38th Parallel

The new dividing line, about 190 miles across the peninsula, sliced across Korea without regard for political boundaries, geographical features, waterways, or paths of commerce. The 38th Parallel cut through more than 75 streams and 12 rivers, intersected many high ridges at variant angles, severed 181 small cart roads, 104 country roads, 15 provincial all-weather roads, eight better-class highways, and six north-south rail lines. It was, in fact, an arbitrary separation, symbolic of the unnatural notion of two Koreas. The division of Korea along the 38th parallel was decided in America before the Korean people even knew about the capitulation of the Japanese empire.

South of the 38th parallel, the American zone covered 37.000 square miles and held some 21.000.000 people. North of the line, the USSR zone totaled 48.000 square miles and had about 9 million people. Of the 20 principal Korean cities, 12 lay within the American zone, including Seoul, the largest, with population of nearly 2 million. The American zone included six of Korea's 13 provinces in their entirety, the major part of two more, and a small part of another. The two areas, North and South Korea, complemented each other both agriculturally and industrially.

South Korea was mainly a farming area, where fully two-thirds of the inhabitants worked the land. It possessed three times as much irrigated rice land as the northern area, and furnished food for the north. North Korea furnished the fertilizer for the southern rice fields, and the largest nitrogenous fertilizer plant in the Far East was in Hungnam. Although North Korea also had a high level or agricultural production, it was deficient in some crops The political barrier imposed serious adverse effects on the natural symbiosis of the divided zones.

In 1940, South Korea produced about 74 percent of Korea's light consumer goods and processed products. Its industry consisted of some large and many small plants producing textiles, rubber products, hardware, and ceramics. Many of these plants had been built to process raw materials from North Korea.

North Korea, a largely mountainous region contains valuable mineral deposits, especially coal. Excellent hydroelectric plants, constructed during the last 10 years of Japanese domination, ranked with the largest and best in the world. Because of its power resources, North Korea housed almost all of Korea' heavy industry, including several rolling mills and a highly developed chemical industry. In 1940, North Korea produced 86 percent of Korea's heavy manufactured goods. The only petroleum processing plant in the country, a major installation designed to serve all of Korea, was located in the north, as were seven of eight cement plants. Almost all the electrical power used by South Korea came from the north, as did iron, steel, wood pulp, and industrial chemicals needed by South Korea's light industry.

Sharp differences between North and South had traditionally been part of the Korean scene. South Koreans considered their northern neighbors crude and culturally backward. North Koreans viewed southerners as lazy schemers. During the Japanese occupation, Koreans in the north had been much less tractable than those in the south. Differences in farming accounted for some of the social differences in the two zones. A dry-field type of farming in the North opposed a rice-culture area in the South to produce marked variations in points of view. In the South were more small farms and a high tenancy rate, while in the North larger farms and more owner-farmers prevailed. All of those economic and cultural differences the 38th Parallel promised to exacerbate.

The United States has been present in Korea and an influence in Korean society and politics since its military forces first landed at Inchon on September 8, 1945. Following the Potsdam Conference, the United States quickly imported a Korean puppet from the United States, Syngman Rhee, to be the president of South Korea. Between 1945-1950, the United States oversaw a systematic cleansing of the popular movement of Koreans who desperately desired their independence from any outside forces and was vehemently opposed to the United States occupation. A civil war developed between the wealthy Koreans and the United States supported police/military apparatus, who supported continuation of an oligarchy, and the majority of Koreans who wanted genuine independence and democracy.

The brutal repression of Korean dialogue and aspirations for independence led to the Korea War. Following the end of the war, from 1953 to the present, the United States has continued its occupation. Over the decades, Korea has received huge amounts of United States aid.

After WWII and the end of the brutal Japanese occupation, Korea went through a period of cultural revitalization. During this process, the martial arts, which were banned by the occupying forces, found a new resurgence. The Korean people, who swore to never be overpowered again, embraced the proliferation of the martial arts throughout the nation. From this, came the birth of the modern Korean martial arts. Various groups emerged, each claiming its own version of prowess. Most of the Korean martial arts at the time were predominantly extracted from the Japanese arts, with some derivatives of Chinese and Korean.