North Korea

NOTE: Something happened when I tried to save this brief a while ago, and it is now missing quite a few pages. I was able to print off a copy of the previous version, minus some pro/con arguments, but I haven't found the time to update this brief just yet.

North Korea:

Sample Resolutions:

THBT Western Liberal Democracies should increase diplomatic relations with N. Korea.

THW impose economic sanctions on N. Korea until they re-sign the NNPT.

THW invade North Korea.

Historical Background:

Korea is a peninsula on the south-eastern border of China, and is split into two nations, Communist North Korea, and democratic South Korea. In the late 1800’s, the monarchy of Korea was undermined by the fact that there were mostly child kings who were unable to maintain strong control. In 1864, Taewon’gun took power from his son Kojong and began instituting isolationist policies. Eventually, he was forced to step down, and Japan pressured Korea to open up ports. This brought about large scale Japanese influence, which caused political unrest, and a schism between two groups: the moderates and the radicals. China sent in troops after a failed coup attempt, and then created a trade agreement with Korea. Then the US, UK, France, Germany, and Russia all signed trade agreements with Korea. A coup attempt happened in 1884, but Chinese troops put it down, and then Japan and China signed an agreement to maintain order there after.

When Japan and Russia went to war in 1904, Korea declared neutrality, but Japan forced them to allow Japan to use Korea as a base. Korean guerilla fighters sprung up to fight the Japanese after Japan named Korea as a protectorate and occupied Korea. Japan then put in a proxy government, severely limited freedom of speech, press, assembly, and traditional Korean language. The Japanese ran the education system, and taught Japanese history in their schools. There was a demonstration of 2 million people in 1919, but the Japanese government brutally put it down. Then in Dec 1941 (same month as attack on Pearl Harbor), the traditional Korean gov’t that had moved into China declared war on Japan and joined the Allied forces.

In the conference at Cairo in 1943, China, The US, and Britain all promised Korean independence, but at the end of WWII, Korea was divided into two. Initially, a four-way power sharing deal had been proposed by China, US, Britain, and Russia, but to force the Japanese surrender in 1945, The USSR held the North Portion, and The US held the Southern portion. The USSR implemented a communist provisional gov’t led by Kim Il Sung. Growing tensions between the US and USSR caused trade to stop between North and South. In 1947, a UN committee was put together to oversee reunification of North and South, but USSR wouldn’t let them in the borders to oversee an election. In 1948, The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (Pyongyang as capitol) was established officially with Kim Il Sung as the leader. In 1950, a war (Korean War) broke out between North and South as USSR and US troops left the areas, and a UN force led by US’s General MacArthur entered South Korea and pushed back North Korean forces. Then China sent 1.2 M troops to help out N. Korea. Negotiations began in 1951, and by 1953, a new int’l boundary and demilitarized zone was established. S. Korea received financial support from the US and signed a mutual security pact. The war left 4m people dead or injured.

After the war, Kim Il Sung set about to further establish his role as leader, and began purging his political rivals, he also introduced his philosophy of Juche, which is an isolationist view that states that N. Korea can make it on its own, with no outside help in development. By the late 70’s NK had fallen behind SK in terms of economic development and NK hit a period of economic stagnation. Kim kept relations with China and Soviets, but waivered back and forth, but when Soviet Russia fell, NK hit an economic crisis, and experienced widespread famine. Kim then attempted to increase relations with SK, but failed because of the allegations of Nuclear facilities in NK. In ’94, Kim died and passed the mantle to Kim Jong Il, also well known for his civil rights abuses.

Kim Jong Il ran the economy into economic subsistence, while spending on Military remained high. In 2000, Jong Il accepted SK president Kim Dae-jung as relations between NK and SK appeared to be getting better, when they got together they both agreed that reunification of the Koreas is the ultimate goal for both countries. However, in ’02, a naval battle broke out which killed 4 SK soldiers and about 30 NK sailors. Jong Il blamed the US and SK for the attacks, and SK president Dae-jung suspended all rice shipments to NK until he apologized. US and NK relations got a lot worse when Bush accused NK or forming the “Axis of Evil” with Iraq and Iran, to which NK responded by reactivating a nuclear power plant and demanded the withdrawal of inspectors from the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). NK officials claimed that they had to reopen it in response to US plans for a pre-emptive nuclear attack. Observers have suggested this was a ploy to force US into direct talks for signing a peace agreement, however, this obviously has yet to work. The reinstatement of nuclear facilities has scared the surrounding nations of NK, obviously, which has resulted in unrest between SK, Japan, and NK. In Feb 2005, NK admitted for the first time that they have nuclear weapons, and on October 9, 2006, NK tested its first nuclear weapon underground. In 2007, in a joint effort between SK, Japan, Russia, China, and the US, North Korea agreed to close its chief nuclear reactor in return for fuel aid. In oct ’07 agreed to further close three installations and the surrender of its nuclear stockpile was scheduled in 2008. They missed a deadline in Dec ’07.