There are two sides to the coin that is modern Korea. On the one face, we have the communist north, a military juggernaut that can hardly feed its people. On the other, we have the capitalist south, a powerful economy fueled by exploitation. What led to this major divide? What caused the Korean Peninsula to be torn asunder at the 38th parallel? And what does the future hold for the economies and people of the twin dragons that seem bent on destroying each other?.
Geographically, the Korean Peninsula commands a strategic location in East Asia. Far from ensuring Korea a powerful position in the Asian world, this tactical importance has been the motivation for the series of conquests that the region has undergone from its neighbors. Japan has called Korea "a dagger pointed at our heart" and China "a hammer poised above our heads". For this reason, both countries have sought to control the peninsula. .
Korea was dominated first by the Mongols, then by China under the Qing Dynasty in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The Confucianist ideals of the Chinese spread to Korea and took root, and later would help to inform the structure of Korean society. The Chinese government, never known for their stellar performance as far as human rights are concerned, committed many atrocities in Korea, and the country chafed under Chinese rule. Pockets of resistance materialized all over the peninsula and, while many were violently and ruthlessly squashed, some had a small amount of success against the Chinese military.
In 1910, while Europe was busy with WWI, Japan began to build herself an empire. She did this through seizure of European colonies, but also set her sights on China's vast resources and labor potential. She set up a possible invasion of China by conquering the Korean peninsula. As before, the Korean resistance was strong, and the rebel groups fought a continuous conflict using guerilla tactics.