark-and-beyond/|archive-date=2022-10-23|retrieved=2022-12-28|author=Ron Ridenour}}</ref> while the CIA spies on the Statesian and international populations through phones, computers, and TVs.<ref>{{Web citation|author=ZeroHedge.com|newspaper=[[MintPress News]]|title=Wikileaks Releases ‘Vault 7’ – The Largest Leak Of Confidential CIA Documents To Date|date=2017-03-07|url=https://www.mintpressnews.com/wikileaks-releases-vault-7-largest-leak-confidential-cia-documents-date/225613/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210215075858/https://www.mintpressnews.com/wikileaks-releases-vault-7-largest-leak-confidential-cia-documents-date/225613/|archive-date=2021-02-15|retrieved=2022-09-04}}</ref><br />
<br />
== By country ==<br />
<br />
=== Afghanistan ===<br />
''See also: [[Economic sanctions#Afghanistan]]''<br />
<br />
=== Angola ===<br />
In November 1975, the CIA and [[apartheid]] [[South Africa]] invaded [[People's Republic of Angola (1975–1992)|Angola]] when it became independent from [[Portuguese Republic|Portugal]]. [[Fidel Castro]] deployed 350,000 Cubans in Angola who fought until 1989 and defeated the white supremacist forces.<ref name=":15">Abayome Azikiwe (2016-05-25). [https://www.workers.org/2016/05/25544/ "CIA turned in Mandela in ’62, still undermines Africa"] ''[[Workers World]]''. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220211030649/https://www.workers.org/2016/05/25544/ Archived] from the original on 2022-02-11.</ref><br />
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Former CIA case officer [[John Stockwell]] was in charge of managing the Angola covert action, which he ran from his office in Washington. Later, in a 1983 [[Interview with former CIA agent John Stockwell|interview]], Stockwell described the process by which the CIA created "totally false" [[atrocity propaganda]] about the situation in Angola, as well as about the Cuban involvement:<blockquote>'''Interviewer:''' Well, give me a concrete example of how you used the press this way, how a false story is planted and how you got it published?<br />
<br />
'''Stockwell:''' Well for example, in my war, the Angola war, that I helped to manage, one third of my staff was propaganda. Ironically it's called "covert action" inside the CIA. Outside, that means the violent part. I had propagandists all over the world, principally in [[London]], [[Kinshasa]], and [[Zambia]]. We would take stories which we would write and put them in the Zambia Times, and then pulled them out and sent them to a journalist on our payroll in Europe. But his cover story, you see, would be what he had gotten from his stringer in [[Lusaka]], who had gotten them from the Zambia Times. We had the complicity of the government of Zambia, [[Kenneth Kaunda]] if you will, to put these false stories into his newspapers. But after that point, the journalists, Reuters and AFP, the management was not witting of it. Now, our contact man in Europe was. And we pumped just dozens of stories about Cuban atrocities, Cuban rapists--in one case we had the Cuban rapists caught and tried by the Ovimbundu maidens who had been their victims, and then we ran photographs that made almost every newspaper in the country of the Cubans being executed by the Ovimbundu women who supposedly had been their victims.<br />
<br />
'''Interviewer:''' These were fake photos?<br />
<br />
'''Stockwell:''' Oh, absolutely. We didn't know of one single atrocity committed by the Cubans. It was pure, raw, false propaganda to create an illusion of communists, you know eating babies for breakfast and the sort. Totally false propaganda.<ref>[[Interview with former CIA agent John Stockwell]]</ref></blockquote><br />
<br />
=== Brazil ===<br />
The [[1964 Brazilian coup d'état]] (Portuguese: Golpe de estado no Brasil em 1964), colloquially known in Brazil as the Coup of 64 (Golpe de 64), was a series of events in Brazil from March 31 to April 1 that led to the overthrow of President [[João Goulart]] by members of the Brazilian Armed Forces, supported by the United States government.<ref>[http://www.dominionpaper.ca/international_news/2004/04/06/us_role_in.html "US Role in 1964 Brazilian Military Coup Revealed"]. Dominion. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220803225810/http://www.dominionpaper.ca/international_news/2004/04/06/us_role_in.html Archived] from the original on 2022-08-03.</ref><ref name=":10" /><ref>[https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB118/index.htm "Brazil Marks 4th Anniversary of Military Coup: Declassified Documents Shed Light on U.S. Role"]. The National Security Archive. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220926162147/https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB118/index.htm Archived] 2022-09-26.</ref><br />
<br />
A 1962 referendum supported Goulart for president by a wide margin of 4 to 1. The United States opposed Goulart because of his pro-labor and nationalist leanings; Goulart passed a law limiting the amount of profits multinationals could transmit out of Brazil. President [[John F. Kennedy|Kennedy]] stated that he would not be opposed to the overthrow of Goulart. In the 1962 congressional elections, the CIA funded about 850 anti-Goulart candidates to run for state and federal offices, spending between $12 and $20 million. The CIA carried out a constant and vicious propaganda campaign against the Goulart government, including the financing of a right-wing newspaper chain. U.S. ambassador Lincoln Gordon met frequently with Goulart's right-wing enemies, and U.S. military attaché Vernon Walters cultivated his friend Gen. [[Humberto Castelo Branco]] for a military coup. The CIA organized anti-Goulart labor unions, and many anti-Goulart military officers were trained in the United States. Major U.S. military assistance programs influenced much of the Brazilian army to oppose Goulart. On March 31, 1964, the coup took place. Castelo Branco instituted a military dictatorship with many arrests, tortures, disappearances, and death squads.<ref name=":10" /> <br />
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=== Cambodia ===<br />
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=== Chile ===<br />
Two months prior to the election of the [[Socialism|socialist]] [[Salvador Allende]] as president of [[Republic of Chile|Chile]] in November 1970, the U.S. ambassador to Chile, [[Edward M. Korry]], sent a message to National Security Advisor [[Henry Kissinger]] and another [[United States Department of State|Department of State]] official stating that the preferred candidate of the U.S. should know that "not a nut or bolt will be allowed to reach a Chile under Allende" and that "Once Allende comes to power, we shall do all within our power to condemn Chile and the Chileans to utmost deprivation and poverty".<ref>Korry, Edward M. [https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1969-76v21/d108 "Backchannel Message From the Ambassador to Chile (Korry) to the Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs (Meyer) and the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger)."] Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976, Volume XXI, Chile, 1969–1973 - Office of the Historian. State.gov. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220924101806/https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1969-76v21/d108 Archived] 2022-09-24.</ref> <br />
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After Allende won the election, the U.S. Ambassador repeatedly met secretly with the opposition candidate, [[Eduardo Frei Montalva]], to urge him to annul the election. The CIA pursued a more forceful set of operations to pressure Frei. The political action program had "only one purpose," CIA Director Richard Helms told the National Security Council, "to induce President Frei to prevent Allende's election by the Congress on 24 October, and, failing that, to support—by benevolent neutrality at the least and conspiratorial benediction at the most—a military coup which would prevent Allende from taking office."<ref name=":7">Kornbluh, Peter. [https://nacla.org/article/declassifying-us-intervention-chile “Declassifying U.S. Intervention in Chile.”] NACLA. September 25, 2007. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220924105345/https://nacla.org/article/declassifying-us-intervention-chile Archived] 2022-09-24.</ref><ref>[https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1969-76ve16/d39 “Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976, Volume E–16, Documents on Chile, 1969–1973 - Office of the Historian.”] Memorandum Prepared in the Central Intelligence Agency. Washington, November 18, 1970. State.gov. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220924120711/https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1969-76ve16/d39 Archived] 2022-09-24.</ref> The CIA's extensive efforts to promote a military coup in Chile, known as Track II, were revealed by the U.S. Senate Select Committee led by Senator Frank Church in the mid-1970s.<ref name=":7" /><br />
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A 2007 article published by NACLA describes the "triad" of the imperialist U.S. policy toward Chile under Allende, which consisted of covert action, public policy, and economic policy being used together to promote their agenda and stir up the conditions for a coup:<blockquote>CIA operations constituted the covert leg of what U.S. officials called "a triad" of policy approaches to Chile. The public approach, according to National Security Decision Memorandum 93 titled "Policy Toward Chile," was defined as a "correct but cool" diplomatic posture. Overt hostility, cautioned recently declassified SECRET/SENSITIVE strategy papers prepared for Henry Kissinger on the day of Allende's inauguration, would "serve Allende's purpose of rallying the Chilean people around him in the face of the 'foreign devil.' "<br />
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The third leg of U.S. policy has come to be known as the "invisible blockade" of loans and credits to Chile. For years historians have debated if such a blockade existed, or whether Allende's socialist economic policies led to a loss of economic credit. Recently declassified NSC records on Chile show conclusively that the Nixon Administration moved quickly to shut down multilateral and bilateral foreign aid to Chile—before Allende had completed a month in office.<ref name=":7" /></blockquote>The article further explains that at the World Bank, U.S. officials worked behind the scenes to assure that Chile would be disqualified for a pending $21 million livestock-improvement credit and future loans. Unable to simply veto loans, the State Department's Bureau of Inter-American Affairs prepared a series of questions for a World Bank delegation to pose to authorities in Santiago in an effort to show that Allende's economic policies did not meet criteria for credits. In addition, the president of the Export-Import Bank agreed to "cooperate fully" with Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs Charles Meyer on the discontinuation of new credits and guarantees to Chile.<ref name=":7" /><br />
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As president, Allende sought to nationalize major industries, expand education and improve the living standards of the working class. He clashed with the right-wing parties that controlled [[Congress of Chile|Congress]] and with the judiciary. On 11 September 1973, the military moved to oust Allende in a ''[[1973 Chilean coup d'état|coup d'état]]'' supported by the CIA. As troops surrounded [[La Moneda Palace]], he gave his last speech vowing not to resign. Later that day, Allende [[Death of Salvador Allende|committed suicide]].<br />
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Following Allende's death, General [[Augusto Pinochet]] refused to return authority to a civilian government, and Chile was later ruled by a military junta until 1990.<br />
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As part of an early covert propaganda effort to cast the new regime in a positive light, the CIA provided $9,000 to, according to declassified documents, "cover travel costs for three Christian Democratic Party members to tour Latin America and Europe explaining their party’s decision to support the new Chilean government." The CIA also requested additional funds to help the Chilean Society for Industrial Development purchase a network of radio stations to use in promoting the new regime, and sought $160,000 to assist the near-bankrupt PDC to pay its bills and continue to function as Chile’s leading political party.<ref>Kornbluh, Peter. [https://unredacted.com/2015/12/22/pinochets-secret-envoy-to-kissinger-contreras “Pinochet’s Secret Envoy to Kissinger: Contreras.”] UNREDACTED. December 22, 2015. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220924112504/https://unredacted.com/2015/12/22/pinochets-secret-envoy-to-kissinger-contreras/ Archived] 2022-09-24.</ref><br />
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In a 1976 Henry Kissinger met with Pinochet in Pinochet's office, prompted by a public controversy over the human rights abuses under Pinochet, as well under the pressure of the fallout of the [[Watergate scandal]] and the domestically unpopular [[Vietnam War]]. Trying to give Pinochet slack and let him know that the U.S. imperialists supported him, but needed to give him a public slap on the wrist, Kissinger stated to Pinochet:<blockquote>In the United States, as you know, we are sympathetic with what you are trying to do here. I think that the previous government was headed toward Communism. We wish your government well. At the same time, we face massive domestic problems, in all branches of the government, especially Congress, but also in the Executive, over the issue of human rights. [...] But this is a problem which complicates our relationships and the efforts of those who are friends of Chile. I am going to speak about human rights this afternoon in the General Assembly. I delayed my statement until I could talk to you. I wanted you to understand my position. We want to deal in moral persuasion, not by legal sanctions. [...] In my statement, I will treat human rights in general terms, and human rights in a world context. [...] I will also call attention to the Cuba report and to the hypocrisy of some who call attention to human rights as a means of intervening in governments. I can do no less, without producing a reaction in the U.S. which would lead to legislative restrictions. The speech is not aimed at Chile. I wanted to tell you about this. [...] I want to see our relations and friendship improve. I encouraged the OAS to have its General Assembly here. I knew it would add prestige to Chile. I came for that reason. We have suggestions. We want to help, not undermine you. You did a great service to the West in overthrowing Allende. Otherwise Chile would have followed Cuba.<ref name=":8">[https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1969-76ve11p2/d228 "Memorandum of Conversation."] Santiago, June 8, 1976, noon. Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976, Volume E–11, Part 2, Documents on South America, 1973–1976 - Office of the Historian. State.gov. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220924112612/https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1969-76ve11p2/d228 Archived] 2022-09-24.</ref></blockquote>Kissinger also stated that "It is unfortunate. We have been through Viet-Nam and Watergate. We have to wait until the elections. We welcomed the overthrow of the Communist-inclined government here. We are not out to weaken your position." Kissinger told Pinochet that "It would help you if you had some human rights progress, which could be announced in packages" saying earlier in the conversation that "If you could group the releases [of prisoners], instead of 20 a week, have a bigger program of releases, that would be better for the psychological impact of the releases" and that "if you could give us advanced information of your human rights efforts, we could use this". Kissinger clarified early in the conversation that "None of this is said with the hope of undermining your government. I want you to succeed and I want to retain the possibility of aid."<ref name=":8" /> <br />
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=== Cuba ===<br />
''See also: [[United States embargo against Cuba]], [[Bay of Pigs Invasion]], [[Economic sanctions#Cuba]]''<br />
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On March 17, 1960, President [[Dwight D. Eisenhower|Eisenhower]] approved a CIA plan to arm and train Cuban exiles to overthrow [[Fidel Castro]]. Chinese nationalist pilots recruited through CIA-run Civil Air Transport trained Cuban exile pilots. On April 17, 1961, the exiles, with the help of CIA-organized air strikes, landed a force of 1,400 men at the [[Bay of Pigs Invasion|Bay of Pigs]]. Numerous logistical errors took place resulting in the exiles' rapid defeat by Castro's army. After the Bay of Pigs fiasco, the Kennedy administration redoubled its efforts to get rid of Castro with [[Operation Mongoose]]. The CIA station in Miami became a $50 million per year enterprise with several thousand Cuban exile agents. During the 1960s, Cuba was subjected to countless sea and air commando raids inflicting damage on oil refineries, chemical plants, railroad bridges, sugar mills, and other targets. Several assassination attempts were made on Castro, some involving Mafia figures, utilizing techniques of shooting, bombing, and poisoning.<ref name=":10" /> Meanwhile the U.S. economic embargo on Cuba was designed with the aim of destabilizing Cuba economically in order to increase domestic discontent and spawn insurgent movements.<ref name=":9" /> The US embargo of Cuba is one of the oldest and strictest of all US sanctions regimes, prohibiting nearly all trade, travel, and financial transactions since the early 1960s.<ref name=":4" /><br />
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=== Democratic Republic of the Congo ===<br />
''See also: [[Central Intelligence Agency#Democratic Republic of the Congo]], [[Patrice Lumumba#United States involvement]]''<br />
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Patrice Lumumba was chosen prime minister of the independent [[Democratic Republic of the Congo]] (then Republic of the Congo) by the newly-elected parliament following independence from [[Kingdom of Belgium|Belgium]] in June 1960. Ideologically an African nationalist and [[Pan-Africanism|pan-Africanist]], he led the Congolese National Movement (MNC) party from 1958 until his assassination. Lumumba was very popular, but too nationalist and seemingly left-leaning for the imperialists. Both Belgium and the US feared he was increasingly subject to communist influence. CIA Director [[Allen Dulles]] authorized a fund of up to $100,000 to replace Lumumba's government with a pro-Western regime. With CIA help, Lumumba was deposed, first by President [[Joseph Kasavubu]], and later by Army strongman (cultivated by the CIA) [[Mobutu Sese Seko]]. The CIA made a plan to assassinate Lumumba with poison carried from the United States by CIA operative Sid Gottlieb. The poisoning plan was aborted, but Lumumba was caught and murdered. After Lumumba's murder, Mobutu Sese Seko ruled until 1996 as a CIA puppet.<ref name=":10" /><ref name=":15" /><br />
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A document prepared in the CIA, titled "Operations in the Congo" which was noted (in handwriting) as being prepared for [[Richard Nixon|Nixon]] (who was Vice President at the time) on September 7, 1960, summarizes some of the CIA's activities in Congo aimed at ousting Lumumba up to that point:<blockquote>In the period immediately preceding Congo independence, CIA efforts in the Belgian Congo concentrated on establishing direct contact with as many responsible political figures as possible and influencing their actions. [...] In the immediate post-independence period, CIA continued to maintain contact with the assets it had been developing and to be on the lookout for new ones for whatever contingencies might arise. [...] CIA concentrated on developing contact with [less than 1 line not declassified] assets who were in active opposition to Lumumba or appeared to have that potential. These were developed with the long-range view of possible active use against Lumumba and on a day to day basis in tactical opposition to increasing signs of [[Soviet Bloc]] influence in the Lumumba Government [...] To accomplish this and to implement operations to this end, CIA has been steadily reinforcing the Leopoldville station with additional personnel and funds, and the Director of Central Intelligence has given the station authority to take decisions on the spot [...] CIA has been coordinating an effort to have the Senate assemble and pass a vote of no confidence in the Lumumba Government. [...] On the basis of what information we have so far received it would appear that Kasavubu’s precipitate action has at least seriously jeopardized the plan for ousting Lumumba by constitutional means.<ref>[https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v23/d16 "16. Paper Prepared in the Central Intelligence Agency."] Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964–1968, Volume XXIII, Congo, 1960–1968. Document 16. Office of the Historian, United States Department of State. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230405132307/https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v23/d16 Archived] 2023-04-05.</ref></blockquote>The U.S. plot to poison Lumumba is discussed in an editorial note by the U.S. Department of State's Office of the Historian, describing a 1975 testimony to the [[Church Committee]]. "The means of assassination had not been restricted to use of this toxic material, but the Chief of Station emphasized that although selection of a mode of assassination was left to his judgment, it had been essential that it be carried out in a way that could not be traced back either to an American or the U.S. Government [...] the Chief of Station confirmed to the Church Committee that the top priority possibility listed in telegram 0026 involved instructing an agent to infiltrate Lumumba’s entourage to explore means of poisoning him."<ref>[https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v23/d28 "28. Editorial Note."] Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964–1968, Volume XXIII, Congo, 1960–1968 - Office of the Historian. (Interim Report, pages. 24–27) [https://web.archive.org/web/20221004043407/https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v23/d28 Archived] 2022-10-04.</ref><br />
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=== Dominican Republic ===<br />
In the [[Dominican Republic]] in December 1962, liberal [[Juan Bosch]] was elected president with 60 percent of the vote. U.S. President Kennedy initially supported Bosch but turned against him when he initiated modest land reform and minor nationalizations. According to authors Bodenheimer and Gould, "In fact, Bosch was supportive of foreign investment, and was opposed by the communists as overly friendly to the United States. Because of Bosch's apparent independence in a nation long under tight U.S. control, a press campaign was started against Bosch, inaccurately linking him with communists. Kennedy turned off any new aid to the Bosch government; the CIA and U.S. military were in contact with right-wing military officers opposing Bosch. The CIA-created union federation publicly supported a coup against Bosch." In September 1963, after only seven months in office, Bosch was overthrown and Colonel [[Elías Wessin y Wessin]] took over. Less than two years later, growing dissatisfaction generated another military rebellion on 24 April 1965 that demanded Bosch's restoration. The United States dispatched 23,000 troops, which the [[Lyndon B. Johnson|Johnson]] administration justified as being necessary to prevent the spread of communism. The Marines occupied the country until a sufficiently pro-U.S. government could be found to take over.<ref name=":10" /><br />
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=== Ghana ===<br />
''See also: [[Republic of Ghana#1966 coup d'etat]]''<br />
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=== Guatemala ===<br />
''See also: [[Republic of Guatemala#Árbenz presidency]]''<br />
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CIA director Allen Dulles and his brother, U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles collaborated on the 1954 overthrow of [[Jacobo Árbenz]], [[Republic of Guatemala|Guatemala]]’s left-leaning democratically-elected president. At the time, the [[United Fruit Company]] (UFC) was a prominent client of Sullivan & Cromwell which had provided both Allen and Foster Dulles with legal fees over the years. UFC felt threatened by Árbenz’s land reform project, which would expropriate the company's land while offering compensation. Irritated by potential diplomatic obstacles to the coup, Foster removed both the U.S. ambassador to Guatemala and the assistant secretary of state for inter-American affairs, replacing them with more pliant officials. Allen, meanwhile, picked Tracy Barnes to oversee the plot's psychological warfare. After the 1954 coup against Árbenz, the company regained all the land it lost in the land reform and banned banana workers' unions.<ref>[https://archive.revista.drclas.harvard.edu/book/beyond-mad-men-secret-world-war “The Brothers: John Foster Dulles, Allen Dulles, and Their Secret World War.”] Harvard.edu. 2013. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230220213957/https://archive.revista.drclas.harvard.edu/book/beyond-mad-men-secret-world-war Archived] link.</ref><ref>William Blum (2003). ''Killing Hope'': 'Guatemala 1953-1954: While the world watched' (pp. 74–80). <small>[https://cloudflare-ipfs.com/ipfs/bafykbzacedfo2kzml5sodng4rtlybjdvertim3nybowazzlo6rztq6khixbv4?filename=William%20Blum%20-%20Killing%20Hope_%20US%20Military%20and%20CIA%20Interventions%20Since%20World%20War%20II-Zed%20Books%20Ltd%20%282003%29.pdf <nowiki>[PDF]</nowiki>]</small> London: Zed Books. <small>ISBN 1842773682</small></ref><br />
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=== Indonesia ===<br />
''See also: [[Republic of Indonesia#Mass killings]]''<br />
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In the work ''Subversion as Foreign Policy: The Secret Eisenhower and Dulles Debacle in Indonesia'', authors Audrey R. Kahin and George McT. Kahin describe how, beginning in 1957, President Eisenhower, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, and the CIA under director Allen Dulles launched a massive covert military operation in Indonesia, paving the way for the Indonesian army's eventual massacre of half a million people in [[Anti-communism|anti-communist]] violence in 1965-66. The aim of the CIA interference was to topple or weaken Indonesia's President [[Sukarno]], viewed as too friendly toward Indonesia's [[Communism|Communist]] Party, and to weaken the Indonesian army. The CIA funneled financial support and weapons to rebel colonels on the islands outside [[Java]].<ref>[https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-56584-244-1 “Subversion as Foreign Policy: The Secret Eisenhower and Dulles Debacle in Indonesia by Audrey R. Kahin.”] Review. 2016. Publishersweekly.com.</ref> <br />
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The form that U.S. imperialism took in [[Republic of Indonesia|Indonesia]] serves as the events for the analysis presented in the 2020 book ''[[The Jakarta Method]]'' by [[Vincent Bevins]], which concerns U.S. government support for and complicity in anti-communist mass killings around the world following the pattern in Indonesia. In a 2023 interview, [[Abby Martin]] of [[Empire Files]] spoke with Bevins about the hidden CIA-backed mass murder in Indonesia, which "created the model for US extermination campaigns against communists in 22 countries during the Cold War." The interview covers not only the events in Indonesia but also the larger historical context, and comparisons to other manifestations of U.S. imperialism.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=up3-lOiO9L8 "CIA Stories: The Jakarta Method."] Empire Files. March 7, 2023. YouTube. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230329222954/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=up3-lOiO9L8 Archived] 2023-03-29.</ref><br />
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Author Greg Pulgrain argues that CIA director Allen Dulles had a number of motivations for wanting Sukarno to be ousted by a military-led regime that was aligned to the West, as he had brokered deals between the [[Kingdom of the Netherlands|Dutch]] and US oil interests in the 1930s and had inside knowledge about a large [[gold]] deposit (one of the largest gold finds in history) in Indonesia which had yet to be known to the general public.<ref>Costello, David. [https://www.internationalaffairs.org.au/australianoutlook/the-incubus-of-intervention-conflicting-indonesia-strategies-of-john-f-kennedy-and-allen-dulles/ “The Incubus of Intervention: Conflicting Indonesia Strategies of John F. Kennedy and Allen Dulles, Review by David Costello.”] 2016. Australian Institute of International Affairs. [https://web.archive.org/web/20210923062339/https://www.internationalaffairs.org.au/australianoutlook/the-incubus-of-intervention-conflicting-indonesia-strategies-of-john-f-kennedy-and-allen-dulles/ Archived] 2023-09-23.</ref> The role of Allen Dulles in the destabilization of Indonesia based on insider knowledge of the gold deposit is also discussed by historian [[Aaron Good]] on [[Geopolitical Economy Report]], in an episode titled "How Western empires meddled to exploit Indonesia's huge gold reserves." Good states that Dulles and other [[Bourgeoisie|corporate]] lawyers had a role in establishing the 60% US-owned and 40% Dutch-owned [[Netherlands New Guinea Petroleum Company]] which has discovered the gold deposit, which they then kept secret for decades due to not yet being in a position to mine the ore, with Presidents Kennedy and Sukarno themselves seemingly unknowing of this deposit's existence. The massive amount of wealth the US and European corporate insiders stood to gain from having access to mine the ore deposit shines possible additional light on the motivations to overthrow Sukarno and install a West-friendly government in Indonesia.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYLGNw-GZ8w "How Western empires meddled to exploit Indonesia's huge gold reserves (with historian Aaron Good)."] [[Geopolitical Economy Report]]. Jan 29, 2023. [[YouTube]].</ref><br />
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=== Iran ===<br />
''See also: [[Economic sanctions#Iran]]''<br />
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In [[Islamic Republic of Iran|Iran]] in 1953, the CIA overthrew democratically elected prime minister [[Mohammad Mossaddegh]] after he threatened to nationalize the oil industry, which would decrease profits for British companies. According to political analysts Thomas Bodenheimer and Robert Gould:<blockquote>The CIA's first rollback success was achieved in Iran in 1953. Nationalist Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh, elected by the parliament, had nationalized the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. The British asked for assistance and the CIA sent Middle East expert Kermit Roosevelt with a team and plenty of dollars for the purposes of bribery. In a series of machinations, the CIA overthrew nationalist Mossadegh and brought the pro-U.S. Shah into power. A key factor had been the provision of weapons, supplies, and money to Iranian army officers, winning them to the Shah's side.<ref name=":10" /></blockquote>According to Nodutdol, Iran has virtually been under some form of US sanctions since the 1979 Iranian Revolution deposed the US-backed Shah and established the Islamic Republic of Iran. In 2015, Iran signed on to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), popularly known as the Iran nuclear deal, with the US and EU. In exchange for abiding by certain nuclear restrictions, Iran was promised relief from some sanctions imposed by the US, EU, and UN Security Council. The Trump administration pulled out of JCPOA in 2017, and dramatically escalated sanctions against Iran. This has had a devastating effect on Iran, particularly during the [[COVID-19 pandemic]]. Prevented from conducting business with the US dollar, unable to access overseas assets, and blocked off from most international trade, the Iranian economy has been struck by massive unemployment, runaway inflation, and severe shortages of basic goods. This has been particularly devastating for public health, as shortages of vital medical supplies have exacerbated the rate of preventable deaths, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.<ref name=":11" /><br />
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=== Iraq ===<br />
''See also: [[Economic sanctions#Iraq]]''<br />
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The sanctions on [[Republic of Iraq|Iraq]] implemented in August 1990 by the UN Security Council Resolution 661, included a total financial and trade embargo. Not only was Iraq [[Petroleum politics|barred from exporting oil]] (its main income source) on the world market for several years, but it was also prevented from importing products from abroad. This ban included healthcare equipment and medications, even including radiotherapy equipment, chemotherapy drugs and analgesics, requests for which were consistently blocked by United States and British advisers, which translated into immeasurable suffering for Iraqi citizens. According to [[UNICEF]], the UN Children’s Fund, the death rate of children below five crossed 4,000 a month due to the lack of food and basic medications caused by the sanctions – that is up to 200 babies and toddlers dying avoidable deaths a day.<ref name=":5">Twaij, Ahmed. [https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2022/3/25/lets-remember-madeleine-albright-as-who-she-really-was “Let’s Remember Madeleine Albright for Who She Really Was.”] Al Jazeera. March 25, 2022. [https://web.archive.org/web/2/https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2022/3/25/lets-remember-madeleine-albright-as-who-she-really-was Archived] 2022-09-23.</ref><br />
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When asked about half a million Iraqi children who died due to [[United States of America|US]] sanctions, [[Madeleine Albright]], ambassador of the [[United Nations]] at that time, said in 1996, that it was a "hard choice" but that "the price is worth it."<ref name=":5" /><br />
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Thirteen years after the sanctions were first implemented to supposedly pressure the Iraqi government, the US opted to invade the oil-rich country anyway under the false pretense that [[Saddam Hussein]] managed to amass [[weapons of mass destruction]] despite the embargo. The sanctions achieved none of their supposed political goals that the imperialists claimed, only their unstated actual goal of completely economically devastating the country and killing its citizens in order to weaken and subdue it.<br />
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In 2003, President [[George Bush|Bush]] signed an order to take possession of the Iraqi government assets that were frozen in 1990, before the [[Persian Gulf War]]. As a result, seventeen of the world’s biggest financial institutions were told by the Treasury Department to hand over $1.7 billion in frozen Iraqi assets that the U.S. government intended to place in an account at the [[NY Fed]].<ref name=":2" /><br />
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The U.S. bombing of Iraq directly killed approximately 50,000 civilians. The U.S. sanctions and destruction of infrastructure and farmland caused over a million deaths, including many civilians.<ref name=":0" /> Notably, one of the more recent uses of the highly destructive incendiary weapon [[napalm]] was by U.S. forces during the [[Iraq War|2003 invasion of Iraq]].<ref>[http://www.napalmbiography.com/ “Napalm, an American Biography.”] 2013. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220610111227/http://www.napalmbiography.com/ Archived] 2022-06-10.</ref><ref name=":6">Silverman, Jacob. [https://science.howstuffworks.com/napalm.htm “How Napalm Works.”] December 15, 2008. [https://web.archive.org/web/2/https://science.howstuffworks.com/napalm.htm Archived] 2022-09-22.</ref><br />
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In 2010, documents leaked by [[Chelsea Manning]] showed that the majority of Iraqis killed by US forces were civilians.<ref>[https://wikileaks.org/irq/ "Baghdad War Diary"] (2010-10-22). ''Wikileaks''. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220127064610/https://wikileaks.org/irq/ Archived] from the original on 2022-01-27.</ref><br />
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In 2016, [[Barack Obama]] dropped a total of 12,095 bombs on Iraq.<ref>Ghast Lee (2017-01-23). [https://www.sickchirpse.com/map-barack-obama-dropped-bombs/ "Shocking Map Shows Where Barack Obama Dropped His 26,000 Bombs"] ''Sick Chirpse''. [https://web.archive.org/web/20170715221031/https://www.sickchirpse.com/map-barack-obama-dropped-bombs/ Archived] from the original on 2017-07-15.</ref><br />
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=== Japan ===<br />
According to a 2021 Al Jazeera article, "nearly half of all US military deployed abroad, some 80,100 American personnel, are stationed in [[Japan]] with 53,700 and South Korea with 26,400."<ref>Mohammed Hussein and Mohammed Haddad (10 Sep 2021). [https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/9/10/infographic-us-military-presence-around-the-world-interactive "Infographic: US military presence around the world"] ''Al Jazeera''. [https://web.archive.org/web/2/https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/9/10/infographic-us-military-presence-around-the-world-interactive Archived] from the original on 2022-08-14.</ref> <br />
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Japanese citizens oppose and protest the U.S. military in Japan through the [[anti-base movement]]. [[Okinawa]], which was initially colonized by Japan in the 1800s, remained under US administration until 1972, and throughout this period, the United States built additional military bases in the prefecture. Since 1972, Japan has administered Okinawa and has allowed US bases to remain there, in accordance with the 1960 US-Japan Security Treaty, which permits US bases in Japan.<ref>Olivia Tasevski (17 Feb 2022). [https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/okinawa-s-vocal-anti-us-military-base-movement "Okinawa’s vocal anti-US military base movement"] ''The Interpreter''.</ref><br />
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=== Korea ===<br />
The division of [[Korea]] into north and south occurred after Korea's liberation from Japan. Meant only to be a temporary division while Korea stabilized, the U.S. has never given up military control over the South. The U.S. military government in Korea re-instated Japanese colonial-era collaborators to their positions, re-instated Japanese colonial-era grain collection policies, violently disbanded the widely popular Korean People's Committees,<ref>Robinson, Richard. Cited in Mark J. Scher (1973) ''U.S. policy in Korea 1945–1948: A Neocolonial model takes shape.'' Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars, 5:4, 17-27, DOI: 10.1080/14672715.1973.10406346. <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.1080/14672715.1973.1040634</nowiki> URL: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/14672715.1973.10406346</ref><ref>Jay Hauben (2011-08-20). "[http://www.jejuweekly.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=1865 People's Republic of Korea: Jeju, 1945-1946"] ''The Jeju Weekly''. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220723035033/http://www.jejuweekly.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=1865 Archived] from the original on 2022-07-23. Retrieved 2022-07-23.</ref> and solidified the division of Korea despite widespread opposition among the populace at the time of division. This is exemplified by the events of the [[Jeju Uprising|Jeju uprising]], where the people expressed their opposition to the U.S.-led decision to officially split Korea via the formation of the southern [[Republic of Korea]], and were met with violence that killed approximately one-tenth of the island's population. The U.S. installed the dictator Syngman Rhee in the ROK, an expat who had been living in the U.S. for decades, while an internal document of the CIA at the time acknowledged that "imported expatriate" Rhee would most likely begin "ruthless suppression of all non-Rhee Rightist, Moderate, and Leftist opposition" after coming to power.<ref>[https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/220065.pdf?v=d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e "March 18, 1948 Central Intelligence Agency, ORE 15/48, 'The Current Situation in Korea'"]. ''Wilson Center Digital Archive''. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220729051304/https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/220065.pdf?v=d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e Archived] from the original. Retrieved 2022-07-29.</ref><br />
<br />
During the Korean War, The United States dropped "635,000 tons of bombs in Korea (not counting 32,557 tons of napalm), compared to 503,000 tons in the entire Pacific Theater in World War II" and "at least 50 percent of eighteen out of the North's twenty-two major cities were obliterated."<ref>Bruce Cumings (2010). [https://archive.org/details/koreanwarhistory0000cumi/ ''The Korean War: A History'': '"The Most Disproportionate Result:" The Air War'] (pp. 159-160). New York: Modern Library. <small>ISBN 978-0-679-64357-9</small></ref><br />
<br />
Several of the massacres of civilians conducted or observed by the U.S. military in Korea as well as by the U.S.-backed Southern regime have since been officially admitted to by the U.S. or the South Korean government, or by both, or corroborated by Koreans, U.S. veterans, journalists, and other eyewitnesses.<ref>“AP: U.S. Allowed Korean Massacre in 1950.” 2008. Cbsnews.com. CBS News. July 5, 2008. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ap-us-allowed-korean-massacre-in-1950/. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220810061418/https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ap-us-allowed-korean-massacre-in-1950/ Archive]. <br />
</ref> Regarding the Korean War, U.S. Air Force General Curtis LeMay stated "Over a period of three years or so, we killed off—what—twenty percent of the population of Korea as direct casualties of war, or from starvation and exposure?"<ref>Richard H. Kohn and Joseph P. Harahan (1988). ''[https://media.defense.gov/2010/Sep/29/2001329790/-1/-1/0/AFD-100929-052.pdf Strategic Air Warfare: an interview with generals Curtis E. LeMay, Leon W. Johnson, David A. Burchinal, and Jack J. Catton]'' (p. 88). Washington, D.C.: Office of Air Force History, United States Air Force. <small>ISBN 0-912799-56-0</small></ref><br />
<br />
To this day, the US consistently interferes in inter-Korean affairs by citing sanctions against DPRK as an excuse. According to Nodutdol, only a few months after the Korean leaders signed the Panmunjeom Declaration, the US-led UN Command which oversees the DMZ, blocked development of the inter-Korean railway. In January 2020, South Korean President [[Moon Jae-In]] expressed interest in developing tourism to North Korea, but the US ambassador Harry Harris blocked this effort. Harris claimed that "independent" tourism plans would have to undergo US consultation. He emphasized that the items inside South Korean tourists' luggage could violate sanctions, demonstrating the extent of US interference.<ref name=":11" /><br />
<br />
==== DPRK ====<br />
[[Democratic People's Republic of Korea|DPRK]] is one of the most sanctioned countries in the world, and has been subject to sanctions since just after its foundation. The US first imposed sanctions on DPRK during the Korean War in the 1950s. Following the country’s 2006 nuclear test, the US, EU, and others added more stringent sanctions, which have periodically intensified since. Sanctions now target oil imports, and cover most finance and trade, and the country’s key minerals sector.<ref name=":4" /> In 2017, sanctions imposed by the UN caused thousands of DPRK workers who had been working abroad to be forced to return to DPRK as well as led to the closure of numerous DPRK companies and joint ventures.<ref>[https://www.asianews.it/news-en/North-Korean-workers-leave-China-because-of-UN-sanctions-41942.html “North Korean Workers Leave China because of UN Sanctions.”] Asianews.it. 2017. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220909073331/https://www.asianews.it/news-en/North-Korean-workers-leave-China-because-of-UN-sanctions-41942.html Archived] 2022-09-09.</ref> In 2018, 3,968 people in the DPRK, who were mostly children under the age of 5, died as a result of shortages and delays to UN aid programs caused by sanctions. The [[Donald Trump|Trump]] administration has elaborated on DPRK sanctions by returning the DPRK to the State Sponsors of Terrorism list, targeting the DPRK’s access to international shipping, instituting a travel ban, and adding new measures targeting a number of DPRK industries.<ref name=":11" /><br />
<br />
==== South Korea ====<br />
According to the [[Republic of Korea|South Korean]] People's Democracy Party (민중민주당), writing in a 2020 [[Liberation School]] article, South Korea "is a complete colony occupied by the U.S. military, is politically oppressed by the U.S., and is economically subordinate to imperialist countries, including the U.S." and states that "true peace is possible only without imperialism; the head of imperialism is the U.S. We have an opinion that a true peace movement should be an anti-imperialist movement and an anti-U.S. movement. We believe that the progressive and peace-loving forces of the world can and must conduct an anti-imperialist, anti-war struggle, to halt all wars in the world by U.S. troops and to withdraw all U.S. troops stationed overseas."<ref>People's Democracy Party and Liberation School. [https://www.liberationschool.org/korean-war-70-years/ “70 Years Too Long: The Struggle to End the Korean War – Liberation School.”] ''Liberation School – Revolutionary Marxism for a New Generation of Fighters'', 25 June 2020. [https://web.archive.org/web/2/https://www.liberationschool.org/korean-war-70-years/ Archived]</ref><br />
<br />
=== Laos ===<br />
<br />
=== Libya ===<br />
In 2015, it was announced that $67 billion in [[State of Libya|Libya]]’s assets remained frozen from 2011. In 2018, it was announced that Libya’s assets had decreased to $34 billion. The UN Libya Experts Panel is “looking for answers” to explain the disappearance of $33 billion in frozen assets.<ref name=":2" /><br />
<br />
=== Nicaragua ===<br />
<br />
=== Philippines ===<br />
When the United States seized the [[Republic of the Philippines|Philippines]] from [[Kingdom of Spain (1874–1931)|Spain]] in 1898, most of its territory was controlled by a Filipino resistance army. The United States fought a war against the resistance until 1902 and sporadic uprisings continued until 1915. The United States killed over 600,000 people on the island of Luzon alone and hundreds of thousands more died from starvation and disease throughout the Philippines.<ref name=":0" /><br />
<br />
=== Syria ===<br />
''See also: [[Economic sanctions#Syria]], [[Syrian Arab Republic#Syrian Civil War]]''<br />
<br />
=== Venezuela ===<br />
[[Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela|Venezuela]] has been the target of hostility from the US imperialists due to its significant reserves of oil, as well as its recent trend of electing left-leaning progressive governments which prioritize [[Bolivarian missions|social programs]] and the implementation of what some observers describe as [[Socialism of the 21st century]]. The hostilities directed at Venezuela have manifested in the form of economic sanctions and multiple coup attempts, among other forms of interference.<br />
<br />
In 2017, the US and its allies in North America and Europe imposed sanctions on Venezuela targeting individuals in government, state institutions, and access to international credit. Since then, the US and its allies have expanded sanctions to target Venezuela’s major industries, banking sector, and international food aid. These measures have acutely impacted the economic situation in Venezuela, and created shortages of medicine, food, and fuel that have led to widespread suffering. In 2019, the Center for Economic Policy Research published a study estimating that 40,000 deaths in Venezuela from 2017- 2018 could be attributed to US sanctions.<ref name=":11">[https://nodutdol.org/sanctions-of-empire/ "제국의 제재 - Sanctions of Empire."] Nodutdol. October 20, 2020. [https://nodutdol.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Sanctions-of-Empire.pdf PDF]. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220520095404/https://nodutdol.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Sanctions-of-Empire.pdf Archive].</ref><br />
<br />
In his 2020 memoir ''The Room Where It Happened'', [[John Bolton]], former National Security Advisor under U.S. President [[Donald Trump]] wrote regarding Venezuela:<blockquote>Shortly after the drone attack [on Venezuelan President [[Nicolás Maduro]] on August 4, 2018],<ref>Joe Parkin Daniels (2018-08-05). [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/04/nicolas-maduros-speech-cut-short-while-soldiers-scatter "Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro survives apparent assassination attempt"] ''The Guardian''. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220715064109/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/04/nicolas-maduros-speech-cut-short-while-soldiers-scatter Archived] from the original on 2022-07-15. Retrieved 2022-07-15.</ref> during an unrelated meeting on August 15, Venezuela came up, and Trump said to me emphatically, “Get it done," meaning get rid of the Maduro regime. “This is the fifth time I've asked for it,” he continued. [...] Trump insisted he wanted military options for Venezuela and then keep it because “it's really part of the United States.”<ref>John Bolton (2020). [https://books.google.co.kr/books?id=QjTMDwAAQBAJ&lpg=PP1&hl=ko&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false ''The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir'': 'Chapter 9: Venezuela Libre'.] Simon and Schuster.</ref></blockquote><br />
<br />
=== Vietnam ===<br />
The United States killed at least a million [[Socialist Republic of Vietnam|Vietnamese]] civilians with bombing campaigns in the [[Vietnam War]]. The U.S. killed about ten times as many civilians as actual [[Viet Minh]] soldiers during the bombings. The total number of Vietnamese people killed, including soldiers and civilians killed indirectly through starvation, may be more than three million.<ref name=":0" /> During the Vietnam War, up to 400,000 tons (362,874 metric tons) of napalm was used by the U.S. against the Vietnamese.<ref name=":6" /><br />
<br />
=== Ukraine ===<br />
In 2014, the [[International Monetary Fund|IMF]] asked [[Ukraine]] to raise taxes and cut social spending. Yanukovych's government refused because the changes could cause hundreds of thousands of people to lose their jobs.<ref>Evan Reif (2022-07-29). [https://covertactionmagazine.com/2022/07/29/what-the-u-s-government-and-the-new-york-times-have-quietly-agreed-not-to-tell-you-about-ukraine/ "What the U.S. Government and The New York Times Have Quietly Agreed Not to Tell You About Ukraine"] ''[[CovertAction Magazine]]''. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220804035237/https://covertactionmagazine.com/2022/07/29/what-the-u-s-government-and-the-new-york-times-have-quietly-agreed-not-to-tell-you-about-ukraine/ Archived] from the original on 2022-08-04. Retrieved 2022-08-06.</ref> In 2014, the United States of America helped finance and arm the [[2014 Ukrainian coup d'etat|Euromaidan coup d'état]] to overthrow the government of Ukraine.<br />
<br />
=== Yemen ===<br />
The United States has been supporting [[Kingdom of Saudi Arabia|Saudi Arabia]] in a [[proxy war]] in [[Republic of Yemen|Yemen]] that has killed at least 10,000 civilians and left millions homeless. Yemeni ambassador Ibrahim al-Deilami noted in an interview with [[Press TV]] that the United States has been fueling the war in Yemen, and, in fact, the Saudi-led military aggression against his impoverished country all started in Washington, adding that "Even US military advisers are active there to lead the aggression."<ref>[https://www.tasnimnews.com/en/news/2021/07/06/2533828/us-fueling-saudi-war-on-yemen-envoy “US Fueling Saudi War on Yemen: Envoy.”] Tasnim News Agency. July 6, 2021. [https://web.archive.org/web/20210707234818/https://www.tasnimnews.com/en/news/2021/07/06/2533828/us-fueling-saudi-war-on-yemen-envoy Archived] 2021-07-07.</ref> According to a report in [[Democracy Now]], "[[Cable News Network|CNN]]’s senior international correspondent Nima Elbagir says what is happening in Yemen is not a natural disaster but a 'man-made catastrophe' directly tied to U.S. policies. Elbagir says, 'Not only is the U.S. profiting from the war by selling weapons to the UAE and Saudi Arabia,' but it is also ignoring the impact on civilians."<ref>[https://www.democracynow.org/2020/9/17/yemen_crisis_us_uae_saudi_arabia “A Crisis Made in America: Yemen on Brink of Famine after U.S. Cuts Aid While Fueling War.”] Democracy Now! September 17, 2020. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220810130116/https://www.democracynow.org/2020/9/17/yemen_crisis_us_uae_saudi_arabia Archived] 2022-08-10.</ref><br />
<br />
== Further reading ==<br />
<br />
* ''[[Library:Killing Hope|Killing Hope]]''<br />
* ''[[Library:Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower|Rogue State]]''<br />
* ''[[Library:The United States of War|The United States of War]]''<br />
* ''[[Library:Washington Bullets|Washington Bullets]]''<br />
<br />
== References ==<br />
<references /><br />
[[Category:United States of America]]<br />
[[Category:Imperialism]]</div>
Verda.Majo
https://en.prolewiki.org/index.php?title=Kwame_Nkrumah&diff=62696
Kwame Nkrumah
2024-02-08T09:01:56Z
<p>Verda.Majo: /* Letters sent to Nkrumah */ fixed a link</p>
<hr />
<div>{{Infobox politician|Honorific prefix=Ɔsagyefo|name=Kwame Nwai Nkrumah|birth_date=21 September 1909|birth_place=Nkroful, Gold Coast|death_date=27 April 1972 (aged 62)|death_place=Bucharest, Romania|death_cause=Cancer|nationality=[[Ghana|Ghanaian]]<br>[[Guinea|Guinean]]|political_orientation=[[Communism|Communism]]<br>[[Scientific_Socialism|Scientific Socialism]]<br>Nkrumahism<br>[[Pan-Africanism|Pan-Africanism]]|political_party=United Gold Coast Convention (1947-1949)<br>[[Convention People's Party]] (1949-1966)<br>[[A-APRP|All-African People's Revolutionary Party]] (1966-1972)|image=Portrait of Kwame Nkrumah.png}}<br />
<br />
'''Kwame Nkrumah''' (September 21, 1909 - April 27, 1972)<ref name=":1">[https://www.ghanaweb.com/person/Kwame-Nkrumah-3265 "Kwame Nkrumah, Biography."] GhanaWeb. Ghanaweb.com.</ref> was a [[Republic of Ghana|Ghanaian]] politician, political theorist, and revolutionary. He was the first Prime Minister and President of Ghana following Ghana's independence from the [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland|United Kingdom]] in 1957. He was an advocate of [[scientific socialism]] and [[pan-Africanism]], formed the [[Convention People's Party]] and was a founding member of the [[Organization of African Unity]].<ref name=":1" /> Nkrumah also played an instrumental role in the creation of the [[Union of African States]], which was a short-lived confederation of African states that dissolved after the overthrow of his government.<ref>[https://www.eaumf.org/ejm-blog/2018/5/2/april-29-1958-ghana-guinea-union-formed Ghana-Guinea-Mali Union formed]</ref> In 1962, Nkrumah was awarded the [[Lenin Peace Prize]] by the [[Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (1922–1991)|Soviet Union]].<ref name=":1" /><br />
<br />
The [[CIA]] organized a coup against Nkrumah on 24 February 1966.<ref name=":2">Charles Quist-Adade (2021-02-24). [https://covertactionmagazine.com/2021/02/24/how-did-a-fateful-cia-coup-executed-55-years-ago-this-february-24-doom-much-of-sub-saharan-africa/ "How Did a Fateful CIA Coup—Executed 55 Years Ago this February 24—Doom Much of Sub-Saharan Africa?"] ''[[CovertAction Magazine]]''. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220126041140/https://covertactionmagazine.com/2021/02/24/how-did-a-fateful-cia-coup-executed-55-years-ago-this-february-24-doom-much-of-sub-saharan-africa/ Archived] from the original on 2022-01-26.</ref> According to a March 12, 1966 memorandum to [[United States of America|U.S.]] President [[Lyndon B. Johnson|Johnson]] from U.S. security staffer [[Robert Komer]] commenting on the coup, "Nkrumah was doing more to undermine our interests than any other black African."<ref name=":3">Komer, Robert W. [https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v24/d260 "Memorandum From the President’s Acting Special Assistant for National Security Affairs (Komer) to President Johnson."] Johnson Library, National Security File, Memos to the President. Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964–1968, Volume XXIV, Africa. Document #260. Office of the Historian. United States Department of State. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220518133259/https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v24/d260 Archived] 2022-05-18.</ref><br />
<br />
After the coup, Nkrumah lived in exile in Conakry, [[Republic of Guinea|Guinea]]; where he became Co-President of the country alongside [[Ahmed Sekou Touré]]. He passed away from cancer in 1972.<ref name=":1" /><br />
<br />
==Life==<br />
<br />
===Early life===<br />
Nkrumah was born on September 21, 1909, in a village in the western region of colonial Ghana, which was then known as the [[Gold Coast]]. His father was a goldsmith and his mother was a retail trader.<ref name=":6">[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMY0iTcspNA "Faces Of Africa - Kwame Nkrumah."] Documentary. CCTV News: Faces of Africa. Africa24 Media Ltd. [[China Global Television Network|CGTN]] Africa on Youtube. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230313083745/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMY0iTcspNA Archived] 2023-03-13.</ref> <br />
<br />
===Education===<br />
Nkrumah's mother sent him to an elementary school run by a [[Catholicism|Catholic]] mission at Half Assini,<ref name=":1" /> and he attended Achimota School and expressed interest in becoming a Catholic priest. Eventually, he became teacher. <br />
<br />
At the age of 26, Nkrumah left the Gold Coast to further his education at [[Lincoln University]] in [[Commonwealth of Pennsylvania|Pennsylvania]], USA. When he arrived in [[New York]] in October 1935, he traveled to Pennsylvania, where he enrolled despite lacking the funds for the full semester. However, he soon won a scholarship that provided for his tuition at Lincoln. He remained short of funds through his time in the US. To make ends meet, he worked in menial jobs, including as a dishwasher. On Sundays, he visited Black Presbyterian churches in [[Philadelphia]] and in New York.<ref name=":1" /><br />
<br />
Nkrumah read widely from the literature of [[Karl Marx]] and [[Marcus Garvey]]. He had also read the writings of Pan-Africanists such as [[George Padmore]] and [[W.E.B. Du Bois]]. Historian Dr. Narh Oyortey comments that Nkrumah was "very much inspired by Marcus Garvey and the whole idea of return to Africa and Black freedom" which "fueled his ideas [...] for Pan-African consciousness".<ref name=":6" /> <br />
<br />
In addition to reading Marxist and Pan-Africanist writings, Nkrumah also participated in activism and political organizing while he was a student abroad. Nkrumah played a major role in the Pan-African conference held in New York in 1944.<ref name=":1" /> Later, Nkrumah was among the principal organizers and co-treasurers of the Fifth [[Pan-African Congress]] in [[Manchester]] (15–19 October 1945). The Congress elaborated a strategy for supplanting colonialism with African socialism.<ref name=":6" /><ref name=":1" /><br />
<br />
Nkrumah completed a Bachelor of Arts degree in [[economics]] and [[sociology]] in 1939. Lincoln then appointed him an assistant lecturer in [[philosophy]], and he began to receive invitations to be a guest preacher in Presbyterian churches in Philadelphia and New York. He also gained a Bachelor of [[Theology]] degree from Lincoln in 1942. He also earned from Penn the following year a Master of Arts degree in philosophy and a Master of Science in [[education]]. He also attended the [[London School of Economics]] as a PhD candidate.<ref name=":1" /><br />
<br />
===Ghanaian independence===<br />
After twelve years abroad pursuing higher education, developing his political philosophy, and organizing with other diasporic pan-Africanists, Nkrumah returned to the Gold Coast (which would become known as Ghana after independence) to begin his political career as an advocate of national independence. He was invited to become the Secretary General of the first political party of the Gold Coast, the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC).<ref name=":6" /> <br />
<br />
Later, Nkrumah formed the Convention People's Party (CPP), which achieved rapid success through its unprecedented appeal to the common voter. He became Prime Minister in 1952 and retained the position when Ghana declared independence from Britain in 1957. In 1960, Ghanaians approved a new constitution and elected Nkrumah President. His administration funded national industrial and energy projects developed a strong national education system and promoted a national and pan-African culture.<ref name=":1" /><br />
<br />
Unlike other leaders such as [[Jawaharlal Nehru|Nehru]] and [[Sukarno]], Nkrumah attempted to free Ghana from the [[Imperialism|global capitalist economy]]. In 1964, he adopted the title of ''Osagyefo''.<ref name=":12222">{{Citation|author=[[Vijay Prashad]]|year=2008|title=The Darker Nations: A People's History of the Third World|chapter=Havana|page=109|pdf=https://cloudflare-ipfs.com/ipfs/bafykbzaceascnzh26r5d6uitjjs2z7rflhaxlt7rboz5whzdf76qg6xxvecqq?filename=%28A%20New%20Press%20People%27s%20history%29%20Vijay%20Prashad%20-%20The%20darker%20nations_%20a%20people%27s%20history%20of%20the%20third%20world-The%20New%20Press%20%282008%29.pdf|publisher=The New Press|isbn=9781595583420|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=9B40B96E830128A7FE0E0E887C06829F}}</ref><br />
<br />
===1966 coup d'etat===<br />
The coup against Nkrumah took place on 24 February 1966.<ref name=":2" /> <br />
<br />
In a 1965 memorandum between the U.S. National Security Council Staff to the President's Special Assistant for National Security Affairs, staffer [[Robert W. Komer]] wrote: "FYI, we may have a pro-Western coup in Ghana soon [...] The plotters are keeping us briefed [...] While we're not directly involved (I'm told), we and other Western countries (including France) have been helping to set up the situation by ignoring Nkrumah's pleas for economic aid." He notes that the deteriorating economic condition of Ghana may provide the "spark" and concludes the memo saying, "All in all, looks good."<ref name=":5">Komer, Robert W. [https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v24/d253 "Memorandum From Robert W. Komer of the National Security Council Staff to the President’s Special Assistant for National Security Affairs (Bundy)."] Washington, May 27, 1965. Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964-1968. Volume XXIV, Africa. Document 253. Office of the Historian, United States Department of State. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230311105443/https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v24/d253 Archived] 2023-03-11.</ref><br />
<br />
At the time of the coup, Nkrumah was outside of the country, travelling to various countries in Asia, ultimately headed to [[Hanoi]], invited by [[Ho Chi Minh]]. However, after departing from [[Republic of the Union of Myanmar|Myanmar]] and arriving in [[People's Republic of China|China]], he was informed of the coup. As a result of the coup and his wish to quickly return to his country, Nkrumah cancelled his engagements in Hanoi and arranged to fly to Guinea, chosen due to the country's proximity to Ghana and the good relations which the leadership of Guinea had with Nkrumah. While his return was being arranged, Nkrumah proceeded with his scheduled engagements in China, and made statements to the press about his intended imminent return to Ghana. Ultimately, Nkrumah reached [[Conakry]], Guinea on March 2nd, 1966, where he began to receive eyewitness accounts of what had occurred in Ghana. His 1968 book ''Dark Days in Ghana'' discusses these events in depth.<ref name=":4">Nkrumah, Kwame. ''[https://archive.org/details/san_0975/ Dark Days in Ghana.]'' 1968. Lawrence & Wishart, London. Archive.org.</ref><br />
<br />
According to a March 12, 1966 memorandum to [[United States of America|U.S.]] President [[Lyndon B. Johnson|Johnson]] from U.S. security adviser Robert Komer commenting on the coup, "Nkrumah was doing more to undermine our interests than any other black African. In reaction to his strongly pro-Communist leanings, the new military regime is almost pathetically pro-[[Imperial core|Western]]." Komer goes on to urge the President to express "pleasure" at the coups in Ghana and [[Republic of Indonesia|Indonesia]] when speaking to the Secretary of State [[Dean Rusk]], and to make it clear that "we ought to exploit such successes as quickly and as skillfully as possible" and suggests giving the regimes a small gift of surplus grain, stressing that a small rather than lavish gift will have a "psychological" effect to "whet their appetite" and enable the prospect of getting more to create leverage for the United States.<ref name=":3" /><br />
<br />
=== Post-coup===<br />
After the coup, Nkrumah lived in exile in Conakry, [[Republic of Guinea|Guinea]], where he was named honorary co-president and wrote the work ''Dark Days in Ghana'', a work that describes the events of the coup as well as Nkrumah's analysis of it in the context of the African Revolution as a whole.<ref name=":4" /> He also reworked and published the ''Handbook of Revolutionary Warfare'', the first drafts of which had been destroyed during the coup, as well as writing and publishing other works during this time. The work undertaken in this period of Nkrumah's life contributed to the foundation of the [[All-African People's Revolutionary Party]].<ref name=":7">[https://aaprp-intl.org/sekou-toure-the-pdg-and-the-a-aprp/ "Sekou Touré, the PDG and the A-APRP"] (2018-12-31). ''AAPRP-INTL''. [https://web.archive.org/web/20221001145751/https://aaprp-intl.org/sekou-toure-the-pdg-and-the-a-aprp/ Archived] 2022-10-01.</ref> Nkrumah passed away from cancer in 1972.<ref name=":1" /><br />
<br />
== Works==<br />
Nkrumah is the author of ''Neo-Colonialism: The Last Stage of Imperialism'' (1965), as well as various other works, including ''Towards Colonial Freedom'' (1957)'', Ghana: The Autobiography of Kwame Nkrumah'' (1957)'', I Speak of Freedom'' (1961)'', Africa Must Unite'' (1964)'', Consciencism: Philosophy and Ideology for Decolonisation'' (1964)'', Challenge of the Congo'' (1967), ''Handbook of Revolutionary Warfare'' (1968), ''Dark Days in Ghana'' (1968), and ''Class Struggle in Africa'' (1970).<ref name=":7" /><ref>Inusah Mohammed. [https://www.myjoyonline.com/which-of-kwame-nkrumahs-books-have-you-read-as-a-ghanaian/ “Which of Kwame Nkrumah’s Books Have You Read as a Ghanaian?”] MyJoyOnline.com. April 28, 2020. [https://web.archive.org/web/20221103031227/https://www.myjoyonline.com/which-of-kwame-nkrumahs-books-have-you-read-as-a-ghanaian/ Archived] 2022-11-03.</ref><ref>Abayomi Azikiwe. [https://www.workers.org/2012/world/kwame_nkrumah_0510/ “Africa & the Struggle against Imperialism: 40 Years after Kwame Nkrumah.”] Workers.org. [https://web.archive.org/web/20210610004739/https://www.workers.org/2012/world/kwame_nkrumah_0510/ Archived] 2021-06-10.</ref><br />
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===''Neo-Colonialism: The Last Stage of Imperialism (1965)''===<br />
Nkrumah's 1965 work, ''Neo-Colonialism: The Last Stage of Imperialism'' discusses how [[Neocolonialism|neo-colonialism]] has become the main instrument of [[imperialism]], in place of the overt [[colonialism]] of the past, which he explains is in a period of decline. Throughout the work, Nkrumah outlines the mechanisms of neo-colonialism while also listing numerous contemporary points of supporting evidence and providing commentary. In the early chapters of the book, he also sets out an argument for [[Pan-Africanism|African unity]] and its potential for destroying neo-colonialism in Africa, and notes in the book's conclusion that the foreign capitalists who exploit Africa's resources "long ago saw the strength to be gained from acting on a Pan-African scale" and that "the only way to challenge this economic empire and to recover possession of our heritage, is for us also to act on a Pan-African basis, through a Union Government."<ref>Nkrumah, Kwame. [https://archive.org/details/neocolonialismla0000kwam/page/256 Neo-Colonialism, The Last Stage of Imperialism. "Conclusion."] 1965.</ref> <br />
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In the work's introduction, Nkrumah describes the essence of neo-colonialism, stating: "The essence of neo-colonialism is that the State which is subject to it is, in theory, independent and has all the outward trappings of international sovereignty. In reality its economic system and thus its political policy is directed from outside." In other words, while a state may appear to have independence in an official sense, it remains under the domination of imperialist power, primarily via imperialist control and supervision of the subjected country's economic system.<br />
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The work's introduction also describes the result of neo-colonialism, stating that the result of neo-colonialism is that "foreign capital is used for the exploitation rather than for the development of the less developed parts of the world. Investment under neo-colonialism increases rather than decreases the gap between the rich and the poor countries of the world." <br />
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According to Nkrumah, outside direction of the state by imperialist powers can be manifested in various forms:<blockquote>The methods and form of this direction can take various shapes. For example, in an extreme case the troops of the imperial power may garrison the territory of the neo-colonial State and control the government of it. More often, however, neo-colonialist control is exercised through economic or monetary means. The neo-colonial State may be obliged to take the manufactured products of the imperialist power to the exclusion of competing products from elsewhere. Control over government policy in the neo-colonial State may be secured by payments towards the cost of running the State, by the provision of civil servants in positions where they can dictate policy, and by monetary control over foreign exchange through the imposition of a banking system controlled by the imperial power. [...] It is possible that neo-colonial control may be exercised by a consortium of financial interests which are not specifically identifiable with any particular State.<ref>Nkrumah, Kwame. [https://www.marxists.org/subject/africa/nkrumah/neo-colonialism/introduction.htm ''Neo-Colonialism, The Last Stage of Imperialism.'' "Introduction."] Thomas Nelson & Sons, Ltd., London, 1965. Published in the USA by International Publishers Co., Inc., 1966. Marxists.org. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230311051428/https://www.marxists.org/subject/africa/nkrumah/neo-colonialism/introduction.htm Archived] 11-03-2023.</ref></blockquote>Toward the end of the work, Nkrumah lists several advances in the anti-imperial struggle at the time of writing, and asserts his view that neo-colonialism is "''not'' a sign of imperialism’s strength but rather of its last hideous gasp. It testifies to its inability to rule any longer by old methods. Independence is a luxury it can no longer afford to permit its subject peoples, so that even what it claims to have ‘given’ it now seeks to take away." He then states that neo-colonialism "''can'' and ''will''" be defeated, stating that in the face of imperialism's divide-and-conquer strategy, "''unity'' is the first requisite for destroying neo-colonialism." He clarifies this assertion by declaring the need for an all-union government for the continent of Africa, a strengthening of the [[Afro-Asian Solidarity Organisation]], and seeking increasingly formal adherence to said solidarity organization in Latin America. As a final point, Nkrumah adds that "we must encourage and utilise to the full those still all too few yet growing instances of support for liberation and anti-colonialism inside the imperialist world itself." In order to achieve these factors, Nkrumah explains that national development and strengthened independence through political neutrality, or [[Non-Aligned Movement|non-alignment]], is key.<ref name=":0">Nkrumah, Kwame. [https://www.marxists.org/subject/africa/nkrumah/neo-colonialism/ch01.htm ''Neo-Colonialism, The Last Stage of Imperialism.'' "The mechanisms of neo-colonialism."] Thomas Nelson & Sons, Ltd., London, 1965. Published in the USA by International Publishers Co., Inc., 1966. Marxists.org. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230311044919/https://www.marxists.org/subject/africa/nkrumah/neo-colonialism/ch01.htm Archived] 11-03-2023.</ref><br />
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Finally, Nkrumah stresses the importance of political consciousness raising among the masses, stating that "the preconditions for all this, to which lip service is often paid but activity seldom directed, is to develop ideological clarity among the anti-imperialist, anti-colonialist, pro-liberation masses of our continents. They, and they alone, make, maintain or break revolutions." Nkrumah then lists progress made in this regard in Africa at the time of writing, and states: "Bolstered with ideological clarity, these organisations, closely linked with the ruling parties where liberatory forces are in power, will prove that neo-colonialism is the symptom of imperialism’s weakness and that it is defeatable. For, when all is said and done, it is the so-called little man, the bent-backed, exploited, malnourished, blood-covered fighter for independence who decides. And he invariably decides for freedom."<ref name=":0" /><br />
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====The mechanisms of neo-colonialism====<br />
Specific examples of neo-colonial financial institutions given in the chapter "The mechanisms of neo-colonialism" include the [[International Monetary Fund]] (IMF), the [[The World Bank|World Bank]], the [[International Finance Corporation]] and the [[International Development Association]]. Nkrumah refers to the IMF as part of a "neo-colonialist trap" which uses the guise of "multilateral aid" to take a dominating role over subjected countries by "forcing would-be borrowers to submit to various offensive conditions, such as supplying information about their economies, submitting their policy and plans to review by the World Bank and accepting agency supervision of their use of loans."<ref name=":0" /><br />
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In the same chapter, Nkrumah also notes the difference in aid and loan behavior between [[Socialism|socialist]] countries and the [[Imperial core|West]], mentioning that although aid from socialist countries may fall short of that offered from the West, it is often "more impressive, since it is swift and flexible, and interest rates on communist loans are only about two per cent compared with five to six per cent charged on loans from western countries."<br />
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Outside of the economic sphere, Nkrumah also comments on other venues through which neo-colonial dominance is perpetuated. Outright [[Coup d'etat|coups d'etat]] and political assassinations represent some of the most overt methods of neo-colonialism which co-exist along with other methods of maintaining neo-colonial dominance. Among the other methods listed are military presence in the subjected state by the former colonial power, special legal privileges demanded by former colonial powers (such as land concessions and prospecting rights for minerals and oil), dominance of information services by Western countries and exclusion of socialist information services, anti-liberation messages perpetuated through entertainment emanating from imperial centers, monopoly of news media, religious [[evangelism]], and [[psychological warfare]] and subversion via organizations such as the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]], the [[Peace Corps]], and the [[United States Information Agency]] (USIA).<br />
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Commenting specifically on the pernicious influence of imperialist ideology embedded within [[Hollywood]] films, Nkrumah writes:<blockquote>Even the cinema stories of fabulous Hollywood are loaded. One has only to listen to the cheers of an African audience as Hollywood’s heroes slaughter red [[Native Americans|Indians]] or Asiatics to understand the effectiveness of this weapon. For, in the developing continents, where the colonialist heritage has left a vast majority still illiterate, even the smallest child gets the message contained in the blood and thunder stories emanating from [[State of California|California]]. And along with murder and the Wild West goes an incessant barrage of anti-socialist propaganda, in which the [[trade union]] man, the [[Revolution|revolutionary]], or the man of dark skin is generally cast as the villain, while the [[Police|policeman]], the gum-shoe, the Federal agent — in a word, the CIA — type spy is ever the hero. Here, truly, is the ideological under-belly of those political murders which so often use local people as their instruments.<ref name=":0" /></blockquote>On the topic of the monopoly of news media, Nkrumah writes: "Within separate countries, one or two news agencies control the news handouts, so that a deadly uniformity is achieved, regardless of the number of separate newspapers or magazines" and that internationally, "a flood of anti-liberation propaganda emanates from the capital cities of the West, directed against [[People's Republic of China|China]], [[Socialist Republic of Vietnam|Vietnam]], [[Republic of Indonesia|Indonesia]], [[People's Democratic Republic of Algeria|Algeria]], Ghana and all countries which hack out their own independent path to freedom."<ref name=":0" /><br />
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Regarding activities of the United States Information Agency (USIA) at the time of writing, Nkrumah explains that in Africa alone, the USIA transmitted about thirty territorial and national radio programs "whose content glorifies the U.S. while attempting to discredit countries with an independent foreign policy." He further explains:<blockquote>The USIA boasts more than 120 branches in about 100 countries, 50 of which are in Africa alone. It has 250 centres in foreign countries, each of which is usually associated with a library. It employs about 200 cinemas and 8,000 projectors which draw upon its nearly 300 film libraries.<br />
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This agency is directed by a central body which operates in the name of the U.S. President, planning and coordinating its activities in close touch with the Pentagon, CIA and other Cold War agencies, including even armed forces intelligence centres.<br />
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In developing countries, the USIA actively tries to prevent expansion of national media of information so as itself to capture the market-place of ideas. It spends huge sums for publication and distribution of about sixty newspapers and magazines in Africa, Asia and [[Latin America]].<br />
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The American government backs the USIA through direct pressures on developing nations. To ensure its agency a complete monopoly in propaganda, for instance, many agreements for economic co-operation offered by the U.S. include a demand that Americans be granted preferential rights to disseminate information. At the same time, in trying to close the new nations to other sources of information, it employs other pressures. For instance, after agreeing to set up USIA information centres in their countries, both [[Togolese Republic|Togo]] and [[Congo (disambiguation)|Congo]] (Leopoldville) originally hoped to follow a non-aligned path and permit [[Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (1922–1991)|Russian]] information centres as a balance. But [[Washington, D.C.|Washington]] threatened to stop all aid, thereby forcing these two countries to renounce their plan.<ref name=":0" /></blockquote>Nkrumah also describes the "virtually unlimited" finances of USIA, which results in extensive subversive activities, including the collection of intelligence, recruitment of informers, purchasing of space in local publications to influence their policies, bribing of public figures, and supplying of weapons to anti-neutralist forces in developing countries:<blockquote>Some USIA duties further expose its nature as a top intelligence arm of the U.S. imperialists. In the first place, it is expected to analyse the situation in each country, making recommendations to its Embassy, thereby to its Government, about changes that can tip the local balance in U.S. favour. Secondly, it organises networks of monitors for radio broadcasts and telephone conversations, while recruiting informers from government offices. It also hires people to distribute U.S. propaganda. Thirdly, it collects secret information with special reference to defence and economy, as a means of eliminating its international military and economic competitors. Fourthly, it buys its way into local publications to influence their policies, of which Latin America furnishes numerous examples. It has been active in bribing public figures, for example in Kenya and Tunisia. Finally, it finances, directs and often supplies with arms all anti-neutralist forces in the developing countries, witness Tshombe in Congo (Leopoldville) and Pak Hung Ji in [[Republic of Korea|South Korea]]. In a word, with virtually unlimited finances, there seems no bounds to its inventiveness in subversion.<ref name=":0" /></blockquote><br />
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===''Dark Days in Ghana (1968)''===<br />
Nkrumah's 1968 work ''Dark Days in Ghana'' describes the events of the February 24, 1966 coup d'etat in Ghana, along with Nkrumah's analysis of it. Nkrumah had been Prime Minister of Ghana since 1952, and after independence was elected president in 1960. By the time of the coup, his administration had lasted about 15 years. Nkrumah himself was outside of the country at the time of the coup, and so the account begins from his perspective of finding out about it while in [[Beijing]], followed by a description of the events surrounding the coup as related to him by eyewitness accounts provided to him by others, followed by an examination of what made the coup possible, and who was backing and orchestrating it. His analysis includes both an examination of reactionary elements within Ghana, as well as external interference by imperialist powers. Upon returning to Africa from Asia, Nkrumah initially made his way to Guinea, originally with the intention to promptly return to nearby Ghana, although he was not able to do so and ended up living in exile in Guinea, where he was named honorary co-president, and wrote ''Dark Days in Ghana''. The book also includes an appendix of letters to Nkrumah from various heads of state regarding the coup.<ref name=":4" /><br />
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An author's note at the beginning of the work states Nkrumah's purpose in writing it: "Ghana's experience since 24th February 1966, costly but priceless, must be viewed in the context of the African Revolution as a whole. It is with this in mind that I have written, in Conakry, about Ghana's 'dark days' in the hope that publication of the facts may help to expose similar setbacks in other progressive independent African states."<br />
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Regarding the conditions for imperialist-backed coups in Africa, Nkrumah explains:<blockquote>For some years, imperialism has had its back to the wall in Africa. It has been faced with a growing liberation movement which it is powerless to stop but which, if it allows it to go unchecked, will before long end the exploitation on which imperialism’s very existence depends. It has therefore resorted to a co-ordinated strategy in an attempt to preserve, and if possible to extend, its grip on the economic life of our continent.<br />
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An all-out offensive is being waged against the progressive, independent states. Where the more subtle methods of economic pressure and political subversion have failed to achieve the desired result, there has been resort to violence in order to promote a change of regime and prepare the way for the establishment of a puppet government.<br />
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Fragmented into so many separate states, many of them weak and economically non-viable, coup d’états have been relatively easy to arrange in Africa. All that has been needed was a small force of disciplined men to seize the key points of the capital city and to arrest the existing political leadership. In the planning and carrying out of these coups there have always been just sufficient numbers of dissatisfied and ambitious army Officers and politicians willing to co-operate to make the whole operation possible.<br />
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It has been one of the tasks of the C.I.A. and other similar organisations to discover these potential quislings and traitors in our midst, and to encourage them, by bribery and the promise of political power, to destroy the constitutional government of their countries. In Ghana the embassies of the United States, Britain, and West Germany were all implicated in the plot to overthrow my government.<ref name=":4" /></blockquote>Regarding Ghana's situation just after independence in 1957, Nkrumah comments in Chapter 4 that the issues Ghana faced at independence "were so gigantic that within every sphere we had to take calculated risks" and that areas of society with reactionary leadership could not be changed overnight despite their obvious problems, because Ghana had no revolutionary war which would have produced and trained those who would have been able to take their place. Problems such as basic literacy due to the neglect of education during colonial times created a scarcity of qualified military, police, civil servants, and other experts and professionals, forcing a situation where many reactionary individuals with qualifications were retained in positions of leadership due to there often being no other viable, immediate replacement. Nkrumah observes in the same chapter that a once-dependent territory emerging from colonialism must try to accomplish in a single generation what it has taken developed nations 300 years or more to achieve if it is to survive in the modern world. <br />
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In Chapter 1, "Peking to Conakry" in which Nkrumah describes his reaction to finding about the coup that occurred in his absence, he comments: "What had happened in Ghana was no more than a tactical set-back in the African revolutionary struggle of a type which I had often predicted." He also notes, "The people of Ghana were now being made to suffer for something which was not of their own making. They had been overcome by powerful external forces, and by the plotting and deception of a few selfish and ambitious reactionaries."<br />
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Nkrumah describes a similar point of view among the Chinese officials who were with him when he learned of the coup. While he was still in Beijing, Nkrumah states that the Chinese officials "made it clear that they regarded the military and police action in Ghana as no more than a temporary obstacle in the long struggle against imperialism, the kind of event to be expected, but which had no effect whatsoever on the final outcome." Nkrumah quotes [[Zhou Enlai]] as telling him, "You are a young man, you have another forty years ahead of you!" and later [[Liu Shaoqi]] stating at an event that day, "however hard the imperialists may whip up revolutionary adverse currents, the anti-imperialist revolutionary struggles of the African peoples can never be suppressed but are bound to win final victory."<br />
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====Events of the coup====<br />
'''''Note:''' Dark Days in Ghana is written from Nkrumah's point of view, and published only two years after the coup, which occurred in his absence. Therefore, certain details, such as U.S. government documents released years later, CIA whistleblower accounts of the events, etc. do not appear in the text, although they are now available.''<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3" /> ''This section deals primarily with Nkrumah's point of view and analysis of events.''<br />
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In Chapter 2, titled "24th February 1966", Nkrumah outlines the general timeline of events of the coup, the process of taking over the presidential palace, and the identity of the main conspirators. He begins with his departure from Ghana on February 21, then describes how the main action of the coup was set into motion on February 23, when a handful of opportunistic military leaders intercepted a 600-strong group of Ghanaian soldiers who were on the move. The leaders lied to the soldiers, saying that Nkrumah had fled the country, stolen £8 million, and was planning to send them to fight in Vietnam, while Russians had secret tunnels under Ghana's capital and were flying planes in, that there was effectively no more government in Ghana and therefore the soldiers were needed to take control of the capital. The soldiers were convinced by this, and so various individuals in positions of power were rounded up, forced to surrender, arrested, or killed. Flagstaff House, the presidential palace of Ghana (now known as Jubilee House), eventually fell under their control as well. Ministers, officials of the Party, and trade unionists were arrested and detained. Nkrumah states in ''Dark Days in Ghana'', "The rank and file police who had taken no part in the 'coup' were horrified at what was taking place and did their best to restrain the soldiers and this led in some cases to actual fighting between the two forces."<br />
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Nkrumah describes what the troops were told when they were first intercepted by the coup conspirators and the aftermath after the conspirators took control, as follows:<blockquote>The troops were then told that I intended sending them to fight in Vietnam and in Rhodesia, and that I had deserted Ghana taking with me £8 million. There was, they were told, no government left in Ghana, and it was their duty to assume control of the country to maintain law and order. Already, was said, Russian planes were landing on a secret airstrip in northern Ghana. Furthermore a secret tunnel had been made from Flagstaff House, the presidential residence, to Accra airport, and for days Russians had been arriving. The only way to save Ghana, and to avoid being sent to fight in Vietnam, the troops were told, was to take Flagstaff House.<br />
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Several days after the military seizure of power, Kotoka and Afrifa appeared on Ghana TV congratulating themselves on their easy success. One remark stood out unmistakable and clear: ‘And you know, we didn’t find any Russians at all— not one! Nor could we find any trace of that tunnel.” This was followed by peals of laughter at the poor soldiers who had believed their story.<ref name=":4" /></blockquote>Nkrumah notes in the following chapter of the book that the bulk of the Ghanaian military's infantry came from the north, where education had been almost completely neglected in colonial times, which "made many of the rank and file soldiers easy prey to anyone who wished to mislead them." Meanwhile, some of the higher ranking members of the military espoused colonial values and what Nkrumah refers to as the "[[Royal Military Academy Sandhurst|Sandhurst]] mentality" (referring to the [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland|British]] Army's Royal Military Academy Sandhurst) saying "These men trained in various English military establishments prided themselves on being more 'English' than Ghanaian, and tended to frown on everything in our Ghanaian way of life which did not conform with English customs and traditions. They gradually became more British than the British as they slavishly tried to imitate the traditional English army officer."<br />
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Following the coup, Western imperialist media took to portraying the situation in Ghana as having popular support. Nkrumah comments on demonstrations in the capital, in which "Banners and posters, most of them prepared beforehand in the U.S. Embassy, were pushed into the hands of the unwilling 'demonstrators'. Many of the slogans and words used on them were quite foreign to the Ghanaian people, and in some cases completely incomprehensible" and he describes it as "interesting [...] that even in the Ghanaian papers there were no reports of any such demonstrations in the villages or in the country-side where one would have expected them, if the revolt had been genuinely popular."<br />
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====Analysis of reactionary elements in leadership====<br />
Chapter 3 of the book covers the identity of the main domestic instigators of the coup, known as the National Liberation Council (NLC), followed by an analysis of why there were such reactionary elements in Ghana's military leadership at the time, as well as an analysis of reactionary and counter-revolutionary elements of the police leadership and civil service.<br />
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On the identity of the NLC, Nkrumah comments: "Few had ever heard of them. They were nonentities. Yet here they were, four soldiers and four policemen, arrogantly claiming, without any shred of a mandate from the people, that they constituted 'the new government of Ghana'. Small wonder Ghanaians were at first stunned, and then became increasingly incensed as this clique of misguided and ignorant upstarts proceeded to un-mask not only themselves but their neo-colonialist masters."<br />
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The chapter includes quotations from a booklet released by the NLC shortly after the coup, which included the council members' personal bios and lists of their hobbies, alongside Nkrumah's commentary on their careers and identities during and after colonial times. <br />
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Following the description of the NLC, Nkrumah makes an examination of the leadership of the army, police and civil service in order to understand how it became possible for reactionary, counterrevolutionary forces, internal and external, to make use of them.<br />
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Then, after supplying a table of assassinations, overthrows, seizures of power, etc. in Africa throughout the 1960s, Nkrumah concludes that in each case where there has been counter-revolutionary armed action, "there has been a link-up between foreign-trained army officers, local reactionary opposition elements and imperialists and neo-colonialists," which Nkrumah follows up with several examples of CIA involvement in Africa in such matters.<br />
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=====Analysis of army=====<br />
Nkrumah states that there was a contradiction between his task to secure a firm position in Ghana and to conduct an external policy which would lead to the liberation and unity of Africa as a whole. The Ghanaian army had been under the leadership of British officers, and Nkrumah notes that if this system had remained in place after independence (in other words, allowing Britain to continue supplying key officers to independent Ghana), there would have been less likelihood that the army would revolt against Nkrumah's leadership. However, such a move would prevent Ghana from aiding other African nations in their liberation struggles, as doing so would be contrary to British interests. Nkrumah notes, "while British officers were prepared to be loyal to the regime they were serving they were not prepared [...] to follow a military policy abroad which was contrary to what they conceived to be Britain's interests. Secondly, even if the British officers had been pure mercenaries, with no allegiance other than to their paymasters, they would still have been rightly distrusted by other African states."<br />
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Therefore, Nkrumah found that when "the Congo crisis arose, irrespective of any question of internal security, it became necessary to dispense with the British officers" and that "the tragedy of the Congo made one thing absolutely clear, that even small African forces on the spot at the right time could control the situation and prevent a neo-colonialist take-over. I therefore was not in a position to abolish the Ghanaian army, though this would have been an ideal course."<br />
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Due to these factors, as well as an insufficient number of Ghanaian soldiers with necessary training for promotion, Nkrumah found himself in a position where he had to accept the military in the unfavorable state that it was at independence, in order to have an army at all. Nkrumah explains:<blockquote>Unfortunately, the “preparations” for independence had not included the training of anything like sufficient officers or even NCO’s to make it possible for me to choose on political grounds who should be promoted. There were, in fact, insufficient soldiers with the necessary training or qualifications to fill even half the positions left vacant by the departing British. In order to have an army at all, I therefore had to accept what existed even though I knew the danger of this course. In fact, the most efficient of the British trained Ghanaian potential officer class were the most neo-colonialist. One or two of these I might pass over on this ground, but in general, if I was to have an army at all, I had to accept the framework bequeathed to me and an officer corps which contained a high proportion of individuals who were either actively hostile to the C.P.P. [Convention People's Party] and myself and who were anti-socialist in outlook. Worse still, the fact that the bulk of the infantry came from the North, where education had been almost completely neglected in colonial times, made many of the rank and file soldiers easy prey to anyone who wished to mislead them.</blockquote>Nkrumah comments that approximately one-sixth of Ghana's officer corps were trained at the British Army's Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, though for some years Nkrumah's government had been sending an increasing number to train in the [[Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (1922–1991)|Soviet Union]] and in other socialist countries. Nkrumah states that "it is significant that not one of the officers trained in the Soviet Union took part in the February rising."<br />
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Nkrumah states that the only way to ensure against the possibility of internal subversion carried out by the army and inspired and aided by outside forces is to eventually abolish professional armies altogether and to build instead a people's militia, by arming the peasants and urban workers, as in China and [[Republic of Cuba|Cuba]]. Nkrumah states that "Such an armed force cannot be subverted and is the best guardian of the people's interests and welfare." Nkrumah explains that Ghana was moving towards the establishment of a people's militia in Ghana, and this is one of the reasons why there was support among certain army officers for a seizure of power, as they feared competition from the militia and the Presidential Guard Regiment, thinking Nkrumah was building up a "private army".<br />
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===== Analysis of police=====<br />
Nkrumah describes the issues within the police as "even more complex" than that of the army. Nkrumah explains that as Ghana began rapid development and industrialization, crimes of theft and financial corruption rose, making a well-organized fraud department necessary. However, Nkrumah stats that he "could not possibly continue" with the existing British police officers. However, Nkrumah describes a similar issue of filling gaps in expertise which he faced with the army, forcing him to accept an unfavorable police leadership for the time being:<blockquote>As with the army, I therefore had to accept a police force many of whose higher officers were politically hostile to the new Ghana. They, after all, had been those chosen for promotion by the colonial regime and they had thus a monopoly of the specialist training required. Further many of them were corrupt but to obtain proof of this was a difficult matter.</blockquote>Later in the book, in Chapter 4, Nkrumah speaks further on the difficulty of filling qualified positions: "I could have dismissed many of the higher police officers about whose loyalty I had doubts. But whom could I have put in their place? So little education was done in colonial times that actual illiteracy was a major problem in the army and police."<br />
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Nkrumah states that he tried in these circumstances to build up a new security service which would be completely independent of the police force, but had to recruit from the civil service, which eventually proved unreliable.<br />
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Nkrumah also mentions the Special Branch, originally founded by the British government in Ghana to "keep an eye on" Nkrumah. The Special Branch was not abolished at independence due to a possibility that it might become useful in police work, which Nkrumah expressed regret over in Dark Days in Ghana, mentioning that members of the Special Branch were involved in multiple assassination attempts against him and ignored and sometimes aided plots to overthrow the government.<br />
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=====Analysis of civil service=====<br />
The third group in Nkrumah's analysis of counterrevolutionary elements in Ghana is the civil service. He explains that he faced similar problems with them that he did with the army and police, that is, problems filling positions in leadership and with colonial values prevalent among existing leadership. To illustrate the problems posed by the situation, Nkrumah points out that "the Information Services which were the most important channel in letting the people know what was taking place and the reasons for any particular government action were all manned by civil servants originally trained by the old colonial Information Department which had been set up specifically to conduct propaganda against the C.P.P. and the idea of colonial independence."<br />
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Nkrumah points out that "throughout the public service as a whole, there was a tradition of serving whatever government was in power" and that when colonialism gave way to independence, "these same men gave support to the new order of things. [...] In such circumstances it is only natural that they should have in the first place uncritically accepted the rebel government." In other words, in Nkrumah's view, the civil servants had shown a tendency to lukewarmly serve whoever was in power, from the colonial regime, to Nkrumah's government, to the coup regime.<br />
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====Opposition elements====<br />
Chapter 4, titled "'Opposition' Elements" begins by following the development of the National Liberation Movement (NLM), a reactionary opposition party in Ghana. The NLM had initially grown out of the "Council for Higher Cocoa Prices" which had fanned tribal and regional tensions to attack the CPP prior to independence. Nkrumah explains how the NLM was supported by the imperialist press and regularly hindered the independence movement during colonial times. Much of the content discussed in this chapter deal with Ghana's independence movement in the 1950s, following various developments and details about political figures and organizations of the time.<br />
<br />
After Ghana's independence, Nkrumah explains that the opposition forces continued to be a hinderance, saying, "my government immediately came up against opposition from the same quarters as before, that is, from reactionary bourgeois elements inside Ghana, and from imperialist and neo-colonialist interests outside. As before, these forces had a common interest; both wished to delay economic independence and to impede the progress of the African revolution." He further explains that after 1957, having been repeatedly rejected by the electorate, the opposition "lost hope of gaining office by constitutional means, and embarked on a campaign of obstructing the work of government without making any attempt to devise an alternative programme. [...] Their policies, always regional in concept, became purely destructive, subversive and violent."<br />
<br />
Nkrumah states that "after two and a half years of putting up with a vicious opposition press campaign, certain restrictions were placed on the press; and a fifth attempt on my life made preventive detention necessary. By then, assassination attempts had resulted in the death of 30 Ghanaians, men, women and children, and the wounding of some 300 others." After explaining these reasons for placing certain restrictions on the press, Nkrumah adds that political discussion and open criticism on the basis of democratic centralism was common and fully allowed in Ghana, often to the surprise of non-socialist, Western visitors.<br />
<br />
===== Reactionary professionals and technical experts=====<br />
Similar to the problems of the military, police, and civil service analyzed in Chapter 3, Nkrumah points out in Chapter 4 that due to Ghana's lack of sufficiently trained personnel in various fields, they were forced to retain professional and technical experts who held reactionary views. He describes that the calculated risk to retain them and bring them into the Party was taken, not only because Ghana could not do without qualified doctors, engineers, architects, etc., but also because they would join the opposition if excluded from the Party:<blockquote>The first priority in Ghana at the time of independence was to make use of our pitifully small stock of professional and technical experts. Whatever their political views they had to be utilised to the full in the interest of the newly emerged Ghana state. From the start I had to bring not only into my cabinet but had to appoint to important posts in the judiciary, the civil service and the universities, individuals who had been active opponents of the Party in colonial days. <br />
<br />
We could not afford to do without such few qualified African doctors, accountants, architects, engineers, university teachers and professional people generally as were available immediately after independence. A formula had to be found by which they could not only be employed in state service and in development generally but brought within the Party. This in its turn meant that the Party itself could not in these conditions restrict itself to those who understood and had practised a socialist ideology. The calculated risk of admitting these persons to our organisation was one we had to take. [...] Insofar as they were within the Party they were a source of weakness because they sabotaged attempts to prevent corruption and, in a number of cases, actually joined in it themselves. Yet if they had been excluded from the Party, they would have joined the so-called "opposition" which had become, almost from the moment of independence, a purely conspiratorial organisation.</blockquote><br />
<br />
===== Traditional society=====<br />
In addition to the above, Nkrumah found that he had to accommodate within the Party the leaders of traditional society. Nkrumah states that although he may have trusted too much in the power of a reformed chieftaincy, he was not mistaken in attempting to use popularly chosen chiefs within the framework of the government. According to Nkrumah, it was essential to have the broadest possible grouping of interests in Ghana in order to be sufficiently united to deal with the political unification of the African continent.<br />
<br />
Nkrumah also points to nepotism as a prevalent problem, stemming from traditional beliefs around duty toward one's family. Nkrumah states that although he believes tribalism had largely been eliminated as an active force, its by-products and those of the family system still had some political effects, even within the Party.<br />
<br />
====Economy and development====<br />
Chapter 5, titled "The Big Lie" discusses Ghana's economic situation prior to the coup, focusing in detail on the Seven Year Development Plan, which had been launched in 1964 and was a few years underway at the time of the coup. The "Big Lie" referred to in the chapter title is the notion that Ghana was in economic chaos and that Nkrumah's administration was rife with economic mismanagement. Data provided in the chapter serves to illustrate that the Seven Year Development Plan, like previous development plans such as the First and Second Five Year Development Plans (1951-1956 and 1959-1964), was being adhered to and achieving successful results, and that Ghana's economy and development was rapidly improving in several areas, including in education, transport, communication, healthcare, electricity generation, water supply services, agriculture, and industrial production. <br />
<br />
While Chapter 5 mainly discusses Ghana's development plans in detail, Chapter 6, titled "Set Back" focuses on specific instances of the coup regime's selling-off of state enterprises and halting of development projects. Both chapters also discuss the behavior of the imperialist press and financial institutions toward Ghana before and after the coup.<br />
<br />
To illustrate Ghana's development challenges, Nkrumah notes that under colonial rule, Ghana's output of cocoa was the largest in the world, but there was not a single cocoa processing factory in Ghana, and that before his administration took office in 1951, there was no direct railway between the capital, Accra, and Takoradi, which was Ghana's main port at the time. Nkrumah writes: "There were few roads, and only a very rudimentary public transport system. For the most part, people walked from place to place. There were very few hospitals, schools or clinics. Most of our villages lacked a piped water supply. In fact, the nakedness of the land when my government began in 1951 has to have been experienced to be believed."<br />
<br />
Nkrumah also mentions that when the Party came to power in 1951, all imported goods were in the hands of a few big foreign firms, especially the monopolist [[United Africa Company]], part of the [[Unilever]] complex, but by 1965, the nationalized Ghana National Trading Corporation was distributing 32 per cent of all imports. Additionally, in 1958, foreign banks held one-third of Ghana's foreign currency reserves, but by 1965 they held none. Nkrumah says that his administration breaking up the web of Western capitalism's economic control in Ghana provoked the hostility of imperialist economic powers.<br />
<br />
=====Seven Year Development Plan=====<br />
Stating that the principles of scientific socialism were being applied to Ghana's particular situation in forming the Plan, Nkrumah explains that Ghana's economy was to remain mixed for the time being, but that it would focus on expanding the public and co-operative sector faster than the private sector:<blockquote>It was decided in the Seven Year Plan that Ghana’s economy would for the time being remain a mixed one, with a vigorous public and co-operative sector operating alongside the private sector. Our socialist objectives demanded, however, that the public and co-operative sectors should expand faster than the private sector, especially those strategic areas of production upon which the economy of the country essentially depended. Various state corporations and enterprises were to be established as a means of securing our economic independence and assisting in the national control of the economy. They were, like all business undertakings, expected to maintain themselves efficiently, and to show profits which could be used for further investment and to help finance public services. A State Management Committee was set up to ensure their efficient and profitable management.<ref name=":4" /></blockquote>Nkrumah also mentions that it would be necessary to distinguish between two types of private enterprise in Ghana, one being "the small businessman who employed his capital in an industry or trade with which he was familiar, and which fulfilled a public need" which was to be encouraged, and the other being "that class of Ghanaian businesses which were modelled on the old colonial pattern of exploitation" which used their capital not to fill a public need, but to buy up commodities to resell at exorbitant prices. In reference to the second type, Nkrumah writes: "This type of business served no social purpose, and steps would be taken to see that the nation’s banking resources were not used to provide credit for them."<br />
<br />
One of the projects discussed in this chapter is the Volta River Project and Volta Dam (now also known as the Akosombo Dam), designed to increase Ghana's capacity to generate electricity and thereby increase Ghana's productive capacity. Nkrumah states that it was expected to increase the installed electrical capacity of the country by nearly 600%, and that almost half of this new capacity would be used in aluminum smelting, in order to take advantage of Ghana's plentiful bauxite. In addition, the man-made lake formed as part of the Volta River Project was being stocked with fish, which was expected to improve nutritional deficiencies by increasing the protein content in the average Ghanaian's diet. The lake was also expected to act as a reservoir to improve water supply for villages and as irrigation for agriculture. Finally, the dam was expected to help provide power to Ghana's neighboring countries, in the spirit of Africa's total development. In regard to this, Nkrumah states Ghana was "ready and prepared to supply power to our neighbours in Togo, Dahomey, Ivory Coast and Upper Volta" and that "this project is not for Ghana alone [...] I have already offered to share our power resources with our sister African states."<br />
<br />
Nkrumah describes the Volta River Project and the effects it was intended to have in relation to other projects for Ghana's development and economic independence:<blockquote>Construction targets for the various parts of the Volta River Project were achieved, some of them ahead of schedule, and the official inauguration ceremony took place on 23rd January 1966. At that time, building was about to start on a large subsidiary dam at Bui. Plans were also well advanced for the construction of an alumina plant which would have given Ghanaians control of the whole process of aluminium production. As it was, we were exporting bauxite to the United Kingdom for processing while we were importing alumina manufactured in the United States from bauxite mined in Jamaica for our aluminium smelter.</blockquote>In other words, hydropower from the Volta River Project was expected to power aluminum smelting in Ghana, so that Ghana could have full control of aluminum production, rather than exporting its own mined bauxite to the imperialist UK while importing manufactured alumina (aluminium oxide, used in aluminium metal production) from the imperialist US, which was sourcing its bauxite from [[Jamaica]].<br />
<br />
=====Economic pressure from imperialist institutions=====<br />
Nkrumah writes that throughout 1965, the U.S. government exerted various forms of economic pressure on Ghana, such as withholding investment and credit guarantees from potential investors, put pressure on existing providers of credit to the Ghanaian economy, and negated applications for loans made by Ghana to American-dominated financial institutions such as the IMF. Nkrumah points out that this pressure ended after February 24 1966, when the U.S. State Department's political objective had been achieved. Nkrumah writes, "The price of cocoa suddenly rose on the world market, and the I.M.F. rushed to the aid of the ““N.L.C.”." He mentions that within two weeks of the ending of legal government in Ghana, the army and police traitors received an invitation to send a mission to Washington for talks with the International Monetary Fund and World Bank officials, and that supplies of various foodstuffs and other consumer goods were promised to provide the necessary window dressing for the new regime.<br />
<br />
Although not mentioned in ''Dark Days in Ghana'', 1965 U.S. security council memorandums from several months before the coup, not released until years later, show U.S officials discussing among themselves that pro-Western coup plotters in Ghana were keeping U.S. officials "briefed", and a U.S. security council staffer states that "we and other Western countries (including France) have been helping to set up the situation by ignoring Nkrumah's pleas for economic aid" hoping that this would "spark" the coup.<ref name=":5" /> Weeks after the coup, March 12 1966 U.S. internal documents discuss that the new, "almost pathetically pro-Western" regime should be given gifts of surplus grain to "whet their appetite" for further U.S. support.<ref name=":3" /><br />
<br />
In Chapter 6, Nkrumah describes the above tactic as "standard practice" in the then-recent wave of coups in Asia, Latin America and Africa. He states that wherever progressive governments have been replaced by counter-revolutionary forces, imperialist financial organizations have rushed to bolster them up with loans and various forms of so-called "aid". He explains that this practice "is a necessary corollary to the 'big lie' usually employed to justify the overthrow of 'undesirable governments'—the lie of 'economic chaos' and a 'starving' population. But more important, it serves to tighten the stranglehold of foreign economic control over the captive people by creating more indebtedness and a deeper penetration by foreign business interests."<br />
<br />
=====Coup regime's sale of state enterprises=====<br />
Chapter 6, titled "Set Back" describes details of how Ghana's state-run enterprises and other resources were rapidly sold off to foreign capitalists after the coup, with the coup regime selling off 63 state enterprises and having meetings with foreign capitalists, such as British Major-General Sir Edward Spears, Chairman of Ashanti Goldfields, a gold mining company. Meanwhile the western press celebrated Ghana's turn to the West and its "coming to heel". The chapter also discusses how the Seven Year Development Plan was halted soon after the coup regime took power. <br />
<br />
Nkrumah writes in Chapter 5:<blockquote>The only Ghanaians to benefit from such a sell-out were the African middle-class hangers-on to neo-colonialist privilege and the neo-colonialist trading firms. For the mass of workers, peasants and farmers, the victims of the capitalist free-for-all, it meant a return to the position of "drawers of water and hewers of wood" to Western capitalism.</blockquote>In Chapter 6, he further states:<blockquote>Businessmen from the U.S.A., from Britain, [[Federal Republic of Germany|West Germany]], [[State of Israel|Israel]] and elsewhere, flew into Ghana like vultures to grab the richest pickings. Virtually all the state-owned industries developed by my government were allowed to pass into private ownership. These included such enterprises as The Timber Products Corporation, The Cocoa Products Corporation, the Diamond Mining Corporation, the National Steel Works, the Black Star Shipping Line, Ghana Airways, and all the state-owned hotels.</blockquote>Nkrumah notes that as a result of the economic sell-out, the private sector would become the largest in terms of number of persons engaged and gross output, while under his administration it had been the smallest, and was in the process of being further reduced.<br />
<br />
Apart from handing over public corporations to private enterprise, the NLC also announced drastic cuts in the routes operated by Ghana Airways, the halting of work on the new international airport at Tamale in Northern Ghana, and the cancellation of a number of orders for new ships for the state-owned Black Star Line. Both Ghana Airways and the Black Star Line had been established by Nkrumah's administration with the intention to break the monopoly of foreign transport companies, and they were ultimately to become foreign currency earners. Nkrumah says that the NLC shut these and other projects down for being "prestige" spending projects, to which Nkrumah responds that the foundation of new industries and the building up of national air and shipping lines is seen as evidence of prestige spending "only by imperialists and neo-colonialists who wish to see a country revert back to the position of a colony."<br />
<br />
====Letters sent to Nkrumah====<br />
Among the heads of state whose letters to Nkrumah are included in the book's appendix are (in order of appearance):<br />
<br />
#[[Modibo Keita]], President of [[Republic of Mali|Mali]]<br />
#[[Ahmed Sékou Touré]], President of Guinea<br />
#[[Gamal Abdel Nasser|Gammel Abdel Nasser]], President of the [[United Arab Republic]]<br />
#[[Kim Il-sung|Kim Il Sung]], President of the [[Democratic People's Republic of Korea]]<br />
#[[Albert Margai]], Prime Minister of [[Sierra Leone]]<br />
#[[Lee Kuan Yew]], Prime Minister of [[Republic of Singapore|Singapore]]<br />
<br />
==References==<br />
<references /></div>
Verda.Majo
https://en.prolewiki.org/index.php?title=Economic_sanctions&diff=61121
Economic sanctions
2024-01-03T00:34:41Z
<p>Verda.Majo: added more about UNGA and about secondary sanctions and overcompliance and continued with trying to reorganize the article a bit (WIP)</p>
<hr />
<div>[[File:Economic sanctions map by SanctionsKill.org.png|thumb|331x331px|A map of countries facing economic sanctions imposed by the United States, according to [[SanctionsKill Campaign]].]]<br />
'''Economic sanctions''' are commercial and financial penalties applied by governments against another government, group, or an individual. They are a form of warfare, similar to siege warfare.<ref>{{News citation|journalist=Jacob G. Hornberger|date=2022-03-11|title=Sanctions Kill Innocent People and Also Destroy Our Liberty|url=https://www.fff.org/2022/03/11/sanctions-kill-innocent-people-and-also-destroy-our-liberty/|newspaper=The Future for Freedom Foundation}}</ref><ref>{{News citation|journalist=[[Eva Bartlett]]|date=2020-04-14|title=SANCTIONS KILL PEOPLE|newspaper=[[Popular Resistance]], [[RT]]}}</ref> Economic sanctions are also known as embargoes and are generally included under the term [[unilateral coercive measures]].<ref>[https://www.ohchr.org/en/unilateral-coercive-measures “OHCHR and Unilateral Coercive Measures.”] [[OHCHR]]. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230405114051/https://www.ohchr.org/en/unilateral-coercive-measures Archived] 2023-04-05.</ref> <br />
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The publicly stated purpose of sanctions is typically to apply economic pressure on a country, in order to influence the government's decision-making, and is often portrayed as a peaceful alternative to armed conflict. However, the material function of sanctions is to create widespread economic hardship, desperation, and destabilization in the targeted country, typically to pave the way for the overthrow of the government or prevent their economic development. <br />
<br />
The outcome of economic sanctions is mass suffering and death amongst the targeted population.<ref>@inspektorbucket on [[Twitter]]: [https://twitter.com/inspektorbucket/status/1507787302445228034?s=20&t=raoe2_FM6g6sEqHanC0A-g "Something to keep in mind: dead children are not an unfortunate side-effect of economic sanctions, but are in fact the goal"]</ref><ref>{{Citation|author=Nicholas Mulder|title=The Economic Weapon: The Rise of Sanctions as a Tool of Modern War}}</ref> Often, the suffering and death and economic underdevelopment resulting from the sanctions are then publicized as being inherent to the targeted government's own policies and blamed on the government, and disingenuous [[human rights]] investigations are subsequently launched to further isolate and destabilize the country, and even used as a justification for increasing the severity of the sanctions. <br />
<br />
Lauren Smith notes in [[Monthly Review|Monthly Review Online]] that it is not just unilateral sanctions imposed by the U.S. that devastate a targeted country, it is the imposition of secondary sanctions upon foreign third parties that represents the final blow to its economy and people. These measures threaten to cut off foreign countries, governments, companies, financial institutions and individuals from the U.S. financial system if they engage in prohibited transactions with a sanctioned target—irrespective as to whether or not that activity impacts the [[United States of America|United States]] directly.<ref name=":3">Smith, Lauren. [https://mronline.org/2020/03/10/united-states-imposed-economic-sanctions-the-big-heist/ “United States Imposed Economic Sanctions: The Big Heist”] MR Online. March 10, 2020. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220907150816/https://mronline.org/2020/03/10/united-states-imposed-economic-sanctions-the-big-heist/ Archived] 2022-09-08.<br />
<br />
</ref> <br />
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A page on the SanctionsKill website notes that the countries imposing economic sanctions "are the wealthiest, the most powerful, and the most industrially developed countries in the world" and explains: "the intention is to choke the economies of poor, developing countries, most of which were formerly colonized. The sanctions, as well as visiting extreme hardship upon the civilian population, are intended to serve as a dire threat to surrounding countries, as they impact the economies of the whole region." SanctionsKill asserts that in a period of human history when hunger and disease are scientifically solvable, depriving hundreds of millions from getting basic necessities is a crime against humanity.<ref name=":1">W, Jim. Feb. 2, 2021. [https://sanctionskill.org/2021/02/02/sanctions-fact-sheet-39-countries/ “Sanctions Fact Sheet/over 40 Countries | Sanctions Kill.”] Sanctionskill.org. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220907145836/https://sanctionskill.org/2021/02/02/sanctions-fact-sheet-39-countries/ Archived] 2022-09-07.</ref> <br />
<br />
== Prevalence ==<br />
[[File:USA sanctions increase, 2000-2021.png|thumb|Findings of the U.S. Department of the Treasury on the 933% increase in use of sanctions between 2000 and 2021.<ref name=":7">[https://www.gibsondunn.com/2021-year-end-sanctions-and-export-controls-update/ “2021 Year-End Sanctions and Export Controls Update.”] ''Gibson Dunn'', 4 Feb. 2022, Accessed 7 Apr. 2023. [https://web.archive.org/web/20221205144017/https://www.gibsondunn.com/2021-year-end-sanctions-and-export-controls-update/ Archived] 2021-12-05.</ref><ref name=":8">''The Treasury 2021 Sanctions Review'' ([https://home.treasury.gov/system/files/136/Treasury-2021-sanctions-review.pdf PDF]). [[United States Department of the Treasury|U.S. Department of the Treasury]]. October 2021. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230321145152/https://home.treasury.gov/system/files/136/Treasury-2021-sanctions-review.pdf Archived] 2023-03-21.</ref>]]<br />
According to a 2021 U.S. Treasury review, 9,421 parties were sanctioned by the US government at the end of 2021, representing a 933% increase since 2000.<ref name=":7" /><ref name=":8" /><ref>[[Ben Norton|Norton, Ben]]. [https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2023/04/06/west-sanctions-un-human-rights-council/ “West vs the Rest: World Opposes Sanctions, Only US & Europe Support Them - Geopolitical Economy Report.”] ''[[Geopolitical Economy Report]]'', 7 Apr. 2023, Accessed 7 Apr. 2023. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230407022331/https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2023/04/06/west-sanctions-un-human-rights-council/ Archived] 2023-04-07.</ref> <br />
<br />
The website of [[SanctionsKill Campaign|SanctionsKill]] noted in 2021 that US sanctions affect a third of humanity, with more than 8,000 measures impacting more than 40 countries, and that the U.S. far exceeds any other country in the number of countries they have strangled with economic sanctions.<ref name=":1" /><br />
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A partially declassified U.S. intelligence document produced in 1982 states that economic sanctions "have served as a fundamental instrument in the conduct of American foreign relations from colonial times to the present."<ref name=":13">"DDI Analysis of Economic Sanctions." General CIA Records. Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP08S01350R000200470001-4. Original Publication 29 October, 1982. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230417071504/https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp08s01350r000200470001-4 Archived] 2023-04-17.</ref><br />
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== Objectives and impact ==<br />
Sanctions may be imposed for a variety of publicly stated and unstated reasons. As a partially declassified U.S. intelligence document states, sanctions often have "hidden" objectives which are not publicly announced, writing: "Critics of the use of economic sanctions often conclude that a sanction failed because it did not change the country's conduct or achieve some other stated objective. In many cases, however, the true objectives may not have been publicly stated." The report goes on to explain that an advantage of hidden objectives is having flexibility in determining when sanctions can be removed because politically significant elements of the society will not have a basis for judging "success" or "failure." The report also explains that sanctions often combine multiple objectives and change their relative emphasis over time. For example, the report's authors write that sanctions by the United States and the [[Organization of American States]] on [[Republic of Cuba|Cuba]] "were initially meant to bring down the [[Fidel Castro|Castro]] government." However, as time passed, "the focus shifted to punishing the Cuban government and the [[Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (1922–1991)|Soviet Union]] by making them pay a heavy economic price for their alliance."<ref name=":13" /><br />
<br />
Among the "useful purposes" of sanctions listed in the document are: contributing to the international isolation of the sanctioned country, strengthening the hand of opposition groups within and outside the sanctioned country, and satisfying important political constituencies.<ref name=":13" /><br />
<br />
An essay posted on Monthly Review Online states that economic sanctions function as undeclared war by creating severe economic disruption and hyperinflation, and explains that because sanctions interfere with the functioning of essential infrastructure i.e. electrical grids, water treatment and distribution facilities, transportation hubs, and communication networks by blocking access to key industrial inputs, such as fuel, raw materials, and replacement parts, they lead to droughts, famines, disease, and abject poverty, which results in the death of millions. Exact numbers are difficult to quantify because no international tally of casualties related to economic sanctions is recorded, which obfuscates its overall fatal impact.<ref name=":3" /><br />
<br />
=== Use for destabilization and overthrow of governments ===<br />
An example of the rationale behind the use of economic pressure to destabilize and overthrow governments can be found in a 1960 memorandum between U.S. officials under the Secretary of State for Inter-American affairs, discussing obstacles in overthrowing the government of [[Republic of Cuba|Cuba]]. The author of the memo notes that "the majority of Cubans support [[Fidel Castro|Castro]]" and that there was "no effective political [[opposition]]". In light of there being widespread support for the government and no effective opposition for the U.S. to back and empower, and also noting that "Militant opposition to Castro from without Cuba would only serve his and the communist cause" the author wrote that the "only foreseeable means of alienating internal support" would be "through disenchantment and disaffection based on economic dissatisfaction and hardship" and that "every possible means should be undertaken promptly to weaken the economic life of Cuba" and to "call forth a line of action which, while as adroit and inconspicuous as possible, makes the greatest inroads in denying money and supplies to Cuba, to decrease monetary and real wages, to bring about hunger, desperation and overthrow of government." The U.S. State Department's Office of the Historian notes that the recipient of the memorandum initialed the "yes" option in reply to moving forward with these ideas.<ref name=":0">[https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1958-60v06/d499 "Memorandum From the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs (Mallory) to the Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs (Rubottom)."] Foreign Relations of the United States, 1958–1960, Cuba, Volume vi - Office of the Historian. State.gov. U.S. Department of State. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220806052659/https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1958-60v06/d499 Archived] 2022-08-14.</ref> This is one example of the logic behind the use of economic pressure to destabilize and overthrow governments, and shows that is an option that may be taken when local support for the government is high and explicit external opposition would create a disadvantageous propaganda situation for the aggressor country and strengthen the resolve of the targeted country, and therefore an "inconspicuous" policy of bringing about hunger and desperation is a preferable avenue of attack.<br />
<br />
Kim Ji Ho, author of ''Understanding Korea: Human Rights'', observes the deadly, criminal effects of U.S. sanctions on [[Democratic People's Republic of Korea|DPRK]]'s citizens, and writes of their ultimate goal of destabilizing the country with the purpose of overthrowing its system:<blockquote>The economic sanctions and blockade the US, in collusion with its vassal states, has imposed on the DPRK have been unprecedented in their viciousness and tenacity. These moves are aimed, in essence, at isolating and stifling the country and destabilizing it so as to overthrow its system. The moves the US resorts to by enlisting even its vassal states are a crime against human rights and humanity, which check the sovereign state’s right to development and exert a great negative impact on its people’s enjoying of their rights, a crime as serious as wartime genocide.<ref>Kim Ji Ho (2017). ''Understanding Korea 9: Human Rights. Pyongyang: Foreign Languages Publishing House''.</ref></blockquote><br />
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=== Secondary sanctions and overcompliance ===<br />
Secondary sanctions are intended to prevent third parties, such as states, commercial entities, and individuals, from trading with countries that are subject to sanctions issued by another country. The impact of secondary sanctions is exacerbated by "overcompliance" by third parties, who choose to cut ties with sanctioned countries out of fear of repercussions, even for authorized activities.<ref>[https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2022/09/over-compliance-secondary-sanctions-adversely-impacts-human-rights-millions “Over-Compliance with Secondary Sanctions Adversely Impacts Human Rights of Millions Globally: UN Expert.”] OHCHR.</ref> In other words, the phenomenon of overcompliance causes sanctions to have an even heavier impact on the primary target than what is explicitly stated in the provisions of the sanctions because it causes third parties to avoid and minimize trade with the target of the sanctions due to the complexity of navigating what is or isn't authorized under the provisions and the fear of being cut off from trade with the sanctioning country. This leads to further economic isolation of the country which is targeted by the sanctions.<br />
<br />
== Opposition to economic sanctions ==<br />
[[File:UN General Assembly vote on condemning unilateral coercive measures, 2023.jpg|thumb|In the November 7, 2023 session, the [[United Nations|UN]] General Assembly debated a draft that condemned unilateral coercive measures, or sanctions, for violating the human rights of civilians in targeted countries. The resolution passed with 128 votes in favor and 54 against, and no abstentions.<ref name=":14">Norton, Ben. [https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2023/11/26/west-vote-democracy-human-rights-un-sanctions/ “West Votes against Democracy, Human Rights, Cultural Diversity at UN; Promotes Mercenaries, Sanctions.”] Geopolitical Economy Report. November 26, 2023. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240102213937/https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2023/11/26/west-vote-democracy-human-rights-un-sanctions/ Archived] 2024-01-02.</ref>]]<br />
<br />
Opposition to sanctions can be found among various ideological camps. Even critics and opponents of governments targeted by sanctions frequently point out the ineffectiveness of the sanctioning in achieving their stated goals and point out the disastrous inhumane effects of sanctions on the general population, even if these critics do not draw the conclusion that the disastrous effects are in fact the purpose of the sanctions.<br />
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Correspondent Ryan Cooper of ''The Week'' writes of "America's brainless addiction to punitive sanctions regimes" which "virtually never achieve the desired effect and too often inflict pointless suffering on innocents" and which have not achieved "any major U.S. policy goal in this century" giving examples of U.S. sanctions on Iran, Russia, DPRK, and Venezuela all failing to achieve the goals they were said to be implemented for, and refers to U.S. sanctions on Afghanistan as "miserable and useless economic seige". The journalist goes on to describe how sanctions are often used to bolster the image of the politicians who call for and impose them:<blockquote>As Henry Farrell and Abraham L. Newman write in ''The New York Times'', American imperialists can't resist the temptation to use U.S. control over the dollar funding system to economically strangle perceived adversaries. Presidents use sanctions to signal they're tough by inflicting pain on "enemies" (most often innocent civilians) who are helpless to fight back from thousands of miles away. Presidents don't remove sanctions because that would be "weak," or because the Kafkaesque imperial bureaucracy only goes in one direction, or because it would be humiliating to admit error.<ref>Cooper, Ryan. 2022. [https://theweek.com/afghanistan-war/1008876/how-us-sanctions-are-driving-afghanistan-to-famine “Driving Afghanistan to Famine.”] The Week. January 12, 2022.</ref></blockquote>Nicholas Mulder, assistant professor of modern European history at Cornell University, characterized the "ratcheting problem" of sanctions which make every new implementation of sanctions less and less likely to succeed, and "defeats the entire-democratic-behavioral model of sanctions". He also explained that historically, sanctions tend to fail at changing the behavior of other states, although they may be more successful at "grinding down" an opponent's material strength:<blockquote>As tools for changing the behavior of other states, the empirical record is quite clear that they fail more often than not. As ways of grinding down opponents’ material strength they might be more successful. But we must ask at what cost. Long-term undeclared economic war oftentimes entrenches antagonism between countries instead of resolving it. The paradox of sanctions is that effective use relies on a credible promise of their removal. You must commit to lifting restrictions when your demands are met. Right now, many Western governments are stuck in a ratcheting problem where they can only ramp up economic pressure but never lift restrictions. This not only defeats the entire democratic-behavioral model for sanctions, it also makes every new sanction less and less likely to succeed.<ref>[https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2022/01/economic-sanctions-evolved-tool-modern-war “Economic Sanctions Evolved into Tool of Modern War.”] ''Cornell Chronicle'', 2022. Accessed 7 Apr. 2023. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220927134644/https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2022/01/economic-sanctions-evolved-tool-modern-war Archived] 2022-09-27.</ref></blockquote>A 2022 article published by the [[Center for Economic and Policy Research]] states that economic sanctions have become one of the main tools of US foreign policy, despite little proof of their efficacy, and widespread evidence that they often target civilian populations, with lethal and devastating effects. The article states that though sanctions are a key part of US policy-making, and a defining feature of the global economic order, sanctions, and their human costs, as well as violations of treaties to which the United States is a signatory, receive relatively little attention in most US media outlets.<ref name=":2">Galant, Michael. [https://cepr.net/cepr-sanctions-watch-may-june-2022/ “CEPR Sanctions Watch, May-June 2022”] Center for Economic and Policy Research. July 8, 2022. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220907145545/https://cepr.net/cepr-sanctions-watch-may-june-2022/ Archived] 2022-09-07.</ref><br />
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In times of natural disaster, [[Progressivism|progressives]] often call for temporary lifting or easing of sanctions in affected countries. However, as sanctions are a form of warfare that are generally used to purposely cause death and suffering in the targeted countries, natural disasters tend to boost the intended deadly effects of sanctions on the targeted countries' populations, as well as create a window of increased [[plausible deniability]] for the aggressor countries responsible for imposing the sanctions. Therefore, the incentive for the sanctioning countries to ease or remove sanctions is low.<br />
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=== UN General Assembly ===<br />
In the November 7, 2023 session of the UN General Assembly, nations debated a draft that condemned unilateral coercive measures, or sanctions, for violating the human rights of civilians in targeted countries. The resolution passed with 128 votes in favor and 54 against, and no abstentions.<ref name=":14" /><br />
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In a 2022 joint statement to the UN General Assembly on behalf of numerous countries in the [[Global North and South|Global South]], a representative from China explained that unilateral coercive measures, coupled with secondary sanctions and overcompliance, "exacerbate existing humanitarian and economic challenges, result in lack of access to essential goods and services such as food, medicine, safe drinking water, fuel and electricity, and negatively affect the enjoyment of human rights, including the right to health and the right to life" and threatened other areas such as education and access to technology, scientific research and academic freedom, international cooperation in arts, culture and sports, and travel restrictions, and more.<ref>[http://un.china-mission.gov.cn/eng/hyyfy/202210/t20221019_10786144.htm “Joint Statement on Unilateral Coercive Measures at the Third Committee of the General Assembly at Its Seventy-Seven Session.”] China-Mission.gov.cn. 2022. </ref><br />
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== Sanctions by targeted country ==<br />
According to Sanctions Kill, US sanctions affect a third of humanity with more than 8,000 measures impacting more than 40 countries and notes that the U.S. far exceeds any other country in the number of countries they have strangled with economic sanctions. The countries listed by Sanctions Kill as being affected by sanctions as of 2022 include the following: [[Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan|Afghanistan]], [[Republic of Belarus|Belarus]], [[Bosnia and Herzegovina]], [[Republic of Burundi|Burundi]], [[Central African Republic]], [[People's Republic of China|China (PR)]], [[Union of the Comoros|Comoros]], [[Crimea|Crimea Region of Ukraine]], [[Republic of Cuba|Cuba]], [[Republic of Cyprus|Cyprus]], [[Democratic Republic of the Congo|Congo – DR]], [[Eritrea]], [[Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia|Ethiopia]], [[Republic of Guinea|Guinea]], [[Republic of Guinea-Bissau|Guinea Bissau]], [[Republic of Haiti|Haiti]], [[Islamic Republic of Iran|Iran]], [[Republic of Iraq|Iraq]], [[Democratic People's Republic of Korea|Korea – DPRK]], [[Kyrgyz Republic|Kyrgyzstan]], [[Lao People's Democratic Republic|Laos]], [[Lebanon]], [[State of Libya|Libya]], [[Republic of Mali|Mali]], [[Islamic Republic of Mauritania|Mauritania]], [[Republic of Moldova|Moldova]], [[Montenegro]], [[Republic of the Union of Myanmar|Myanmar]], [[Republic of Nicaragua|Nicaragua]], [[State of Palestine|Palestine]], [[Russia (disambiguation)|Russia]], [[Republic of Rwanda|Rwanda]], [[Republic of Serbia|Serbia]], [[Somalia]], [[South Sudan]], [[Republic of the Sudan|Sudan]], [[Syrian Arab Republic|Syria]], [[Republic of Tunisia|Tunisia]], [[Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela|Venezuela]], [[Republic of Yemen|Yemen]], and [[Zimbabwe]].<ref name=":1" /><br />
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=== Afghanistan ===<br />
Since 2021, the U.S. [[Joe Biden|Biden]] administration has blocked Afghanistan’s central bank from accessing roughly $7 billion in its foreign reserves held in the US. Along with sanctions on government officials and a cutoff of aid, this has contributed to a severe collapse of Afghanistan’s economy.<ref name=":2" /><br />
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=== Cuba ===<br />
[[File:Cuba embargo vote.png|thumb|In 2022, all UN members voted against the embargo except the USA and [[State of Israel|Israel]], which voted against, and [[Ukraine]] and [[Republic of Moldova|Moldova]], which did not vote. This marks 30 consecutive years in which the UN has voted to condemn the embargo.<ref name=":9">Ben Norton (Nov 05, 2022). [https://mronline.org/2022/11/05/entire-world-votes-185-to-2-against-blockade-of-cuba-u-s-and-israel-are-rogue-states-at-un/ "Entire world votes 185 to 2 against blockade of Cuba–U.S. and Israel are rogue states at UN"] ''MROnline''. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230113152705/https://mronline.org/2022/11/05/entire-world-votes-185-to-2-against-blockade-of-cuba-u-s-and-israel-are-rogue-states-at-un/ Archived] 2023-01-13.</ref><ref name=":10">[https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/06/1094612 "UN General Assembly calls for US to end Cuba embargo for 29th consecutive year"] (2021-06-23). ''UN News''. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230401151451/https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/06/1094612 Archived] 2023-04-01.</ref>]]<br />
''See also: [[United States embargo against Cuba]]''<br />
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The US embargo of Cuba is one of the oldest and strictest of all US sanctions regimes, prohibiting nearly all trade, travel, and financial transactions since the early 1960s.<ref name=":2" /><br />
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U.S. officials have written that creating "disenchantment and disaffection based on economic dissatisfaction and hardship" through denying money and supplies to Cuba would be a method they should pursue in order to "bring about hunger, desperation and overthrow of government" in that country.<ref name=":0" /><br />
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In an article for The Guardian, David Adler writes of the embargo on Cuba, that "the US embargo impacts every aspect of life on the island – and that is the precisely the point" and goes on to state that "Both the Biden administration and its Republican opposition claim that these measures are targeted at the regime, rather than the Cuban people. But the evidence to the contrary is not only anecdotal. The UN estimates that the embargo has cost Cuba over $130bn in damages" and says that the embargo "fails the test of its own logic" pointing out that "the Biden administration argued that the embargo aims to 'support the Cuban people in their quest to determine their own future'. But the Biden administration does not dare to explain how making Cuba poorer, sicker and more isolated supports their quest for self-determination."<ref>{{Web citation|author=David Adler|newspaper=The Guardian|title=Cuba has been under US embargo for 60 years. It’s time for that to end|date=2022-02-03|url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/feb/03/cuba-us-embargo-must-end|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220613091002/https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/feb/03/cuba-us-embargo-must-end|archive-date=2022-8-14}}</ref><br />
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In 2022, for the 30th year in a row, almost every country voted at the United Nations to condemn the U.S. blockade of Cuba. In the 2022 vote, the USA and Israel voted no, while Ukraine and Moldova did not vote. 185 other countries voted to end the embargo.<ref name=":9" /><ref name=":10" /><br />
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=== Democratic People's Republic of Korea ===<br />
The [[Democratic People's Republic of Korea]] (DPRK) is one of the most sanctioned countries in the world, and has been subject to sanctions since just after its foundation in 1948. The United States first imposed sanctions on north Korea during the [[Korean War]] in the 1950s. Following the country’s 2006 nuclear test, the US, EU, and others added more stringent sanctions, which have periodically intensified since. Sanctions now target oil imports, and cover most finance and trade, and the country’s key minerals sector.<ref name=":2" /><br />
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In 2017, sanctions imposed by the UN caused thousands of DPRK workers who had been working abroad to be forced to return to DPRK as well as led to the closure of numerous DPRK companies and joint ventures.<ref>[https://www.asianews.it/news-en/North-Korean-workers-leave-China-because-of-UN-sanctions-41942.html “North Korean Workers Leave China because of UN Sanctions.”] Asianews.it. 2017. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220909073331/https://www.asianews.it/news-en/North-Korean-workers-leave-China-because-of-UN-sanctions-41942.html Archived] 2022-09-09.</ref><br />
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A 2020 zine released by [[Nodutdol]] describes the history of sanctions directed against DPRK in the following way:<blockquote>The first of many generations of US sanctions against the DPRK began shortly after the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950, which threatened the US-backed [[Syngman Rhee|Rhee Syngman]] government in the south. Since the beginning of the DPRK nuclear tests in 2003, the [[George W. Bush|Bush]] and [[Barack Obama|Obama]] administrations respectively lifted some sanctions to facilitate negotiations around DPRK denuclearization, and then reinstated them when the negotiations failed to produce the results desired by the US. The sanctions regime reimplemented by the Obama administration targeted three fourths of all DPRK exports, and instituted a labyrinthine network of financial limitations that have functionally cut the DPRK off from accessing international trade or foreign investment. The administrative hurdles placed on international aid organizations and outright bans on items containing metal instituted by Obama’s US and UN sanctions have had devastating effects on the DPRK agricultural, medical, and sanitation systems. In 2018, 3,968 people in the DPRK, who were mostly children under the age of 5, died as a result of shortages and delays to UN aid programs caused by sanctions. The [[Donald Trump|Trump]] administration has elaborated on DPRK sanctions by returning the DPRK to the State Sponsors of Terrorism list, targeting the DPRK’s access to international shipping, instituting a travel ban, and adding new measures targeting a number of DPRK industries.<ref name=":6">[https://nodutdol.org/sanctions-of-empire/ "제국의 제재 - Sanctions of Empire."] Nodutdol. October 20, 2020. [https://nodutdol.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Sanctions-of-Empire.pdf PDF]. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220520095404/https://nodutdol.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Sanctions-of-Empire.pdf Archive].</ref></blockquote><br />
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Foreign Policy in Focus (FPIF) lists out the sanctions and other punishments placed on DPRK as the following:<blockquote>Economic sanctions against North Korea cover trade, finance, investment, even North Korean workers in foreign countries. The earliest of these were imposed by the United States after the Korean War, when Washington imposed a total trade embargo on North Korea and also froze all North Korean holdings in the United States. In the 1970s, the United States tightened these restrictions by prohibiting the import of any agricultural products that contained raw material from North Korea. The United States also prohibits any exports to North Korea if they contain more than 10 percent of U.S.-sourced inputs. There are some minor humanitarian exemptions to these sanctions. Between 2004 and 2019, in the wake of the failed Agreed Framework of the Clinton era, Congress passed eight bills that further restricted economic and financial interactions with North Korea. <br />
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On the financial side, the United States has effectively blocked North Korea from participating in the U.S. financial system but more importantly from engaging in any dollar-based transactions. Secondary sanctions target any countries that conduct business with North Korea, which further limits the country’s access to the global economy. Because North Korea remains on the State Sponsors of Terrorism list, it does not enjoy sovereign immunity from prosecution for certain acts such as torture and extrajudicial killing. The United States is further obligated by the stipulations of this regulation to oppose any effort by North Korea to join the IMF or World Bank.<ref name=":5">Feffer, John. 2021. [https://fpif.org/the-problem-of-sanctions-against-north-korea/ “The Problem of Sanctions against North Korea.”] Foreign Policy in Focus. November 22, 2021. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220909072424/https://fpif.org/the-problem-of-sanctions-against-north-korea/ Archived] 2022-09-09.<br />
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</ref></blockquote>FPIF additionally states that a number of individuals and entities have been singled out for sanctions, from high-level officials and directors of banks to trading and shipping companies to specific vessels and even non-Korean business people. Apart from U.S. sanctions, the UN Security Council has passed "about a dozen" unanimous resolutions that ban trade in arms, luxury goods, electrical equipment, natural gas, and other items. Other sanctions impose a freeze on the assets of designated individuals and entities, prohibit joint ventures with these prohibited entities, and restrict cargo trade with North Korea. Japan has also imposed sanctions, which include measures freeze certain DPRK and Chinese assets, ban bilateral trade with DPRK, restrict the entry of DPRK citizens and ships into Japanese territory, and reportedly prohibit remittances worth more than $880. South Korea, Australia, and the EU also maintain their own sanctions against DPRK.<ref name=":5" /><br />
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According to FPIF, sanctions on DPRK have "demonstrably failed." FPIF notes that sanctions didn’t deter DPRK from pursuing a nuclear weapons program, nor have they been subsequently responsible for pushing it toward denuclearization, and adds that DPRK has been under sanctions for nearly its entire existence and it doesn’t have a strong international economic presence that can be penalized, and "has been willing to suffer the effects of isolation in order to build what it considers to be a credible deterrence against foreign attack."<ref name=":5" /><br />
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The US consistently interferes in inter-Korean affairs by citing sanctions. According to Nodutdol, only a few months after the Korean leaders signed the Panmunjeom Declaration, the US-led UN Command which oversees the DMZ, blocked development of the inter-Korean railway. In January 2020, South Korean President [[Moon Jae-In]] expressed interest in developing tourism to North Korea, but the US ambassador Harry Harris blocked this effort. Harris claimed that "independent" tourism plans would have to undergo US consultation. He emphasized that the items inside South Korean tourists' luggage could violate sanctions, demonstrating the extent of US interference.<ref name=":6" /><br />
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=== Iran ===<br />
US sanctions on Iran began during the 1979 hostage crisis, and currently bar US actors — plus some non-US actors — from most all trade and financial transactions with Iran. Though certain sanctions were lifted as a result of the 2015 nuclear deal, the majority have been reimposed since the US’s unilateral withdrawal.<ref name=":2" /><br />
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According to Nodutdol, Iran has virtually been under some form of US sanctions since the 1979 Iranian Revolution deposed the US-backed Shah and established the Islamic Republic of Iran. In 2015, Iran signed on to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), popularly known as the Iran nuclear deal, with the US and EU. In exchange for abiding by certain nuclear restrictions, Iran was promised relief from some sanctions imposed by the US, EU, and UN Security Council. The Trump administration pulled out of JCPOA in 2017, and dramatically escalated sanctions against Iran. This has had a devastating effect on Iran, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Prevented from conducting business with the US dollar, unable to access overseas assets, and blocked off from most international trade, the Iranian economy has been struck by massive unemployment, runaway inflation, and severe shortages of basic goods. This has been particularly devastating for public health, as shortages of vital medical supplies have exacerbated the rate of preventable deaths, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.<ref name=":6" /><br />
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=== Iraq ===<br />
When asked about half a million Iraqi children who died due to [[United States of America|US]] sanctions, [[Madeleine Albright]] said in 1996, "the price was worth it."<ref>@nickwestes on [[Twitter]]: [https://twitter.com/nickwestes/status/1506754872187576320?s=20&t=raoe2_FM6g6sEqHanC0A-g "When asked about half a million Iraqi children who died of US sanctions, Madeleine Albright said in 1996, "the price was worth it." The former Secretary of State was never brought to justice. Today, the US sanctions about a third of the world's population."]</ref><br />
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In 2003, President Bush signed an order to take possession of the Iraqi government assets that were frozen in 1990, before the Persian Gulf War. As a result, seventeen of the world’s biggest financial institutions were told by the Treasury Department to hand over $1.7 billion in frozen Iraqi assets that the U.S. government intended to place in an account at the NY Fed.<ref name=":3" /><br />
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=== Libya ===<br />
In 2015, it was announced that $67 billion in Libya’s assets remained frozen from 2011. In 2018, it was announced that Libya’s assets had decreased to $34 billion. The UN Libya Experts Panel is “looking for answers” to explain the disappearance of $33 billion in frozen assets.<ref name=":3" /><br />
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=== Russia ===<br />
US-imposed sanctions on Russia targeting the financial, energy, and defense sectors began in 2014 after the annexation of Crimea. This regime was expanded, particularly by the US, UK, and EU, in response to the 2022 conflict in [[Ukraine]], by barring most financial transactions, oil and gas imports, and other activities.<ref name=":2" /> <br />
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The sanctions placed on Russia have substantially weakened Europe, who previously relied on Russia for cheap energy, while simultaneously prompting their governments to place more funding and productive forces into their militaries, resulting in widespread economic stagnation or even decline. This effect has been likened to a boomerang even by US state media.<ref>{{Web citation|author=Victoria Kim, Clifford Krauss and Anton Troianovski|newspaper=The New York Times|title=Western Move to Choke Russia’s Oil Exports Boomerangs, for Now|date=2022-06-21|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/21/world/europe/ukraine-russian-oil-embargo.html|archive-url=https://archive.ph/FJ7hD|archive-date=2022-06-22|retrieved=2023-10-27}}</ref><br />
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In December 2022, the [[G7]] decreed a price cap on Russian oil exports of $60 per barrel; companies who sold Russian oil for higher than this amount would face consequences. Due to Russia's large fossil fuel export economy, the price cap was expected to severely limit the money that Russia could generate by selling their oil. The G7 proposed to meet every two months to discuss whether this price cap should be changed. <br />
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In reality, these measures have been largely ineffective, as Russia found methods to bypass the price cap, such as by creating a "dark fleet" of oil tankers. The premise was flawed from the beginning, as Russian oil could be mixed with that of other countries - such as oil from [[Kingdom of Saudi Arabia|Saudi Arabia]] - and sold on to other countries. As of September 2023, the G7 has stopped meeting to discuss the oil price cap.<ref>{{Web citation|author=Julia Payne|newspaper=Reuters|title=G7 shelves regular Russian oil cap reviews as prices soar|date=2023-09-06|url=https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/g7-shelves-regular-russian-oil-cap-reviews-prices-soar-sources-2023-09-06/|archive-url=https://archive.ph/ySzcg|archive-date=2023-10-06|retrieved=2023-10-06}}</ref> In October 2023, US Treasury Secretary [[Janet Yellen]] admitted that the oil price cap has not been effective recently due to Russian oil prices nearing $100 per barrel.<ref>{{Web citation|newspaper=Russia Today|title=Russian oil cap not working – Washington|date=2023-09-30|url=https://www.rt.com/business/583814-russia-oil-cap-working-yellen/?|archive-url=https://archive.ph/X8yUB|archive-date=2023-09-30|retrieved=2023-10-06}}</ref><br />
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Despite the sanctions on Russian fossil fuels, European countries are still dependent on them. The Bulgarian parliament delayed its ban of Russian oil from the end of 2023 until October 2024, with a year-long transition period.<ref>{{Web citation|author=Krassen Nikolov|newspaper=Euractiv|title=Bulgaria will continue using Russian oil for as long as possible|date=2023-09-29|url=https://www.euractiv.com/section/politics/news/bulgaria-will-continue-using-russian-oil-for-as-long-as-possible/|archive-url=https://archive.ph/z0RQ1|archive-date=2023-09-30|retrieved=2023-10-27}}</ref><br />
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=== Syria ===<br />
''See also: [[Syrian Arab Republic#Sanctions]]''<br />
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A [[Multipolarista]] article by [[Ben Norton]] notes that most of the sanctions imposed on Syria came after the West launched a proxy war against the country in 2011, although the US has had sanctions on Syria going back to 2004. The U.S. sanctions levelled against Syria expanded into a de facto blockade in 2019, with the approval of the [[Caesar Act]], signed into law by president [[Donald Trump]], which came into force in 2020. Special Rapporteur Douhan noted the law “authorized secondary sanctions against non-U.S. persons anywhere in the world who provide financial, material or technological support to the Syrian Government or engage in transactions with it.”<ref>Norton, Ben. [https://multipolarista.com/2022/11/12/un-expert-western-sanctions-syria/ “UN Expert: ‘Outrageous’ Western Sanctions Are ‘Suffocating’ Syria, May Be Crimes against Humanity”] Multipolarista. November 12, 2022. [https://web.archive.org/web/20221115044700/https://multipolarista.com/2022/11/12/un-expert-western-sanctions-syria/ Archived] 2022-11-15.</ref> In accordance with the sanctions under the Caesar Act, anyone doing business with the Syrian authorities, even including transport of basic needs, such as food and medicine into the country, is potentially exposed to travel restrictions and financial sanctions.<ref name=":11">Al Mayadeen English. [https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/hezbollah-sends-aid-convoys-to-quake-hit-syria “Hezbollah Sends Aid Convoys to Quake-Hit Syria.”] ''Al Mayadeen English'', 8 Feb. 2023, Accessed 7 Apr. 2023. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230329054430/https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/hezbollah-sends-aid-convoys-to-quake-hit-syria Archived] 2023-03-29.</ref><br />
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In a November 2022 statement following a 12-day visit to Syria, [[United Nations|UN]] Special Rapporteur Alena Douhan presented information about the catastrophic effects of unilateral sanctions across all walks of life in Syria. Douhan said 90 per cent of Syria’s population was currently living below the poverty line, with limited access to food, water, electricity, shelter, cooking and heating fuel, transportation and healthcare and warned that the country was facing a massive brain-drain due to growing economic hardship. Douhan urged sanctioning states to lift unilateral sanctions against Syria, warning that they were perpetuating and exacerbating the destruction and trauma suffered by the Syrian people since 2011.<ref>[https://www.ohchr.org/en/node/104160 “UN Expert Calls for Lifting of Long-Lasting Unilateral Sanctions ‘Suffocating’ Syrian People.”] 2022. OHCHR. [https://web.archive.org/web/20221115044250/https://www.ohchr.org/en/node/104160 Archived] 2022-11-15.</ref><br />
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During the [[2023 Turkey–Syria earthquake]], Syria was unable to receive immediate direct aid due to sanctions imposed upon the country. The exception was aid from countries whose economies have also been devastated by U.S. sanctions. The governments of Cuba, Venezuela,<ref>[https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Venezuelan-Relief-Workers-Arrive-in-Syria-With-Humanitarian-Aid-20230209-0001.html “Venezuelan Relief Workers Arrive in Syria with Humanitarian Aid.”] ''Telesurenglish.net'', teleSUR, 2023, Accessed 7 Apr. 2023. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230217205456/https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Venezuelan-Relief-Workers-Arrive-in-Syria-With-Humanitarian-Aid-20230209-0001.html Archived] 2023-02-17.</ref> Iran and China, Palestinians in Gaza and Hezbollah<ref name=":11" /> in Lebanon all rushed aid to Syria.<ref name=":12">Rahman, Sameena. [https://www.liberationnews.org/us-sanctions-block-earthquake-aid-to-syria/ “U.S. Sanctions Block Earthquake Aid to Syria.”] ''Liberation News'', Liberation News, 21 Feb. 2023, Accessed 7 Apr. 2023. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230407124501/https://www.liberationnews.org/us-sanctions-block-earthquake-aid-to-syria/ Archived] 2023-04-07.</ref> Iran was able to supply Syria with 70 tons of food, tents and medicine.<ref>Natasha Frost, Raja Abdulrahim (2023-02-07). [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/07/world/europe/turkey-syria-quake-un-aid.html "The only border crossing for U.N. aid from Turkey to Syria is hobbled."] ''[[The New York Times]]''. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230209032139/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/07/world/europe/turkey-syria-quake-un-aid.html Archived] from the original on 2023-02-09.</ref><br />
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Four days after the initial quake, the U.S. State Department announced a temporary lifting of sanctions on Syria, only due to mounting public pressure calling for the exemption. Bassam Sabbagh, Syria’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, described the 180-days U.S. sanctions exemption as “insufficient to adequately offset the dire consequences of [the United States’] coercive measures” in the region.<ref>[https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2023/02/14/698188/Assad-Aid-must-be-brought-into-all-quake-hit-areas-Syria “"Syria Slams US Sanctions, Unilateral Actions for Hampering Humanitarian Aid Delivery ".”] ''PressTV'', PressTV News, 14 Feb. 2023, Accessed 7 Apr. 2023. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230321005213/https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2023/02/14/698188/Assad-Aid-must-be-brought-into-all-quake-hit-areas-Syria Archived] 2023-03-21.</ref> A statement released by the Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates said, “the misleading decision taken by the U.S. administration to temporarily ease some of the cruel and unilateral sanctions on the Syrian nation is out of shame and hypocrisy and is no different from previous gestures meant to convey an erroneous humanitarian impression.”<ref>[https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/minimal-western-aid-to-syria-yet-despite-temporary-lift-of-s “Minimal Western Aid to Syria, despite Temporary Lift of Sanctions.”] ''Al Mayadeen English'', 11 Feb. 2023, Accessed 7 Apr. 2023. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230407125459/https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/minimal-western-aid-to-syria-yet-despite-temporary-lift-of-s Archived] 2023-04-07.</ref> Even with sanctions exemptions, countries hesitated to send aid, fearing financial and political consequences from the United States, which punishes those who violate US-imposed sanctions.<ref name=":12" /><br />
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=== Venezuela ===<br />
US sanctions on Venezuela began under the Obama administration, and were expanded significantly under Trump, including broad financial sanctions targeting the state oil company and sanctions targeting Venezuelan oil exports, all of which have contributed to the country’s economic collapse.<ref name=":2" /><br />
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In 2017, the US and its allies in North America and Europe imposed sanctions on Venezuela targeting individuals in government, state institutions, and access to international credit. Since then, the US and its allies have expanded sanctions to target Venezuela’s major industries, banking sector, and international food aid. These measures have acutely impacted the economic situation in Venezuela, and created shortages of medicine, food, and fuel that have led to widespread suffering. In 2019, the Center for Economic Policy Research published a study estimating that 40,000 deaths in Venezuela from 2017- 2018 could be attributed to US sanctions.<ref name=":6" /><br />
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According to an article in Monthly Review Online, in August 2019, Venezuela’s foreign minister, Jorge Arreaza, stated that the sanctions the United States imposed against it had left more than $3 billion of its assets frozen in the global financial system. Additionally, The Bank of England blocked Venezuela’s attempts to retrieve $1.2 billion worth of gold stored as the nation’s foreign reserves in Britain. It is reported that former national security advisor to President Donald Trump, John Bolton, pressured England to freeze Venezuelan assets. By some estimates, Venezuela holds more than $8 billion in foreign reserves. Additionally, the U.S. froze all the assets Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, PDVSA, has in the United States. While it allows PDVSA’s U.S.-based subsidiary, Citgo, to operate, it confiscates the money it earns and places it in a blocked account.<ref name=":3" /><br />
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Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov claims that the U.S. simply confiscates Venezuela’s money under the guise of sanctions, noting that the U.S. is experienced in such illegal affairs, giving Iraq, Libya, Iran, Cuba, Nicaragua, and Panama as examples. According to Lavrov, "US companies operating in Venezuela are excluded from the sanctions regime. Simply put they want to overthrow the government and gain profits at the same time."<ref>[https://www.rt.com/news/450057-cynical-sanctions-us-lavrov-venezuela/ “‘Cynical’ US Sanctions Meant to Confiscate Venezuela’s Assets – Lavrov.”] RT International. RT. January 29, 2019. [https://web.archive.org/web/2/https://www.rt.com/news/450057-cynical-sanctions-us-lavrov-venezuela/ Archived version].</ref><br />
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=== Zimbabwe ===<br />
[[File:Members of the Broad Alliance Against Sanctions in Zimbabwe.jpg|thumb|Members of the Broad Alliance Against Sanctions hold anti-sanctions placards in front of the U.S. embassy in Harare, Zimbabwe, on July 4, 2022.]]According to Chidiebere C. Ogbonna in the African Research Review, from 1966 until the present, "Zimbabwe at one time or another has been under sanctions either by the United Nations the United States, the European Union or all the aforementioned. In total, Zimbabwe has been sanctioned in seven sanction-episodes: 1966, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2008 and 2009, making it one of the most sanctioned countries in the world." Ogbonna states that in a simple analysis, Zimbabwe has become a regular candidate of the "sanctions industry."<ref>Chidiebere C Ogbonna [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/319870565_Targeted_or_Restrictive_Impact_of_US_and_EU_Sanctions_on_Education_and_Healthcare_of_Zimbabweans "Targeted or Restrictive: Impact of U.S. and EU Sanctions on Education and Healthcare of Zimbabweans."] September 2017, African Research Review 11(3):31 DOI:10.4314/afrrev.v11i3.4</ref><br />
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In 2001, Congress passed the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act, which placed sanctions on the Zimbabwean government’s access to international loans, credit, and debt relief. Although the US insists that its sanctions against Zimbabwe are “targeted” and only affect individuals and institutions responsible for undemocratic behavior, the government of Zimbabwe has argued that the sanctions are comprehensive in practice and have contributed to the country’s decades-long economic crisis.<ref name=":6" /><br />
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According to a 2022 article by Xinhua News, the U.S. sanctions against Zimbabwe have accumulated since 2001, following a government decision to repossess land from minority white farmers for redistribution to landless indigenous Zimbabweans. The Xinhua article notes that though the Zimbabwean government said the land reform would promote democracy and the economy, "Western countries launched repeated sanctions with little regard for the average person's suffering." Linda Masarira, president of the Labour Economists and Afrikan Democrats (LEAD) political party, said sanctions have been used as a tool of economic warfare against Zimbabwe, and that sanctioning Zimbabwe "was an action that the United States of America decided to do on Zimbabwe to ensure that they make our economy scream, they make things hard for Zimbabweans and imply that black Zimbabweans, native Zimbabweans cannot do their own farming, or run their own economy."<ref name=":4">Tichaona Chifamba, Zhang Yuliang, Cao Kai. [https://english.news.cn/20220711/5ed659ab8a7e40c5a2baa116589bcede/c.html "Two-decade-old U.S. sanctions leave Zimbabweans suffering, triggering protests".] Xinhua. 2022-07-11. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220909064843/https://english.news.cn/20220711/5ed659ab8a7e40c5a2baa116589bcede/c.html Archived] 2022-09-09.</ref><br />
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The [[Broad Alliance Against Sanctions]] (BAAS) is an organization in Zimbabwe that opposes sanctions. A spokesperson of BAAS was quoted in the Xinhua article regarding the sanctions: "We realized that most industries closed due to sanctions, meaning that sanctions are actually the major cause for all our other problems in Zimbabwe." According to BAAS Chairperson Calvern Chitsunge, officials from the U.S. embassy have tried to bribe the group's four leaders in response to their anti-sanctions activism, noting that the U.S. embassy staff have offered them each 100,000 U.S. dollars, a car and free accommodations at a location of their choosing.<ref name=":4" /><br />
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U.S. state officials claim that sanctions target only 83 individuals and 37 entities and denies the Zimbabwean people as the targets. However, there are certain companies that are not allowed to interact or work with Zimbabwean-based companies, such as the U.S.-based company [[PayPal]], causing difficulty for small start-up companies, and Zimbabwe has struggled to build new roads, hospitals, clinics or even rehabilitate old infrastructure because it has been denied access to affordable finance by international institutions. Obert Gutu, member of the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission and former deputy minister of justice and legal affairs said that "Since 2002 when the sanctions were effected, this economy has never been the same again because the most deadly effect of sanctions on Zimbabwe was just to first and foremost paint Zimbabwe as a pariah state."<ref name=":4" /><br />
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Nodutdol, summarizing findings in Chidiebere C. Ogbonna's 2017 study in the African Research Review, stated that US sanctions and corresponding EU restrictive measures have tremendously affected Zimbabweans’ access to healthcare and education. The study found that Zimbabwe’s capacity to treat and prevent HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria in particular was impacted by rising costs, difficulty accessing funds, and increased emigration of educated professionals, including healthcare workers. The prolonged economic crisis in Zimbabwe, inflamed by decades of sanctions, have resulted in massive unemployment and inflation as well as shortages of basic commodities—consequences that have been observed elsewhere in similarly sanctioned countries.<ref name=":6" /><br />
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== References ==</div>
Verda.Majo
https://en.prolewiki.org/index.php?title=Economic_sanctions&diff=61115
Economic sanctions
2024-01-02T22:49:59Z
<p>Verda.Majo: Added some information and also started to reorganize the article, moving some paragraphs around and trying to create better organized sections (work in progress)</p>
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<div>[[File:Economic sanctions map by SanctionsKill.org.png|thumb|331x331px|A map of countries facing economic sanctions imposed by the United States, according to [[SanctionsKill Campaign]].]]<br />
'''Economic sanctions''' are commercial and financial penalties applied by governments against another government, group, or an individual. They are a form of warfare, similar to siege warfare.<ref>{{News citation|journalist=Jacob G. Hornberger|date=2022-03-11|title=Sanctions Kill Innocent People and Also Destroy Our Liberty|url=https://www.fff.org/2022/03/11/sanctions-kill-innocent-people-and-also-destroy-our-liberty/|newspaper=The Future for Freedom Foundation}}</ref><ref>{{News citation|journalist=[[Eva Bartlett]]|date=2020-04-14|title=SANCTIONS KILL PEOPLE|newspaper=[[Popular Resistance]], [[RT]]}}</ref> Economic sanctions are also known as embargoes and are generally included under the term [[unilateral coercive measures]].<ref>[https://www.ohchr.org/en/unilateral-coercive-measures “OHCHR and Unilateral Coercive Measures.”] [[OHCHR]]. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230405114051/https://www.ohchr.org/en/unilateral-coercive-measures Archived] 2023-04-05.</ref> <br />
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The stated purpose of sanctions is typically to apply economic pressure on a country, in order to influence the government's decision-making, and is often portrayed as a peaceful alternative to armed conflict. However, the material function of sanctions is to create widespread economic hardship, desperation, and destabilization in the targeted country, typically to pave the way for the overthrow of the government or prevent their economic development. <br />
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The outcome of economic sanctions is mass suffering and death amongst the targeted population.<ref>@inspektorbucket on [[Twitter]]: [https://twitter.com/inspektorbucket/status/1507787302445228034?s=20&t=raoe2_FM6g6sEqHanC0A-g "Something to keep in mind: dead children are not an unfortunate side-effect of economic sanctions, but are in fact the goal"]</ref><ref>{{Citation|author=Nicholas Mulder|title=The Economic Weapon: The Rise of Sanctions as a Tool of Modern War}}</ref> Often, the suffering and death and economic underdevelopment resulting from the sanctions are then publicized as being inherent to the targeted government's own policies and blamed on the government, and disingenuous [[human rights]] investigations are subsequently launched to further isolate and destabilize the country, and even used as a justification for increasing the severity of the sanctions. <br />
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Lauren Smith notes in [[Monthly Review|Monthly Review Online]] that it is not just unilateral sanctions imposed by the U.S. that devastate a targeted country, it is the imposition of secondary sanctions upon foreign third parties that represents the final blow to its economy and people. These measures threaten to cut off foreign countries, governments, companies, financial institutions and individuals from the U.S. financial system if they engage in prohibited transactions with a sanctioned target—irrespective as to whether or not that activity impacts the [[United States of America|United States]] directly.<ref name=":3">Smith, Lauren. [https://mronline.org/2020/03/10/united-states-imposed-economic-sanctions-the-big-heist/ “United States Imposed Economic Sanctions: The Big Heist”] MR Online. March 10, 2020. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220907150816/https://mronline.org/2020/03/10/united-states-imposed-economic-sanctions-the-big-heist/ Archived] 2022-09-08.<br />
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</ref> <br />
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A page on the SanctionsKill website notes that the countries imposing economic sanctions "are the wealthiest, the most powerful, and the most industrially developed countries in the world" and explains: "the intention is to choke the economies of poor, developing countries, most of which were formerly colonized. The sanctions, as well as visiting extreme hardship upon the civilian population, are intended to serve as a dire threat to surrounding countries, as they impact the economies of the whole region." SanctionsKill asserts that in a period of human history when hunger and disease are scientifically solvable, depriving hundreds of millions from getting basic necessities is a crime against humanity.<ref name=":1">W, Jim. Feb. 2, 2021. [https://sanctionskill.org/2021/02/02/sanctions-fact-sheet-39-countries/ “Sanctions Fact Sheet/over 40 Countries | Sanctions Kill.”] Sanctionskill.org. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220907145836/https://sanctionskill.org/2021/02/02/sanctions-fact-sheet-39-countries/ Archived] 2022-09-07.</ref> <br />
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== Prevalence ==<br />
[[File:USA sanctions increase, 2000-2021.png|thumb|Findings of the U.S. Department of the Treasury on the 933% increase in use of sanctions between 2000 and 2021.<ref name=":7">[https://www.gibsondunn.com/2021-year-end-sanctions-and-export-controls-update/ “2021 Year-End Sanctions and Export Controls Update.”] ''Gibson Dunn'', 4 Feb. 2022, Accessed 7 Apr. 2023. [https://web.archive.org/web/20221205144017/https://www.gibsondunn.com/2021-year-end-sanctions-and-export-controls-update/ Archived] 2021-12-05.</ref><ref name=":8">''The Treasury 2021 Sanctions Review'' ([https://home.treasury.gov/system/files/136/Treasury-2021-sanctions-review.pdf PDF]). [[United States Department of the Treasury|U.S. Department of the Treasury]]. October 2021. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230321145152/https://home.treasury.gov/system/files/136/Treasury-2021-sanctions-review.pdf Archived] 2023-03-21.</ref>]]<br />
According to a 2021 U.S. Treasury review, 9,421 parties were sanctioned by the US government at the end of 2021, representing a 933% increase since 2000.<ref name=":7" /><ref name=":8" /><ref>[[Ben Norton|Norton, Ben]]. [https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2023/04/06/west-sanctions-un-human-rights-council/ “West vs the Rest: World Opposes Sanctions, Only US & Europe Support Them - Geopolitical Economy Report.”] ''[[Geopolitical Economy Report]]'', 7 Apr. 2023, Accessed 7 Apr. 2023. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230407022331/https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2023/04/06/west-sanctions-un-human-rights-council/ Archived] 2023-04-07.</ref> <br />
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The website of [[SanctionsKill Campaign|SanctionsKill]] noted in 2021 that US sanctions affect a third of humanity, with more than 8,000 measures impacting more than 40 countries, and that the U.S. far exceeds any other country in the number of countries they have strangled with economic sanctions.<ref name=":1" /><br />
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A partially declassified U.S. intelligence document produced in 1982 states that economic sanctions "have served as a fundamental instrument in the conduct of American foreign relations from colonial times to the present."<ref name=":13">"DDI Analysis of Economic Sanctions." General CIA Records. Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP08S01350R000200470001-4. Original Publication 29 October, 1982. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230417071504/https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp08s01350r000200470001-4 Archived] 2023-04-17.</ref><br />
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== Objectives and impact ==<br />
Sanctions may be imposed for a variety of publicly stated and unstated reasons. As a partially declassified U.S. intelligence document states, sanctions often have "hidden" objectives which are not publicly announced, writing: "Critics of the use of economic sanctions often conclude that a sanction failed because it did not change the country's conduct or achieve some other stated objective. In many cases, however, the true objectives may not have been publicly stated." The report goes on to explain that an advantage of hidden objectives is having flexibility in determining when sanctions can be removed because politically significant elements of the society will not have a basis for judging "success" or "failure." The report also explains that sanctions often combine multiple objectives and change their relative emphasis over time. For example, the report's authors write that sanctions by the United States and the [[Organization of American States]] on [[Republic of Cuba|Cuba]] "were initially meant to bring down the [[Fidel Castro|Castro]] government." However, as time passed, "the focus shifted to punishing the Cuban government and the [[Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (1922–1991)|Soviet Union]] by making them pay a heavy economic price for their alliance."<ref name=":13" /><br />
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An essay posted on Monthly Review Online states that economic sanctions function as undeclared war by creating severe economic disruption and hyperinflation, and explains that because sanctions interfere with the functioning of essential infrastructure i.e. electrical grids, water treatment and distribution facilities, transportation hubs, and communication networks by blocking access to key industrial inputs, such as fuel, raw materials, and replacement parts, they lead to droughts, famines, disease, and abject poverty, which results in the death of millions. Exact numbers are difficult to quantify because no international tally of casualties related to economic sanctions is recorded, which obfuscates its overall fatal impact.<ref name=":3" /><br />
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=== Use for destabilization and overthrow of governments ===<br />
An example of the rationale behind the use of economic pressure to destabilize and overthrow governments can be found in a 1960 memorandum between U.S. officials under the Secretary of State for Inter-American affairs, discussing obstacles in overthrowing the government of [[Republic of Cuba|Cuba]]. The author of the memo notes that "the majority of Cubans support [[Fidel Castro|Castro]]" and that there was "no effective political [[opposition]]". In light of there being widespread support for the government and no effective opposition for the U.S. to back and empower, and also noting that "Militant opposition to Castro from without Cuba would only serve his and the communist cause" the author wrote that the "only foreseeable means of alienating internal support" would be "through disenchantment and disaffection based on economic dissatisfaction and hardship" and that "every possible means should be undertaken promptly to weaken the economic life of Cuba" and to "call forth a line of action which, while as adroit and inconspicuous as possible, makes the greatest inroads in denying money and supplies to Cuba, to decrease monetary and real wages, to bring about hunger, desperation and overthrow of government." The U.S. State Department's Office of the Historian notes that the recipient of the memorandum initialed the "yes" option in reply to moving forward with these ideas.<ref name=":0">[https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1958-60v06/d499 "Memorandum From the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs (Mallory) to the Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs (Rubottom)."] Foreign Relations of the United States, 1958–1960, Cuba, Volume vi - Office of the Historian. State.gov. U.S. Department of State. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220806052659/https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1958-60v06/d499 Archived] 2022-08-14.</ref> This is one example of the logic behind the use of economic pressure to destabilize and overthrow governments, and shows that is an option that may be taken when local support for the government is high and explicit external opposition would create a disadvantageous propaganda situation for the aggressor country and strengthen the resolve of the targeted country, and therefore an "inconspicuous" policy of bringing about hunger and desperation is a preferable avenue of attack.<br />
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Kim Ji Ho, author of ''Understanding Korea: Human Rights'', observes the deadly, criminal effects of U.S. sanctions on [[Democratic People's Republic of Korea|DPRK]]'s citizens, and writes of their ultimate goal of destabilizing the country with the purpose of overthrowing its system:<blockquote>The economic sanctions and blockade the US, in collusion with its vassal states, has imposed on the DPRK have been unprecedented in their viciousness and tenacity. These moves are aimed, in essence, at isolating and stifling the country and destabilizing it so as to overthrow its system. The moves the US resorts to by enlisting even its vassal states are a crime against human rights and humanity, which check the sovereign state’s right to development and exert a great negative impact on its people’s enjoying of their rights, a crime as serious as wartime genocide.<ref>Kim Ji Ho (2017). ''Understanding Korea 9: Human Rights. Pyongyang: Foreign Languages Publishing House''.</ref></blockquote><br />
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== Opposition to economic sanctions ==<br />
[[File:UN General Assembly vote on condemning unilateral coercive measures, 2023.jpg|thumb|In the November 7, 2023 session, the [[United Nations|UN]] General Assembly debated a draft that condemned unilateral coercive measures, or sanctions, for violating the human rights of civilians in targeted countries. The resolution passed with 128 votes in favor and 54 against, and no abstentions.]]<br />
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Opposition to sanctions can be found among various ideological camps. Even critics and opponents of governments targeted by sanctions frequently point out the ineffectiveness of the sanctioning in achieving their stated goals and point out the disastrous inhumane effects of sanctions on the general population, even if these critics do not draw the conclusion that the disastrous effects are in fact the purpose of the sanctions. For example, correspondent Ryan Cooper of ''The Week'' writes of "America's brainless addiction to punitive sanctions regimes" which "virtually never achieve the desired effect and too often inflict pointless suffering on innocents" and which have not achieved "any major U.S. policy goal in this century" giving examples of U.S. sanctions on Iran, Russia, DPRK, and Venezuela all failing to achieve the goals they were said to be implemented for, and refers to U.S. sanctions on Afghanistan as "miserable and useless economic seige". The journalist goes on to describe how sanctions are often used to bolster the image of the politicians who call for and impose them:<blockquote>As Henry Farrell and Abraham L. Newman write in ''The New York Times'', American imperialists can't resist the temptation to use U.S. control over the dollar funding system to economically strangle perceived adversaries. Presidents use sanctions to signal they're tough by inflicting pain on "enemies" (most often innocent civilians) who are helpless to fight back from thousands of miles away. Presidents don't remove sanctions because that would be "weak," or because the Kafkaesque imperial bureaucracy only goes in one direction, or because it would be humiliating to admit error.<ref>Cooper, Ryan. 2022. [https://theweek.com/afghanistan-war/1008876/how-us-sanctions-are-driving-afghanistan-to-famine “Driving Afghanistan to Famine.”] The Week. January 12, 2022.</ref></blockquote>Nicholas Mulder, assistant professor of modern European history at Cornell University, characterized the "ratcheting problem" of sanctions which make every new implementation of sanctions less and less likely to succeed, and "defeats the entire-democratic-behavioral model of sanctions". He also explained that historically, sanctions tend to fail at changing the behavior of other states, although they may be more successful at "grinding down" an opponent's material strength:<blockquote>As tools for changing the behavior of other states, the empirical record is quite clear that they fail more often than not. As ways of grinding down opponents’ material strength they might be more successful. But we must ask at what cost. Long-term undeclared economic war oftentimes entrenches antagonism between countries instead of resolving it. The paradox of sanctions is that effective use relies on a credible promise of their removal. You must commit to lifting restrictions when your demands are met. Right now, many Western governments are stuck in a ratcheting problem where they can only ramp up economic pressure but never lift restrictions. This not only defeats the entire democratic-behavioral model for sanctions, it also makes every new sanction less and less likely to succeed.<ref>[https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2022/01/economic-sanctions-evolved-tool-modern-war “Economic Sanctions Evolved into Tool of Modern War.”] ''Cornell Chronicle'', 2022. Accessed 7 Apr. 2023. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220927134644/https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2022/01/economic-sanctions-evolved-tool-modern-war Archived] 2022-09-27.</ref></blockquote>A 2022 article published by the Center for Economic and Policy Research states that economic sanctions have become one of the main tools of US foreign policy, despite little proof of their efficacy, and widespread evidence that they often target civilian populations, with lethal and devastating effects. The article states that though sanctions are a key part of US policy-making, and a defining feature of the global economic order, sanctions, and their human costs, as well as violations of treaties to which the United States is a signatory, receive relatively little attention in most US media outlets.<ref name=":2">Galant, Michael. [https://cepr.net/cepr-sanctions-watch-may-june-2022/ “CEPR Sanctions Watch, May-June 2022”] Center for Economic and Policy Research. July 8, 2022. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220907145545/https://cepr.net/cepr-sanctions-watch-may-june-2022/ Archived] 2022-09-07.</ref><br />
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In times of natural disaster, [[Progressivism|progressives]] often call for temporary lifting or easing of sanctions in affected countries. However, as sanctions are a form of warfare that are generally used to purposely cause death and suffering in the targeted countries, natural disasters tend to boost the intended deadly effects of sanctions on the targeted countries' populations, as well as create a window of increased [[plausible deniability]] for the aggressor countries responsible for imposing the sanctions, the incentive to ease or remove sanctions is low.<br />
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== Sanctions by targeted country ==<br />
According to Sanctions Kill, US sanctions affect a third of humanity with more than 8,000 measures impacting more than 40 countries and notes that the U.S. far exceeds any other country in the number of countries they have strangled with economic sanctions. The countries listed by Sanctions Kill as being affected by sanctions as of 2022 include the following: [[Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan|Afghanistan]], [[Republic of Belarus|Belarus]], [[Bosnia and Herzegovina]], [[Republic of Burundi|Burundi]], [[Central African Republic]], [[People's Republic of China|China (PR)]], [[Union of the Comoros|Comoros]], [[Crimea|Crimea Region of Ukraine]], [[Republic of Cuba|Cuba]], [[Republic of Cyprus|Cyprus]], [[Democratic Republic of the Congo|Congo – DR]], [[Eritrea]], [[Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia|Ethiopia]], [[Republic of Guinea|Guinea]], [[Republic of Guinea-Bissau|Guinea Bissau]], [[Republic of Haiti|Haiti]], [[Islamic Republic of Iran|Iran]], [[Republic of Iraq|Iraq]], [[Democratic People's Republic of Korea|Korea – DPRK]], [[Kyrgyz Republic|Kyrgyzstan]], [[Lao People's Democratic Republic|Laos]], [[Lebanon]], [[State of Libya|Libya]], [[Republic of Mali|Mali]], [[Islamic Republic of Mauritania|Mauritania]], [[Republic of Moldova|Moldova]], [[Montenegro]], [[Republic of the Union of Myanmar|Myanmar]], [[Republic of Nicaragua|Nicaragua]], [[State of Palestine|Palestine]], [[Russia (disambiguation)|Russia]], [[Republic of Rwanda|Rwanda]], [[Republic of Serbia|Serbia]], [[Somalia]], [[South Sudan]], [[Republic of the Sudan|Sudan]], [[Syrian Arab Republic|Syria]], [[Republic of Tunisia|Tunisia]], [[Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela|Venezuela]], [[Republic of Yemen|Yemen]], and [[Zimbabwe]].<ref name=":1" /><br />
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=== Afghanistan ===<br />
Since 2021, the U.S. [[Joe Biden|Biden]] administration has blocked Afghanistan’s central bank from accessing roughly $7 billion in its foreign reserves held in the US. Along with sanctions on government officials and a cutoff of aid, this has contributed to a severe collapse of Afghanistan’s economy.<ref name=":2" /><br />
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=== Cuba ===<br />
[[File:Cuba embargo vote.png|thumb|In 2022, all UN members voted against the embargo except the USA and [[State of Israel|Israel]], which voted against, and [[Ukraine]] and [[Republic of Moldova|Moldova]], which did not vote. This marks 30 consecutive years in which the UN has voted to condemn the embargo.<ref name=":9">Ben Norton (Nov 05, 2022). [https://mronline.org/2022/11/05/entire-world-votes-185-to-2-against-blockade-of-cuba-u-s-and-israel-are-rogue-states-at-un/ "Entire world votes 185 to 2 against blockade of Cuba–U.S. and Israel are rogue states at UN"] ''MROnline''. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230113152705/https://mronline.org/2022/11/05/entire-world-votes-185-to-2-against-blockade-of-cuba-u-s-and-israel-are-rogue-states-at-un/ Archived] 2023-01-13.</ref><ref name=":10">[https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/06/1094612 "UN General Assembly calls for US to end Cuba embargo for 29th consecutive year"] (2021-06-23). ''UN News''. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230401151451/https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/06/1094612 Archived] 2023-04-01.</ref>]]<br />
''See also: [[United States embargo against Cuba]]''<br />
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The US embargo of Cuba is one of the oldest and strictest of all US sanctions regimes, prohibiting nearly all trade, travel, and financial transactions since the early 1960s.<ref name=":2" /><br />
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U.S. officials have written that creating "disenchantment and disaffection based on economic dissatisfaction and hardship" through denying money and supplies to Cuba would be a method they should pursue in order to "bring about hunger, desperation and overthrow of government" in that country.<ref name=":0" /><br />
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In an article for The Guardian, David Adler writes of the embargo on Cuba, that "the US embargo impacts every aspect of life on the island – and that is the precisely the point" and goes on to state that "Both the Biden administration and its Republican opposition claim that these measures are targeted at the regime, rather than the Cuban people. But the evidence to the contrary is not only anecdotal. The UN estimates that the embargo has cost Cuba over $130bn in damages" and says that the embargo "fails the test of its own logic" pointing out that "the Biden administration argued that the embargo aims to 'support the Cuban people in their quest to determine their own future'. But the Biden administration does not dare to explain how making Cuba poorer, sicker and more isolated supports their quest for self-determination."<ref>{{Web citation|author=David Adler|newspaper=The Guardian|title=Cuba has been under US embargo for 60 years. It’s time for that to end|date=2022-02-03|url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/feb/03/cuba-us-embargo-must-end|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220613091002/https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/feb/03/cuba-us-embargo-must-end|archive-date=2022-8-14}}</ref><br />
<br />
In 2022, for the 30th year in a row, almost every country voted at the United Nations to condemn the U.S. blockade of Cuba. In the 2022 vote, the USA and Israel voted no, while Ukraine and Moldova did not vote. 185 other countries voted to end the embargo.<ref name=":9" /><ref name=":10" /><br />
<br />
=== Democratic People's Republic of Korea ===<br />
The [[Democratic People's Republic of Korea]] (DPRK) is one of the most sanctioned countries in the world, and has been subject to sanctions since just after its foundation in 1948. The United States first imposed sanctions on north Korea during the [[Korean War]] in the 1950s. Following the country’s 2006 nuclear test, the US, EU, and others added more stringent sanctions, which have periodically intensified since. Sanctions now target oil imports, and cover most finance and trade, and the country’s key minerals sector.<ref name=":2" /><br />
<br />
In 2017, sanctions imposed by the UN caused thousands of DPRK workers who had been working abroad to be forced to return to DPRK as well as led to the closure of numerous DPRK companies and joint ventures.<ref>[https://www.asianews.it/news-en/North-Korean-workers-leave-China-because-of-UN-sanctions-41942.html “North Korean Workers Leave China because of UN Sanctions.”] Asianews.it. 2017. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220909073331/https://www.asianews.it/news-en/North-Korean-workers-leave-China-because-of-UN-sanctions-41942.html Archived] 2022-09-09.</ref><br />
<br />
A 2020 zine released by [[Nodutdol]] describes the history of sanctions directed against DPRK in the following way:<blockquote>The first of many generations of US sanctions against the DPRK began shortly after the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950, which threatened the US-backed [[Syngman Rhee|Rhee Syngman]] government in the south. Since the beginning of the DPRK nuclear tests in 2003, the [[George W. Bush|Bush]] and [[Barack Obama|Obama]] administrations respectively lifted some sanctions to facilitate negotiations around DPRK denuclearization, and then reinstated them when the negotiations failed to produce the results desired by the US. The sanctions regime reimplemented by the Obama administration targeted three fourths of all DPRK exports, and instituted a labyrinthine network of financial limitations that have functionally cut the DPRK off from accessing international trade or foreign investment. The administrative hurdles placed on international aid organizations and outright bans on items containing metal instituted by Obama’s US and UN sanctions have had devastating effects on the DPRK agricultural, medical, and sanitation systems. In 2018, 3,968 people in the DPRK, who were mostly children under the age of 5, died as a result of shortages and delays to UN aid programs caused by sanctions. The [[Donald Trump|Trump]] administration has elaborated on DPRK sanctions by returning the DPRK to the State Sponsors of Terrorism list, targeting the DPRK’s access to international shipping, instituting a travel ban, and adding new measures targeting a number of DPRK industries.<ref name=":6">[https://nodutdol.org/sanctions-of-empire/ "제국의 제재 - Sanctions of Empire."] Nodutdol. October 20, 2020. [https://nodutdol.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Sanctions-of-Empire.pdf PDF]. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220520095404/https://nodutdol.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Sanctions-of-Empire.pdf Archive].</ref></blockquote><br />
<br />
Foreign Policy in Focus (FPIF) lists out the sanctions and other punishments placed on DPRK as the following:<blockquote>Economic sanctions against North Korea cover trade, finance, investment, even North Korean workers in foreign countries. The earliest of these were imposed by the United States after the Korean War, when Washington imposed a total trade embargo on North Korea and also froze all North Korean holdings in the United States. In the 1970s, the United States tightened these restrictions by prohibiting the import of any agricultural products that contained raw material from North Korea. The United States also prohibits any exports to North Korea if they contain more than 10 percent of U.S.-sourced inputs. There are some minor humanitarian exemptions to these sanctions. Between 2004 and 2019, in the wake of the failed Agreed Framework of the Clinton era, Congress passed eight bills that further restricted economic and financial interactions with North Korea. <br />
<br />
On the financial side, the United States has effectively blocked North Korea from participating in the U.S. financial system but more importantly from engaging in any dollar-based transactions. Secondary sanctions target any countries that conduct business with North Korea, which further limits the country’s access to the global economy. Because North Korea remains on the State Sponsors of Terrorism list, it does not enjoy sovereign immunity from prosecution for certain acts such as torture and extrajudicial killing. The United States is further obligated by the stipulations of this regulation to oppose any effort by North Korea to join the IMF or World Bank.<ref name=":5">Feffer, John. 2021. [https://fpif.org/the-problem-of-sanctions-against-north-korea/ “The Problem of Sanctions against North Korea.”] Foreign Policy in Focus. November 22, 2021. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220909072424/https://fpif.org/the-problem-of-sanctions-against-north-korea/ Archived] 2022-09-09.<br />
<br />
</ref></blockquote>FPIF additionally states that a number of individuals and entities have been singled out for sanctions, from high-level officials and directors of banks to trading and shipping companies to specific vessels and even non-Korean business people. Apart from U.S. sanctions, the UN Security Council has passed "about a dozen" unanimous resolutions that ban trade in arms, luxury goods, electrical equipment, natural gas, and other items. Other sanctions impose a freeze on the assets of designated individuals and entities, prohibit joint ventures with these prohibited entities, and restrict cargo trade with North Korea. Japan has also imposed sanctions, which include measures freeze certain DPRK and Chinese assets, ban bilateral trade with DPRK, restrict the entry of DPRK citizens and ships into Japanese territory, and reportedly prohibit remittances worth more than $880. South Korea, Australia, and the EU also maintain their own sanctions against DPRK.<ref name=":5" /><br />
<br />
According to FPIF, sanctions on DPRK have "demonstrably failed." FPIF notes that sanctions didn’t deter DPRK from pursuing a nuclear weapons program, nor have they been subsequently responsible for pushing it toward denuclearization, and adds that DPRK has been under sanctions for nearly its entire existence and it doesn’t have a strong international economic presence that can be penalized, and "has been willing to suffer the effects of isolation in order to build what it considers to be a credible deterrence against foreign attack."<ref name=":5" /><br />
<br />
The US consistently interferes in inter-Korean affairs by citing sanctions. According to Nodutdol, only a few months after the Korean leaders signed the Panmunjeom Declaration, the US-led UN Command which oversees the DMZ, blocked development of the inter-Korean railway. In January 2020, South Korean President [[Moon Jae-In]] expressed interest in developing tourism to North Korea, but the US ambassador Harry Harris blocked this effort. Harris claimed that "independent" tourism plans would have to undergo US consultation. He emphasized that the items inside South Korean tourists' luggage could violate sanctions, demonstrating the extent of US interference.<ref name=":6" /><br />
<br />
=== Iran ===<br />
US sanctions on Iran began during the 1979 hostage crisis, and currently bar US actors — plus some non-US actors — from most all trade and financial transactions with Iran. Though certain sanctions were lifted as a result of the 2015 nuclear deal, the majority have been reimposed since the US’s unilateral withdrawal.<ref name=":2" /><br />
<br />
According to Nodutdol, Iran has virtually been under some form of US sanctions since the 1979 Iranian Revolution deposed the US-backed Shah and established the Islamic Republic of Iran. In 2015, Iran signed on to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), popularly known as the Iran nuclear deal, with the US and EU. In exchange for abiding by certain nuclear restrictions, Iran was promised relief from some sanctions imposed by the US, EU, and UN Security Council. The Trump administration pulled out of JCPOA in 2017, and dramatically escalated sanctions against Iran. This has had a devastating effect on Iran, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Prevented from conducting business with the US dollar, unable to access overseas assets, and blocked off from most international trade, the Iranian economy has been struck by massive unemployment, runaway inflation, and severe shortages of basic goods. This has been particularly devastating for public health, as shortages of vital medical supplies have exacerbated the rate of preventable deaths, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.<ref name=":6" /><br />
<br />
=== Iraq ===<br />
When asked about half a million Iraqi children who died due to [[United States of America|US]] sanctions, [[Madeleine Albright]] said in 1996, "the price was worth it."<ref>@nickwestes on [[Twitter]]: [https://twitter.com/nickwestes/status/1506754872187576320?s=20&t=raoe2_FM6g6sEqHanC0A-g "When asked about half a million Iraqi children who died of US sanctions, Madeleine Albright said in 1996, "the price was worth it." The former Secretary of State was never brought to justice. Today, the US sanctions about a third of the world's population."]</ref><br />
<br />
In 2003, President Bush signed an order to take possession of the Iraqi government assets that were frozen in 1990, before the Persian Gulf War. As a result, seventeen of the world’s biggest financial institutions were told by the Treasury Department to hand over $1.7 billion in frozen Iraqi assets that the U.S. government intended to place in an account at the NY Fed.<ref name=":3" /><br />
<br />
=== Libya ===<br />
In 2015, it was announced that $67 billion in Libya’s assets remained frozen from 2011. In 2018, it was announced that Libya’s assets had decreased to $34 billion. The UN Libya Experts Panel is “looking for answers” to explain the disappearance of $33 billion in frozen assets.<ref name=":3" /><br />
<br />
=== Russia ===<br />
US-imposed sanctions on Russia targeting the financial, energy, and defense sectors began in 2014 after the annexation of Crimea. This regime was expanded, particularly by the US, UK, and EU, in response to the 2022 conflict in [[Ukraine]], by barring most financial transactions, oil and gas imports, and other activities.<ref name=":2" /> <br />
<br />
The sanctions placed on Russia have substantially weakened Europe, who previously relied on Russia for cheap energy, while simultaneously prompting their governments to place more funding and productive forces into their militaries, resulting in widespread economic stagnation or even decline. This effect has been likened to a boomerang even by US state media.<ref>{{Web citation|author=Victoria Kim, Clifford Krauss and Anton Troianovski|newspaper=The New York Times|title=Western Move to Choke Russia’s Oil Exports Boomerangs, for Now|date=2022-06-21|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/21/world/europe/ukraine-russian-oil-embargo.html|archive-url=https://archive.ph/FJ7hD|archive-date=2022-06-22|retrieved=2023-10-27}}</ref><br />
<br />
In December 2022, the [[G7]] decreed a price cap on Russian oil exports of $60 per barrel; companies who sold Russian oil for higher than this amount would face consequences. Due to Russia's large fossil fuel export economy, the price cap was expected to severely limit the money that Russia could generate by selling their oil. The G7 proposed to meet every two months to discuss whether this price cap should be changed. <br />
<br />
In reality, these measures have been largely ineffective, as Russia found methods to bypass the price cap, such as by creating a "dark fleet" of oil tankers. The premise was flawed from the beginning, as Russian oil could be mixed with that of other countries - such as oil from [[Kingdom of Saudi Arabia|Saudi Arabia]] - and sold on to other countries. As of September 2023, the G7 has stopped meeting to discuss the oil price cap.<ref>{{Web citation|author=Julia Payne|newspaper=Reuters|title=G7 shelves regular Russian oil cap reviews as prices soar|date=2023-09-06|url=https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/g7-shelves-regular-russian-oil-cap-reviews-prices-soar-sources-2023-09-06/|archive-url=https://archive.ph/ySzcg|archive-date=2023-10-06|retrieved=2023-10-06}}</ref> In October 2023, US Treasury Secretary [[Janet Yellen]] admitted that the oil price cap has not been effective recently due to Russian oil prices nearing $100 per barrel.<ref>{{Web citation|newspaper=Russia Today|title=Russian oil cap not working – Washington|date=2023-09-30|url=https://www.rt.com/business/583814-russia-oil-cap-working-yellen/?|archive-url=https://archive.ph/X8yUB|archive-date=2023-09-30|retrieved=2023-10-06}}</ref><br />
<br />
Despite the sanctions on Russian fossil fuels, European countries are still dependent on them. The Bulgarian parliament delayed its ban of Russian oil from the end of 2023 until October 2024, with a year-long transition period.<ref>{{Web citation|author=Krassen Nikolov|newspaper=Euractiv|title=Bulgaria will continue using Russian oil for as long as possible|date=2023-09-29|url=https://www.euractiv.com/section/politics/news/bulgaria-will-continue-using-russian-oil-for-as-long-as-possible/|archive-url=https://archive.ph/z0RQ1|archive-date=2023-09-30|retrieved=2023-10-27}}</ref><br />
<br />
=== Syria ===<br />
''See also: [[Syrian Arab Republic#Sanctions]]''<br />
<br />
A [[Multipolarista]] article by [[Ben Norton]] notes that most of the sanctions imposed on Syria came after the West launched a proxy war against the country in 2011, although the US has had sanctions on Syria going back to 2004. The U.S. sanctions levelled against Syria expanded into a de facto blockade in 2019, with the approval of the [[Caesar Act]], signed into law by president [[Donald Trump]], which came into force in 2020. Special Rapporteur Douhan noted the law “authorized secondary sanctions against non-U.S. persons anywhere in the world who provide financial, material or technological support to the Syrian Government or engage in transactions with it.”<ref>Norton, Ben. [https://multipolarista.com/2022/11/12/un-expert-western-sanctions-syria/ “UN Expert: ‘Outrageous’ Western Sanctions Are ‘Suffocating’ Syria, May Be Crimes against Humanity”] Multipolarista. November 12, 2022. [https://web.archive.org/web/20221115044700/https://multipolarista.com/2022/11/12/un-expert-western-sanctions-syria/ Archived] 2022-11-15.</ref> In accordance with the sanctions under the Caesar Act, anyone doing business with the Syrian authorities, even including transport of basic needs, such as food and medicine into the country, is potentially exposed to travel restrictions and financial sanctions.<ref name=":11">Al Mayadeen English. [https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/hezbollah-sends-aid-convoys-to-quake-hit-syria “Hezbollah Sends Aid Convoys to Quake-Hit Syria.”] ''Al Mayadeen English'', 8 Feb. 2023, Accessed 7 Apr. 2023. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230329054430/https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/hezbollah-sends-aid-convoys-to-quake-hit-syria Archived] 2023-03-29.</ref><br />
<br />
In a November 2022 statement following a 12-day visit to Syria, [[United Nations|UN]] Special Rapporteur Alena Douhan presented information about the catastrophic effects of unilateral sanctions across all walks of life in Syria. Douhan said 90 per cent of Syria’s population was currently living below the poverty line, with limited access to food, water, electricity, shelter, cooking and heating fuel, transportation and healthcare and warned that the country was facing a massive brain-drain due to growing economic hardship. Douhan urged sanctioning states to lift unilateral sanctions against Syria, warning that they were perpetuating and exacerbating the destruction and trauma suffered by the Syrian people since 2011.<ref>[https://www.ohchr.org/en/node/104160 “UN Expert Calls for Lifting of Long-Lasting Unilateral Sanctions ‘Suffocating’ Syrian People.”] 2022. OHCHR. [https://web.archive.org/web/20221115044250/https://www.ohchr.org/en/node/104160 Archived] 2022-11-15.</ref><br />
<br />
During the [[2023 Turkey–Syria earthquake]], Syria was unable to receive immediate direct aid due to sanctions imposed upon the country. The exception was aid from countries whose economies have also been devastated by U.S. sanctions. The governments of Cuba, Venezuela,<ref>[https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Venezuelan-Relief-Workers-Arrive-in-Syria-With-Humanitarian-Aid-20230209-0001.html “Venezuelan Relief Workers Arrive in Syria with Humanitarian Aid.”] ''Telesurenglish.net'', teleSUR, 2023, Accessed 7 Apr. 2023. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230217205456/https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Venezuelan-Relief-Workers-Arrive-in-Syria-With-Humanitarian-Aid-20230209-0001.html Archived] 2023-02-17.</ref> Iran and China, Palestinians in Gaza and Hezbollah<ref name=":11" /> in Lebanon all rushed aid to Syria.<ref name=":12">Rahman, Sameena. [https://www.liberationnews.org/us-sanctions-block-earthquake-aid-to-syria/ “U.S. Sanctions Block Earthquake Aid to Syria.”] ''Liberation News'', Liberation News, 21 Feb. 2023, Accessed 7 Apr. 2023. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230407124501/https://www.liberationnews.org/us-sanctions-block-earthquake-aid-to-syria/ Archived] 2023-04-07.</ref> Iran was able to supply Syria with 70 tons of food, tents and medicine.<ref>Natasha Frost, Raja Abdulrahim (2023-02-07). [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/07/world/europe/turkey-syria-quake-un-aid.html "The only border crossing for U.N. aid from Turkey to Syria is hobbled."] ''[[The New York Times]]''. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230209032139/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/07/world/europe/turkey-syria-quake-un-aid.html Archived] from the original on 2023-02-09.</ref><br />
<br />
Four days after the initial quake, the U.S. State Department announced a temporary lifting of sanctions on Syria, only due to mounting public pressure calling for the exemption. Bassam Sabbagh, Syria’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, described the 180-days U.S. sanctions exemption as “insufficient to adequately offset the dire consequences of [the United States’] coercive measures” in the region.<ref>[https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2023/02/14/698188/Assad-Aid-must-be-brought-into-all-quake-hit-areas-Syria “"Syria Slams US Sanctions, Unilateral Actions for Hampering Humanitarian Aid Delivery ".”] ''PressTV'', PressTV News, 14 Feb. 2023, Accessed 7 Apr. 2023. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230321005213/https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2023/02/14/698188/Assad-Aid-must-be-brought-into-all-quake-hit-areas-Syria Archived] 2023-03-21.</ref> A statement released by the Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates said, “the misleading decision taken by the U.S. administration to temporarily ease some of the cruel and unilateral sanctions on the Syrian nation is out of shame and hypocrisy and is no different from previous gestures meant to convey an erroneous humanitarian impression.”<ref>[https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/minimal-western-aid-to-syria-yet-despite-temporary-lift-of-s “Minimal Western Aid to Syria, despite Temporary Lift of Sanctions.”] ''Al Mayadeen English'', 11 Feb. 2023, Accessed 7 Apr. 2023. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230407125459/https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/minimal-western-aid-to-syria-yet-despite-temporary-lift-of-s Archived] 2023-04-07.</ref> Even with sanctions exemptions, countries hesitated to send aid, fearing financial and political consequences from the United States, which punishes those who violate US-imposed sanctions.<ref name=":12" /><br />
<br />
=== Venezuela ===<br />
US sanctions on Venezuela began under the Obama administration, and were expanded significantly under Trump, including broad financial sanctions targeting the state oil company and sanctions targeting Venezuelan oil exports, all of which have contributed to the country’s economic collapse.<ref name=":2" /><br />
<br />
In 2017, the US and its allies in North America and Europe imposed sanctions on Venezuela targeting individuals in government, state institutions, and access to international credit. Since then, the US and its allies have expanded sanctions to target Venezuela’s major industries, banking sector, and international food aid. These measures have acutely impacted the economic situation in Venezuela, and created shortages of medicine, food, and fuel that have led to widespread suffering. In 2019, the Center for Economic Policy Research published a study estimating that 40,000 deaths in Venezuela from 2017- 2018 could be attributed to US sanctions.<ref name=":6" /><br />
<br />
According to an article in Monthly Review Online, in August 2019, Venezuela’s foreign minister, Jorge Arreaza, stated that the sanctions the United States imposed against it had left more than $3 billion of its assets frozen in the global financial system. Additionally, The Bank of England blocked Venezuela’s attempts to retrieve $1.2 billion worth of gold stored as the nation’s foreign reserves in Britain. It is reported that former national security advisor to President Donald Trump, John Bolton, pressured England to freeze Venezuelan assets. By some estimates, Venezuela holds more than $8 billion in foreign reserves. Additionally, the U.S. froze all the assets Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, PDVSA, has in the United States. While it allows PDVSA’s U.S.-based subsidiary, Citgo, to operate, it confiscates the money it earns and places it in a blocked account.<ref name=":3" /><br />
<br />
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov claims that the U.S. simply confiscates Venezuela’s money under the guise of sanctions, noting that the U.S. is experienced in such illegal affairs, giving Iraq, Libya, Iran, Cuba, Nicaragua, and Panama as examples. According to Lavrov, "US companies operating in Venezuela are excluded from the sanctions regime. Simply put they want to overthrow the government and gain profits at the same time."<ref>[https://www.rt.com/news/450057-cynical-sanctions-us-lavrov-venezuela/ “‘Cynical’ US Sanctions Meant to Confiscate Venezuela’s Assets – Lavrov.”] RT International. RT. January 29, 2019. [https://web.archive.org/web/2/https://www.rt.com/news/450057-cynical-sanctions-us-lavrov-venezuela/ Archived version].</ref><br />
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=== Zimbabwe ===<br />
[[File:Members of the Broad Alliance Against Sanctions in Zimbabwe.jpg|thumb|Members of the Broad Alliance Against Sanctions hold anti-sanctions placards in front of the U.S. embassy in Harare, Zimbabwe, on July 4, 2022.]]According to Chidiebere C. Ogbonna in the African Research Review, from 1966 until the present, "Zimbabwe at one time or another has been under sanctions either by the United Nations the United States, the European Union or all the aforementioned. In total, Zimbabwe has been sanctioned in seven sanction-episodes: 1966, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2008 and 2009, making it one of the most sanctioned countries in the world." Ogbonna states that in a simple analysis, Zimbabwe has become a regular candidate of the "sanctions industry."<ref>Chidiebere C Ogbonna [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/319870565_Targeted_or_Restrictive_Impact_of_US_and_EU_Sanctions_on_Education_and_Healthcare_of_Zimbabweans "Targeted or Restrictive: Impact of U.S. and EU Sanctions on Education and Healthcare of Zimbabweans."] September 2017, African Research Review 11(3):31 DOI:10.4314/afrrev.v11i3.4</ref><br />
<br />
In 2001, Congress passed the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act, which placed sanctions on the Zimbabwean government’s access to international loans, credit, and debt relief. Although the US insists that its sanctions against Zimbabwe are “targeted” and only affect individuals and institutions responsible for undemocratic behavior, the government of Zimbabwe has argued that the sanctions are comprehensive in practice and have contributed to the country’s decades-long economic crisis.<ref name=":6" /><br />
<br />
According to a 2022 article by Xinhua News, the U.S. sanctions against Zimbabwe have accumulated since 2001, following a government decision to repossess land from minority white farmers for redistribution to landless indigenous Zimbabweans. The Xinhua article notes that though the Zimbabwean government said the land reform would promote democracy and the economy, "Western countries launched repeated sanctions with little regard for the average person's suffering." Linda Masarira, president of the Labour Economists and Afrikan Democrats (LEAD) political party, said sanctions have been used as a tool of economic warfare against Zimbabwe, and that sanctioning Zimbabwe "was an action that the United States of America decided to do on Zimbabwe to ensure that they make our economy scream, they make things hard for Zimbabweans and imply that black Zimbabweans, native Zimbabweans cannot do their own farming, or run their own economy."<ref name=":4">Tichaona Chifamba, Zhang Yuliang, Cao Kai. [https://english.news.cn/20220711/5ed659ab8a7e40c5a2baa116589bcede/c.html "Two-decade-old U.S. sanctions leave Zimbabweans suffering, triggering protests".] Xinhua. 2022-07-11. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220909064843/https://english.news.cn/20220711/5ed659ab8a7e40c5a2baa116589bcede/c.html Archived] 2022-09-09.</ref><br />
<br />
The [[Broad Alliance Against Sanctions]] (BAAS) is an organization in Zimbabwe that opposes sanctions. A spokesperson of BAAS was quoted in the Xinhua article regarding the sanctions: "We realized that most industries closed due to sanctions, meaning that sanctions are actually the major cause for all our other problems in Zimbabwe." According to BAAS Chairperson Calvern Chitsunge, officials from the U.S. embassy have tried to bribe the group's four leaders in response to their anti-sanctions activism, noting that the U.S. embassy staff have offered them each 100,000 U.S. dollars, a car and free accommodations at a location of their choosing.<ref name=":4" /><br />
<br />
U.S. state officials claim that sanctions target only 83 individuals and 37 entities and denies the Zimbabwean people as the targets. However, there are certain companies that are not allowed to interact or work with Zimbabwean-based companies, such as the U.S.-based company [[PayPal]], causing difficulty for small start-up companies, and Zimbabwe has struggled to build new roads, hospitals, clinics or even rehabilitate old infrastructure because it has been denied access to affordable finance by international institutions. Obert Gutu, member of the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission and former deputy minister of justice and legal affairs said that "Since 2002 when the sanctions were effected, this economy has never been the same again because the most deadly effect of sanctions on Zimbabwe was just to first and foremost paint Zimbabwe as a pariah state."<ref name=":4" /><br />
<br />
Nodutdol, summarizing findings in Chidiebere C. Ogbonna's 2017 study in the African Research Review, stated that US sanctions and corresponding EU restrictive measures have tremendously affected Zimbabweans’ access to healthcare and education. The study found that Zimbabwe’s capacity to treat and prevent HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria in particular was impacted by rising costs, difficulty accessing funds, and increased emigration of educated professionals, including healthcare workers. The prolonged economic crisis in Zimbabwe, inflamed by decades of sanctions, have resulted in massive unemployment and inflation as well as shortages of basic commodities—consequences that have been observed elsewhere in similarly sanctioned countries.<ref name=":6" /><br />
<br />
== References ==</div>
Verda.Majo
https://en.prolewiki.org/index.php?title=File:UN_General_Assembly_vote_on_condemning_unilateral_coercive_measures,_2023.jpg&diff=61114
File:UN General Assembly vote on condemning unilateral coercive measures, 2023.jpg
2024-01-02T22:38:24Z
<p>Verda.Majo: </p>
<hr />
<div>In the November 7, 2023 session, the UN General Assembly debated a draft that condemned unilateral coercive measures, or sanctions, for violating the human rights of civilians in targeted countries. The resolution passed with 128 votes in favor and 54 against, and no abstentions.<br />
<br />
Source: Geopolitical Economy Report. <br />
URL: https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2023/11/26/west-vote-democracy-human-rights-un-sanctions/</div>
Verda.Majo
https://en.prolewiki.org/index.php?title=Gerald_Ford&diff=61104
Gerald Ford
2024-01-02T06:13:03Z
<p>Verda.Majo: Created page with "'''Gerald R. Ford''' (July 14, 1913 – December 26, 2006) was a politician who served as the 38th President of the United States of America from 1974 to 1977, succeeding President Nixon in the aftermath of the Watergate scandal.<ref>[https://www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-white-house/presidents/gerald-r-ford/ “Gerald R. Ford.”] The White House. December 23, 2022. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240101204556/https://www.whitehouse.gov/about-the..."</p>
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<div>'''Gerald R. Ford''' (July 14, 1913 – December 26, 2006) was a politician who served as the 38th President of the [[United States of America]] from 1974 to 1977, succeeding President [[Richard Nixon|Nixon]] in the aftermath of the [[Watergate scandal]].<ref>[https://www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-white-house/presidents/gerald-r-ford/ “Gerald R. Ford.”] The White House. December 23, 2022. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240101204556/https://www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-white-house/presidents/gerald-r-ford/ Archived] 2024-01-01.</ref><br />
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== Administration ==<br />
Under the Ford administration, [[Bourgeoisie|businessman]] [[Nelson Rockefeller]] served as Vice President and [[Henry Kissinger]] served as Secretary of State.<ref>[https://www.fordlibrarymuseum.gov/library/exhibits/cabinet/cablist.asp "Vice President and Heads of Cabinet Departments."] Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230930092901/https://www.fordlibrarymuseum.gov/library/exhibits/cabinet/cablist.asp Archived] 2023-09-30.</ref><ref>[https://rockarch.org/resources/about-the-rockefellers/nelson-a-rockefeller/ “Nelson A. Rockefeller, 1908-1979.”] Rockefeller Archive Center.</ref><br />
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[[William E. Colby]] served as the Director of the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] from September 4, 1973–January 30, 1976, followed by [[George H. W. Bush|George H.W. Bush]] from January 30, 1976–January 20, 1977.<ref>[https://www.britannica.com/topic/list-of-Central-Intelligence-Agency-directors-1787118 “List of CIA Directors.”] Encyclopædia Britannica.</ref><br />
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== References ==<br />
<references /></div>
Verda.Majo
https://en.prolewiki.org/index.php?title=SanctionsKill_Campaign&diff=61102
SanctionsKill Campaign
2024-01-02T05:15:23Z
<p>Verda.Majo: Created page with "'''SanctionsKill Campaign''', or '''SanctionsKill''', is an activist project using petitions, webinars, direct action, and print and social media intended to expose the human cost of sanctions and raise consciousness and discussion of what can be done to end them. The founding statement of SanctionsKill, issued in 2019, describes sanctions as a weapon of economic war and states that US-imposed sanctions violate in..."</p>
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<div>'''SanctionsKill Campaign''', or '''SanctionsKill''', is an activist project using petitions, webinars, [[direct action]], and print and social media intended to expose the human cost of [[Economic sanctions|sanctions]] and raise consciousness and discussion of what can be done to end them. The founding statement of SanctionsKill, issued in 2019, describes sanctions as a weapon of economic war and states that [[United States of America|US]]-imposed sanctions violate [[international law]] and are a tool of [[regime change]] which are used, like military intervention, to topple popular governments and movements.<ref>[https://sanctionskill.org/ “SanctionsKill Campaign – a Campaign against Unilateral Coercive Measures.”] Sanctionskill.org. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240102044815/https://sanctionskill.org/ Archived] 2024-01-02.</ref><br />
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In a 2022 SanctionsKill report entitled ''U.S. Sanctions, Deadly, Destructive and in Violation of International Law'', the authors note that sanctions are a form of deadly aggression and that more than two-thirds of world nations condemn and consider US sanctions ("unilateral coercive measures") a violation of international law and the UN charter, adding that this is largely unknown in the [[Imperial core|West]] because of effective [[censorship]] by [[Bourgeois media|western media]]. The report also mentions that US-driven sanctions are "backfiring by expediting the decline of US dollar dominance". The report also includes short synopses of the impact of sanctions in [[Republic of Cuba|Cuba]], [[Islamic Republic of Iran|Iran]], [[Republic of Nicaragua|Nicaragua]], [[Democratic People's Republic of Korea|DPRK]], [[Syrian Arab Republic|Syria]], and [[Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela|Venezuela]] as well as quotes from people in places affected by sanctions.<ref>Rick Sterling, John Philpot, and David Paul. "U.S. Sanctions, Deadly, Destructive and in Violation of International Law." 2nd Version. SanctionsKill Campaign, 2022. [https://chrysalis.pwebarchive.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/SanctionsImpactReport_v62c-3.pdf PDF]. [https://web.archive.org/web/20231009172800/https://chrysalis.pwebarchive.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/SanctionsImpactReport_v62c-3.pdf Archived] 2023-10-09.</ref><br />
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== References ==<br />
<references /></div>
Verda.Majo
https://en.prolewiki.org/index.php?title=Economic_sanctions&diff=61101
Economic sanctions
2024-01-02T04:45:32Z
<p>Verda.Majo: updated a name (Sanctions Kill -> SanctionsKill Campaign)</p>
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<div>[[File:Economic sanctions map by SanctionsKill.org.png|thumb|331x331px|A map of countries facing economic sanctions imposed by the United States, according to [[SanctionsKill Campaign]].]]<br />
'''Economic sanctions''' are commercial and financial penalties applied by governments against another government, group, or an individual. They are a form of warfare, similar to siege warfare.<ref>{{News citation|journalist=Jacob G. Hornberger|date=2022-03-11|title=Sanctions Kill Innocent People and Also Destroy Our Liberty|url=https://www.fff.org/2022/03/11/sanctions-kill-innocent-people-and-also-destroy-our-liberty/|newspaper=The Future for Freedom Foundation}}</ref><ref>{{News citation|journalist=[[Eva Bartlett]]|date=2020-04-14|title=SANCTIONS KILL PEOPLE|newspaper=[[Popular Resistance]], [[RT]]}}</ref> Economic sanctions are also known as embargoes. The stated purpose of sanctions is typically to apply economic pressure on a country, in order to influence the government's decision-making, and is often portrayed as a peaceful alternative to armed conflict. However, the material function of sanctions is to create widespread economic hardship, desperation, and destabilization in the targeted country, typically to pave the way for the overthrow of the government or prevent their economic development. <br />
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The outcome of economic sanctions is mass suffering and death amongst the targeted population.<ref>@inspektorbucket on [[Twitter]]: [https://twitter.com/inspektorbucket/status/1507787302445228034?s=20&t=raoe2_FM6g6sEqHanC0A-g "Something to keep in mind: dead children are not an unfortunate side-effect of economic sanctions, but are in fact the goal"]</ref><ref>{{Citation|author=Nicholas Mulder|title=The Economic Weapon: The Rise of Sanctions as a Tool of Modern War}}</ref> Often, the suffering and death and economic underdevelopment resulting from the sanctions are then publicized as being inherent to the targeted government's own policies and blamed on the government, and disingenuous [[human rights]] investigations are subsequently launched to further isolate and destabilize the country, and even used as a justification for increasing the severity of the sanctions. <br />
[[File:USA sanctions increase, 2000-2021.png|thumb|Findings of the U.S. Department of the Treasury on the 933% increase in use of sanctions between 2000 and 2021.<ref name=":7">[https://www.gibsondunn.com/2021-year-end-sanctions-and-export-controls-update/ “2021 Year-End Sanctions and Export Controls Update.”] ''Gibson Dunn'', 4 Feb. 2022, Accessed 7 Apr. 2023. [https://web.archive.org/web/20221205144017/https://www.gibsondunn.com/2021-year-end-sanctions-and-export-controls-update/ Archived] 2021-12-05.</ref><ref name=":8">''The Treasury 2021 Sanctions Review'' ([https://home.treasury.gov/system/files/136/Treasury-2021-sanctions-review.pdf PDF]). [[United States Department of the Treasury|U.S. Department of the Treasury]]. October 2021. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230321145152/https://home.treasury.gov/system/files/136/Treasury-2021-sanctions-review.pdf Archived] 2023-03-21.</ref>]]<br />
According to a 2021 U.S. Treasury review, 9,421 parties were sanctioned by the US government at the end of 2021, representing a 933% increase since 2000.<ref name=":7" /><ref name=":8" /><ref>[[Ben Norton|Norton, Ben]]. [https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2023/04/06/west-sanctions-un-human-rights-council/ “West vs the Rest: World Opposes Sanctions, Only US & Europe Support Them - Geopolitical Economy Report.”] ''[[Geopolitical Economy Report]]'', 7 Apr. 2023, Accessed 7 Apr. 2023. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230407022331/https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2023/04/06/west-sanctions-un-human-rights-council/ Archived] 2023-04-07.</ref> The website of [[SanctionsKill Campaign|SanctionsKill]] noted in 2021 that US sanctions affect a third of humanity, with more than 8,000 measures impacting more than 40 countries, and that the U.S. far exceeds any other country in the number of countries they have strangled with economic sanctions. Sanctions Kill asserts that in a period of human history when hunger and disease are scientifically solvable, depriving hundreds of millions from getting basic necessities is a crime against humanity.<ref name=":1" /> <br />
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An essay posted on Monthly Review Online states that economic sanctions function as undeclared war by creating severe economic disruption and hyperinflation, and explains that because sanctions interfere with the functioning of essential infrastructure i.e. electrical grids, water treatment and distribution facilities, transportation hubs, and communication networks by blocking access to key industrial inputs, such as fuel, raw materials, and replacement parts, they lead to droughts, famines, disease, and abject poverty, which results in the death of millions. Exact numbers are difficult to quantify because no international tally of casualties related to economic sanctions is recorded, which obfuscates its overall fatal impact.<ref name=":3">Smith, Lauren. [https://mronline.org/2020/03/10/united-states-imposed-economic-sanctions-the-big-heist/ “United States Imposed Economic Sanctions: The Big Heist”] MR Online. March 10, 2020. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220907150816/https://mronline.org/2020/03/10/united-states-imposed-economic-sanctions-the-big-heist/ Archived] 2022-09-08.<br />
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According to a page on the Sanctions Kill website, the countries imposing economic sanctions "are the wealthiest, the most powerful, and the most industrially developed countries in the world. The intention is to choke the economies of poor, developing countries, most of which were formerly colonized. The sanctions, as well as visiting extreme hardship upon the civilian population, are intended to serve as a dire threat to surrounding countries, as they impact the economies of the whole region."<ref name=":1">W, Jim. Feb. 2, 2021. [https://sanctionskill.org/2021/02/02/sanctions-fact-sheet-39-countries/ “Sanctions Fact Sheet/over 40 Countries | Sanctions Kill.”] Sanctionskill.org. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220907145836/https://sanctionskill.org/2021/02/02/sanctions-fact-sheet-39-countries/ Archived] 2022-09-07.</ref> <br />
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Lauren Smith notes in Monthly Review Online that it is not unilateral sanctions imposed by the U.S. alone that devastate a targeted country, it is the imposition of secondary sanctions upon foreign third parties that represents the final blow to its economy and people. These measures threaten to cut off foreign countries, governments, companies, financial institutions and individuals from the U.S. financial system if they engage in prohibited transactions with a sanctioned target—irrespective as to whether or not that activity impacts the [[United States of America|United States]] directly.<ref name=":3" /><br />
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In times of natural disaster, [[Progressivism|progressives]] often call for temporary lifting or easing of sanctions in affected countries. However, as sanctions are a form of warfare that are generally used to purposely cause death and suffering in the targeted countries, natural disasters tend to boost the intended deadly effects of sanctions on the targeted countries' populations, as well as create a window of increased [[plausible deniability]] for the aggressor countries responsible for imposing the sanctions, the incentive to ease or remove sanctions is low. <br />
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== Use for destabilization and overthrow of governments ==<br />
An example of the rationale behind the use of economic pressure to destabilize and overthrow governments can be found in a 1960 memorandum between U.S. officials under the Secretary of State for Inter-American affairs, discussing obstacles in overthrowing the government of [[Republic of Cuba|Cuba]]. The author of the memo notes that "the majority of Cubans support [[Fidel Castro|Castro]]" and that there was "no effective political [[opposition]]". In light of there being widespread support for the government and no effective opposition for the U.S. to back and empower, and also noting that "Militant opposition to Castro from without Cuba would only serve his and the communist cause" the author wrote that the "only foreseeable means of alienating internal support" would be "through disenchantment and disaffection based on economic dissatisfaction and hardship" and that "every possible means should be undertaken promptly to weaken the economic life of Cuba" and to "call forth a line of action which, while as adroit and inconspicuous as possible, makes the greatest inroads in denying money and supplies to Cuba, to decrease monetary and real wages, to bring about hunger, desperation and overthrow of government." The U.S. State Department's Office of the Historian notes that the recipient of the memorandum initialed the "yes" option in reply to moving forward with these ideas.<ref name=":0">[https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1958-60v06/d499 "Memorandum From the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs (Mallory) to the Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs (Rubottom)."] Foreign Relations of the United States, 1958–1960, Cuba, Volume vi - Office of the Historian. State.gov. U.S. Department of State. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220806052659/https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1958-60v06/d499 Archived] 2022-08-14.</ref> This is one example of the logic behind the use of economic pressure to destabilize and overthrow governments, and shows that is an option that may be taken when local support for the government is high and explicit external opposition would create a disadvantageous propaganda situation for the aggressor country and strengthen the resolve of the targeted country, and therefore an "inconspicuous" policy of bringing about hunger and desperation is a preferable avenue of attack.<br />
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Kim Ji Ho, author of ''Understanding Korea: Human Rights'', observes the deadly, criminal effects of U.S. sanctions on [[Democratic People's Republic of Korea|DPRK]]'s citizens, and writes of their ultimate goal of destabilizing the country with the purpose of overthrowing its system:<blockquote>The economic sanctions and blockade the US, in collusion with its vassal states, has imposed on the DPRK have been unprecedented in their viciousness and tenacity. These moves are aimed, in essence, at isolating and stifling the country and destabilizing it so as to overthrow its system. The moves the US resorts to by enlisting even its vassal states are a crime against human rights and humanity, which check the sovereign state’s right to development and exert a great negative impact on its people’s enjoying of their rights, a crime as serious as wartime genocide.<ref>Kim Ji Ho (2017). ''Understanding Korea 9: Human Rights. Pyongyang: Foreign Languages Publishing House''.</ref></blockquote><br />
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== Opposition to economic sanctions ==<br />
Opposition to sanctions can be found among various ideological camps. Even critics and opponents of governments targeted by sanctions frequently point out the ineffectiveness of the sanctioning in achieving their stated goals and point out the disastrous inhumane effects of sanctions on the general population, even if these critics do not draw the conclusion that the disastrous effects are in fact the purpose of the sanctions. For example, correspondent Ryan Cooper of ''The Week'' writes of "America's brainless addiction to punitive sanctions regimes" which "virtually never achieve the desired effect and too often inflict pointless suffering on innocents" and which have not achieved "any major U.S. policy goal in this century" giving examples of U.S. sanctions on Iran, Russia, DPRK, and Venezuela all failing to achieve the goals they were said to be implemented for, and refers to U.S. sanctions on Afghanistan as "miserable and useless economic seige". The journalist goes on to describe how sanctions are often used to bolster the image of the politicians who call for and impose them:<blockquote>As Henry Farrell and Abraham L. Newman write in ''The New York Times'', American imperialists can't resist the temptation to use U.S. control over the dollar funding system to economically strangle perceived adversaries. Presidents use sanctions to signal they're tough by inflicting pain on "enemies" (most often innocent civilians) who are helpless to fight back from thousands of miles away. Presidents don't remove sanctions because that would be "weak," or because the Kafkaesque imperial bureaucracy only goes in one direction, or because it would be humiliating to admit error.<ref>Cooper, Ryan. 2022. [https://theweek.com/afghanistan-war/1008876/how-us-sanctions-are-driving-afghanistan-to-famine “Driving Afghanistan to Famine.”] The Week. January 12, 2022.</ref></blockquote>Nicholas Mulder, assistant professor of modern European history at Cornell University, characterized the "ratcheting problem" of sanctions which make every new implementation of sanctions less and less likely to succeed, and "defeats the entire-democratic-behavioral model of sanctions". He also explained that historically, sanctions tend to fail at changing the behavior of other states, although they may be more successful at "grinding down" an opponent's material strength:<blockquote>As tools for changing the behavior of other states, the empirical record is quite clear that they fail more often than not. As ways of grinding down opponents’ material strength they might be more successful. But we must ask at what cost. Long-term undeclared economic war oftentimes entrenches antagonism between countries instead of resolving it. The paradox of sanctions is that effective use relies on a credible promise of their removal. You must commit to lifting restrictions when your demands are met. Right now, many Western governments are stuck in a ratcheting problem where they can only ramp up economic pressure but never lift restrictions. This not only defeats the entire democratic-behavioral model for sanctions, it also makes every new sanction less and less likely to succeed.<ref>[https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2022/01/economic-sanctions-evolved-tool-modern-war “Economic Sanctions Evolved into Tool of Modern War.”] ''Cornell Chronicle'', 2022. Accessed 7 Apr. 2023. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220927134644/https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2022/01/economic-sanctions-evolved-tool-modern-war Archived] 2022-09-27.</ref></blockquote>A 2022 article published by the Center for Economic and Policy Research states that economic sanctions have become one of the main tools of US foreign policy, despite little proof of their efficacy, and widespread evidence that they often target civilian populations, with lethal and devastating effects. The article states that though sanctions are a key part of US policy-making, and a defining feature of the global economic order, sanctions, and their human costs, as well as violations of treaties to which the United States is a signatory, receive relatively little attention in most US media outlets.<ref name=":2">Galant, Michael. [https://cepr.net/cepr-sanctions-watch-may-june-2022/ “CEPR Sanctions Watch, May-June 2022”] Center for Economic and Policy Research. July 8, 2022. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220907145545/https://cepr.net/cepr-sanctions-watch-may-june-2022/ Archived] 2022-09-07.</ref><br />
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== Sanctions by targeted country ==<br />
According to Sanctions Kill, US sanctions affect a third of humanity with more than 8,000 measures impacting more than 40 countries and notes that the U.S. far exceeds any other country in the number of countries they have strangled with economic sanctions. The countries listed by Sanctions Kill as being affected by sanctions as of 2022 include the following: [[Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan|Afghanistan]], [[Republic of Belarus|Belarus]], [[Bosnia and Herzegovina]], [[Republic of Burundi|Burundi]], [[Central African Republic]], [[People's Republic of China|China (PR)]], [[Union of the Comoros|Comoros]], [[Crimea|Crimea Region of Ukraine]], [[Republic of Cuba|Cuba]], [[Republic of Cyprus|Cyprus]], [[Democratic Republic of the Congo|Congo – DR]], [[Eritrea]], [[Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia|Ethiopia]], [[Republic of Guinea|Guinea]], [[Republic of Guinea-Bissau|Guinea Bissau]], [[Republic of Haiti|Haiti]], [[Islamic Republic of Iran|Iran]], [[Republic of Iraq|Iraq]], [[Democratic People's Republic of Korea|Korea – DPRK]], [[Kyrgyz Republic|Kyrgyzstan]], [[Lao People's Democratic Republic|Laos]], [[Lebanon]], [[State of Libya|Libya]], [[Republic of Mali|Mali]], [[Islamic Republic of Mauritania|Mauritania]], [[Republic of Moldova|Moldova]], [[Montenegro]], [[Republic of the Union of Myanmar|Myanmar]], [[Republic of Nicaragua|Nicaragua]], [[State of Palestine|Palestine]], [[Russia (disambiguation)|Russia]], [[Republic of Rwanda|Rwanda]], [[Republic of Serbia|Serbia]], [[Somalia]], [[South Sudan]], [[Republic of the Sudan|Sudan]], [[Syrian Arab Republic|Syria]], [[Republic of Tunisia|Tunisia]], [[Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela|Venezuela]], [[Republic of Yemen|Yemen]], and [[Zimbabwe]].<ref name=":1" /><br />
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=== Afghanistan ===<br />
Since 2021, the U.S. [[Joe Biden|Biden]] administration has blocked Afghanistan’s central bank from accessing roughly $7 billion in its foreign reserves held in the US. Along with sanctions on government officials and a cutoff of aid, this has contributed to a severe collapse of Afghanistan’s economy.<ref name=":2" /><br />
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=== Cuba ===<br />
[[File:Cuba embargo vote.png|thumb|In 2022, all UN members voted against the embargo except the USA and [[State of Israel|Israel]], which voted against, and [[Ukraine]] and [[Republic of Moldova|Moldova]], which did not vote. This marks 30 consecutive years in which the UN has voted to condemn the embargo.<ref name=":9">Ben Norton (Nov 05, 2022). [https://mronline.org/2022/11/05/entire-world-votes-185-to-2-against-blockade-of-cuba-u-s-and-israel-are-rogue-states-at-un/ "Entire world votes 185 to 2 against blockade of Cuba–U.S. and Israel are rogue states at UN"] ''MROnline''. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230113152705/https://mronline.org/2022/11/05/entire-world-votes-185-to-2-against-blockade-of-cuba-u-s-and-israel-are-rogue-states-at-un/ Archived] 2023-01-13.</ref><ref name=":10">[https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/06/1094612 "UN General Assembly calls for US to end Cuba embargo for 29th consecutive year"] (2021-06-23). ''UN News''. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230401151451/https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/06/1094612 Archived] 2023-04-01.</ref>]]<br />
''See also: [[United States embargo against Cuba]]''<br />
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The US embargo of Cuba is one of the oldest and strictest of all US sanctions regimes, prohibiting nearly all trade, travel, and financial transactions since the early 1960s.<ref name=":2" /><br />
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U.S. officials have written that creating "disenchantment and disaffection based on economic dissatisfaction and hardship" through denying money and supplies to Cuba would be a method they should pursue in order to "bring about hunger, desperation and overthrow of government" in that country.<ref name=":0" /><br />
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In an article for The Guardian, David Adler writes of the embargo on Cuba, that "the US embargo impacts every aspect of life on the island – and that is the precisely the point" and goes on to state that "Both the Biden administration and its Republican opposition claim that these measures are targeted at the regime, rather than the Cuban people. But the evidence to the contrary is not only anecdotal. The UN estimates that the embargo has cost Cuba over $130bn in damages" and says that the embargo "fails the test of its own logic" pointing out that "the Biden administration argued that the embargo aims to 'support the Cuban people in their quest to determine their own future'. But the Biden administration does not dare to explain how making Cuba poorer, sicker and more isolated supports their quest for self-determination."<ref>{{Web citation|author=David Adler|newspaper=The Guardian|title=Cuba has been under US embargo for 60 years. It’s time for that to end|date=2022-02-03|url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/feb/03/cuba-us-embargo-must-end|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220613091002/https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/feb/03/cuba-us-embargo-must-end|archive-date=2022-8-14}}</ref><br />
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In 2022, for the 30th year in a row, almost every country voted at the United Nations to condemn the U.S. blockade of Cuba. In the 2022 vote, the USA and Israel voted no, while Ukraine and Moldova did not vote. 185 other countries voted to end the embargo.<ref name=":9" /><ref name=":10" /><br />
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=== Democratic People's Republic of Korea ===<br />
The [[Democratic People's Republic of Korea]] (DPRK) is one of the most sanctioned countries in the world, and has been subject to sanctions since just after its foundation in 1948. The United States first imposed sanctions on north Korea during the [[Korean War]] in the 1950s. Following the country’s 2006 nuclear test, the US, EU, and others added more stringent sanctions, which have periodically intensified since. Sanctions now target oil imports, and cover most finance and trade, and the country’s key minerals sector.<ref name=":2" /><br />
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In 2017, sanctions imposed by the UN caused thousands of DPRK workers who had been working abroad to be forced to return to DPRK as well as led to the closure of numerous DPRK companies and joint ventures.<ref>[https://www.asianews.it/news-en/North-Korean-workers-leave-China-because-of-UN-sanctions-41942.html “North Korean Workers Leave China because of UN Sanctions.”] Asianews.it. 2017. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220909073331/https://www.asianews.it/news-en/North-Korean-workers-leave-China-because-of-UN-sanctions-41942.html Archived] 2022-09-09.</ref><br />
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A 2020 zine released by [[Nodutdol]] describes the history of sanctions directed against DPRK in the following way:<blockquote>The first of many generations of US sanctions against the DPRK began shortly after the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950, which threatened the US-backed [[Syngman Rhee|Rhee Syngman]] government in the south. Since the beginning of the DPRK nuclear tests in 2003, the [[George W. Bush|Bush]] and [[Barack Obama|Obama]] administrations respectively lifted some sanctions to facilitate negotiations around DPRK denuclearization, and then reinstated them when the negotiations failed to produce the results desired by the US. The sanctions regime reimplemented by the Obama administration targeted three fourths of all DPRK exports, and instituted a labyrinthine network of financial limitations that have functionally cut the DPRK off from accessing international trade or foreign investment. The administrative hurdles placed on international aid organizations and outright bans on items containing metal instituted by Obama’s US and UN sanctions have had devastating effects on the DPRK agricultural, medical, and sanitation systems. In 2018, 3,968 people in the DPRK, who were mostly children under the age of 5, died as a result of shortages and delays to UN aid programs caused by sanctions. The [[Donald Trump|Trump]] administration has elaborated on DPRK sanctions by returning the DPRK to the State Sponsors of Terrorism list, targeting the DPRK’s access to international shipping, instituting a travel ban, and adding new measures targeting a number of DPRK industries.<ref name=":6">[https://nodutdol.org/sanctions-of-empire/ "제국의 제재 - Sanctions of Empire."] Nodutdol. October 20, 2020. [https://nodutdol.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Sanctions-of-Empire.pdf PDF]. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220520095404/https://nodutdol.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Sanctions-of-Empire.pdf Archive].</ref></blockquote><br />
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Foreign Policy in Focus (FPIF) lists out the sanctions and other punishments placed on DPRK as the following:<blockquote>Economic sanctions against North Korea cover trade, finance, investment, even North Korean workers in foreign countries. The earliest of these were imposed by the United States after the Korean War, when Washington imposed a total trade embargo on North Korea and also froze all North Korean holdings in the United States. In the 1970s, the United States tightened these restrictions by prohibiting the import of any agricultural products that contained raw material from North Korea. The United States also prohibits any exports to North Korea if they contain more than 10 percent of U.S.-sourced inputs. There are some minor humanitarian exemptions to these sanctions. Between 2004 and 2019, in the wake of the failed Agreed Framework of the Clinton era, Congress passed eight bills that further restricted economic and financial interactions with North Korea. <br />
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On the financial side, the United States has effectively blocked North Korea from participating in the U.S. financial system but more importantly from engaging in any dollar-based transactions. Secondary sanctions target any countries that conduct business with North Korea, which further limits the country’s access to the global economy. Because North Korea remains on the State Sponsors of Terrorism list, it does not enjoy sovereign immunity from prosecution for certain acts such as torture and extrajudicial killing. The United States is further obligated by the stipulations of this regulation to oppose any effort by North Korea to join the IMF or World Bank.<ref name=":5">Feffer, John. 2021. [https://fpif.org/the-problem-of-sanctions-against-north-korea/ “The Problem of Sanctions against North Korea.”] Foreign Policy in Focus. November 22, 2021. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220909072424/https://fpif.org/the-problem-of-sanctions-against-north-korea/ Archived] 2022-09-09.<br />
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</ref></blockquote>FPIF additionally states that a number of individuals and entities have been singled out for sanctions, from high-level officials and directors of banks to trading and shipping companies to specific vessels and even non-Korean business people. Apart from U.S. sanctions, the UN Security Council has passed "about a dozen" unanimous resolutions that ban trade in arms, luxury goods, electrical equipment, natural gas, and other items. Other sanctions impose a freeze on the assets of designated individuals and entities, prohibit joint ventures with these prohibited entities, and restrict cargo trade with North Korea. Japan has also imposed sanctions, which include measures freeze certain DPRK and Chinese assets, ban bilateral trade with DPRK, restrict the entry of DPRK citizens and ships into Japanese territory, and reportedly prohibit remittances worth more than $880. South Korea, Australia, and the EU also maintain their own sanctions against DPRK.<ref name=":5" /><br />
<br />
According to FPIF, sanctions on DPRK have "demonstrably failed." FPIF notes that sanctions didn’t deter DPRK from pursuing a nuclear weapons program, nor have they been subsequently responsible for pushing it toward denuclearization, and adds that DPRK has been under sanctions for nearly its entire existence and it doesn’t have a strong international economic presence that can be penalized, and "has been willing to suffer the effects of isolation in order to build what it considers to be a credible deterrence against foreign attack."<ref name=":5" /><br />
<br />
The US consistently interferes in inter-Korean affairs by citing sanctions. According to Nodutdol, only a few months after the Korean leaders signed the Panmunjeom Declaration, the US-led UN Command which oversees the DMZ, blocked development of the inter-Korean railway. In January 2020, South Korean President [[Moon Jae-In]] expressed interest in developing tourism to North Korea, but the US ambassador Harry Harris blocked this effort. Harris claimed that "independent" tourism plans would have to undergo US consultation. He emphasized that the items inside South Korean tourists' luggage could violate sanctions, demonstrating the extent of US interference.<ref name=":6" /><br />
<br />
=== Iran ===<br />
US sanctions on Iran began during the 1979 hostage crisis, and currently bar US actors — plus some non-US actors — from most all trade and financial transactions with Iran. Though certain sanctions were lifted as a result of the 2015 nuclear deal, the majority have been reimposed since the US’s unilateral withdrawal.<ref name=":2" /><br />
<br />
According to Nodutdol, Iran has virtually been under some form of US sanctions since the 1979 Iranian Revolution deposed the US-backed Shah and established the Islamic Republic of Iran. In 2015, Iran signed on to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), popularly known as the Iran nuclear deal, with the US and EU. In exchange for abiding by certain nuclear restrictions, Iran was promised relief from some sanctions imposed by the US, EU, and UN Security Council. The Trump administration pulled out of JCPOA in 2017, and dramatically escalated sanctions against Iran. This has had a devastating effect on Iran, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Prevented from conducting business with the US dollar, unable to access overseas assets, and blocked off from most international trade, the Iranian economy has been struck by massive unemployment, runaway inflation, and severe shortages of basic goods. This has been particularly devastating for public health, as shortages of vital medical supplies have exacerbated the rate of preventable deaths, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.<ref name=":6" /><br />
<br />
=== Iraq ===<br />
When asked about half a million Iraqi children who died due to [[United States of America|US]] sanctions, [[Madeleine Albright]] said in 1996, "the price was worth it."<ref>@nickwestes on [[Twitter]]: [https://twitter.com/nickwestes/status/1506754872187576320?s=20&t=raoe2_FM6g6sEqHanC0A-g "When asked about half a million Iraqi children who died of US sanctions, Madeleine Albright said in 1996, "the price was worth it." The former Secretary of State was never brought to justice. Today, the US sanctions about a third of the world's population."]</ref><br />
<br />
In 2003, President Bush signed an order to take possession of the Iraqi government assets that were frozen in 1990, before the Persian Gulf War. As a result, seventeen of the world’s biggest financial institutions were told by the Treasury Department to hand over $1.7 billion in frozen Iraqi assets that the U.S. government intended to place in an account at the NY Fed.<ref name=":3" /><br />
<br />
=== Libya ===<br />
In 2015, it was announced that $67 billion in Libya’s assets remained frozen from 2011. In 2018, it was announced that Libya’s assets had decreased to $34 billion. The UN Libya Experts Panel is “looking for answers” to explain the disappearance of $33 billion in frozen assets.<ref name=":3" /><br />
<br />
=== Russia ===<br />
US-imposed sanctions on Russia targeting the financial, energy, and defense sectors began in 2014 after the annexation of Crimea. This regime was expanded, particularly by the US, UK, and EU, in response to the 2022 conflict in [[Ukraine]], by barring most financial transactions, oil and gas imports, and other activities.<ref name=":2" /> <br />
<br />
The sanctions placed on Russia have substantially weakened Europe, who previously relied on Russia for cheap energy, while simultaneously prompting their governments to place more funding and productive forces into their militaries, resulting in widespread economic stagnation or even decline. This effect has been likened to a boomerang even by US state media.<ref>{{Web citation|author=Victoria Kim, Clifford Krauss and Anton Troianovski|newspaper=The New York Times|title=Western Move to Choke Russia’s Oil Exports Boomerangs, for Now|date=2022-06-21|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/21/world/europe/ukraine-russian-oil-embargo.html|archive-url=https://archive.ph/FJ7hD|archive-date=2022-06-22|retrieved=2023-10-27}}</ref><br />
<br />
In December 2022, the [[G7]] decreed a price cap on Russian oil exports of $60 per barrel; companies who sold Russian oil for higher than this amount would face consequences. Due to Russia's large fossil fuel export economy, the price cap was expected to severely limit the money that Russia could generate by selling their oil. The G7 proposed to meet every two months to discuss whether this price cap should be changed. <br />
<br />
In reality, these measures have been largely ineffective, as Russia found methods to bypass the price cap, such as by creating a "dark fleet" of oil tankers. The premise was flawed from the beginning, as Russian oil could be mixed with that of other countries - such as oil from [[Kingdom of Saudi Arabia|Saudi Arabia]] - and sold on to other countries. As of September 2023, the G7 has stopped meeting to discuss the oil price cap.<ref>{{Web citation|author=Julia Payne|newspaper=Reuters|title=G7 shelves regular Russian oil cap reviews as prices soar|date=2023-09-06|url=https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/g7-shelves-regular-russian-oil-cap-reviews-prices-soar-sources-2023-09-06/|archive-url=https://archive.ph/ySzcg|archive-date=2023-10-06|retrieved=2023-10-06}}</ref> In October 2023, US Treasury Secretary [[Janet Yellen]] admitted that the oil price cap has not been effective recently due to Russian oil prices nearing $100 per barrel.<ref>{{Web citation|newspaper=Russia Today|title=Russian oil cap not working – Washington|date=2023-09-30|url=https://www.rt.com/business/583814-russia-oil-cap-working-yellen/?|archive-url=https://archive.ph/X8yUB|archive-date=2023-09-30|retrieved=2023-10-06}}</ref><br />
<br />
Despite the sanctions on Russian fossil fuels, European countries are still dependent on them. The Bulgarian parliament delayed its ban of Russian oil from the end of 2023 until October 2024, with a year-long transition period.<ref>{{Web citation|author=Krassen Nikolov|newspaper=Euractiv|title=Bulgaria will continue using Russian oil for as long as possible|date=2023-09-29|url=https://www.euractiv.com/section/politics/news/bulgaria-will-continue-using-russian-oil-for-as-long-as-possible/|archive-url=https://archive.ph/z0RQ1|archive-date=2023-09-30|retrieved=2023-10-27}}</ref><br />
<br />
=== Syria ===<br />
''See also: [[Syrian Arab Republic#Sanctions]]''<br />
<br />
A [[Multipolarista]] article by [[Ben Norton]] notes that most of the sanctions imposed on Syria came after the West launched a proxy war against the country in 2011, although the US has had sanctions on Syria going back to 2004. The U.S. sanctions levelled against Syria expanded into a de facto blockade in 2019, with the approval of the [[Caesar Act]], signed into law by president [[Donald Trump]], which came into force in 2020. Special Rapporteur Douhan noted the law “authorized secondary sanctions against non-U.S. persons anywhere in the world who provide financial, material or technological support to the Syrian Government or engage in transactions with it.”<ref>Norton, Ben. [https://multipolarista.com/2022/11/12/un-expert-western-sanctions-syria/ “UN Expert: ‘Outrageous’ Western Sanctions Are ‘Suffocating’ Syria, May Be Crimes against Humanity”] Multipolarista. November 12, 2022. [https://web.archive.org/web/20221115044700/https://multipolarista.com/2022/11/12/un-expert-western-sanctions-syria/ Archived] 2022-11-15.</ref> In accordance with the sanctions under the Caesar Act, anyone doing business with the Syrian authorities, even including transport of basic needs, such as food and medicine into the country, is potentially exposed to travel restrictions and financial sanctions.<ref name=":11">Al Mayadeen English. [https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/hezbollah-sends-aid-convoys-to-quake-hit-syria “Hezbollah Sends Aid Convoys to Quake-Hit Syria.”] ''Al Mayadeen English'', 8 Feb. 2023, Accessed 7 Apr. 2023. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230329054430/https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/hezbollah-sends-aid-convoys-to-quake-hit-syria Archived] 2023-03-29.</ref><br />
<br />
In a November 2022 statement following a 12-day visit to Syria, [[United Nations|UN]] Special Rapporteur Alena Douhan presented information about the catastrophic effects of unilateral sanctions across all walks of life in Syria. Douhan said 90 per cent of Syria’s population was currently living below the poverty line, with limited access to food, water, electricity, shelter, cooking and heating fuel, transportation and healthcare and warned that the country was facing a massive brain-drain due to growing economic hardship. Douhan urged sanctioning states to lift unilateral sanctions against Syria, warning that they were perpetuating and exacerbating the destruction and trauma suffered by the Syrian people since 2011.<ref>[https://www.ohchr.org/en/node/104160 “UN Expert Calls for Lifting of Long-Lasting Unilateral Sanctions ‘Suffocating’ Syrian People.”] 2022. OHCHR. [https://web.archive.org/web/20221115044250/https://www.ohchr.org/en/node/104160 Archived] 2022-11-15.</ref><br />
<br />
During the [[2023 Turkey–Syria earthquake]], Syria was unable to receive immediate direct aid due to sanctions imposed upon the country. The exception was aid from countries whose economies have also been devastated by U.S. sanctions. The governments of Cuba, Venezuela,<ref>[https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Venezuelan-Relief-Workers-Arrive-in-Syria-With-Humanitarian-Aid-20230209-0001.html “Venezuelan Relief Workers Arrive in Syria with Humanitarian Aid.”] ''Telesurenglish.net'', teleSUR, 2023, Accessed 7 Apr. 2023. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230217205456/https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Venezuelan-Relief-Workers-Arrive-in-Syria-With-Humanitarian-Aid-20230209-0001.html Archived] 2023-02-17.</ref> Iran and China, Palestinians in Gaza and Hezbollah<ref name=":11" /> in Lebanon all rushed aid to Syria.<ref name=":12">Rahman, Sameena. [https://www.liberationnews.org/us-sanctions-block-earthquake-aid-to-syria/ “U.S. Sanctions Block Earthquake Aid to Syria.”] ''Liberation News'', Liberation News, 21 Feb. 2023, Accessed 7 Apr. 2023. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230407124501/https://www.liberationnews.org/us-sanctions-block-earthquake-aid-to-syria/ Archived] 2023-04-07.</ref> Iran was able to supply Syria with 70 tons of food, tents and medicine.<ref>Natasha Frost, Raja Abdulrahim (2023-02-07). [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/07/world/europe/turkey-syria-quake-un-aid.html "The only border crossing for U.N. aid from Turkey to Syria is hobbled."] ''[[The New York Times]]''. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230209032139/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/07/world/europe/turkey-syria-quake-un-aid.html Archived] from the original on 2023-02-09.</ref><br />
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Four days after the initial quake, the U.S. State Department announced a temporary lifting of sanctions on Syria, only due to mounting public pressure calling for the exemption. Bassam Sabbagh, Syria’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, described the 180-days U.S. sanctions exemption as “insufficient to adequately offset the dire consequences of [the United States’] coercive measures” in the region.<ref>[https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2023/02/14/698188/Assad-Aid-must-be-brought-into-all-quake-hit-areas-Syria “"Syria Slams US Sanctions, Unilateral Actions for Hampering Humanitarian Aid Delivery ".”] ''PressTV'', PressTV News, 14 Feb. 2023, Accessed 7 Apr. 2023. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230321005213/https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2023/02/14/698188/Assad-Aid-must-be-brought-into-all-quake-hit-areas-Syria Archived] 2023-03-21.</ref> A statement released by the Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates said, “the misleading decision taken by the U.S. administration to temporarily ease some of the cruel and unilateral sanctions on the Syrian nation is out of shame and hypocrisy and is no different from previous gestures meant to convey an erroneous humanitarian impression.”<ref>[https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/minimal-western-aid-to-syria-yet-despite-temporary-lift-of-s “Minimal Western Aid to Syria, despite Temporary Lift of Sanctions.”] ''Al Mayadeen English'', 11 Feb. 2023, Accessed 7 Apr. 2023. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230407125459/https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/minimal-western-aid-to-syria-yet-despite-temporary-lift-of-s Archived] 2023-04-07.</ref> Even with sanctions exemptions, countries hesitated to send aid, fearing financial and political consequences from the United States, which punishes those who violate US-imposed sanctions.<ref name=":12" /><br />
<br />
=== Venezuela ===<br />
US sanctions on Venezuela began under the Obama administration, and were expanded significantly under Trump, including broad financial sanctions targeting the state oil company and sanctions targeting Venezuelan oil exports, all of which have contributed to the country’s economic collapse.<ref name=":2" /><br />
<br />
In 2017, the US and its allies in North America and Europe imposed sanctions on Venezuela targeting individuals in government, state institutions, and access to international credit. Since then, the US and its allies have expanded sanctions to target Venezuela’s major industries, banking sector, and international food aid. These measures have acutely impacted the economic situation in Venezuela, and created shortages of medicine, food, and fuel that have led to widespread suffering. In 2019, the Center for Economic Policy Research published a study estimating that 40,000 deaths in Venezuela from 2017- 2018 could be attributed to US sanctions.<ref name=":6" /><br />
<br />
According to an article in Monthly Review Online, in August 2019, Venezuela’s foreign minister, Jorge Arreaza, stated that the sanctions the United States imposed against it had left more than $3 billion of its assets frozen in the global financial system. Additionally, The Bank of England blocked Venezuela’s attempts to retrieve $1.2 billion worth of gold stored as the nation’s foreign reserves in Britain. It is reported that former national security advisor to President Donald Trump, John Bolton, pressured England to freeze Venezuelan assets. By some estimates, Venezuela holds more than $8 billion in foreign reserves. Additionally, the U.S. froze all the assets Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, PDVSA, has in the United States. While it allows PDVSA’s U.S.-based subsidiary, Citgo, to operate, it confiscates the money it earns and places it in a blocked account.<ref name=":3" /><br />
<br />
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov claims that the U.S. simply confiscates Venezuela’s money under the guise of sanctions, noting that the U.S. is experienced in such illegal affairs, giving Iraq, Libya, Iran, Cuba, Nicaragua, and Panama as examples. According to Lavrov, "US companies operating in Venezuela are excluded from the sanctions regime. Simply put they want to overthrow the government and gain profits at the same time."<ref>[https://www.rt.com/news/450057-cynical-sanctions-us-lavrov-venezuela/ “‘Cynical’ US Sanctions Meant to Confiscate Venezuela’s Assets – Lavrov.”] RT International. RT. January 29, 2019. [https://web.archive.org/web/2/https://www.rt.com/news/450057-cynical-sanctions-us-lavrov-venezuela/ Archived version].</ref><br />
<br />
=== Zimbabwe ===<br />
[[File:Members of the Broad Alliance Against Sanctions in Zimbabwe.jpg|thumb|Members of the Broad Alliance Against Sanctions hold anti-sanctions placards in front of the U.S. embassy in Harare, Zimbabwe, on July 4, 2022.]]According to Chidiebere C. Ogbonna in the African Research Review, from 1966 until the present, "Zimbabwe at one time or another has been under sanctions either by the United Nations the United States, the European Union or all the aforementioned. In total, Zimbabwe has been sanctioned in seven sanction-episodes: 1966, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2008 and 2009, making it one of the most sanctioned countries in the world." Ogbonna states that in a simple analysis, Zimbabwe has become a regular candidate of the "sanctions industry."<ref>Chidiebere C Ogbonna [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/319870565_Targeted_or_Restrictive_Impact_of_US_and_EU_Sanctions_on_Education_and_Healthcare_of_Zimbabweans "Targeted or Restrictive: Impact of U.S. and EU Sanctions on Education and Healthcare of Zimbabweans."] September 2017, African Research Review 11(3):31 DOI:10.4314/afrrev.v11i3.4</ref><br />
<br />
In 2001, Congress passed the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act, which placed sanctions on the Zimbabwean government’s access to international loans, credit, and debt relief. Although the US insists that its sanctions against Zimbabwe are “targeted” and only affect individuals and institutions responsible for undemocratic behavior, the government of Zimbabwe has argued that the sanctions are comprehensive in practice and have contributed to the country’s decades-long economic crisis.<ref name=":6" /><br />
<br />
According to a 2022 article by Xinhua News, the U.S. sanctions against Zimbabwe have accumulated since 2001, following a government decision to repossess land from minority white farmers for redistribution to landless indigenous Zimbabweans. The Xinhua article notes that though the Zimbabwean government said the land reform would promote democracy and the economy, "Western countries launched repeated sanctions with little regard for the average person's suffering." Linda Masarira, president of the Labour Economists and Afrikan Democrats (LEAD) political party, said sanctions have been used as a tool of economic warfare against Zimbabwe, and that sanctioning Zimbabwe "was an action that the United States of America decided to do on Zimbabwe to ensure that they make our economy scream, they make things hard for Zimbabweans and imply that black Zimbabweans, native Zimbabweans cannot do their own farming, or run their own economy."<ref name=":4">Tichaona Chifamba, Zhang Yuliang, Cao Kai. [https://english.news.cn/20220711/5ed659ab8a7e40c5a2baa116589bcede/c.html "Two-decade-old U.S. sanctions leave Zimbabweans suffering, triggering protests".] Xinhua. 2022-07-11. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220909064843/https://english.news.cn/20220711/5ed659ab8a7e40c5a2baa116589bcede/c.html Archived] 2022-09-09.</ref><br />
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The [[Broad Alliance Against Sanctions]] (BAAS) is an organization in Zimbabwe that opposes sanctions. A spokesperson of BAAS was quoted in the Xinhua article regarding the sanctions: "We realized that most industries closed due to sanctions, meaning that sanctions are actually the major cause for all our other problems in Zimbabwe." According to BAAS Chairperson Calvern Chitsunge, officials from the U.S. embassy have tried to bribe the group's four leaders in response to their anti-sanctions activism, noting that the U.S. embassy staff have offered them each 100,000 U.S. dollars, a car and free accommodations at a location of their choosing.<ref name=":4" /><br />
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U.S. state officials claim that sanctions target only 83 individuals and 37 entities and denies the Zimbabwean people as the targets. However, there are certain companies that are not allowed to interact or work with Zimbabwean-based companies, such as the U.S.-based company [[PayPal]], causing difficulty for small start-up companies, and Zimbabwe has struggled to build new roads, hospitals, clinics or even rehabilitate old infrastructure because it has been denied access to affordable finance by international institutions. Obert Gutu, member of the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission and former deputy minister of justice and legal affairs said that "Since 2002 when the sanctions were effected, this economy has never been the same again because the most deadly effect of sanctions on Zimbabwe was just to first and foremost paint Zimbabwe as a pariah state."<ref name=":4" /><br />
<br />
Nodutdol, summarizing findings in Chidiebere C. Ogbonna's 2017 study in the African Research Review, stated that US sanctions and corresponding EU restrictive measures have tremendously affected Zimbabweans’ access to healthcare and education. The study found that Zimbabwe’s capacity to treat and prevent HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria in particular was impacted by rising costs, difficulty accessing funds, and increased emigration of educated professionals, including healthcare workers. The prolonged economic crisis in Zimbabwe, inflamed by decades of sanctions, have resulted in massive unemployment and inflation as well as shortages of basic commodities—consequences that have been observed elsewhere in similarly sanctioned countries.<ref name=":6" /><br />
<br />
== References ==</div>
Verda.Majo
https://en.prolewiki.org/index.php?title=Antony_Blinken&diff=61100
Antony Blinken
2024-01-02T03:45:53Z
<p>Verda.Majo: /* Support for Israel */ added image and info about the oct 31 senate hearing where blinken requested israel aid while protesters demanded ceasefire</p>
<hr />
<div>{{Infobox politician|name=Antony Blinken|image_size=200|birth_date=16 April 1962 (aged 61)|birth_place=Yonkers, [[State of New York|New York]], [[United States of America|United States]]|political_orientation=[[Neoconservatism]]|political_party=[[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]]|image=Antony Blinken.png}}<br />
<br />
'''Antony John Blinken''' (born 16 April 1962) is a Statesian politician and the current U.S. Secretary of State. He described China as the "most serious long-term challenger to the [[North Atlantic Treaty Organization|international order]]."<ref>{{Web citation|author=Amanda Yee|newspaper=[[Liberation News]]|title=Containment, encirclement, and suppression: U.S. policy and the new Cold War on China|date=2023-04-13|url=https://www.liberationnews.org/containment-encirclement-and-suppression-u-s-policy-and-the-new-cold-war-on-china/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230925193657/https://www.liberationnews.org/containment-encirclement-and-suppression-u-s-policy-and-the-new-cold-war-on-china/|archive-date=2023-09-25}}</ref><br />
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Blinken supported the [[Iraq War|2003 invasion of Iraq]] and the 2011 assault on [[Libyan Arab Jamahiriya (1977–2011)|Libya]].<ref>Johnson, Jake. [https://truthout.org/articles/bidens-secretary-of-state-pick-showed-support-of-iraq-and-libya-invasions/ “Biden’s Secretary of State Pick Showed Support of Iraq and Libya Invasions.”] [[Truthout]]. November 23, 2020. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230610085341/https://truthout.org/articles/bidens-secretary-of-state-pick-showed-support-of-iraq-and-libya-invasions/ Archived] 2023-06-10.</ref> <br />
<br />
Blinken co-founded the company [[WestExec Advisors]] in 2017, which is involved in helping "[[Silicon Valley]] start-ups to land contracts at the [[United States Department of Defense|Pentagon]]" and enabling the Department of Defense in accessing cutting-edge commercial technology to adapt it to military purposes, among other activities relating to the [[Military–industrial complex|military-industrial complex]].<ref>[https://www.politico.com/news/2020/11/23/westexec-advisors-biden-cabinet-440072 “The Secretive Consulting Firm That’s Become Biden’s Cabinet in Waiting.”] POLITICO. November 23, 2020. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230715231532/https://www.politico.com/news/2020/11/23/westexec-advisors-biden-cabinet-440072 Archived] 2023-07-15.</ref><ref>Fang, Lee. [https://theintercept.com/2018/07/22/google-westexec-pentagon-defense-contracts/ “Former Obama Officials Help Silicon Valley Pitch the Pentagon for Lucrative Defense Contracts.”] The Intercept. July 22, 2018. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230914122916/https://theintercept.com/2018/07/22/google-westexec-pentagon-defense-contracts/ Archived] 2023-09-14.</ref><br />
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In the 1980s, Blinken interviewed [[Henry Kissinger]] for his [[Harvard]] senior thesis about the [[trans-Siberian pipeline]],<ref>Guyer, Jonathan. [https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/06/the-elite-dont-want-to-talk-about-henry-kissingers-party.html “I Crashed Henry Kissinger’s 100th-Birthday Party.”] [[Intelligencer]]. June 8, 2023. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230829165702/https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/06/the-elite-dont-want-to-talk-about-henry-kissingers-party.html Archived] 2023-08-29.</ref> which the U.S. attempted to sabotage by various unilateral economic means in the early 1980s to prevent the pipeline's construction between Russia and Western Europe.<ref>Emmanuel Mourlon-Druol, Angela Romano. [https://www.bruegel.org/blog-post/iran-nuclear-deal-crisis-lessons-1982-transatlantic-dispute-over-siberian-gas-pipeline “The Iran Nuclear Deal Crisis: Lessons from the 1982 Transatlantic Dispute over the Siberian Gas Pipeline.”] Bruegel. May 28, 2018. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230816041649/https://www.bruegel.org/blog-post/iran-nuclear-deal-crisis-lessons-1982-transatlantic-dispute-over-siberian-gas-pipeline Archived] 2023-08-16.</ref> Regarding the pipeline issue, Blinken wrote the 1987 book ''Ally Versus Ally: America, Europe, and the Siberian Pipeline Crisis'' in which he explores the inherent and persistent fractures in the [[North Atlantic Treaty Organization|Western alliance]] which stem from the fundamental difference between US and European economic interests in trading with the [[Eastern Bloc]], which he explains are particularly inflamed in peacetime and by megaprojects, such as gas pipelines, and that future megaprojects are likely to raise continued inner tensions among the Western allies.<ref>Blinken, Antony J. [https://archive.org/details/allyversusallyam0000blin_s2c5 "Ally Versus Ally: America, Europe, and the Siberian Pipeline Crisis."] Praeger, 1987.</ref><br />
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== Disinformation ==<br />
Blinken claimed that the [[Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (1922–1991)|Soviet Union]] covered up the 1941 [[Babi Yar|Babi Yar massacre]], the largest single massacre of [[Judaism|Jews]] during [[Second World War|World War II]], in which [[German Reich (1933–1945)|German Nazis]] and [[Ukrainian Auxiliary Police|Ukrainian Nazi collaborators]] murdered more than 34,000 [[Judaism|Jews]] as well as tens of thousands of [[Romani people|Roma]] and [[Communism|Communists]]. In reality, while Soviet media didn't place as much emphasis on the Jewish aspect of Babi Yar as it should have, the Soviets ''did'' liberate Babi Yar in 1943 and they ''did'' try 15 German policemen for the crime in 1946.<ref>{{Web citation|newspaper=Al Mayadeen|title=Blinken factchecked: X users give U.S. Secretary of State history lesson|url=https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/blinken-factchecked:-x-users-give-us-secretary-of-state-hist|retrieved=2023-10-05}}</ref><br />
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== Views ==<br />
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=== United States hegemony ===<br />
In various writings, speeches, and interviews throughout his life, Blinken has expressed support for a liberal world order under US leadership. He has explained that in his view, any form of order is better than a power vacuum which he sees as "likely to be filled by bad things before it's filled by good things,"<ref name=":0">[https://www.state.gov/secretary-antony-j-blinken-during-a-conversation-at-the-university-of-texas-at-austin-moderated-by-former-u-s-ambassador-to-nato-kay-bailey-hutchison/ "Secretary Antony J. Blinken During a Conversation at The University of Texas at Austin Moderated by Former U.S. Ambassador to NATO Kay Bailey Hutchison."] 2023-10-04. [https://web.archive.org/web/20231101074542/https://www.state.gov/secretary-antony-j-blinken-during-a-conversation-at-the-university-of-texas-at-austin-moderated-by-former-u-s-ambassador-to-nato-kay-bailey-hutchison/ Archived] 2023-11-01.</ref> but that the US-led "rules-based international order" and a "profoundly liberal" order are preferential to alternatives, maintaining this view both during the time of the Soviet Union and now in regard to US-China relations. <br />
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Summing up his view on a "profoundly liberal" US-built world order and contrasting it with his view of China, Blinken stated in a 2022 interview:<blockquote>I believe China wants a world order, which is good because order is usually better than the alternative. But the profound difference is this: The order that we’ve sought to build, very imperfectly, but that we sought to build is profoundly liberal in nature; the order that China seeks is illiberal. We disagree and it’s as basic and fundamental as that. And so to the extent that China’s taking steps that would undermine the liberal, in the broader sense of the term, nature of the order, we’re going to oppose that. And again, we’ve been clear about that; there’s no secret to it.<ref name=":1">[https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/2022-06-01/antony-blinken-conversation-us-secretary-of-state "A Conversation With Antony Blinken."] Foreign Affairs, 2022-06-01. [https://web.archive.org/web/20231007131301/https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/2022-06-01/antony-blinken-conversation-us-secretary-of-state Archived] 2023-10-07.</ref></blockquote>In a 1982 article responding to [[Noam Chomsky]]'s book ''Towards a New Cold War'', Blinken disagreed with the characterization of the U.S. as a belligerent and oppressive state, writing: "You’ve got to wonder if the United States is really the belligerent and oppressive state that Chomsky would have us believe. The answer, at least compared to other nations, is unequivocally no."<ref>[https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/01/11/tony-blinken-secretary-state-harvard-crimson-college-writing-new-republic-columns-world-view-456699 “The World according to Tony Blinken—in the 1980s.”] POLITICO. January 11, 2021.</ref><ref>Blinken, Antony J. [https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1982/3/6/blinded-by-the-light-pbybouve-got/ "Blinded by the Light."] The Harvard Crimson, March 6, 1982.[https://web.archive.org/web/20231101095307/https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1982/3/6/blinded-by-the-light-pbybouve-got/ Archived] 2023-11-01.</ref> In 2023 he expressed a similar view on the relative benevolence of U.S. hegemony compared to alternatives, stating that in the absence of "American leadership" in the world, "either someone else is going to do it, and probably not in a way that reflects our interests or values; or maybe just as bad, no one does it, and then you have a vacuum that’s likely to be filled by bad things before it’s filled by good things." He continued, stating that it is his "profound conviction" that "no country on Earth has a greater ability to mobilize others in positive collective action than the United States."<ref name=":0" /><br />
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Blinken has expressed commitment to defending the so-called "rules-based international order", noting in a 2022 speech that China is "the only country with both the intent to reshape the international order and, increasingly, the economic, diplomatic, military, and technological power to do it." While claiming that the U.S. does not seek conflict, nor a [[New Cold War]], nor seek to block China's role as a major power, Blinken stated "we cannot rely on Beijing to change its trajectory. So we will shape the strategic environment around Beijing to advance our vision for an open, inclusive international system." In the same speech, he touted the strengthening of the "[[Quad]]" security dialogues between the U.S., [[Commonwealth of Australia|Australia]], [[Japan]], and [[Republic of India|India]], emphasized US-[[Association of Southeast Asian Nations|ASEAN]] ties, and the [[AUKUS]] security partnership, claiming it as evidence of "enhancing peace and stability" in the Indo-Pacific.<ref>Blinken, Antony J. [https://www.state.gov/the-administrations-approach-to-the-peoples-republic-of-china "The Administration’s Approach to the People’s Republic of China."] Speech at The George Washington University, Washington, D.C. U.S. Department of State, 2022-05-26. [https://web.archive.org/web/20231028170952/https://www.state.gov/the-administrations-approach-to-the-peoples-republic-of-china/ Archived] 2023-10-28.</ref> <br />
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This view of Blinken's for the need to "shape the strategic environment around Beijing" was reiterated in an interview with [[Foreign Affairs|''Foreign Affairs'']] in 2022. Connecting the issue of US-China relations with the [[2022 Russo-Ukrainian conflict]], a proxy conflict between [[North Atlantic Treaty Organization|NATO]] and the [[Russian Federation]], Blinken said it is important that China take the right "lessons" from the US-led international support for Ukraine, while noting that the U.S. is also making sure its building up its defenses and deterrence.<ref name=":1" /><br />
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=== Support for Israel ===<br />
[[File:Antony Blinken at October 31, 2023 senate hearing.jpg|alt=Antony Blinken at a senate hearing on October 31, 2023 regarding a budget request for Israel. Behind him, activists hold up red-painted hands in protest of U.S. support for Israel's bombing campaign in Gaza.|thumb|Antony Blinken at a senate hearing on October 31, 2023 regarding a budget request for aid to Israel. Behind him, activists hold up red-painted hands in protest of U.S. support for Israel's bombing campaign in Gaza.<ref name=":4">Umar A Farooq. [https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-war-blinken-senate-hearing-interrupted-activists “‘Defund Genocide’: Protesters Heckle Blinken at Hearing over $14.3bn Israel Aid Package.”] [[Middle East Eye]]. 31 October 2023. [https://web.archive.org/web/20231108150101/https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-war-blinken-senate-hearing-interrupted-activists Archived] 2023-11-08.</ref>]]<br />
Blinken has long been an apologist for [[State of Israel|Israel]]'s existence and crimes. In one 1982 article he stated that "the history of the Middle East since 1948 shows Israel constantly striving for peace, only to be rebuffed time and again by the Arabs."<ref>Blinken, Antony J. [https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1982/7/16/lebanon-and-the-facts-pbibmages-of/ "Lebanon and the Facts."] The Harvard Crimson, 1982-07-16. [https://web.archive.org/web/20231101095247/https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1982/7/16/lebanon-and-the-facts-pbibmages-of/ Archived] 2023-11-01.</ref><br />
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In that same year he wrote another article titled "Israel's Saving Grace" a week after the [[Sabra and Shatila massacre]], in which he stated that the massacre of [[State of Palestine|Palestinian]] refugees obscured the "vibrant, working democracy" of Israel, which one "must hope" would be Israel's "salvation", making the claim that those responsible for atrocities would one day be held accountable:<blockquote>Israel is not, has never been, nor will ever be the irreproachable, perfectly moral state some of its supporters would like to see. Israelis are, after all, only human. Still, one pedestal the Jewish state can stand on--and stand on alone in the Middle East--is that of a democracy. Yes, there are tragic excesses in the occupied territories. True, the invasion of Lebanon claimed many innocent lives. The fact remains, though, that Israelis question themselves and their government openly and honestly. Eventually, as in other democracies, those responsible for wrongdoing are held accountable.<ref>Blinken, Antony J. [https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1982/9/23/israels-saving-grace-pbibsraelis-of-all/ "Israel's Saving Grace."] The Harvard Crimson, 1982-09-23. [https://web.archive.org/web/20231101095239/https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1982/9/23/israels-saving-grace-pbibsraelis-of-all/ Archived] 2023-11-01.</ref></blockquote>In another article the following year he conceptualized the massacres and repression perpetrated by Israel as "growing pains", writing that "the summer of 1982 may be remembered in history as the time Israel passed from adolescence to adulthood", and that despite these things, Israel "remains special, an oasis in a desert. Its citizens have built a working democracy from scratch in a region that has no others. Israelis must treasure that democracy, protect it with all their will."<ref>Blinken, Antony J. [https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1983/1/14/the-danger-within-pbabs-the-passions/ "The Danger Within."] The Harvard Crimson, 1983-01-14. [https://web.archive.org/web/20231101095252/https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1983/1/14/the-danger-within-pbabs-the-passions/ Archived] 2023-11-01.</ref><br />
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In October 2023, days after the start of [[Operation Flood of Al-Aqsa]], Blinken arrived in Tel Aviv with a message of US support with military and diplomatic aid for Israel. Prime Minister [[Benjamin Netanyahu]] greeted Blinken at a joint conference as his "good friend Tony", thanking him and the US administration for their support in the "war against the barbarians of [[Islamic Resistance Movement|Hamas]]", followed by Netanyahu vowing Hamas would be "crushed" and insisting that the "forces of civilization" will win.<ref name=":2">[https://www.c-span.org/video/?531095-1/secretary-blinken-news-conference-israeli-prime-minister-netanyahu "Secretary Blinken News Conference with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu."] C-SPAN, October 12, 2023. [https://web.archive.org/web/20231029175953/https://www.c-span.org/video/?531095-1/secretary-blinken-news-conference-israeli-prime-minister-netanyahu Archived] 2023-10-29.</ref><ref name=":3">[https://www.euronews.com/2023/10/12/blinken-in-tel-aviv-in-show-of-us-solidarity-with-israel “Blinken in Tel Aviv in Show of US Solidarity with Israel.”] Euronews. October 12, 2023. [https://web.archive.org/web/20231018073348/https://www.euronews.com/2023/10/12/blinken-in-tel-aviv-in-show-of-us-solidarity-with-israel Archived] 2023-10-18.</ref><br />
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Following this, Blinken stated, "You may be strong enough on your own to defend yourselves, but as long as America exists, you will never, ever have to. We will always be there by your side. [...] We're delivering on our word, supplying ammunition, interceptors to replenish Israel's Iron Dome, alongside other defense materiel. The first shipments of US military support have already arrived in Israel and more is on the way. As Israel's defense needs evolve, we will work with Congress to make sure they're met. And I can tell you there is overwhelming, overwhelming bipartisan support in our Congress for Israel's security." At the conference's end, Blinken and Netanyahu shook hands and embraced.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3" /><br />
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On October 31, 2023, amid Israel's ongoing bombing of Gaza, Blinken and Defense Secretary [[Lloyd Austin]] argued at a senate hearing for immediate aid to be sent to Israel and [[Ukraine]]. Throughout the hearing, protesters behind Blinken and Austin raised their red-painted hands to signify the blood on U.S. hands for supporting Israel's bombing of Gaza, with the activists periodically standing up to call for a ceasefire and shouting that Blinken was funding genocide. Blinken repeatedly paused his speech as protesters interrupted him and were escorted out one by one by security until he could resume the budget request.<ref name=":4" /><ref>Mary Clare Jalonick. [https://apnews.com/article/israel-ukraine-congress-senate-austin-blinken-a56354873731af2ea5a96db227059969 “U.S. Military and Diplomatic Leaders Urge a Divided Congress to Send Aid to Both Israel and Ukraine.”] AP News. October 31, 2023. [https://web.archive.org/web/20231222061419/https://apnews.com/article/israel-ukraine-congress-senate-austin-blinken-a56354873731af2ea5a96db227059969 Archived] 2023-12-22.</ref> In his remarks, Blinken stated that this funding would be "critical to outcompeting our strategic rivals", saying that it would support US allies in addressing "threats from an increasingly assertive PRC" and "help countries transition to military and defense equipment that’s made in America" and provide resources to the [[The World Bank|World Bank]] and [[International Monetary Fund]], as an alternative to China's "coercive" financing.<ref>[https://www.state.gov/opening-remarks-by-secretary-antony-j-blinken-before-the-senate-appropriations-committee-on-a-review-of-the-national-security-supplemental-request/ "Opening Remarks by Secretary Antony J. Blinken Before the Senate Appropriations Committee On “A Review of the National Security Supplemental Request”"]. United States Department of State, 2023-10-31.[https://web.archive.org/web/20231031183901/https://www.state.gov/opening-remarks-by-secretary-antony-j-blinken-before-the-senate-appropriations-committee-on-a-review-of-the-national-security-supplemental-request/ Archived] 2023-10-31.</ref><br />
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== References ==<br />
[[Category:Politicians in the United States]]<br />
[[Category:United States Secretaries of State]]<br />
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blinken, Antony}}</div>
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