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The Forum: Korea: Two Countries, One Past

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South Korean dancers perform a traditional dance 'Palilmu' during a memorial service called Jongmyo Jerye. credit: GETTY IMAGES

26/11/2016 GMT

Korea: Two Countries, One Past

BBC World Service - The Forum, Korea: Two Countries, One Past

Why and how the Korean Peninsula came to be divided into North and South Korea

Why and how the Korean Peninsula came to be divided into North and South Korea.  Bridget Kendall speaks to Prof Namhee Lee, Eleanor Soo-ah Hyun, and James Hoare.

For over a thousand years the Korean Peninsula was one nation, with a unique identity and character. So what caused it to be divided into two countries that have become so radically different, culturally, economically and politically? Bridget Kendall is joined by Namhee Lee, associate professor of modern Korean history at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA); Eleanor Soo-ah Hyun, curator of the Korean Collections at the British Museum; and Dr James Hoare, a former diplomat who set up the first British Embassy in North Korea, and is now a Research Associate at the Centre of Korean Studies in the School of Oriental and African Studies in London (SOAS).

Photo: Korean dancers perform a traditional dance. (Getty Images)

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