Reunification as a determining factor in the Korean War
"Reunification" as the only means of change
The real origin of the Korean War is still an ambiguous response issue, since two dissimilar conceptions coexist in this regard. On the one hand, it is argued that the aspiration to a reunification was of a massive nature in the Peninsula, which is why it is positioned as the main foundation for war. Meanwhile, it is also stated that globalized ideological doctrines such as capitalism and communism were triggers of the war conflict as "strategy" in order to dispense with pernicious alliances for the world powers of the time, such as the United States and the Soviet Union. Therefore, it is argued that the external influence between the two Koreas caused the relations between them to become hostile, but the desire for reunification was a preponderant topic of discussion.
Korean thought
Syngman Rhee, then South Korean president, ambitioned a Korean reunification under capitalist ideals, since he considered that the Soviet regime as a synonym for coercion. As the same testified, he was a firm believer of Ilmin Juui (ideology of a nation), being his main point to overthrow lineages and genealogies and promote equal rights. As he said ‘unite as a nation under the unique law of a state". Rhee believed in liberal democracy, being the capitalist regime his vision of the new order for Korea. That is, it was expressed as a denial to revolutionary logic. As Myers alludes, it is true that the various dictators of South Korea promoted nationalism as a way to unite the nation and repress dissent. In that sense, he considered the communism of the North as a disadvantage in the development of his country. Clara sign of this is that the main educational objective of the United States is alluded to in Korea as a system composed of Koreans, but structured according to US lines.
Faced with such a situation, the feeling of the Koreans in the face of what was happening was very evident. For the years prior to the Korean war, it is known that Korean radical groups, including young academics, student leaders of the universities and government leaders, now represented the United States as an imperialist power that betrayed hopes and desiresof the Korean people to democratize their society (Woong, P.5). Thus, we can interpret that even despite the fact that the “best” living conditions in the south, the disagreement began to express the regime that separated the country.
As for the north, Kim Il Sung was a precursor to the movement in favor of reunification. He decided to ally with the communists, firmly believing that, if Mao Zedong triumphed in the Chinese Civil War, the next to obtain his independence would be South Korea. That way they would get rid of the "capitalist bandits" and Korea would be a. Therefore, Kim Il Sung attacked in June 1950, hoping to unify Korea, and quickly banish the army and southern government. It should be noted repeatedly gathered with the Soviet leader, Stalin, in order to achieve such objective obtaining economic and material support to develop North Korea. As Kim states:
“In this war against the Syngman Rhee gang, the Korean people must defend with their life the democratic popular republic of Korea and its constitution, to free the southern part of our homeland from the reactionary domain of that clique, overthrowing power ventpatria and puppetestablished there, restore in the southern part the popular committees, genuine power of the people, and achieve the cause of the reunification of the country under the flag of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea ”
Kim, 1950, all forces for victory in war
For Kim, the south had to be released from what he considered from his perspective as coercion, “if the issue of the liberation of the peoples of the southern part of Korea and the unification of the country is out of course, then I can lose the confidence ofThe people of Korea ". In summary, North Korea was influenced by the "Soviet flow", and motivated to extend his communist system, but mainly the wishes of Kim Il Sung to unify his homeland were the main causes of war.
It is also stated that the Soviet occupation authorities, in effect, managed to cultivate support among local intellectuals and dominate cultural faults to a degree in which their US counterparts often envied (Naimark P. 398, cited in Armstrong). Specifically among the youth population, which Armstrong specifies, they washed their brain. Therefore, support for the Soviet regime, which promised the improvement of living conditions for North Korea and stipulated coercion by ignorance.
In this way, a clear vision of the popular Korean perspective on the northern regime is shown, considering it as an extremist and a direct violation of the peace and independence that was sought. Based on this, the rejection of reunification is understandable under enslaving systems for the people and the struggle for the union in independence. On the one hand, North Koreans thought about war as an instrument of liberation south of the American abusive regime. While the South Koreans conceived the North Korean regime as a subversive and coer. All this as a result of the influence of the powers on the peninsula;But if the reasons for war are discussed, reunification covers the study of popular feeling and ideology, which would lead to war. In that sense, the desire for reunification still remained although the reasons for this will vary. In that sense, we can deduce that the main cause for the beginning of the war was the desire to reunify Korea. Actually, Korean efforts to build a modern nation-state were not new, since they began at the end of the 19th century but were frustrated by foreign imperial powers.
For the Koreans, the war represented their "home and pride" in favor of reunification. The North Korean desire not only involved repudiating and ensuring capitalist expansion, but rather consisted of beating for an independent Korea and with development opportunities, that being the greatest explanation for Kim to indoctrinate communist. In this regard, the North had already developed strong communist ties that Kim himself was responsible for forge and spreading in the population to obtain support from more developed countries, while in the south it would not be allowed that Korea would meet under a communist regime,But there would also not fight to defend the capitalists, he simply wanted a united country again.
In the same way, it also refers to the great leaders would exercise coercion as a means for the population to adhere to the regime, since neither Kim Il Sung nor Syngman Rhee had agreed to fight for a Korea that was not lowThe form of government that spread in the other half of the country. And the population was no stranger to this reality, so it shows this is the cartoon in the south published in 1952 “The Communist Party, Squeezing Out the Sweat and Blood of The Farmers!”(The Communist Party that squeezes the sweat and blood of the farmers). In which a giant humanoid snake is observed with a hat of North Korean forces squeezing a civilian, taking advantage of its food and monetary resources. Likewise, in the cartoon of Block, in which he exposes Those Are The Flags of Various Gánster Mobs and Millionaires. Now Shut Up (those are the flags of several gangsters and millionaires, now shut up). That is, the alleged actions of the other half of the country were disseminated, in order to convince about a reunification that will benefit the progress of the nation.
The Korean War or the War by Korea?: Economic interests
One of the main causes attributed to the beginning of war is the confrontation between capitalism and communism, since Korea was occupied by the greatest powers of the time: the Soviet Union and the United States, established as a result of its conversion into a bulwark offoreign wealth. That is, its independence was apparently "official" despite knowing its close dependence on the powers that occupied it. In that sense, the question of reunification has already been examined part of sensationalism as an internal cause for the Korean War. However, it is also considered that the main hegemonic countries of the time influenced both Koreas in order to have a front in East Asia and thus establish economic relations that would benefit them in the future when the country had greater stability.
A point to emphasize, is that the Korea War joined China and the Soviet Union in an immediate sense and caused a terrible devastation in Korea, since both countries were staunch communists and as a primary purpose they had to curb the propagation of their ideology. By Edne, with respect to this, Thornton states that Stalin subtly led to the Korean war, so that China depended on them, since it would ensure their economic and long -term economic interests. In this way, investing in future commercial and military relations with China, Stalin would give in to Mao’s request, which consisted of sending a necessary artillery to attack Taiwan. That would have meant the avoiding that Mao aliasto with the United States. That is, the Korean War was a disguise for tensions in Eastern Asia caused by a conflict of economic interests.
It is also evident that Americans did not want to risk losing their only territory of influence in Asia, because it provided them with a perfect strategic position to "monitor" communist movements and a great opportunity to enrich themselves economically. As stated by a document from the National Council of American National Security, write to President Truman in 1949 asking for the continuity of momentary assistance to South Korea to “a network of communist organizations in South Korea will lead to systematic control and generate an economic crisis”. Based on this, it was believed that Soviet influence represented the opportunity to extend its ideological influence. It should be noted that through this relationship the Koreans have clearly suffered contradictions between the moral statements of the United States used to justify their ‘manifest destination’.
South Korea became synonymous with "resisting the communist Korea, the future Soviet dictatorship" and if appropriate measures were not taken, a communist propagation in Asia would be reached, a domino effect, where Japan would give up to the Soviet regime. The Korean conflict was the occasion to transform the United States into a country very different from what had been before (cumings, p. 13). That, in the sense that it represented not only capitalist expansion, but the opportunity to create an ally in its image and likeness. Thus, those economic interests from countries outside Korea focused on not losing their influence on that country.
Kim Il Sung in North Korea was practically a puppet of the Soviets, which initiated a war that after all would only benefit the Soviet Union in the sense that the US would not be allied with China. Similarly, the United States Committee gave an intense repudiation of communism by Syngman Rhee as a figure of authority in South Korea. Therefore, the Korean War had, for foreign powers, the purpose of undermining the attempts to advance capitalism in Korea. As Stalin would affirm in a letter from Kim Il Sung ‘If a new World War is inevitable, let’s do it now and not in a few years, when Japan has allied with the United States’. And this future war, had to go very cautious, but defending his ideology and in favor of his economic interest. Comparing with Thornton’s opinion, Stalin’s war served interests beyond the unification of Korea, which, however, was only Kim Il Sung’s interest. So, it is logical that the reason for the conflict can also be that, since being imperialists in potentA possible source of income. Therefore, it is stated that both powers would have ended up generating a great war confrontation by Korea.
The Korean War: product of reunification?
The Korean War was aggravated by foreign influences associated with economic interests that involved the classic communism-capitalism conflict, but not devised by them, given that these were part of the interest in a reunification
While it is true, the news of the Chinese-Soviet alliance occurred in the context of an effort from the United States, cautious and persistent. This effort influenced the moment and to a significant extent of the content of the relationship between the two communist powers (Thornton, P.27). Therefore, it is understood that the transformation of Korea obeyed the interests of the powers. However, the interest in reunification originated the war, since it corresponds directly to the dilemma on the idealized vision of a single Korea that forged the conflict. Kim Il Sung alluded to the Syngman Rhee had only typosted South Korea – at the same time to implement democracy there – and sell to the country as a colony to the United States, fulfilling the dictates of its American owners . Meanwhile, Lee said that Syngman Rhee had made clear his desire to adopt the notions of liberal democracy and economic market as the basis of his government, his anti-community position being a reaction to the threat of revolution. It is impossible to omit the issue of confrontation between capitalism and communism at the beginning of the Korean War, but these contribute to it as an excuse that world powers arise. Because of this, it is understood that the economic interests of the powers promoted the desire for reunification, but from different approaches. They, which would lead to ideological differences on reunification, caused war.
The Korean population as a whole always fought for the search for a single independent Korea, although with different methods. The war itself did not unleashed when different perspectives on the economic system of the "ideal Korea" that citizens ambitioned, but rather these increased the existing conflict,. Thus, although economic interests served to expedite the idea of a conflict, they were only part of the search for a system that created a single Korea to which they could finally designate as their "home".
As a closure, we affirm that the Korean war was the product of the desire to reunification, thus being a deeper ideological issue than the conflicts of its allies.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, the interests in reunification played a very important role in the beginning of the Korean War, since there were various dilemma that were used as pretexts.
It is valid to assert that the Korean War was in many ways a disguise for tensions in Asia as a result of World War II. That, since both the United States and the Soviet Union undertook a "colonizing movement" in Korea that was rather responsible for dividing the country into two blocks that followed their steps and extended their ideology. Thus, being indisputable that the formation of overwhelming ideological differences between the north and the south is the result of the imposition of regimes based on economic doctrines such as communism and capitalism.
Despite this, those economic doctrines are rather part of a greater cause. We affirm that the Korean war is due to ideological differences generated from the desire to reunition since both leaders and the population prioritized it over the preservation of their lifestyle. Thus, the struggle between capitalism and communism is part of the dilemma that prevented the main objective: reunification. Therefore, they are not primary causes, but rather it is part of the desire for reunification;in the same way that the new lifestyle and beliefs did it.
The reunification was priority for Koreans. Logically, it is there that leaders such as Kim Il Sung or Syngman Rhee arise, willing to ally with whoever was necessary to achieve their country’s reunification under a system that meant the development of their nation, from its criteria. Even considering the existence of dissimilar political, economic, social and even cultural interests so that each power will promote war, after all, the decision to definitely attack the 38th parallel was due to the independence and formation of a single Korea. Thus, we identify the ideological motivations related to reunification to encompass the true origin of war, because the roughness between ideas from Soviet and American influences (Government Administration System, Lifestyle Conception of World Relations) endedOnly interests to build a sustainable country were part.
Therefore, we affirmed that the gathering interest was very important for the beginning of the Korean War, since although doctrines such as capitalism and communism also contributed to the development of the conflict, they were part of the many paradigms that were around the vision ofA single idealized Korea.
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