Cultural Differences Between North And South Korea

Korea lies in the eastern part of Asia. This peninsula is divided into two countries: North Korea and South Korea. Although there is a division of landscape, government, and culture, the bulk of people in Korea consider themselves a part of the Korean nation. Regardless of that, the countries do have their differences. The entire peninsula is cut off from Northeast China by rugged mountains and sizable rivers (Rowntree 365). The north suffers from heavy deforestation, however it has more natural resources. The south has made extensive reforestation efforts post WWII and so they have more greenery. In terms of culture, there are more intense differences. In the South, k-pop and Korean drams have gone global. The culture has appealed to people worldwide. Meanwhile, North Korea remains somewhat in isolation. What’s more, North Koreans attempt to flee into Northeast China, quite often. Yet no one flees South Korea. This shows that there are different cultures and levels of comfort in each …show more content…
The Soviet Union received the area north of the 38th parallel and the US got the south. The Soviet Union established a communistic government in the north and the South was more democratic. In 1950 North Korea invaded South Korea in an attempt to reunify the country under their communist government. The US and the United Nations gave support to the South while China gave aid to the North. This attack led to war which eventually ended in a stalemate and a divided Korea. Eventually, South Korea became a wealthy trading nation and the north’s condition began to decline. By the late 1990s the South Korean government implemented the "sunshine policy" which involved peaceful cooperation with the north (Rowntree 380). The north remained hostile and detonated small nuclear bombs in 2006 and 2009. The sunshine policy was dropped in