Content area
Full Text
The dividing line between the two Koreas was considered a temporary military expediency 67 years ago. It never disappeared, even after reshaped by battle after the Korean War. This 1945 division of Korea reflects little United States forethought about Korea's strategic position and low regard for the Korean people's ability to self-govern as an independent nation. America's designation of occupation zones in Korea was poorly handled, with enormous consequences for the Korean people. It arguably was part of a legacy of mismanaging a series of "big decisions" affecting Korea that continue to this day. The lesson of history for the U.S. is to be better informed and prepared to fulfill its responsibility toward the Korean peninsula; as a signatory to the Armistice it must be a participant in a permanent peace agreement.
The Korean Peninsula was divided at the 38th parallel in August 1945. Once the guns fell silent in the Korean War with the July 1953 Armistice, the military demarcation line (MDL) in the demilitarized zone (DMZ) roughly hewed to the 38th parallel. The 1945 division of Korea, considered a temporary military expediency to denote a line above and below which Soviet and American forces were to accept the surrender of Japanese troops, was portentous. The dividing line remains 67 years later, even after having been reshaped by battle. No one could have dreamed in 1945 that a temporary American designation of surrender zones would become permanent, now a relic of both World War II and the Cold War.
It is understood that, had the United States not proposed a division of Korea, Soviet forces would eventually have occupied the entire peninsula, and Korea would have become a Soviet satellite and base to threaten the security of Japan. This paper, however, argues that the division of Korea reflected little forethought by the United States about Korea's strategic position and low regard for the Korean people's ability to self-govern if it became an independent nation. The American designation of occupation zones in Korea was poorly handled, with enormous consequences for Korea's people. It arguably was part of a legacy of the U.S. mismanaging a series of "big decisions" affecting Korea that continues to this day.1
As Allied victory gradually became more certain during World...