DMZ

• After the armistice was signed, both armies retreated 2 km from their current positions. The resulting 4 km distance (the equivalent of 2.5 miles) that separated the two forces became known as the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). Running along the 38th parallel north, the DMZ divides the Korean peninsula nearly in half. The most heavily guarded border in the world, the DMZ currently separates the two warring nations. Several North Korean plots to tunnel under the DMZ have been uncovered during the years following the war, with the North Korean government denying any knowledge of such plots.
  
  

Northern Post-War Politics

• Using his strong record of resistance against the Japanese regime of Korea during World War II, Kim ll Sung rose to power after the war and was named premier of The Democratic People's Republic of Korea in 1948. Unlike the communist governments of China and the Soviet Union, the North Korean government developed a system only loosely based on Marxist ideology. The concept of chuch'e, where Korea is seen as the center of the world, began to dominate North Korean politics by the 1970s. Based on a model of ever-widening concentric circles, chuch'e starts with Kim ll Sung and then expands to include the rest of hierarchical power structure of the North Korean government. The core circle controls everything at the top of the regime, ensuring complete control of the government as policy dictated from the top spreads to the outer circles.
  
  

Southern Post-War Politics

• In the South, Syngman Rhee had been duly elected president by the National Assembly in 1948. Toward the end of his four-year term, Rhee lost the support of the assembly and faced no chance of reelection. To circumvent this reality, Rhee sought to pass a constitutional amendment that would elect a president through popular vote. When the amendment was defeated in the National Assembly, Rhee used the military to gather the assembly together by force and a new vote was conducted, passing the amendment. Rhee took 70 percent of the vote in the next election to remain president. Rhee would remain in control until 1960, when he was forced to resign due to civilian protests over his continued manipulation of the South Korean constitution to keep himself in power.
  
  

Northern Post-War Economy

• The North Korean government's first priority after the war was rebuilding the nation's industrial complex that U.S. bombers had destroyed during the war. Kim introduced the Three-Year Plan in 1954 and the subsequent Five-Year Plan in 1957. Both plans focused on rebuilding heavy industry and helped push the North Korean economy toward record growth rates during the 1950s and '60s. A socialist command economy, the North Korean government focused on the production of industrial goods rather than consumer goods. When industrial development reached its peak potential during the 1970s, the North Korean economy began to slow and eventually stagnate by the 1980s.
  
  

Southern Post-War Economy

• The South Korean government established the Economic Planning Board in 1961 to revitalize the country's economy. Unlike North Korea, South Korea's industrialization was built around export goods. Trade restrictions were eased on raw materials used in the creation of exportable goods and, as a result, existing industries, such as textiles, clothing and electronics began to boom. South Korea instituted several five-year economic plans, the first beginning in 1962, that saw manufacturing grow by 36 percent by 1972, according to statistics accumulated by the Library of Congress.