A New History of North and South is only partially history: its mid-point falls as recently as 1990; Cha and Pardo were directly involved in or observed first-hand some of the events they describe (and they are specialists in government and international relations rather than historians); and some fifty pages are devoted to discussing the prospects for reunification, reaching not just to the present but into the future.

The account starts with the Japanese occupation, setting the context for so much of modern Korean history, and then gives a brief account of the Korean War. Subsequent chapters shift backwards and forwards between North and South, managing to maintain a good balance despite the difference in sources.

The focus is very much on politics, with passing attention to economics, military history, and popular culture. There is nothing on demographics and the challenges of South Korea's extraordinarily low birth rate, for example, or on its widening gender-divide. The political narrative is engaging, covering not just the high level events but also how those fitted into regional and international politics, and how the Koreas have used military bluster and "soft power" to assert themselves.

Korea: a New History is an accessible introduction to the sociopolitical divide between the two Koreas, covering both how it came about and what it means in the present and for the future.

December 2024

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