North and South Korea: One Country, Two States

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Korea is known as one nation separated by two states. A nation can be defined as a cultural grouping of people who share the same traditions, history, language, and often the same country; whereas, a state is a legal unit with sovereignty over a territory and the residing population. When the country was separated, it was divided along the latitudinal line known as the 38th parallel. Today this border separating the North from the South is called the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), and this is where officials from each side come together to discuss inter-Korean relations. After the country’s separation, North Korea adopted and has retained a communist government. Communism is a totalitarian regime that shapes its citizen’s interests and identities with a coherent ideology that mobilizes support for the regime and restricts social and political pluralism. In a communist regime, the wealthy often exploit the poor, the government redistributes economic wealth, and a single party controls the state. On the other hand, South Korea which had been established with an anti-communist authoritarian dictator, has economically modernized to form a democratic state. Like the North’s communist government, the South’s authoritarian regime limited political pluralism, but was not concerned with social pluralism or using coercive mobilization to shape its citizen’s interests and support for the regime. As of 1985, South Korea officially became a democracy in which the rulers would now be held accountable to the people. Despite all of the similarities that the Korean people share, what is it that explains the different and enduring political regimes that each state has adopted? Scholarly evidence has identified three possible factors as the source of bot...

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