South Korea

We had a port lecture on Korea. Korea was freed from Japanese rule at the end of World War II. I did not realize that Russia had not entered the war against Japan until after the atomic bomb had been dropped, but for this, they were given the occupation rights to North Korea , while US occupied South Korea.
In the early 50’s North Korea invaded the South and initially took 90% of it. The US (UN) did their counterstrike into Inchon, the same port where we are staying. The UN took back all of the South and 90+% of the North. That frightened China, who now joined the North and took back the Northern part or Korea. Seoul changed hands 4 times. A cease fire was agreed in 1953. Technically the war never ended: there has just been a cease fire for 56 years.

Prior to the war, most of the industry was in the north. Since the war, the South has flourished, while the North has declined. The average per capita income in South Korea is 20 times that in the North.

The lecturer had a photo that I had seen before. It was taken at night by NASA from space, showing China, Korea and Japan. You see the shape of the countries from the lights. However, what appears west of Japan is a large island. At first this seems wrong, until you realize that you do not see North Korea because there are no lights. They did not turn the lights out for the photo. They are so poorly developed that there are no lights to turn off.

Folks asked the lecturer how North Korea gets its money. He said the major sources were selling illegal drugs (their diplomats use diplomatic immunity to move drugs), counterfeiting US currency, and selling arms to 3rd world countries. How depressing.