About the Book and Author
This comprehensive book examines the history of Korea's division and the political and economic development of both Koreas, their military confrontation, and their efforts at dialogue. Mr. Clough focuses on the international rivalry between the two, including relations with big power supporters and diplomatic competition inside and outside the UN and the nonaligned movement. The first book to explore in detail the competition between Seoul and Pyongyang outside the diplomatic circuitfrom overseas construction projects to international athletic contestsMr. Clough's study breaks new ground, analyzing South Korea's growing contacts with the USSR and the PRC, as well as North Korea's relationship with Japan and the United States. He views these contacts as probable precursors of diplomatic recognition of both Koreas by all four big powers. Identifying the problems and the choices for the United States in the rapidly changing environment in and around Korea, Mr. Clough makes recommendations for the future direction of U.S. policy.
Ralph N. Clough is professorial lecturer arid coordinator of the SAIS China Forum, School of Advanced International Studies, The Johns Hopkins University.
As a Foreign Service officer, he spent thirteen years in China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. He served as director of the Office of Chinese Affairs in the Department of State. After his retirement from the Foreign Service in 1969, he spent eight years at The Brookings Institution as a senior fellow and guest scholar. He was then a fellow at the Wilson Center, the Institute for Sino-Soviet Studies, George Washington University, and the Washington Center of The Asia Society. He has also taught at American University.
He is the author of East Asia and U.S. Security (1975), Deterrence and Defense in Korea: The Role of U.S. Forces (1976), and Island China (1978). He is coauthor of The United States, China, and Arms Control (1975) and Japan, Korea, and China: American Perceptions and Policies (1979). He is coeditor of Modernizing China: Post-Mao Reform and Development (West-view, 1986).
To Awana
First published 1987 by Westview Press, Inc.
Published 2018 by Routledge
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Copyright 1987 Taylor & Francis
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Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 87-50072
ISBN 13: 978-0-367-01368-4 (hbk)
The confrontation between the two Koreas constitutes one of the most difficult and complex problems in international politics. A relentless military buildup has gone on for more than thirty years on both sides of the demilitarized zone established at the end of the Korean War. Attempts at sustained dialogue between Seoul and Pyongyang have produced meager results. Unlike the two Germanys, the two Koreas have been unable to agree on reciprocal trade, travel, or even the exchange of letters between separated families. Intense hostility and suspicion persist between North and South.
The two Koreas have competed doggedly for international support and recognition. Each government has sought to prevent acceptance of the other by the international community. Both failed. Today, sixty-seven nations maintain diplomatic relations with both Koreas. But the four big powers whose support is most essential to Seoul and Pyongyang remain locked in the pattern established during the late 1940s and early 1950s. The United States and Japan have diplomatic relations only with South Korea, and the Soviet Union and China have diplomatic relations only with North Korea. The pattern and climate of international relations in East Asia have changed radically over the past thirty years, but the Korean confrontation continues essentially unchanged.
Trends in the 1980s, however, foreshadow significant changes in the situation of the two Koreas. Both face difficult succession problems. South Korea continues to outperform North Korea in economic development and international relationships, gradually compelling North Korea to emerge from its shell and become more active in the international community. The big powers, impatient with the inability of the two Koreas to lower tension and the risk of war, are pressing for a fruitful North-South dialogue and are expanding unofficial contacts with the part of Korea with which they lack diplomatic relations. Movement toward a new framework of international relations in which both Koreas will have diplomatic relations with all four big powers is underway, although years may pass before that framework is in place.
As Korea steadily became more important on the world scene, it seemed to me that a book was needed that would give the reader in one place a comprehensive survey of the political and economic development of the two Koreas, their military confrontation and intermittent dialogue, and their international relations over the period from 1945 to the present. In addition to covering these topics, this book contains a final chapter with recommendations on U.S. policy.
The names of Chinese and Koreans are given surname first, in accordance with practice in those countries. Japanese names, however, I have written surname last, as they generally appear in English language newspapers and other publications. Spelling of Korean names varies considerably. I have tried, insofar as possible, to use the spelling favored by the individual. The names of Chinese cities are given in the pitiyin system, except for Peking (Beijing) and Yenan (Yan'an). Dollar values in the text refer to U.S. dollars, unless otherwise specified.
Those whom I consulted in doing the research for this book are too numerous to list. They include officials, scholars, journalists, and businessmen in the United States, the Soviet Union, China, Japan, South Korea, and North Korea. To all of them I express my deep gratitude for the time they made available and the insights they provided. I am particularly grateful to Congressman Stephan J. Solarz for the opportunity to travel to North Korea with him and to be present at his conversation with Kim Il Sung. I should like also to express my heartfelt appreciation to the Ford Foundation, the Luce Foundation, and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund for their generous support and to the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars of the Smithsonian Institution and the School of Advanced International Studies of The Johns Hopkins University for providing me with congenial surroundings in which to do my research and writing. Thanks go also to William Gleysteen, Lawrence Krause, and William Shaw for helpful comments on the manuscript and to Libby Barstow, Lauri Fults, and Christy Stebbins of Westview Press for expediting its publication.
The opinions in this work are entirely my own and should not be attributed to any of the persons consulted or to the foundations and institutions that provided support for the project.
