Under Park's direction, South Korea flourished, while the North Korean economy has nearly busted today. Seoul is a cosmopolitan city of approximately 15 million people where modernization has became a key to economic success. Today, the two separate countries are beginning to speak with one another once again. The current South Korean leader whom many call "Korea's Mandela", Kim Dae Jung, fuels the hope that someday they can be reunified into one country. Most believe this will take many more decades to heal the ever-present wounds that were created during the Korean War. But there will always be hope.
Kim Il-Sung dominated the North Korean way of life from 1948 until his unexpected death in 1994. Ruling with an iron fist approach, Kim was able to convince his people that they, the North Koreans, were not the "hermit kingdom" they were, but rather a revolutionary leader in the world. He was able to do this through an ideology close to the Korean heritage called Juche. Juche is a sort of Korean communism of its own that pervaded all classes of society and was very widespread throughout the nation.
Instead of developing a successful economic strategy as South Korea did, North Korea focused on its military by developing the power to create Nuclear weapons. This did get North Korea recognized, but not in the fashion that they had wished for. Today Kim Il Sung's son lead's North Korea in a similar manner as his father did before him. The country has been hit hard by famine and is basically in tatters. No one knows its next steps, but drastic measures will have to be made in order to bring back this country on the brink of disaster.
Many historians consider the Korean War the "Forgotten War" or the "Unknown War" because it was extremely unpopular not only by ordinary citizens, but also most soldiers fighting in the war themselves. Some also touted it to be the first major U.S. military failure in history. Being overshadowed by World War II also contributed to one of many reasons why American soldiers were somehow forgotten when they arrived home from this operation.
But what many cannot understand is how anyone, the government, teachers, society itself could let people forget that 33, 686 American soldiers died on the battle fields. The South Koreans suffered a massive 1,312,836 military casualties and casualties among other U.N. allies totaled 16,532. The enemy sustained even greater estimated casualties, estimated around 2 million. These death tolls do not even begin to address the phenomenal economic and social damage to the Korean nation. It is said that total there were around 4 million casualties caused by the Korean War…both military and civilian.
With all of this known, why was the war so easily "forgotten"? Many say it was because of the way that President Truman commanded the troops during the war. He stated that the mission of the war was a "police action" to contain Communism rather than initiate war. This upset many soldiers as they returned home, feeling as if the government was unthankful for their commitment and actions.
Truman's power as the United States President was utilized in a way never done before and this caused executive powers to be expanded into a new arena. This chiefly came in the action of assigning U.S. troops to military action in Korea without prior consent from congress. Because Truman labeled this full-out war a "police action" instead of what it was, future presidents would send troops all over the world for many reasons without congresses' approval, using the Korean War as a precedent as their justification. Vietnam, Kosovo, Bosnia, a number of mini-wars and even the recently erupted war with Iraq are some examples, just to name a few.
Today many regard the United States as the world's police officer because the country is constantly fighting these U.N. peacekeeping missions. The Korean War proved to be the trendsetter for what has now become commonplace. Many question the United States responsibility to "police" every country in the world.
Conclusion
No one ever actually "wins" a war. And ironically, everyone involved in this war claimed to win in one fashion or another. I can only hope that wars such as this one can be somehow avoided in the future. Presently, the United States is still in a war of words with North Korea as President Bush demonstrated recently by saying the following: "I will remind the world that America will not allow North Korea and other dangerous regimes to threaten freedom with weapons of mass destruction." Hopefully someday both the United States and North Korea can come to terms and settle on a peaceful agreement.
