On the Brink: Teaching About Tension in North and South Korea

Skirmishes between North Korea and South Korea have been far from rare in recent years, but the shots exchanged last week brought a new level of tension between the two nations — and to world diplomacy.

Recently, leaked intelligence revealed that South Korea and the United States had discussed a situation that included the fall of the communist regime in North Korea and the subsequent reunification of Korea. North Korea has announced that it believes South Korea intends to invade, a troubling piece of information, as it is now known that North Korea has a new uranium enriching program.

This complicated situation presents ample opportunities to discuss issues of foreign policy, political systems, history and economics with your students. We present a list of key questions, activity ideas and related resources to supplement your instruction.

Key Questions

Comparing the Koreas How is each country governed? Who are the leaders of North Korea and South Korea? How did they come to power? How would you characterize their leadership?

Currency and Current Conditions Under Kim Jong-il’s leadership, North Korea devalued its currency. What was the goal of this action? What actually happened? How did currency devaluation contribute to hardships for North Koreans? What has North Korea come to rely on China to provide? Why? How did South Korea help North Korea in the past? As a result, what is the attitude of some South Koreans toward last week’s attack?

Life in North and South Korea: How is life different for the people of North and South Korea? What freedoms do the citizens of each nation have? How do their chief concerns compare? What are the main industries and sources of income, and what is the standard of living in each country? Why have more people been fleeing North Korea?

Inter-Korea Relations: What events led to the Nov. 23 exchange of fire between North Korea and South Korea? Why are tensions running particularly high now? What has North Korea revealed about its nuclear weapons capability? What does each country blame the other for, regarding the events on Nov. 23?

Border Lines: Where is Yeonpyeong Island, site of North Korea’s attack on South Korea on Nov. 23? Why do both countries claim rights to the waters surrounding the island? Why does North Korea blame the United States for the location of the border, called the Northern Limit Line? What rationale did North Korea use to re-draw this boundary in 1999? How has South Korea responded to this re-drawing?

World Affairs: How would other nations like the United States, Japan and Britain respond to the events of Nov. 23? What role does China play in aiding North Korea? Why? What would China gain and lose if Korea were reunited as a democratic nation?

Sizing Up the Sanctions: Which nation has the United Nations imposed sanctions against? What event led to the sanctions? What are some of the outcomes of these sanctions? What sanctions has the United States issued against North Korea? What is the goal of such actions?

Activity Ideas

Generating Questions, Answers and Ideas: Do our 6 question About the News installment North and South Korea Clash. As you look for the answers, use index cards to jot down important topics and ideas from the related article, along with any questions that arise. Write key information and answers to your questions on the reverse side of the index cards. Contribute your completed cards for a class “quiz show” about the situation in North and South Korea.

Looking Back 100 Years: Trace the history of Korea from the past 100 years, from its rule by Japan to 1948 when the country became North Korea and South Korea, to the Korean War, the truce that ended it, on through to the present day. Create a top ten list of most significant events. After each item, write a brief summary that tells why and, if applicable, tells what subsequent action(s) the event brought about.

Investigating Recent History: Read The North Korea Challenge time line and the linked articles. Then choose one of these topics to research further, using the time line and other resources: foreign policy, allies, negotiations regarding North Korea’s nuclear disarmament, United Nations resolutions, the sinking of a South Korean warship, sanctions and North Korea’s unveiling of a new nuclear facility. Make a poster or PowerPoint presentation that explains central events related to your topic, from 1993 to the present. Keep notes as your classmates present so that you can relate the events and situations they identify as important to your topic.

Connecting the Truce to Today: Use our collection of resources — The Korean War on its 60th Anniversary — to access historical articles and gain an overview of relations between the nations. Use the resources to create a hyperlinked version of “‘Crisis Status’ in South Korea After North Shells Island,” the first Times article that reported on the military engagement last week.

Assessing the Situation: Read the Room for Debate blog’s “How to Respond to North Korea” to learn how experts (and readers) see the situation. Then extend the debate by creating a classroom version, consisting of researched posts written by each student or pair on behalf of another country, such as South Korea, China, Japan, the United States or Great Britain, explaining how it should respond to North Korea and why. If technology is available, post your writing on your class’s or school’s Web site in order to read and respond to your classmates’ ideas.

Cultural Comparison: Find photographs depicting the cultures of North and South Korea, as well as a photo that captures American culture. (For North Korea, you might include images from Views of the Regime, a slide show of government-approved art from North Korea.) Then do our Culture Shot activity (PDF), and in addition to gauging what the photos say about each nation’s culture, compare the three. You might draw, too, on research to develop your observations and comparisons. Present this information in an oral presentation.

Everyday Life in North Korea: Read “Inside North Korea, ‘Business as Usual'” to learn more about what everyday life is like in this reclusive country. Then create a postcard that could be written from a North Korean to someone in another country, drawing on information from the article to reference aspects of daily life there.

Connecting the Cables: Read the documents called “cables” regarding North Korea that were presented to the Times and other news outlets by WikiLeaks and the related articles. Suppose that WikiLeaks had revealed documents written by North Korea, in which its diplomats share their observations of South Korea, China or the Unites States. Write one of these hypothetical “leaked” documents, supported by research to make it as plausible as possible.

Interpreting the Images: Look at the images in The Tea Leaves slide show. What do these images tell you about the powerholders in North Korea? Compare these images to the work of Arun Chaudhary, the official White House videographer, and the images on the official White House Web site. Write a paragraph that critiques the images released by each government, explaining what the leaders project about themselves, their countries and their people. Then compare the imagery of the photos of the government assembly in North Korea and the United States Congress. What do the decor and layout of the rooms and the physical appearance and facial expressions of the officials tell you about each group? Do you think North Korea would allow photographers to capture and distribute quotidian images of statues being cleaned or wet umbrellas drying in a hallway? Why or why not? Extend this activity by repeating it with photographs of other countries’ political leaders, perhaps from other eras and systems, like Russia today and the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

Food and Fighting: Read the article “New Focus on North’s Food Shortage,” noting the issues it raises about food production, alliances with other nations and government control in North Korea. Research these issues, then compare North Korea’s situation with that of another country facing food shortages, like one in East Africa. How do industry, climate and agriculture, government and other issues contribute to food shortages in these countries? How do experts believe these issues can and should be addressed?

Personal Freedoms: North Korea has posted a series of videos on YouTube and has a Twitter account. Can the people of North Korea create their own YouTube and Twitter accounts? Do they have Internet connections at home? Do they have a free press? (And are foreign journalists allowed to report there?) How have defectors from North Korea talked about their lives there? Research the personal liberties that people in North Korea have then compare them to other nations, beginning with South Korea and China. Present your findings in an oral report.

Relevant Resources

Related lesson plans include State’s Secrets: Teaching about Wikileaks, which presents questions and activity ideas about this week’s release of documents, many of which are related to diplomacy in North Korea; Intolerable Acts, which examines the implications of North Korea’s nuclear testing; The View from the Summit: Holding a Symposium on China, in which students investigate implications of the growing power of China, a nation closely tied to the current situation in North and South Korea; and New Directions for Diplomacy, which involves comparing the foreign policy approaches of then-President-elect Obama and President George W. Bush.

Times Topics pages: South Korea, North Korea and The Korean War.