ich little progress has been made and the nature of the North Korean regime.
With some interruptions, the Korean peninsula was ruled by indigenous Korean kingdoms for most of the first and second millennia --from A.D. 668 until Japan's annexation of Korea following its victory in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-5. According to Harrison (2002), "shaped by Confucian values, the Korean tradition of unified government with a centralized bureaucracy dates back more than twelve hundred years" (p. 22). Korea's strong sense of a common political, linguistic and cultural tradition was further enhanced by the rise of Korean nationalism in response to the Japanese occupation. In their Cairo Declaration of December 1, 1943, the Allied powers envisaged an independent, unified Korea. However, in August 1945, the Soviet Union and the United States agreed to the temporary division of Korea at the 38th parallel.
1945-1950. A Soviet client state, the communist DPRK under the rule of dictator and former guerrilla leader Kim Il Sung (1912-1994) tightened its control over the North; and under American occupation/protection Syngman Rhee's conservative, non-communist and authoritarian state gradually emerged in the South. Buzo (2002) summarized relations between DPRK and ROK prior to the outbreak of the Korean War on June 25, 1950 as follows: "antagonism and confrontation between the two Koreas grew steadily during 1948-1950 through inflammatory rhetoric, subversion, insurrection and guerilla warfare" (p. 71).
Korean War. By invading the South and attempting to drive out American/ROK forces in the Pusan Perimeter (June 1950-September 1951), DPRK attempted to unify the peninsula by force. This was followed by the American/ROK landing at Inchon and offensive toward the Yalu River (September-November 1951) which turned into a similar American/ROK effort. After China militarily intervened, American and ROK forces retreated to below the 38th parallel. D...