Joseph H. Chung Ph.D. Professor of Economics, Quebec University in Montreal (UQAM)

Introduction

 Once upon a time, there was a cute little shrimp and there were three powerful fat whales. The three whales fought among themselves and one of them killed the other two and then, the victorious whale ate the cute little shrimp

 This is the story of Korea in the latter half of the 19th century. China, Japan and Russia came and they fought to swallow Korea.

 Korea was important to them. Russia needed Korea for ice-free ports; China wanted to keep Korea as a vassal country and a buffer zone between Japan and China; Japan badly needed to have Korea as an expressway to China to conquer.

 They fought and Japan won the Sino-Japan war (1894-1895) and the Russo-Japan war (1904-1905) and Japan annexed Korea in 1910

 We are now in 2021, more than one century after the trilateral whale fights. A part of Korea is no longer a shrimp; it is grown to be a smart dolphin but surrounded by the same old whales (China, Japan and Russia) in addition to a much larger whale (the U.S.).

 A century ago, Korea was destroyed, because the big powers had different interests in Korea. But, now, Korea may be destroyed, because all the big powers have the same interest in Korea, namely the maintenance of tension and the prevention of reunification of Koreas.

In this paper, I will do the following.

 First, I will show how Korea was destroyed by the trilateral fight among China, Japan and Russia. I will show how Japan annexed Korea in illegal way because of its double victory of war against China and Russia on the one hand and, on the other, because of the betrayal of the pro-Japan traitors.

 Moreover, I will discuss how the U.S. let Japan to destroy Korea in exchange of Japan's acceptance of America's colonization of the Philippines.

 Second, I will discuss why Japan, China and the U.S. want to maintain the tension on the Korean peninsula. I will explain why Russia is rather in favour of peace on the Korean peninsula

 Third, I will discuss how Korea can survive in the coming Sino-American hegemonic war.

 Before I go any further, I think that I should discuss Korea's perception of the North-South tension which is somewhat complex.

 To understand this, we have to recognize the fact that there are two South Koreas, namely, the pro-Japan South Korean Conservatives (PJSKC), the pro-Korea South Korean Liberals (PKSKL). So we have three Koreans: PJSKC, PKSKL and North Korea.

 PKSKL and North Korea want peace and they have tried to end the Korean War through the peace dialogue. But, the peace dialogue was stopped because of Washington's lack of effective cooperation or, more bluntly speaking, because of its refusal to establish peace on the peninsula.

1. Story of Shrimp and Whales of the Latter Half the19th Century.

 The geopolitical situation in Northeast Asia in the latter half of the 19th century provided an arena of trilateral fight in which Korea was sacrificed for the greed of the China, Japan and Russia.

 In 1860, a revolutionary movement took place in Korea. This movement was a political and religious movement; it was called "Dong-hak" meaning Eastern Studies. It embraced several systems of thoughts including the Roman Catholicism designed to teach farmers the need for free themselves from the abuse of power by the "Yangban" group (Korean aristocrats).

 In 1892, 69,000 farmers revolted and asked the government to punish corrupted bureaucrats, chase foreigners and impose more discipline on the bureaucrats. But, the government refused and the farmers fought to win battles and occupied the city of Jun-joo located in the Southwest region of South Korea

 The panicked government asked China to sent troops to fight the farmers and China sent an important number of troops. But, Japan also sent its troops in accordance with a previous Sino-Japan Treaty, the Li-Ito Treaty by virtue of which Japan had right to send its troops when Chinese armed forces come to Korea

 The Dong-hak army decided to avoid the war against the combined forces of Korean government, the Japanese troops and the Chinese troops and the Jun-Joo Treaty was signed and the Dong-hak army was disbanded.

 However, the Dong-hak succeeded in achieving social reform, according to which the Yangban class system disappeared and the dreadful slave list was destroyed in addition to the land reform in favour of the farmers.

There are several interpretations of the Dong-hak revolt, but, as far as I am concerned, it was the French Revolution of Korean style.

 King Gojong asked China to withdraw its army from Korea, which China did. But, Japan kept its troops under the pretext of protecting Japanese citizens.

 Two more battalions of Japanese army came to Korea. From here on, Japan's unlawful and barbaric behaviour began and nobody could stop it

 In June 1892, the Japanese armed unit invaded the palace and chased away the Min-cabinet which was pro-China and created a pro-Japan cabinet led by Dae-won-gun, farter of King Gojong. And, Japan provoked China in order to make China to declare war which Japan was convinced to win.

 The Dong-hak rose up again to fight the Japanese. In October of 1894, 100,000 Dong-hak troops gathered in Jun-joo, they marched toward Seoul.

 They met and fought for 7 days, on the way, in the city of Kwang-joo not far from Jun-joo, the combined forces of Korean army and Japanese army. The Dong-hak army was beaten. The Japanese were too well armed with modern weapons and the Dong-hak troops were literally massacred en masse.

 In December, 1894, the Dong-hak leader, Chun Bong-joo was executed and the great revolution of the Dong-hak was over.

It was about this time that a pro-Japan Korean politicians begun to conspire with Japan to take over the power. On May 21, 1894, at dawn, the pro-Japan Group known as "Chin-il-pa:親日派:친일파" plotted with two Japanese battalions and attacked the palace to force the King to transfer power to his father, Dae-won-goon.

The plot was set to eliminate Chinese influence in Korea. Japan attacked without the declaration of war the Chinese navy in Nam-Yang Bay and won almost all the battles on land and sea including the large-scale battle of Pyongyang.

 Thus, the short-lasted Sino-Japan War began in July 25, 1894 and China was defeated with humiliation. The war ended with Treaty of Simonoseki on April 17 1895. China lost Taiwan, the Liaodong Peninsula and a few other minor territories

 In the mean time, Russia became strong and did not hide its ambition to exert influence in Korea. And, in Korea, a pro-Russia group was formed and started to negotiate with Queen Min who helped to form a cabinet with pro-Russian people under Park Jeong-yang. (다음 호에 계속)

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