The Korean Peninsula juts out into the Pacific Rim from northwestern Asia. The peninsula is bound by the Sea of Japan (the East Sea) and the Yellow Sea. North and South Korea share the peninsula. These countries have been separated by the Korean demilitarized zone (DMZ) since 1953. To the west and north is China, and to the far north, along the coast of Russia. Korea is separated from China by the Yellow Sea and the Yalu and Tumen Rivers to the north. The Yalu and Tumen rivers form the border between North Korea and China. Japan is located just east of the Korean Peninsula across the Korean Strait. The Korean Peninsula is now split between South Korea and North Korea. The capital city of North Korea is Pyongyang, and Seoul is the capital of South Korea.

The topography of the Korean Peninsula is mountainous, with arable or cultivable land in high demand. Approximately 70 percent of the Korean Peninsula is mountainous. The bedrock is composed of volcanic and granitic rocks that glacial processes have severely modified over the past twenty-five thousand years. The highest peak in North Korea rises more than nine thousand feet. The Korean Peninsula can be thought of as four general areas:

• Western Region with an extensive coastal plain, river basins, and small foothills
• Eastern Region with high mountain ranges and a narrow coastal plain
• Southeastern Basin
• Southwestern Region of mountains and valleys

Off the southern and western coasts of the Korean Peninsula are about three thousand small and mostly uninhabited islands, all within the territory of South Korea. South Korea’s largest island has an area of 712 square miles. It is the highest point of land in South Korea, at 6,398 feet above sea level.

The physical size in square miles of North Korea or South Korea is like the physical area of the US state of Kentucky. North Korea is slightly larger, and South Korea is slightly smaller. For centuries, Korea was a unified kingdom that outsiders often invaded. After the fall of the Chinese Qing (Manchu) Dynasty, the Japanese took control of the Korean Peninsula (1910) and controlled it as a colony. Japanese colonial rule ended in 1945 when the United States defeated Japan, forcing it to give up its colonial possessions. The structure of modern Korea is a result of the ending of World War II. North and South Korea have very different yet related environmental issues, primarily related to the degree of industrialization. With a low level of industrialism, North Korea has severe issues of water pollution as well as deforestation and related soil erosion and degradation. Other issues in North Korea include inadequate clean drinking water supplies and many waterborne diseases. South Korea has water pollution associated with sewage discharge and industrial effluent from its many industrial centers. Air pollution is sometimes severe in larger cities, contributing to higher acid rain levels.

The conclusion of World War II was a critical period for the Korean Peninsula. The United States and the Soviet Union both fought against the Japanese in Korea. When the war was over, the Soviet Union took administrative control of the peninsula north of the thirty-eighth parallel. The United States established administrative control over the area south of the thirty-eighth parallel. The United States and the Soviet Union divided Korea approximately in half and eventually established governments in their respective regions that were sympathetic to each nation’s ideology. The Soviet Union administered the northern portion; the United States administered the southern region. Politics deeply affected each of the regions. Communism dominated North Korea, and capitalism dominated South Korea. In 1950, with aid from China and the Soviet Union, the Communists from the north invaded the south. After bitter fighting, a peace agreement was reached in 1953 to officially divide the Korean Peninsula near the thirty-eighth parallel. Korea remains divided to this day. The United States has thousands of soldiers stationed along the Cease-Fire Line, now called the Demilitarized Zone, the most heavily guarded border.

North Korea

The government of North Korea (the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, or DPRK) was formed with the leadership of Communist dictator Kim Il Sung, who shaped his country with a mix of Soviet and Chinese authoritarian rule. Having limited personal freedoms, the people worked hard to rebuild a state. Using the threat of a US military invasion to rally his people, Kim Il Sung built up a military of more than one million soldiers, one of the largest in the world. People could not travel in or out of the country without strict regulations. North Korea existed without much notice until the 1990s when things suddenly changed.

When the Soviet Union fell in 1991, North Korea lost a valued financial support and oil source. Without fuel and funding, many of the factories closed. Unemployment rates rose significantly. Meanwhile, China adopted a more open posture and began increasing its trade with the West. The result was that China began to lose interest in propping up North Korea politically. As massive food shortages caused famine and starvation, North Korea faced severe social and economic hardships. Kim Il Sung died in 1994, and the country lost its “Great Leader.” He had ruled the country since World War II and was deified as a god to be worshiped by the people.

The government dictatorship continued as the Great Leader’s son, Kim Jong Il, took over the leadership role, repressing his people to new levels. Televisions and radios sold in North Korea can only receive government-controlled frequencies. Cell phones and the Internet are banned. The government takes a hard line against dissenters. If someone is caught speaking against the state or acting to support dissent, they can be arrested, fined, placed in a prison camp, or executed. People are not allowed to leave or enter the country without government approval. Only a couple hundred tourists are allowed into the country annually and are carefully escorted.

Kim Jong Il took hard measures to stay in power and to avoid yielding to the capitalist frenzy of corporate colonialism. He has nuclear weapon capability and has used his military weapons production as a bargaining chip against the United States and other world powers. North Korea has demonized the United States as the ultimate threat and has used state-funded propaganda to indoctrinate its people. North Korea’s government continually tells its people that the United States will invade at any minute and to be prepared for the worst. Propaganda has been used to create and enforce military, economic, and political policies for an ideology that supports the unification of all of Korea under Communist control.

In 2011, Kim Jong Il passed away, and his son, Kim Jong Un became the new and current dictator of North Korea.

North Korea is mainly mountainous; there is little quality farmland. While only 2 percent of the land is in permanent crops, about a third of the population works in agriculture. The best farmland in North Korea is located south of the capital city of Pyongyang. The capital is a restricted area where only the most loyal to the state can live. There is a severe shortage of goods and services, and electricity is not available on a dependable basis. Only through extensive international food aid has the people of North Korea survived. Outside food aid is accepted even though Kim Jong Il has continued a self-reliance policy and self-sufficiency called Juche. Juche is designed to keep Korea from becoming dependent on the outside. The policy of Juche has been quite effective in isolating North Korea and keeping dictator Kim Jong Il in power. The Juche policy also holds back the wave of corporate capitalism that seeks to exploit labor and resources in global markets for economic profit.

One way North Koreans find out about the outside world is through smuggled-in cell phones and VHS videotapes from South Korea. Popular VHS productions include South Korean soap operas because of their shared heritage, language, and ethnicity. The North Korean government has attempted to stop smuggled videotapes by going from home to home. Electricity is turned off before entering the home. Once the electricity is turned off, videotapes cannot be removed from the video player. The government agents then recover the videotape. Citizens found with smuggled videotapes are punished with steep fines or imprisonment. Desperate North Koreans have escaped across the border into northern China, where thousands of refugees have sought better future opportunities. It is ironic that Communist China, with historically few human rights, would be a place where people would seek refuge. Still, China’s economy is growing, and North Korea’s economy is stagnant, which creates strong push-pull forces on migration.

South Korea

In 1993, South Korea became a fully-fledged democracy with its first democratically elected president. Seoul is the capital city and is home to almost ten million people. Seoul is located just south of the Cease-Fire Line, also known as the DMZ, which is referred to in general terms as the thirty-eighth parallel, even though it does not follow it strictly. The United States has many military installations in this area.

South Korea manufactures automobiles, electronic goods, and textiles that are sold around the world. South Korea is a democracy that has used state capitalism to develop its economy. After World War II, South Korea was ruled by a military government that implemented land reform and received external economic aid. Large agricultural estates were broken up and redistributed to the people. Agricultural production increased to meet the demands of the population. South Korea has more agricultural production than North Korea and provides food for the high population density. A once-modest manufacturing sector has become a major export trade production center.

The fifty million people who live in South Korea have a much higher standard of living than the residents of North Korea. Personal income in the north is barely equivalent to a few dollars per day, while personal income in the south is similar to that of Western countries. The economic growth of the south was a result of state-controlled capitalism rather than free-enterprise capitalism. The state has controlled or owned most industrial operations and sold its products globally. Giant corporations, which forced industrialization along the coastal region, have promoted South Korea as the world’s leading shipbuilding nation. South Korean corporations include Daewoo, Samsung, Kia Motors, Hyundai, and the Orion Group. As an economic tiger, South Korea continues to reform its economic system to adapt to global economic conditions.

South Korea has announced plans to overhaul its energy and transportation networks comprehensively. Government funding will augment efforts to create more green-based initiatives. Part of this effort will focus on lower energy dependency with environmentally friendly energy developments such as wind, solar, bike lanes, and new lighting technologies. High-speed rail service and increased capacity in electronic transmission lines are planned as part of the next generation of energy-efficient technologies that will increase economic efficiency. These policies have been enacted to update South Korea’s economy and create new products for manufacturing export.

Buddhism was introduced into the Korean Peninsula, as were many other aspects of Chinese culture that significantly affected Korean heritage. Buddhism has been a prominent religion in Korea for centuries. The teachings of Confucius are also widely regarded. About 30 percent of the population claims Christianity as their religious background; about 20 percent of the Christians are Protestant, and 10 percent are Catholic. This is the highest Chris-tian percentage of any Asian country. Over half of the population makes no claims or professions of faith in any organized religion. Before 1948, Pyongyang was an important Christian center. At that time, approximately three hundred thousand people identified as Christian. After establishing a Communist government in North Korea, many Christians fled to South Korea to avoid persecution.

Potential Korean Penninsula War

Unification of North and South

What if North Korea and South Korea became unified again? In geography, there is a concept of regional complementarity, which exists when two separate regions possess qualities that would complement each if unified into one unit. North and South Korea are the classic illustrations of regional complementarity. The North is mountainous and has access to minerals, coal, iron ore, and nitrates (fertilizers) needed in the South for industrialization and food production. The South has the most farmland and can produce plentiful rice harvests and other food crops. The South has industrial technology and capital needed for development in the North. If and when these two countries are reunited, they could work well as an economic unit.

The harder question is how and under what circumstances the two Koreas could ever come to terms with unification. What about the thirty-five to forty thousand US soldiers along the DMZ? What type of government would a unified Korea have? Many young people in South Korea would like to see the US military leave Korea and the two sides united. Yet, the generation of soldiers that survived the Korean War in the 1950s understands the bitterness and difficulties caused by the division. This population segment is highly supportive of maintaining the US military’s presence on the border with North Korea. Unification will not occur until this generation either passes away or comes to terms with unification. The brutal dictatorship of Kim Jong Il, with his claimed nuclear capabilities, has been the main barrier to unification. This is a political division, not technically a cultural division, even though the societies are quite different. The geography of this situation is similar to that of East and West Germany after World War II and during the Cold War. Korea may have different qualities from Germany, but unification may be possible under certain conditions, the foremost being different leadership in the north.