Relationships with Neighbours and Friends

Abstract

The relationships between South Korea and its neighbours, North Korea, Japan, China and the Soviet Union are complicated by, on the one hand, their relationships with each other, and on the other by the intervention of the USA, which regards its own brand of democracy as incompatible with that of the other ‘great’ power, the Soviet Union. Each of these mighty powers seeks to extend its influence, backed by military intervention, to all other ‘lesser’ countries, in terms of size, stage of development, proximity and strategic importance. Inevitably, an arms race follows, with threats of war, which would not take place in the USA or the Soviet Union, which are skilled in self defence, but in Europe, divided by their separate influences, and in the strategic Asian countries, so conveniently sited.