Korea: The Search for Sovereignty

This book offers a broad history of Korea, from the earliest times to the present, with a particular focus on key twentieth-century events that have helped to shape today's political climate. Particular attention is given to the 1993-94 dispute over North Korea's controversial nuclear development program. The nuclear dispute is profiled within the defining context of the post-Soviet world (the so-called 'New World Order'), and against such crucial modern events as the Japanese colonisation of the Korean peninsula, the US-inspired partition, the resulting Korean War, and the subsequent development of the Republic of Korea in the south and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in the north. An attempt is made to highlight the distinctive features of the two traditionally authoritarian regimes. Detailed information is included, both to support a succinct history and to encourage a political interpretation that transcends five decades of Western propaganda.