US-North Korea summit can undo the historical mistakes that led to division
Charles Armstrong and John Barry Kotch say that the original Korean division was the product of a poorly thought-out American policy, and that the summits between the two Koreas and then between Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump provide opportunities to rectify this mistake
Lost amid the furore over North Korea’s nuclear advances, mutual threats between Washington and Pyongyang and the surprise announcement of dual summit meetings – between Moon Jae-in and Kim Jong-un, then Kim and Donald Trump– is the long history of how we got to this point of confrontation and possible breakthrough.
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This history goes well beyond the nuclear crises of the post-cold war era to the Korean war of 1950-53, and the division of Korea at the end of the second world war.
How did Korea, a nation with more than 1,000 years of political unity, become divided in the first place and what has been the United States’ role in the process?
Korea’s division was a product of Japan’s sudden surrender following the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki ending the second world war. The race to occupy the peninsula by US and Soviet forces after 35 years of Japanese occupation was an improvised affair, with the 38th parallel drawn as a line of military demarcation. It was the forerunner of a dual occupation of political opposites, each catering to Koreans of different political persuasions – leftists for the Soviets, rightists for the Americans – which subsequently hardened into permanent division.
Pedestrians walk past a banner showing two hands clasping, forming the shape of the Korean peninsula, at Seoul City Hall on April 18. The lead-up to the inter-Korean summit in Panmunjom on Friday was accompanied by a publicity blitz promoting efforts to establish peace and unification. Photo: AFP
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The initial failure of American policymakers to follow the recommendation of State Department planners to administer the country “as a single administrative unit and not as separate zones” has been the driver of instability, the militarisation of the peninsula and unceasing hostility between the two Koreas and between North Korea and the US.
