62 { China’s Quest
establish the PRC as a strong supporter of revolutionary anti-imperialism
in Asia.China and Kim Il Sung’s War Plan to “Liberate” the SouthKorea moved from China’s to Japan’s sphere after the 1894–1895 Sino-Japan
war, and was annexed by Japan in 1910. As Japan’s empire was being destroyed,
American, Chinese, and British leaders met at Cairo in November 1943 to
outline the new postwar order in East Asia.^9 In the declaration of that confer-
ence, the three powers agreed that “in due course Korea shall become free and
independent.”^10 The division of the Korean peninsula into Soviet and US occu-
pation zones came about at the Allied conference at Potsdam in August 1945
as Soviet forces were seizing control of Japanese-occupied Manchukuo. After
a Soviet query at Potsdam about whether or not the United States intended
to land troops in Korea, the American side proposed, and Stalin accepted
without discussion, that the 38th parallel delineate Soviet and US occupation
zones. Soviet forces subsequently halted at that line, even though US forces
would not reach the peninsula until early September. Stalin probably hoped
to secure control over North Korea, avoid conflict with the Americans, and
not make himself the nemesis of Korean nationalism by blocking Korean
unification.^11 The line drawn at the 38th parallel was intended as a tempo-
rary delineation of occupation zones pending the formation of an all-national
government.
The Soviet armies that occupied northern Korea in 1945 brought with them
a cohort of Korean communists led by the young and charismatic Kim Il
Sung. As in Eastern Europe, Stalin viewed Soviet armed forces as an instru-
ment of social revolution, and those armies put Kim and his KWP in power
in North Korea and supported them as they built a Leninist socialist system.
Stalin carefully avoided, however, encouragement of communist activity in
the American zone south of the 38th parallel. Stalin’s objective at that point
was consolidation of Soviet control over North Korea.
The situation in the South was much more chaotic than in the North. In the
South, civilian and military officials who had served Japanese authority vied
with liberal democratic politicians, many of whom returned to Korea after
Japan’s surrender. There was an abundance of groups and perspectives. One
of the most prominent Southern leaders was Syngman Rhee, who had a PhD,
had been a prominent activist against Japanese rule in the 1910s, and headed
a Korean government-in-exile in Shanghai for six years after an uprising in
Korea in 1919 before going into exile in the United States for many years. Rhee
returned to Korea aboard a US military aircraft in October 1945. South Korea’s
economy had collapsed after losing its markets in North Korea, Manchuria,
and Japan. Unrest among labor and peasants was sharp in South Korea and