ABSTRACT
In East Asia especially, one should be careful not to underestimate the power of tradition and historical experience. Korea had lived in a sort of coexistence together with China for centuries, admittedly as a vassal, yet with its own king and its own institutions. As China became weaker during the nineteenth century, Korea was forced into fateful contacts with the rest of the world, which culminated in the Japanese occupation and later in the division of the country. The first appearance of Russia on the Korean stage lasted until the Russian-Japanese War of 1905. When the Russians returned in 1945, China had not yet recovered from its state of weakness and was more than ever preoccupied with internal struggles. Thus, North Korea came into being entirely under the protection of the Soviet Union.
