We have examined why we are studying contemporary South Korean politics briefly. Let's now turn to South Korean history. South Korea is not a brand new nation. It's not so called a newly independent nation state. It has very very long history, it has 5000 years of history. We Koreans believe that the Korean nation was founded by Dangun. Dangun was the founder of the Korean nation. And he ruled Korea under the founding principle of Hongik Ingan. Hongik Ingan is literally refers to the make human beings who are conducive and beneficial to others, and other human race. Therefore, I would say that the founding principle of the Korean nation is more of altruism or humanism or humanitarianism. But of course, there's a debate whether Dangun is a real figure or mythological figure. Those who strongly believe in Korean nationalism, argued that the Dangun is a real man, real historical man and we are descendant of Dangun, with the purity of bloodline. But other critical scholars argue that Dangun is nothing but a mythological construction. But regardless of it's interpretation, Dangun is accepted as the founder of the Korean nation. But most significant period in Korean history is the era of three kingdoms. Starting from the BC 57, Silla dynasty was founded which lasted until AD 935 okay? And of course another kingdom was the Goguryeo kingdom. Goguryeo dynasty lasted from BC 37 to AD 668 and there was the third kingdom, the third kingdom of the Baekje Dynasty which lasted between BC 18 to AD 660. But all these three kingdoms engaged in quite fierce struggles to achieve homogeneity under Korean peninsula. Eventually the Silla dynasty conquered both Baekje and Goguryeo and unified the Korean peninsula. And we call it Unified Silla Dynasty. Of course the conquest of Baekje and Goguryeo by Silla was not done by itself. Silla sought an alliance with the Tang dynasty. With the help of the Tang dynasty Silla was able to unify the Korean peninsula. This is a map of three kingdoms in the period. The northern part which occupied most of Manchuria of today's world, is Goguryeo Dynasty, and right, the southeast part of the Korean peninsula was initially occupied by the Silla Dynasty and southwestern part by Baekje Dynasty. After unification, Silla conquered most of the Korean peninsula but the northern part of Korean peninsula which was occupied by the GOGURYEO dynasty was taken by another dynasty called the Bohai or Balhae dynasty. Balhae dynasty there's a debate who is the origin of the Balhae dynasty. Some people argue they are the combination of Northern people but some South Korean historians argue that was founded by the refugees from Balhae dynasty. But in South Korean history The Balhae dynasty was treated as not being part of Korean history. The Silla dynasty ruled until 900 years, but it was overthrown by Wang Gun who was the feudal lord at the time. And Wang Gun founded the Goryeo dynasty in 918 and ruled until 1392 with 100 years of Mongol conquest and rule. Now the Goryeo dynasty was under the colonial domination of a Mongol empire, the Yuen dynasty for almost 100 years. Then that was succeeded by Joseon dynasty, which lasted until 1910. Okay. Yi Seong-gye was one of seventh of the Korean dynasty overthrew the Goryeo dynasty in 1392 and founded Yi or Joseon dynasty which ruled Korea until 1910. I don't know that Joseon Dynasty was overthrown by Japanese invading forces. Japan intervened in the Korean peninsula in terms of three stages. First stage was Japanese victory in the Sino-Japanese War in 1894. And then Japan won again Russo-Japanese War in 1905 and there was a famous secret accord between Katsura and Taft. Katsura of Japan and Taft, Secretary Taft of the United States. It is called the Katsura-Taft secret accord in which lasted agreed Japanese rule of the Korean Peninsula while Japan and those American occupation of the Philippines and there was a division of labor between Japan and the United States. Then five years later, in year 1910, Japan officially annexed to Korea. American occupation in 1945 to 1948, General Haji was the commander of the American forces in South Korea But American occupation was coincided with the Soviet occupation of North Korea. In other words, America came to the southern part of the Korea, the Soviet Union came to the northern part of the Korea. And it was a division of the Korean peninsula, okay? And there was a debate, with a lot of outsiders though that Korea, the divided Korea was not ready to have independent government. Therefore they forced both Korea's to accept the United Nation's trusteeship of the Korean peninsula. But that triggered huge division in South Korea. Right wing forces in South Korea strongly opposed UN trusteeship. On the other hand, left-wing forces supported a trusteeship. Obviously, the Soviet Union wanted UN trusteeship over the Korean Peninsula. Then, it was very interesting, the political development immediately after the Korean Independence in 1945. All those independent fighters abroad began to return to Korea, okay. One of them was former President Syng-man. He returned from the United States. He was the most prominent independent fighter. He represented kinds of right-wing forces in South Korea. Another prominent person was Kim Gu. Kim Gu was President of Shanghai Provisional Government of Korea. And in fact he was more legitimate in the representative of Korean independence, fighters. He also returned from Shanghai and he led middle of the road nationalist in South Korea. Another interesting figure is Yuh Woon-Hyung. Mr. Yuh was mid-left leader in South Korea. He wanted to create a so called socialist people's republic in Korea, therefore some people argued that Yuh Woon-Hyung was rather pro North Korean in the sympathizers. Another one is Park Hun-young, he's quite notorious communist agitator in South Korea. He represented a southern branch of a Korea workers party. Likewise Korea was divided by various forces. In other words Rhee Syngman was taking side with American forces. Kim Gu was leading the Nationalist forces. Woon Hyung a little left of the middle in our forces in Korea. Also he represented Nationalists forces too. Park Hun-young, he was a leading southern branch of the Korea Worker's Party. Therefore from 1945 to 1948 South Korea was extremely divided. And domestic social forces were engaging quite fierce political struggle among themselves under direction of the new founding nation. Some wanted socialist Korea, some wanted nationalist Korea, some wanted a more liberal democratic Korea. But this American occupation of Korea really laid a foundation for paving past dependence of political, economic, social development into part of the world. Let us get in to more detail in next section.
