The Korean Peninsula lies at the strategic heart of East Asia, between China, Russia, and Japan, and has been influenced in different ways and at different times by all three of them. Across the Pacific lies the United State, which has also had a major influence on the peninsula since the first encounters in the mid-nineteenth century. Faced by such powerful neighbors, the Koreans have had to struggle hard to maintain their political and cultural identity. The result has been to create a fiercely independent people. If they have from time to time been divided, the pressures towards unification have always proved strong. This third edition of Historical Dictionary of the Republic of Korea covers its history through a chronology, an introductory essay, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 500 cross-referenced entries on important personalities, politics, economy, foreign relations, religion, and culture. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about the Republic of Korea.

The Historical Dictionary of North Korea, Second Edition contains a chronology, an introductory essay, an extensive bibliography, and several hundred cross-referenced dictionary entries.

This dictionary presents a balanced and objective view of South Korea, providing a long perspective and covering varied aspects of South Korean life. Domestic, political, and social events, foreign affairs, economic and cultural developments, and the men and women who have influenced the country's history are reviewed in the more than 400 entries, many of which are new or have been updated from the first edition. The dictionary's chronology and historical narrative, also updated, cover the entire history of Korea for the benefit of readers who have little or no knowledge of the overall history of the Korean people. The extensive bibliography has been updated to include the most current and best books, journals, and websites, making this a valuable reference source for the scholar, student, and general reader.

Compiled by specialists from the University of Durham Department of East Asian Studies, this new reference work contains approximately 1500 entries covering Korean civilisation from early times to the present day. Subjects include history, politics, art, archaeology, literature, etc. The Dictionary is intended for students, teachers and researchers, and will also be of interest to the general reader. Entries provide factual information and contain suggestions for further reading. A name index and comprehensive cross-reference system make this an easy to use, multi-purpose guide for the student of Korea in the broadest sense.

The Korean War has often been regarded as a forgotten war, although that is certainly unfair. It was, if anything, a rather crucial war within the ambit of the Cold War, started by North Korea in 1950 and, although the bulk of the fighting was over by 1954, peace has never been concluded and the two sides still face off over the demilitarized zone. On the other side of the zone is South Korea, which has since become a very prosperous and democratic country, while North Korea has achieved relatively little. So, that war is certainly not forgotten by the Koreans. And, given the large number of deaths and casualties, it is still remembered by many in the United States and other allies, as well as China and the Soviet Union. This Historical Dictionary of the Korean War, now in its second edition, does much to jolt our memory and inform us about the war. This is done first in a lengthy chronology, tracking the war but also the path to war and what happened after. The introduction covers the war as a whole, trying to make sense of it. The dictionary section provides all of the necessary details on significant persons, places and events, battles and other engagements, military units and material, as well as the political, economic and social background. There are also maps and a list of acronyms. This is really the ideal source for information, in addition to which, it also has an extensive bibliography.

Understanding North Korea through its propaganda What do the North Koreans really believe? How do they see themselves and the world around them? Here B.R. Myers, a North Korea analyst and a contributing editor of The Atlantic, presents the first full-length study of the North Korean worldview. Drawing on extensive research into the regime’s domestic propaganda, including films, romance novels and other artifacts of the personality cult, Myers analyzes each of the country’s official myths in turn—from the notion of Koreans’ unique moral purity, to the myth of an America quaking in terror of “the Iron General.” In a concise but groundbreaking historical section, Myers also traces the origins of this official culture back to the Japanese fascist thought in which North Korea’s first ideologues were schooled. What emerges is a regime completely unlike the West’s perception of it. This is neither a bastion of Stalinism nor a Confucian patriarchy, but a paranoid nationalist, “military-first” state on the far right of the ideological spectrum. Since popular support for the North Korean regime now derives almost exclusively from pride in North Korean military might, Pyongyang can neither be cajoled nor bullied into giving up its nuclear program. The implications for US foreign policy—which has hitherto treated North Korea as the last outpost of the Cold War—are as obvious as they are troubling. With North Korea now calling for a “blood reckoning” with the “Yankee jackals,” Myers’s unprecedented analysis could not be more timely.

Offering a concise overview of Pyongyang’s history and development, the ‘Historical Dictionary of Pyongyang’ presents a comprehensive historical survey of the city in the form of an alphabetical list of keywords and names, with accompanying definitions. Both well-researched and authoritative, the volume draws upon a wide range of modern sources, and contains an introductory essay about the city, a chronology, a list of acronyms and abbreviations, and an array of photographs.