Introduction

If you have seen anything about Korea in the news, you will realise that it is divided into two countries – North Korea (the 'Democratic People's Republic of Korea'), and South Korea (the 'Republic of Korea').

You will also be aware that the two countries are represented VERY differently in the media:

  •   SOUTH KOREA is a vibrant, modern state.  It is considered one of the most advanced democracies in Asia – so strong that, when President Yoon Suk Yeol tried to seize control by declaring martial law in 2025, he was removed peacefully, by the process of law.  It is wealthy, with a flourishing consumer economy.  It is famous for K-Pop, its advanced technology (particularly its amazing internet network) and Lotte World (the largest indoor theme park in the world). 

  •   NORTH KOREA, by contrast, is portrayed as a repressive totalitarian state, with a "mentally deranged" dictator and "the worst human rights record in the world".  Although it is one of the poorest countries in the world, it has one of the largest militaries, and is actively trying to develop atomic ballistic missiles.  US President George Bush declared it one corner of the "axis of evil".

Historian Suzy Kim opens her ground-breaking book Everyday Life in the North Korean Revolution (2013) by referencing the famous satellite picture of Korea at night (right), and quoting US Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld's 2002 comment about it:

If you look at a picture from the sky of the Korean Peninsula at night, South Korea is filled with lights and energy and vitality and a booming economy; North Korea is dark.  It is a tragedy what's being done in that country.

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What I want you to realise before you start studying the Korean War is that this difference was not the CAUSE of the War, it is its CONSEQUENCE.

The North and South Koreas of today are not the North and South Koreas which fought the War and, if you are going even to begin to understand what went on in 1950-53, you need to ditch your preconceptions.

Korea at Night.  Suzy Kim says of this image: "It is a composite of multiple images from repeated orbits round the earth – 236 to be exact -- with sophisticated algorithms to adjust for anomalies such as fires and lightning.  In other words it is not an image that speaks for itself, as Rumsfeld would have us believe.  It is a constructed image…. 
It is worth pondering to what extent other images of North Korea are deployed to fit certain premises."

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