Series ・ 10 parts

The Tossed Peninsula: A Modern History of Korea Among Great Powers

At the close of the 19th century, Joseon Korea slept quietly under the suzerainty of Qing China, only to be shaken by the approach of Western powers and its neighbor Japan. Why did the peninsula known as the Hermit Kingdom shut its own gates, and why was it forced at last to open them? Episode 1 traces the Ganghwa Island incident and the structures of the eve of opening, grounded in the historical record.

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01 The Hermit Kingdom — On the Eve of Opening At the close of the 19th century, Joseon Korea slept quietly under the suzerainty of Qing China, only to be shaken by the approach of Western powers and its neighbor Japan. Why did the peninsula known as the Hermit Kingdom shut its own gates, and why was it forced at last to open them? Episode 1 traces the Ganghwa Island incident and the structures of the eve of opening, grounded in the historical record.
02 Between Two Empires — The Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese Wars In 1894, the uprising of the Donghak peasants sparked the First Sino-Japanese War, and the Korean Peninsula was turned into a battlefield of great powers. The Treaty of Shimonoseki, the founding of the Korean Empire, and then the Russo-Japanese War. Episode 2 traces, grounded in the record and with neutrality, the decade in which initiative over the peninsula passed from the Qing to Russia, and then to Japan.
03 The Annexation of Korea — The Loss of Sovereignty Having seized the initiative on the peninsula in the Russo-Japanese War, Japan stripped the Korean Empire of its diplomatic rights through the 1905 protectorate treaty, and in 1910 finally moved to annexation. The Hague Secret Emissary Affair, the righteous-army struggle, the assassination of Ito Hirobumi — we trace, in a neutral voice, the five years in which sovereignty was lost, setting out the contested points side by side.
04 Thirty-Six Years — The Light and Shadow of Colonial Rule The thirty-six years of rule by the Government-General of Chosen. An age in which modernization — railways and schools — dwelt together with the realities of rule: assimilation policy, the Soshi-kaimei name change, and wartime mobilization. We trace, in a neutral voice, the March First Independence Movement, the turn from military to cultural rule, and both the harm done and the harm suffered, setting the clashing assessments out side by side.
05 Liberation and Division — The Day the 38th Parallel Was Drawn In August 1945, Japan's defeat brought liberation to the Korean Peninsula. Yet behind the jubilation, two great powers — the United States and the Soviet Union — drew a single line across the map. The 38th parallel. Why was the peninsula split into north and south? This episode traces, on a neutral and factual basis, how two governments came to be.
06 The Korean War — A War of the Same People In June 1950, tanks crossed the 38th parallel and rolled south. The Incheon landing, the entry of the Chinese volunteer army, and the armistice of 1953. Three years of war tore apart a single people and left a vast toll of victims. While noting that casualty figures are subject to differing accounts, this episode portrays the Korean War with neutrality.
07 Two Roads ― Developmental Dictatorship and the Land of Juche Across the armistice line, the South moved toward Park Chung-hee's developmental dictatorship and the Miracle on the Han River, while the North deepened its isolation under Kim Il-sung's regime and Juche ideology. We look at the opposite roads one people walked under the Cold War, neither praising nor condemning either system, viewing both light and shadow with neutrality.
08 The Road to Democratization ― Korea's Upheaval From the assassination of Park Chung-hee to the Gwangju Incident, the democratization declaration of 1987, the Seoul Olympics, and the IMF crisis of 1997. We portray the two turbulent decades in which Korea won freedom and democracy and faced economic trials, from both light and shadow, with neutrality, noting that the number of victims is subject to differing accounts.
09 Nukes and Missiles — The North Korea Problem When the Cold War ended and its backers fell away, North Korea sought a way out in the trump card of nuclear weapons. The famine of the Arduous March, brinkmanship diplomacy, the Six-Party Talks, and the handshake of an inter-Korean summit. This reads the turbulent thirty years between threat and dialogue, holding each nation's position in neutral balance.
10 The Peninsula's Present and Future — Living in the Gap The North and South that repeated historic handshakes and ruptures, the deepening U.S.–China rivalry, and the K-pop and Korean Wave sweeping the world. Looking at the present of a peninsula where threat and the power of culture coexist, this final episode asks about the road ahead within a geopolitical fate.