{koh-ree'-uh} Korea is a small, strategically important, and politically divided country occupying a narrow peninsula of the East Asian mainland. It shares land borders with China on the north and with the \TUSSR\t on the northeast, and it reaches to within 195 km (120 mi) of the largest Japanese island, Honshu. Formerly a united kingdom, Korea was divided (1945) at about the 38th parallel of latitude into two separate occupation zones (Soviet in the north and United States in the south) and since 1948 into the Communist-controlled Democratic People's Republic of Korea, otherwise known as North Korea, and the U.S.-supported Republic of Korea, or South Korea. Both republics seek eventual reunification of the peninsula through the political overthrow of the other. Seoul is the capital of South Korea, and Pyongyang is the capital of North Korea. Korea has a long history as a cultural bridge across which Chinese culture was transmitted to Japan and Japanese influences reached the mainland. Korean culture was greatly enriched by this contact, but Korea was dominated politically by both China and Japan for part of its history. Nevertheless, the Koreans have maintained their identity as a separate and distinct people. The name is derived from Koryo, the dynasty that ruled the peninsula from 913 to 1392. Following the devastation of the \TKorean War\t (1950-53), both nations had to rebuild their economies; South Korea looked outward, developing a successful export-oriented economy. North Korea, one of the world's most highly regimented and isolated societies, focused on economic self-sufficiency. LAND AND RESOURCES Korea occupies a predominantly mountainous peninsula, about 320 km (200 mi) wide, that extends southward from the Asian mainland for about 965 km (600 mi). The peninsula is bordered by the Yellow Sea on the west and the Sea of Japan on the east. More than 3,000 islands, most of them small and uninhabited, border the irregular, 8,700-km-long (5,400-mi) coastline; the largest of these is Cheju (Quelpart) Island, located about 120 km (75 mi) off the southwest coast. Only about 20% of the Korean peninsula is occupied by lowlands suitable for settlement and cultivation, and most of the population is concentrated in small, discontinuous coastal plains and inland valleys that open onto the western coast. The remaining 80% is too rugged for cultivation. The mountains drop steeply along the east coast, forming a narrow plain with few good harbors except in the northeast. To the west, the descent is more gentle and the land opens to the largest and richest agricultural lands. The highest mountains are the Paektu-san (Ch'ang-pai Mountains), which extend from northeast to southwest along the Chinese border, reaching 2,744 km (9,003 ft) at Mount Paektu, Korea's highest point. To the east of the lowlands are the T'aebaek Mountains, the backbone of the peninsula, which extend southward from Wonsan to form the main watershed. These mountains rise steeply from a narrow coastal plain along the Sea of Japan and reach 1,709 m (5,604 ft) at Diamond Mountain. To the south, separating the western lowlands from the south coast and Pusan's Naktong Valley, is the Sobaek Range, which extends from northeast to southwest across the southern end of the peninsula. Soils Korea's best agricultural soils are alluvial and are found in river valleys and coastal plains. Even these, however, tend to be somewhat infertile and sandy and require heavy fertilizing. Soils in the mountains are generally thin and suitable only for cultivation by the slash-and-burn technique. Climate The climate of Korea is both continental and monsoonal. During the winter, the peninsula is usually swept by cold, dry north and northwest winds blowing from the interior of the Asian continent. As a result, North Korea has long, cold, and snowy winters, with an average January temperature of about - 8 deg C (17 deg F) at Pyongyang; milder, shorter winters occur farther south, with an average January temperature of - 5 deg C (23 deg F) at Seoul. During the summer, southerly monsoon winds, blowing onshore from the surrounding seas, predominate. Temperatures in July average 27 deg C (80 deg F) throughout the peninsula except in mountainous regions. The frost-free period, or growing season, ranges from 220 days in the south, making double cropping possible there, to less than 175 days, suitable for only one crop a year, in the north. Annual precipitation is heaviest in the south, which receives more than 1,525 mm (60 in), and decreases to about 510 mm (20 in) in the north. Most precipitation occurs during the summer months. Drainage, Vegetation, and Animal Life The rivers of Korea are short and swift. They are widely used for irrigation and for generation of hydroelectricity but are of limited value for navigation. The most important rivers are the \TYalu\t and T'umen in the north; the Taedong, Han, and Kum in central Korea; and the Naktong in the southeast. Coniferous forests, including pine, fir, larch, and spruce trees, grow extensively in the north and at higher elevations farther south. Deciduous trees and pine forests predominate in warmer areas. Such wild animals as wolves, bears, leopards, and tigers are still found in some sparsely settled northern and peninsular upland areas. Resources Korea is well endowed with mineral resources, including large deposits of coal, iron ore, copper, gold, silver, and tungsten. The political division of Korea left most coal and metals, as well as most of the commercial forests and hydroelectric power resources, in North Korea. South Korea, on the other hand, possesses the best agricultural land and a large labor force. PEOPLE Koreans are an ethnically homogenous Mongoloid people who have shared a common history, language, and culture since at least the 7th century AD, when the peninsula was first unified. The official language of both North and South is Korean (see \TKorean language\t), which is believed to have developed from a Tungusic base thousands of years ago, although many words have been borrowed from the Chinese and Japanese languages. The Korean alphabet, called hangul, was developed during the 15th century and is believed to have been the first phonetic alphabet in East Asia. North Korea officially adheres to Marxism and Juche ("self-reliance") as the national ideology, and organized religion is reportedly suppressed. The majority of South Koreans profess (as did most North Koreans, until the Communists came to power) Buddhism and Confucianism, the latter of which was Korea's official religion from the 14th to the early 20th century. About 28% of South Koreans are Christians. Also important are shamanism, a widely practiced belief in natural spirits, and the strongly nationalistic religion known as Chundo Kyo (Tonghak before 1905), which was founded in the 19th century and combines elements of Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism. Demography of North Korea About 34% of all Koreans now live in North Korea (1990 est. pop., 21,292,649). The population density is greatest in the plains along the western coast. The population is growing rapidly due to a high birthrate accompanied by a low death rate. Despite this natural increase, however, North Korea experiences a severe labor shortage, partly because of heavy casualties during the Korean War and also because of the migration of more than 3 million persons from North to South Korea since 1948. The population is more urban than rural, and urban migration continues. The largest cities are \TPyongyang\t (the capital), \TKaesong\t, Chongjin, and Hungnam. Demography of South Korea About 66% of all Koreans now live in South Korea, which has a population of 43,045,098 (1990 est.) and therefore ranks among the world's most densely populated nations. As in North Korea, the lowlands along the western coast are the most densely populated areas. Although the overall rate of population growth has slowed, South Korea is experiencing urban growth. The largest cities are \TSeoul\t, \TPusan\t, \TTaegu\t, \TInchon\t (Seoul's port), \TKwangju\t, and \TTaejon\t. Education and Health in North Korea Nearly 100% of those reaching school age since 1948 are literate. Education is free and compulsory for all students between the ages of 5 and 16, and about 20% pursue higher education. The largest institution of higher learning is Kim Il Sung University (1946) in Pyongyang (see \TKorean universities\t). Free medical treatment is available, and paramedics supplement the care provided by physicians. Education and Health in South Korea Elementary education is free and compulsory for all students between the ages of 6 and 11, and 100% of this age group is enrolled in school. More than 75% of all children also attend secondary school. Opportunities for higher education have been greatly expanded since 1948; Seoul National University (1946) is the leading institution of higher learning. Health care has improved dramatically since 1948, with a consequent increase in life expectancy at birth. Traditional medical treatment, using herbs and acupuncture, now complements Western medicine. The Arts Korea's rich artistic and cultural heritage has been strongly influenced by centuries of close contact with China. Buddhism, which dominated Korean life from the 7th to the 12th century, has influenced the arts. Many beautiful Buddhist temples, monasteries, shrines, palaces, fine metalwork, and other art treasures still remain to bear witness to the achievements of this golden age and are valuable to South Korea's growing tourist industry. Under the Koryo dynasty (918-1392), delicate celadon ceramics of outstanding beauty and craftsmanship were produced. Folktales, music, poetry, and drama all draw heavily on the Buddhist and Confucian traditions. (See also \TKorean art\t.) ECONOMIC ACTIVITY North Korea After the North-South division, North Korea possessed most of the industrial plant, iron, and other ores, coal reserves, and hydroelectric dams developed during the Japanese occupation (1910-45). Damage inflicted during the Korean War was rapidly repaired with financial and technical assistance from the \TUSSR\t and other Communist nations, and in the 1960s economic growth in the north took place at a rapid pace. By the end of the 1970s, however, economic growth had slowed, and the gross national product by the late 1980s was less than one-sixth that of South Korea. Under Communist control, all industry has been nationalized and agriculture collectivized. Manufacturing and Power. In the early years of Communist control, expansion of the iron and steel, chemical, metallurgical, and machine industries was stressed in an effort to build an industrially self-sufficient and militarily strong economy. Since the 1970s, the emphasis was switched from heavy industries to the development of previously neglected consumer products. Major products currently include heavy machinery, trucks, tractors, bulldozers, farm implements, and electrical generators. The major industrial centers are Pyongyang, Chongjin, Kimchaek, and Kangson and Kangso (both near Pyongyang), which are all diversified metallurgical centers; Hungnam, the center of the petrochemical industry; and Sinuijul, a pulp and paper manufacturing center. Electricity is produced at large hydroelectric power installations on the Yalu River and its tributaries in the north. Thermal electric plants fueled by coal and imported oil supplement hydroelectric power during the dry season and are extensively used in heavily industrialized areas. In 1989, North Korea had a kW capacity of 6.4 million, and 40.2 billion kW h were produced. Agriculture, Fishing, and Forestry. It is estimated that less than half of the total labor force works in agriculture, reduced from 75% in 1948. The chief crop is rice. Agriculture is heavily mechanized, partly in response to the labor shortage. Commercial fishing is a major industry along the east coast, and marine products are an important export. Commercial forestry is well developed, especially in the forested northern mountain regions. Transportation. An extensive rail network links North Korea with China and also connects the country's major ports and cities. Road transportation is less well developed, but a major expressway connects Pyongyang with Kaesong. The Yalu and Taedong rivers are the principal waterways used for heavy freight, and an oil pipeline brings petroleum to North Korea from China's Taching oil field. Trade. The principal imports are petroleum, coking coal, machinery, transportation equipment, and wheat. The principal exports are rice, metals, cement, machinery, and chemicals. Efforts to develop trade with Sweden, Finland, and other Western nations in the 1970s resulted in major balance of payments problems, and North Korea was forced to default or defer payments on many of its Western purchases. Since 1990, after several years of renewed emphasis on economic self-reliance, the government has again sought to develop trade and technical links with capitalist countries such as Japan. South Korea Since the Korean War, the South Korean economy has been revitalized and greatly expanded with the aid of capital investment from the United States and, since the mid-1960s, from Japan. During the 1960s and 1970s the economy grew at a rate between 7% and 10% a year. Economic growth continued during the 1980s, except for negative growth in 1980. Overseas construction contracts, particularly in the Middle East, provided a significant source of income. Manufacturing and Power. Manufacturing provides most of South Korea's exports. Early postwar industrial development focused on Korea's low labor costs and included such labor-intensive industries as electronics, footwear, and textile manufacturing. Today Korean-made television, videocassette recorders, and textiles successfully compete with those made in Japan. In addition, emphasis is now placed on industries producing high value-added items, such as petrochemicals, steel, ships, cement, and automobiles and trucks. Seoul is the principal industrial center, followed by Pusan, the oil-refining and shipbuilding center of Ulsan, and the petrochemical and steelmill town of Yochon. After the Korean War, South Korea began a massive construction effort to develop electrical generating facilities, including nuclear power stations. In 1989, 80 billion kW h of electricity were produced (16 times the 1966 output). This power is produced primarily from thermal plants fueled with imported petroleum. Agriculture, Fishing, and Forestry. About 21% of the land is farmed; agriculture provides about 10% of the national income. Rice is the principal summer, or wet-season, crop; wheat, barley, corn, potatoes, and sweet potatoes are the major dry-season crops. South Korea's rice yields, among the highest in the world, are obtained through heavy use of fertilizers, hybrid seeds, irrigation, and mechanization, plus a strong system of cooperatives. Foodstuffs, including meat products, are imported in increasing quantity. Fish, a traditional part of the Korean diet, are abundant offshore and in the Sea of Japan. Since the 1950s fish production has increased tremendously, and South Korea now ranks third (following Japan and China) among Asian fish producers. Forests cover about 66% of the total land area, but demand exceeds the yearly wood output. Extensive reforestation efforts have been launched. Transportation. The principal rail line connects Seoul, Taejon, Taegu, and Pusan. A second rail line runs from Seoul to the south and west, and a third serves the east coast. New expressways, such as the one linking Seoul and Pusan, have led to a decline in the use of rail transportation. Roads, subways, and sports facilities were built in preparation for the 1988 Olympic Games, which were held in Seoul. Trade The keystone of South Korea's growing prosperity is foreign trade. Exports have increased dramatically since the 1960s. South Korean trade with China, the \TUSSR\t, and the nations of Eastern Europe has expanded dramatically since the late 1980s. Today, South Korean exports face increasing competition from other industrializing nations and are threatened by protectionist legislation in the United States and elsewhere. GOVERNMENT North Korea North Korea is a Communist state in which political power rests with the leadership of the Korean Workers' party. According to the constitution of 1972, top policy-making power rests with the Central People's Committee. Legislative power nominally belongs to the Supreme People's Assembly, whose members are directly elected; this body, however, only ratifies decisions of the Central People's Committee. Executive power rests with the president and the State Administrative Council, headed by a premier named by the president. \TKim Il Sung\t served as premier since 1948 to 1972, when the post of president was established, and as president since that time. South Korea According to the constitution of 1987, the sixth since 1948, legislative power is vested in the mostly popularly elected National Assembly and executive power in the president. The latter is elected to a single 5-year term. The president appoints the cabinet, headed by a prime minister. \TRoh Tae Woo\t was elected president in 1987 under the new constitution, which curtailed presidential powers, strengthened the legislature, and pledged military neutrality in politics. HISTORY SINCE 1945 Korea, one of the oldest nations in the world, was first unified in the 7th century AD (see \TKorea, history of\t). The country was occupied by Japan in 1905 and formally annexed by that state in 1910. During World War II, Korea was promised independence following the defeat of Japan. At the end of the war, however, it was divided at the 38th parallel of latitude; Soviet troops occupied Korea north of this line, and American forces were south of the parallel. Subsequent reunification efforts failed. In 1947 the United Nations agreed to supervise country-wide elections for a new government but were denied access to North Korea. Elections proceeded in the south, and on Aug. 15, 1948, the U.S. military government ended, and the Republic of Korea, with Syngman \TRhee\t as president, was proclaimed. On Sept. 9, 1948, a Communist-controlled government in North Korea proclaimed the independence of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea under Premier Kim Il Sung. Both governments claimed jurisdiction over the entire peninsula. In 1950, North Korea invaded the South in the first phase of the Korean War, and the United States quickly came to the aid of the South. In 1953 the war ended inconclusively, and the cease-fire line was placed at about the 38th parallel, with a 2,000-m-wide (6,560-ft) demilitarized zone (DMZ) on either side. The truce has been an uneasy one, marked by frequent border skirmishes. Reunification talks have been held and proposed periodically since 1972 without result. North Korea since 1953 Chinese troops aided North Korea during the Korean War, but North Korea tried to disassociate itself from the dispute between China and the \TUSSR\t during the 1960s; in 1966, North Korea declared its political independence. In 1968 tensions increased when the crew of the U.S. ship Pueblo were held and charged with spying, but neither Moscow nor Peking intervened (see \TPueblo Incident\t). President Kim Il Sung, raised to demigod status, chose his eldest son, Kim Jung Il, as his eventual successor. North Korea boycotted the 1988 Seoul Olympics when its bid to co-host the games failed. Talks between the two Koreas on trade links and cross-border visits have been held on and off since 1972, and in September 1990 their prime ministers met for the first time since the Korean War. North Korea announced in 1990 that it would seek full normalization of its relations with Japan. The following year, in a further effort to end its growing diplomatic isolation, North Korea was granted UN membership and said that it would permit international inspection of its nuclear facilities. South Korea since 1953 In 1960 riots forced the resignation of President Syngman Rhee. The new president, Chang Myun, was overthrown in 1961 in a military coup that brought Gen. \TPark Chung Hee\t to power. Park, elected president in 1963, did much to restore economic prosperity. Rising protests against his authoritarian rule, however, led to the imposition of military rule in 1972. In 1975 all political opposition was banned. The Park regime ended with his assassination by the head of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency in 1979. Premier Choi Kyu Hah was then elected president. In May 1980 protests against the reimposition of martial law led to an uprising in Kwangju that was harshly suppressed by the army. Soon after, a military committee led by \TChun Doo Hwan\t assumed power. A new constitution was approved in October, and Chun became president in 1981. His army-backed Democratic Justice party (DJP) lost seats in the 1985 legislative elections, and in June 1987 the worst political protests since 1980 erupted. \TRoh Tae Woo\t, Chun's successor as head of the DJP, reached an agreement with opposition leaders Kim Dae Jung and Kim Young Sam in September on a new constitution providing for direct presidential elections. Roh won the elections on Dec. 20, 1987, but with only 37% of the vote over a divided opposition. He assumed office on Feb. 25, 1988. In the April 1988 legislative elections, 3 opposition parties won 164 of the 299 seats. In November, as legislative committees conducted public hearings into corruption, former president Chun apologized to the nation for abuses of power by his regime and went into self-imposed exile until January 1991. President Roh announced compensation for victims of the 1980 Kwangju incident and established diplomatic ties with the \TUSSR\t, which later said it would support South Korea's application for UN membership. In January 1990 the DLP and two leading opposition parties merged, although the opposition legislators boycotted parliament from July to November to protest the enforced passage of numerous legislative bills by the DLP. In 1991 the first local elections since the 1961 coup were held; a majority of seats were won by DLP candidates. South Korea was admitted to the United Nations in September 1991. Reviewed by Robert B. Hall, Jr. Bibliography: \TKorea\t (NORTH AND \TSouth\t): Hoare, J., and Pares, S., Korea (1988); Kim, Joungwon, Divided Korea: The Politics of Development (1975); Kim, Y.W., Politics and Policies in Divided Korea (1984); Koh, B. C., The Foreign Policy Systems of North and South Korea (1984); McCune, Shannon, Korea's Heritage: A Regional and Social Geography (1956; repr. 1964); Macdonald, D. S., The Koreans (1988); Osgood, Cornelius B., The Koreans and Their Culture (1951; repr. 1983); Van Ree, E., Socialism in One Zone (1989). \TNorth\t \TKorea\t: American University, North Korea: A Country Study (1981); An, T. S., North Korea: A Political Handbook (1983); Brun, Ellen, and Hersh, Jacques, Socialist Korea (1976); Merrill, J., North Korea: Politics, Economics, and Society (1986); Scalapino, Robert A., and Lee, H., eds., North Korea in a Regional and Global Context (1986). \TSouth\t \TKorea\t: American University, South Korea: A Country Study (1982); Bartz, Patricia, South Korea: A Descriptive Geography (1972); Curtis, G. L., and Sung Joo Han, eds., The U.S.-South Korean Alliance (1983); Hinton, H. C., Korea under New Leadership (1983); Mason, E. S., The Economic and Social Modernization of the Republic of Korea (1980); Park Sung-Jo et al., eds., Economic Development and Social Change in Korea (1982); Sohn, H. K., Authoritarianism and Opposition in South Korea (1989); Steinberg, D. I., South Korea Profile (1986) and Korean Economy (1988); Stephens, M., Lost in Seoul (1990).