Korea: and then there were two: Japan's imperialism and the Cold War split Korea apart, leading to vastly different nations in the North and South.

• Author: Edidin, Peter
• Position: TIME PAST

The 38th parallel, which has divided North and South Korea since 1953, is often considered one of the scariest places on earth. About 2 million soldiers from North and South (as well as 37,000 American troops) stand guard there, and behind the conventional forces loom the North Korean and American nuclear arsenals.

In the South is a global, high-tech economic power of 38 million people, which threw off authoritarian and military rule during the 1980s, and is establishing an increasingly self-confident and vibrant democracy.

In the North, a failed, impoverished and almost totally isolated state sells nuclear-weapons technology and drugs to earn hard currency. After more than half a century of the bizarre Marxist dictatorships of Kim Il Sung and his son, Kim Jong Il, North Korea cannot even feed its 23 million people, and it imprisons or executes those who speak out or protest.

The odd thing about comparing the two Koreas is that the Koreans themselves are among the most ethnically homogeneous people on earth, and they lived, until less than a hundred years ago, in one of the world's oldest unified nations, which had endured for 1,300 years.

'HERMIT KINGDOM'

In the 19th century, Korea became known in the West as the "Hermit Kingdom," for its long-held belief that there was nothing of interest or value in the outside world for Korea. That conviction led to a policy that forbade most foreigners from setting foot on Korean soil.

The division of Korea began almost a century ago, in 1910, when Japan, under Emperor Meiji, decided to annex the entire country.

"Korea as a Nation to End This Week," ran the headline of an Aug. 22, 1910, article in The New York Times. "Within a week," the story said, "the 'Hermit Kingdom' and the 'Empire of Korea' will become historical terms, 12,000,000 persons will be added to the population of Japan, and territory as large as England will become part of the Emperor's dominions."

Japan had recently emerged as the new powerhouse of Asia, rapidly growing in industrial and military might, and was determined to create an empire. It had defeated Korea's two giant neighbors, China and Russia, in two wars, in 1895 and 1903, and then used its regional dominance, first to make Korea a protectorate, and then to annex it outright.

Between 1910 and its defeat in World War II, Japan tried to erase everything Korean about the country and its people. It attempted to destroy Korea's ancient religious and cultural traditions, while rapidly industrializing the country, and dealt brutally with the repeated attempts by the Korean people to resist colonization. Indeed, in 1943, during World War II, Allied leaders issued a statement saying that the Japanese (who were aligned with the Axis powers of Germany and Italy) had "enslaved" their Korean subjects.

NEW BORDERS

In August 1945, with Japan on the verge of surrender, forces of the Soviet Union began moving into Korea from the...