The Making of Modern Korea This fully updated fourth edition of The Making of Modern Korea provides a thorough, balanced, and engaging history of Korea from 1876 to the pres- ent day. The text is unique in analysing domestic developments in the two Koreas in the wider context of regional and international affairs. Key features of the book include: • comprehensive coverage of modern Korean history since 1876 • expanded coverage of social and cultural affairs • up-to-date analysis of contemporary North Korea, including assess- ments of the Kim Jong Un administration and development of its nuclear weapons programme • a detailed chronology and suggestions for further reading The Making of Modern Korea is a valuable one-volume resource for students of modern Korean history, international politics, and Asian Studies. Adrian Buzo currently lectures at the University of New South Wales, Australia. He has published widely on Korean politics and history, including titles such as The Guerilla Dynasty: Politics and Leadership in the DPRK, published by Routledge (2018). ASIA’S TRANSFORMATIONS Edited by Mark Selden, Cornell University, USA The books in this series explore the political, social, economic, and cultural consequences of Asia’s transformations in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The series emphasizes the tumultuous interplay of local, national, regional, and global forces as Asia bids to become the hub of the world economy. While focusing on the contemporary, it also looks back to analyse the antecedents of Asia’s contested rise. 52. Denying the Comfort Women The Japanese State’s Assault on Historical Truth Edited by Rumiko Nishino, Puja Kim and Akane Onozawa 53. National Identity, Language and Education in Malaysia Search for a Middle Ground between Malay Hegemony and Equality Noriyuki Segawa 54. Japan’s Future and a New Meiji Transformation International Reflections Edited by Ken Coates, Kimie Hara, Carin Holroyd and Marie Söderberg 55. Dangerous Memory in Nagasaki Prayers, Protests and Catholic Survivor Narratives Gwyn McClelland 56. Popular Culture and the Transformation of Japan–Korea Relations Rumi Sakamoto & Stephen Epstein 57. The Making of Modern Korea, 4th Edition Adrian Buzo For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/ Asias-Transformations/book-series/SE0401 The Making of Modern Korea Fourth Edition Adrian Buzo Cover image: Imaginima First published 2023 by Routledge 4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2023 Adrian Buzo The right of Adrian Buzo to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Buzo, Adrian, author. Title: The making of modern Korea / Adrian Buzo. Identifiers: LCCN 2022022005 (print) | LCCN 2022022006 (ebook) | ISBN 9781032149035 (hardback) | ISBN 9781032147932 (paperback) | ISBN 9781003241706 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Korea--History--20th century. | Korea--History--Japanese occupation, 1910-1945. | Korea (South)--History. | Korea (North)--History. Classification: LCC DS916 .B89 2023 (print) | LCC DS916 (ebook) | DDC 951.904--dc23/eng/20220518 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022022005 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022022006 ISBN: 978-1-032-14903-5 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-032-14793-2 (pbk) ISBN: 978-1-003-24170-6 (ebk) DOI: 10.4324/9781003241706 Typeset in Times New Roman by KnowledgeWorks Global Ltd. Contents Preface vii 1 The Setting 1 2 Lost Horizons – Chosŏn 1876–1910 18 3 Joined to the Empire 1910–1931 47 4 The Dark Gulf 1931–1945 74 5 Bitter Liberty 1945–1948 89 6 The Supreme Disaster 1948–1953 113 7 The DPRK and the Battle within 1953–1980 134 8 The ROK and the Mastery of Despair 1953–1979 153 9 The DPRK: Decline, Famine, and Survival 1980–2011 181 10 The ROK: From Authoritarian to Civilian Rule 1980–1998 206 11 The ROK’s Decade of the Left 1998–2008 228 12 Hallowed by the Price: The DPRK under Kim Jong Un 2011–2022 246 vi Contents 13 The ROK: Rise, Fall, and Rise of the Right 2008–2022 264 14 Concluding Remarks 288 15 Major Events 1876–2022 298 Index 322 Preface This book is aimed at both students and general readers who seek a broad, serviceable account of modern Korean history since 1876. Its central focus is, of course, the Korean people and the way both North Korea and South Korea have taken shape, but it also places events in the wider context of regional and international affairs. This wider context is important, for one cannot understand the response of the Chosŏn Kingdom/Empire to the out- side world without understanding the policies and debates which drove the Korean policy of both China and Japan. Nor can we understand the impact of Japanese colonialism on Korea merely in terms of Japanese aggression, for Japanese colonial policy mirrored developments and oscillations in domestic Japanese politics in a number of key areas. Similarly, events in the immediate post-1945 period are all but incomprehensible without an under- standing of the context of Soviet occupation, Cold War rivalry, and its con- sequences within Korea. Moreover, the particular set of economic policies adopted by the Republic of Korea (ROK) during the 1960s was the product not simply of independent political actors within Korea but was also shaped by their past colonial experiences, and by international economic forces. And, of course, it practically goes without saying that state policies in the North since the late 1980s have been profoundly determined by the end of the Cold War and the fall of the Soviet Union. Preparing an outline history is both a scholarly pleasure and a frustra- tion. The pleasure is obvious: one gets to read new scholarship on a wide range of issues, many of which would otherwise be peripheral concerns. The Chosŏn dynasty era economy, the ideology of the Ilch’in-hoe, the roots of Park Chung-hee’s authoritarian state, the subsistence of the ROK devel- opmental state, and marketization in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) immediately come to mind as issues where recent scholar- ship has substantially improved our understanding of both Koreas. But this is also a frustrating process, for when the timescale is 150 years, and the events as tumultuous as they have been, there is never enough time to delve more deeply into such issues and incorporate them into the mainstream narrative in the manner they deserve. This leaves nagging doubts about accuracy and nuance. viii Preface In certain minor respects, my chapter divisions differ from those of other general histories. After 1931, the complexion of Japanese domestic politics and foreign diplomacy changed considerably, and as military aggression on the Asian mainland intensified this produced important changes in colonial policy. I am not the first to see a considerable difference between the 1920s and 1930s in terms of Japanese policy and Korean response, but I have tried to give further emphasis to this difference by dividing events in these two decades into separate chapters. Likewise, it seems to me that by 1948 the die was essentially cast for the escalation of the intra-Korean conflict, and it is therefore more logical to consolidate the period 1948–1953 around the single theme of war preparation and execution. It is also worth noting that this work is organized chronologically, for time provides the essential yardstick for measuring the sequences, degrees, and patterns of historical change. However, such an account often takes note only of the channel markers, while beneath the surface we find the currents of history eddying in more profound, though often only dimly perceived ways. Thus, alongside the chronological record of events, I have included material on social forces which have shaped and which are still shaping society in both Koreas. More generally, I would feel my work to be a failure if it simply told what events unfolded without a consideration of how and why the two Koreas have interacted and have come to share such overlapping destinies. Modern Korean historiography remains highly politicized and pas- sionate. The history of modern Korea, whether written by traditionalists, nationalists, chauvinists, revisionists, or Marxists, remains contentious, tendentious, and as confused and complex as the Korean response to modernity itself. The meaning that individuals extract from their reading of modern Korean history naturally depends upon the patterns they choose to weave from events, but I choose to believe that the search for some overarch- ing significance or some manifest destiny is bound to be illusory. A general history cannot usefully include detailed discussion of alternative opinions, judgements, and speculations, and so the reader is left to assume that many events, issues, and personalities are by nature controversial, that evidence is often ambiguous, intentions and outcomes unclear, and that omniscient theories and explanations can only imprison history within ideological or philosophical systems. Nevertheless, this work is obviously not devoid of interpretation, for a writer, who can look at the accumulated record of Korean events since 1876 without occasionally drawing some fairly pointed conclusions, is either wilfully ignorant or wilfully timid. Regarding the transliteration of Korea names, I have selectively used three major systems –McCune Reischauer (MR), the ROK Revised Romanization (RR) system, and the DPRK Romanization of Korean (RK) system. From these, I have transliterated names as they would be most familiar to general readers, chiefly through the media. This privileges the RR and RK systems. Where I judge such familiarity is lacking, such as with lesser known place Preface ix names and especially in the early modern era, I have used MR as the sys- tem that is most likely to be understood when articulated and as the system prevalent in English language academic literature. Concerning more technical matters, in referring to publications writ- ten in English, I have generally placed the author’s family name last. In all cases, to avoid misunderstanding or ambiguity, I have adopted a standard practice of inserting a hyphen between the two elements of the authors’ per- sonal names. Thus “Han Shik Park” becomes “Han-shik Park.”