on arriving in Korea, US commander John Hodge was met by representatives of the already constituted all-Korean republic. That government was supported by popular committees of peasants and released prisoners of war. But Hodge refused to recognise them, and imposed partition (with the complicity of Stalin, who had agreed the deal in the first place).
Both North and South, partition led to reaction. In the North Kim Il Sung's regime was consolidated as the only other competing power was based in the now isolated South Korean wing of the party. In the South Syngman Rhee's belligerence was undertaken to trump the victory of the opposition in the elections the previous year.
In the course of the war Rhee's government slaughtered suspected oppositionist by the thousands. Worse still, MacArthur sacked Seoul twice over: once taking it back from the North Koreans and then a second time retreating from a Chinese invasion that existed mainly in his own propaganda. Those dislocations, and the partition that they are based upon meant that it was impossible for any semblance of democracy to emerge in Korea, North and South. Partition frustrates the will of the Korean people as a whole, but it suits America's elite.
-- James Heartfield
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