ABSTRACT
There are regions in the world where conflict is endemic. Between the latitudes of 35˚N and 40˚N and 125˚SE and 130˚E a mountainous, heavily forested peninsula extends southwards from Manchuria. Its lands border on China and Russia in the north and, across the Straits, with Japan in the south. The people call their country ‘Choson’, ‘Land of the morning calm’. It expresses their longing rather than reality, for Korea’s strategic importance and potential wealth have attracted covetous neighbours since the second century BC.
