Korea, the Divided Nation

(Hardback)

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Following its liberation from Japanese colonialism, at the end of WWII, Korea was divided into two separate nations. Because the Korean nation enjoyed a long dynastic history, its postwar partition was particularly traumatic. The ensuing Cold War years spawned the Korean War and subsequent decades of strained inter-Korean relations and tensions in the region surrounding the peninsula. This volume provides readers who are unfamiliar with Korea's heritage insight into how Korea became a divided nation engulfed in international geopolitical tensions, providing expert analysis of this rendered nation's background, modern circumstances, and future prospects. The Korean peninsula in Northeast Asia is home to a country that was divided at the end of the Second World War after its liberation from Japanese colonialism. Because the Korean nation enjoyed a long dynastic history, its postwar partition was particularly traumatic. The ensuing Cold War years soon spawned a very hot Korean War and subsequent decades of strained inter-Korean relations and tensions in the region surrounding the peninsula. This volume provides readers who are unfamiliar with Korea's heritage with insight into how Korea became a divided nation engulfed in international geopolitical tensions, providing expert analysis of this rendered nation's background, modern circumstances, and future prospects. After a survey of Korea's geographic setting and historic legacy, Olsen details the circumstances of Korea's liberation and subsequent division. Drawing on that background, he analyzes the evolution of both South Korea and North Korea as separate states, surveying the politics, economics, and foreign policy of each. What are the key issues for each state from an international perspective What are the prospects for reuniting the two into one nation What challenges would a united Korea be likely to face Olsen determines that stability in Korea is essential to future peace in the region. He concludes that a successful move toward unification is the best way to resolve issues connected to North Korea's nuclear agenda.

Reviews

Beginning with the earliest history of the Korean people, Olsen undertakes a succinct but remarkably thorough overview of Korea's unique history and culture prior to the 20th century. He also lays the political and social foundations for the calamitous century just passed, in which the once-overlooked Korean nation was the focus of colonial and later geopolitical rivalries between Japan, China, the US, and the USSR. Written in a style accessible to undergraduates, this brief volume is most suitable for readers with little or no knowledge about the Korean peninsula, particularly its history before the 1950-53 conflict. Recommended. General and undergraduate libraries seeking to add to their collection of general interest titles on East Asian history and politics. * Choice *
[Clear and straightforward in its tone * Asian Affairs *
[A]dresses separately the political histories and foreign policies of both Koreas since 1948; his treatment of the last quater century of South Korean presidential politics, in particular, stands out as one of the best short synopses available. The analyses of the trilateral dynamics between the two Koreas and other major regional powers, considered in turn, and of likely paths that reunification might take, are likewise insightful. Although it is not the last book on the origins of Korea's contemporary situation, for many audiences, Olsen's brief account would work well as the first. * The Historian *

Author Bio

Edward A. Olsen is Professor of National Security Affairs and Asian Studies at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. Prior to joining the faculty there, he was a political analyst on Korea and Japan at the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Intelligence and Research.