Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
KOREAN VERSUS KOREAN
While external powers continued to knock on Korea's door, there was no shortage of in-
ternal conflict, either. The Three Kingdoms period, preceding the Goryeo dynasty, was
marked by continual feuds, and peasant rebellions were commonplace throughout the Jos-
eon era. The Korean War (1950-53) represents another such conflict along internally riven
lines - the more agrarian south had always resented the wealthier north, and vice versa.
When the nation was at last returned to Korea with the Allied victory in 1945, the de-
cision to divide the country into protectorates - the north overseen by the USSR and the
south by the US - soon led to rival republics. On 25 June 1950, under the cover of night,
the North Korean army marched over the mountains that rim Seoul, marking the start of the
brutal civil war.
Seoul's sudden fall to the North caught the populace by surprise; the government of
President Syngman Rhee fled southward, destroying the only Han River highway bridge
and abandoning the remaining population to face the communists. During its 90-day occu-
pation of the city, North Korea's army arrested and shot many who had supported the Rhee
government.
In September 1950, UN forces led by US and South Korean troops mounted a counterat-
tack. After an amphibious landing at Incheon, they fought their way back into Seoul. Dur-
ing a series of bloody battles, whole districts of the capital were bombed and burned in the
effort to dislodge Kim II Sung's Korean People's Army. When at last UN forces succeeded
in reclaiming the city, much of it lay in smouldering ruins.
Later that year, as UN forces pushed northward, the Chinese Army entered the war on
the North Korean side and pushed back down into Seoul. This time the invaders found a
nearly empty city. Even after the UN regained control in March 1951, only a fraction of
Seoul's population returned during the two years of war that raged along the battle-front
until the armistice in July 1953. Instead, they holed up in rural villages and miserable
camps, slowly trickling back into the shattered capital that was once their home. Most
would never hear from their northern relatives again, whether living or lost to the war.
During the Joseon dynasty, a rigid hereditary class system sharply limited social mobility. A
registry from the mid-1600s suggests that perhaps three quarters of Seoul's citizens were
slaves.
