The Korean War started on June 25, 1950, and ended in 1953 with a cease-fire (Lee 49). The war began when the North Korean army crossed the 38th parallel and attacked the south (Lee 48). North Korea was helped by China and the Soviet Union, while the southern part of the Korean peninsula was reinforced by American troops (Lee 49). Ultimately, the war led to a separation of the peninsula when the North Korean and Chinese forces managed to push the Americans away from the Chinese border (Edidin 19).
However, since the separation, major societal changes have been observed in North and South Korea. When we think of North and South Korea, different images come to mind. For the North, people mostly think of Kim Jong-Un, nuclear weapons, and poverty (Lee 50). On the other hand, the world associates South Korea with technology, Korean pop music, and the 2018 Winter Olympic Games. The countries' dissimilarities make it hard to visualize a unified Korea, especially within the new generations of Korean citizens (Lee 49). The purpose of this research is to see how the Korean War has affected the development of North Korea and South Korea as two newly separated nations in the last 60 years.
The social science disciplines that brings better understanding to the aftermath of the Korean …show more content…
Firstly, history is a social science discipline that studies "the chronological record of events […] based on a critical examination of source materials" and usually presents an explanation as to why they happened (The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica). Further, an understanding of both Korea's histories are needed to see how the war is taught in schools, which will determine the possibilities of reunification between the two nations (Lee