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Part of the book series: The Statesman’s Yearbook ((SYBK))

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Abstract

The Korean peninsula was first settled by tribal peoples from Manchuria and Siberia who provided the basis for the modern Korean language. By 3000 BC agriculture-based communities had emerged. The earliest known colony in the region was established at Pyongyang in the 12th century BC. Among the most prominent agricultural communities was Old Choson, which by 194 BC had evolved into a league of tribes ruled by Wiman or ‘Wei Man’, a leader widely held to have defected from China, although he may have been a native of the Choson region. His realm was taken over by the Han empire of China in 108 BC and replaced by four Chinese colonies.

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Further Reading

  • Becker, Jasper, Rogue Regime: Kim Jong Il and the Looming Threat of North Korea. OUP, 2005

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  • Cha, Victor D. and Kang, David C., Nuclear North Korea: A Debate on Engagement Strategies. Columbia Univ. Press, 2003

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  • Cumings, Bruce, North Korea: Another Country. New Press, New York, 2004

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  • Harrison, S., Korean Endgame: A Strategy for Reunification and US Disengagement. Princeton Univ. Press, 2002

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  • Hunter, H., Kim Il-Song’s North Korea. Praeger Publishers, Westport (CT), 1999

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  • Kleiner, J., Korea: a Century of Change. World Scientific Publishing Co., Singapore, 2001

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  • Oh, K. and Hassig, R. C., North Korea Through the Looking Glass. Brookings Institution Press, Washington (D. C.), 2000

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  • O’Hanlon, Michael E. and Mochizuki, Mike, Crisis on the Korean Peninsula: How to Deal with a Nuclear North Korea. McGraw-Hill, New York, 2003

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  • Sigal, L. V., Disarming Strangers: Nuclear Diplomacy with North Korea. Princeton Univ. Press, 1999

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  • Smith, H., et al. (eds.) North Korea in the New World Order. London, 1996

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  • National Statistical Office: Central Statistics Bureau, Pyongyang.

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Authors

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Barry Turner

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© 2008 Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited

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Turner, B. (2008). North Korea. In: Turner, B. (eds) The Statesman’s Yearbook. The Statesman’s Yearbook. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-74027-7_200

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