North Korea

Background history

• Koguryo kingdom, 150 A.D.
• Arrival of Buddhism, 372
• Silla kingdom united Korea, helped by China, 970-935
• Koryu kingdom 935-1392
• Mongol invasion
• Yi dynasty
• Manchu occupation (Ming Dynasty), 1637-
• arrival of Christianity, late 1700s
• opening to West, 1876
• Japanese incursion repulsed, 1880s
• Russo-Japanese war, 1905
• Japanese colonization, 1910-1945
• Anti-Japanese uprising, 1919 ("March 1 movement")
• Japanese surrender, U.S.-Soviet partition in 1945
• Invasion of South Korea by North Korea, June 1945
• U.S., Chinese intervention
• Armistice, 1953
• Seizure of U.S.S. Pueblo, 1968; hostage crisis
• N. Korean agents attempt to assassinate S. Korean officials in Burma, 1983
• Repeated attempts to infiltrate south (tunnels, etc.), 1970s-1990s
• Covert nuclear weapons program; deal with U.S. 1997
• Nuclear bomb and missile tests, 2006
• Nuclear agreement with U.S., 2007

SOURCES: Don Oberdorfer: The Two Koreas: A Contemporary History (New York: Basic Books, 2002)
James Lewis and Amadu Sesay, Korea and Globalization: Politics, Economics and Culture (New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 2002)
Daniel Metraux, Korea (Staunton, Virginia: Mary Baldwin College, 1986)

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