ABSTRACT
In Korea, an old kingdom where Chinese cultural influence was strong, a struggle for control between Russia and Japan ended when Japan seized the country in 1905 (58). After Japan’s defeat in 1945, American forces occupied the south of Korea and Soviet forces the north; the dividing line was the ‘38th parallel’ (38° North). The USSR then installed a communist regime at Pyongyang in the north; in the south, where two out of three Koreans live (today there are 50 million in the south, 23 million in the north), an elected government was set up in the old capital, Seoul.
