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The Thirty-Eighth Parallel in Korea

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2011

Shannon McCune
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Extract

The 38th parallel in Korea marks a critical segment of the ‘international frontier’ between the two worlds into which our one globe seems to be dividing. South of the line is the American-sponsored and U. N.-approved Korean Republic. North of the parallel is the Soviet-backed Korean Peoples” Republic. Both of these governments claim jurisdiction over all of Korea. Both seem to follow the most extreme aspects of the political philosophies of their backers. Thus Korea, a long-unified nation, has, on its liberation from Japan, been split by a purely geodetic line. This line is found on maps but is not evident in the geographic landscape. One may well wonder about the choice of such a line, its geographic character and its present and future function.

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Type
Research Article
Information
World Politics , Volume 1 , Issue 2 , January 1949, pp. 223 - 232
Copyright
Copyright © Trustees of Princeton University 1949

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References

1 Foreign Affairs Background Summary Korea, Office of Public Affairs, Department of State, Washington, D. C., August, 1947, p. 3.

2 References to this fascinating episode in Far Eastern history are rare; I am indebted to John N. Washburn of Columbia University for searching them out. The basic English language reference is Langer, William L., The Diplomacy of Imperialism, 1890–1902, 2 vols., New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1935, Vol. I, p. 406.Google Scholar Langer notes that an account of Yamagata's offer is in the Russian official history of the war with Japan, Der Russisch-Japanische Krieg. Amtliche Darstellung des Russischen Generalstabcs, Berlin, 1911–1912, Vol. I, p. 66. He derives most of his data, however, from Romanov, Boris A., Rossia u Manchzhurii, 1892–1906, Leningrad, 1928, pp. 141–43.Google Scholar Romanov secured his information on this proposal from a memorandum written by Minister of Foreign Affairs Lamsdorf entitled “Concerning the memorandum (of Bogak) on the significance of the Treaty of 26 March 1902 in the development of the Manchurian question.” This memorandum was presented to Tsar Nicholas II after 7 May 1903 in Dispatch No. 120.

3 Zabriskie, Edward H., American-Russian Rivalry in the Far East, A Study in Diplomacy and Power Politics, 1895–1914, Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1946, p. 96CrossRefGoogle Scholar, using Romanov, , op. cit., p. 447.Google Scholar

4 A brief description of the line, illustrated by a relief profile, was presented in my article: “Physical Basis for Korean Boundaries,” The Far Eastern Quarterly, Vol. V, No. 3 (May, 1946), pp. 272–88.

5 Lautensach, Hermann, Korea, Eine Landeskunde auf Grund Eigener Reisen und Der Literatur, Leipzig, 1945.Google Scholar This is a definitive recent work on Korean geography; the map of regions, Tafel 23, faces p. 192. A recent Russian work on Korean geography, Zaichi-kov's, V. T.Korea, Moscow, 1947Google Scholar, also shows the regional differences between north and south on a map on p. 123. The problem occasioned by regional diversity in Korea I have discussed in some detail in an article scheduled for publication in the Korean Review, Vol. I, No. 2.

6 There has been a great deal of material published concerning political affairs in Korea. For a recent summary see the article by my brother cCune, George M. M., “The Korean Situation,” Far Eastern Survey, Vol. XVII, No. 17 (Sept. 8, 1948), pp. 197–202.Google Scholar The State Department has just issued a worthwhile report which includes much valuable data and documentary appendices. See Korea, 1945 to 1948, Department of State Publication 3305, Far Eastern Series 28, Washington, D. C., October, 1948.