A History of Korea
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ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD PUBLISHERS, INC.
Lanham
•
Boulder
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New York
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Toronto
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Plymouth, UK
A History of Korea
From Antiquity to the Present
Michael J. Seth
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Published by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
A wholly owned subsidiary of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.
4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706

Estover Road, Plymouth PL6 7PY, United Kingdom
Copyright © 2011 by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by
any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval
systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer
who may quote passages in a review.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Seth, Michael J., 1948–

Chinese Commanderies and Their Neighbors: The Southern
Peoples 22
Politics of the Third Century 23
Korea in Global Perspective: 5,000 Years of History 24
2 The Period of the Three Kingdoms, 4th Century to 676 27
The Emergence of the Three Kingdoms 28
The Wa and the Mimana 31
Korea and Northeast Asia in the Fourth and Fifth Centuries 32
Culture and Society of the Three Kingdoms 34
The Bone-Ranks, the Hwabaek, and the Hwarang 39
Contents
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vi Contents
The Changing Environment of the Late Sixth and
Seventh Centuries 42
The Unification of Korea under Silla 44
Korea in Global Perspective: State Formation 46
3 Late Silla, 676 to 935 49
The Peninsular Kingdom 49
Consolidation of Central Monarchical Rule under Silla,
676–780 50
Silla and the Chinese Model 52
Supporting the Silla State 53
Silla Society 57
Silla and Its Neighbors 64
Parhae 67
The Decline of Silla 69
The Later Three Kingdoms 70
Korea in Global Perspective: Silla’s Rise and Fall 73
4 Koryoˇ, 935 to 1170 77

The Japanese and Manchu Invasions 146
Competition for Power among the Elite 150
Chosoˇn Politics in Perspective 154
Korea in Global Perspective: Chosoˇn as an Ideologically
Driven State 154
7 Chosoˇn Society 157
The Family 158
Women during the Yi Dynasty 161
Social Structure 165
Slaves and Outcastes 167
Crime and Punishment 172
Religious Beliefs and Practices 174
Philosophy 176
Arts, Literature, and Science 179
Technology and Inventions 184
Korea in Global Perspective: Women in Korea 184
Korea in Global Perspective: Chosoˇn’s Social Hierarchy 186
8 Late Chosoˇn, Early 18th Century to 1876 189
The Politics of Late Chosoˇn 190
Late Chosoˇn and the Confucian World Order 191
Korean Travelers to China and Japan 194
Taxation and Reform 197
Agriculture 200
Commerce and Trade 201
Cultural Flowering of Late Chosoˇn 204
Sirhak 210
Everyday Life 212
Korea in the Nineteenth Century: The “Hermit Kingdom” 215
Internal Problems in the Nineteenth Century 216
Korea in Global Perspective: The Hermit Kingdom? 221

The End of Colonial Rule in Korea 308
North Korea under Soviet Occupation 309
South Korea under U.S. Occupation 311
Trusteeship 312
Establishing a Separate Regime in the North 313
The Beginnings of a New Regime in the South 314
Toward Division 316
The Republic of Korea 317
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea 320
On the Eve of the Korean War 321
The Korean War 324
The Impact of the Korean War 332
Korea in Global Perspective: Divided Countries 333
Korea in Global Perspective: The Korean War 334
12 North Korea: Recovery, Transformation, and Decline,
1953 to 1993 339
The Divergent Paths of the Two Koreas 339
North Korea’s Recovery 340
Political Consolidation 344
The Changing International Situation 347
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Contents ix
Confrontational Stance toward the South and the
United States 350
Relentless Militarization 353
The Ideology of Self-Reliance 355
The Cult of the Kim Family 358
Society 362
Economic Problems 365
Korea in Global Perspective: North Korea as a

Ideology 442
Famine 444
Crisis and Summitry 446
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x Contents
Tentative Reforms 448
Confrontations and the Policy of Survival 451
Korea in Global Perspective: North Korea’s Famine 457
Korea in Global Perspective: North Korea as a Failed State 458
16 Contemporary South Korea, 1997 to 2010 465
Return to Civilian Government 465
Economic Crisis and Recovery 469
Domestic Politics 471
Foreign Policy 477
Rethinking Reunification 480
A Society Undergoing Rapid Change 481
Changing Gender Relations, Changing Families 485
Ethnic Homogeneity 487
Facing History and Preserving Heritage 489
New Crises and New Problems 491
Korea in Global Perspective: South Korea’s Place in
the World 492
Conclusion 497
Appendix: Romanization 503
Notes 507
Glossary of Korean Words 529
Annotated Selected Bibliography 539
Index 555
About the Author 573
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Physical Map of Korea
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Physical Map of East Asia
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Korea in the Fifth Century
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Silla and Parhae Kingdoms
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Koryoˇ in the Eleventh Century
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Chosoˇn Korea
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Modern Korea
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1
K
orea is an ancient land with 2,000 years of recorded history and a
rich and distinctive cultural tradition. The various peoples that lived
in the peninsula gradually forged a society characterized by cultural
homogeneity and political unity. Korea today is divided into two rival
states, but this is a fairly recent development. Before being effectively
partitioned by the United States and the Soviet Union in 1945, Korea had
been one of the oldest continuously unified states in the world. The pen-
insular heartland of what is today Korea was united in 676, and except for
one brief period, remained so until the end of World War II. It had also
become one of the most homogeneous societies in the world. A number of
peoples entered the peninsula in antiquity, but gradually all merged into
a single ethnicity, sharing one language and participating in one political
system. In modern times there have been no significant ethnic minorities.

diately two separate regimes emerged. In 1948, the United States and
the Soviet Union set up their client states: the Republic of Korea, better
known as South Korea, and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, or
North Korea. The two “Koreas” had different leaders, different political
and economic systems, and different external orientations. Both saw the
division as an unacceptable and temporary condition, but the attempts
to unify the country led to one of the bloodiest conflicts since the end of
World War II. Despite horrific destruction and loss of life, both regimes
survived and continued on their markedly different trajectories of devel-
opment. North Korea evolved into one of the world’s most totalitarian
and militant states, ruled by a family with a cult of personality unequaled
in its extreme intensity. It was the world’s most closed and enigmatic
state, with a leadership busy developing missiles and nuclear weapons
while millions of the nation’s children were stunted from malnutrition.
South Korea, by contrast, after a rocky and uncertain start evolved into
an open, democratic society, whose spectacular economic growth and in-
ternationally competitive industries made it an outstanding success story
among the postcolonial states.
Nowhere else was a nation so arbitrarily divided and the peoples of the
two halves so effectively isolated from each other; nowhere else did such
radically different political and social systems emerge. The boundary
between the two Koreas is not only the world’s most heavily armed and
until recently most hermetically sealed, it marks two different living stan-
dards and lifestyles. Nowhere else is there such a sharp contrast between
two contiguous states—one rich, democratic, and cosmopolitan; the other
impoverished, totalitarian, and isolated. And arguably the history of no
other society in the past century offers such contrasting examples of how
societies can undergo modern development. Korea’s modern history is
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Introduction 3

No part of Korea is far from the seas. The seas, however, while filled
with abundant fish and seafood, important components in the Korean
diet, are not friendly to navigation. The east coast on the Sea of Japan (or
“East Sea” as the Koreans call it) has few good harbors and is cut off from
the major population centers by rugged mountains. Navigation on the
western Yellow Sea coast is made difficult by shifting sandbars and some
of the world’s highest tides. Confined to a geographically well-defined
peninsula with ample resources to support a fairly populous agricultural
society Korea developed its own distinctive society and identity while
borrowing heavily from China.
Korea is a modest-sized country surrounded by much larger neighbors:
China, Japan, and Russia. The fact that it has been lodged between the im-
portant and culturally rich Chinese and Japanese societies helps account
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4 Introduction
for the lack of attention its history has attracted. It has been difficult for
Koreans to emerge from the shadow of their East Asian neighbors and to
make their presence and their culture known to the rest of the world. Yet
Korea, small as it seems next to its neighbors, is not all that small. The
area of North and South Korea combined is 84,000 square miles, about the
same as Utah. This sounds unimpressive, but it is also the same size as
the United Kingdom and a little smaller than another peninsular society,
Italy, which it roughly resembles in shape. In population today North
Korea has about 23 million inhabitants and South Korea 47 million for a
total of 70 million, a little larger than that of Britain, France, or Italy, and
a little smaller than that of Germany.
Korea has been a part of an East Asian civilization centered in China.
China was one of the earliest homes of agriculture, urbanization, state
structures, and literacy. As long as three and a half millennia ago a culture
emerged in northern China that was recognizably Chinese. This culture