What is Government?

:
Government is a term that we use to refer to the entire machinery of the
state that helps in realizing the goals and also for conducting the day-to-day
administration. The term government is derived from the Medieval Latin
word Gubernaculums. It also means a rudder. Politics is the art of navigating
the ship of the state. Government helps us in performing the tasks assigned
by the state.

Organs of Government:
The legislature, the executive and the judiciary are the three organs of the
government. We mean the entire range of functions that are carried in a
state as governmental activity. The term executive refers to execute. The
term legislature refers to law-making process. The term judiciary refers to
that organ of the government that acts as the enforcer of fundamental rights
and administers justice that projects the constitution. Government is the
agency through which the objectives of the state are realized.
Executive is one of the most important organs of government that carry the
day-to-day administration. Nominal, real, permanent, temporary,
parliamentary, presidential and plural executive are the various types of
executives. Generally, the body of the officials or personnel, referred to as
administers, carry out the functions of the executive.
Legislature is the organ of the government that converts the will of the
people into a law. The nature of constitution decides whether it is a
unicameral legislature or a bicameral legislature. Wherever unicameral
legislature exists, the single chamber carries out the entire legislative work.
In countries with large population and, that too a federation, the functioning
of the two chambers is uncommon. In a bicameral legislature the two houses
are involved in the legislation process. Generally, the lower house is
constituted on the basis of majority principle while the upper house provides
representation to the elders. The term elders house or council of states is
appropriately used to refer to the second chambers.
Judiciary is the third organ of the government. The test for the effective
functioning of democracy lies in the excellence of the judiciary. The judiciary
has assumed more importance irrespective of the nature of the government

because of the special tasks with which it is associated. They are, namely
securing justice, protecting the rights of the people and acting as the
custodian of the constitution. The independence of judiciary is essential for
the effective functioning of the government. This helps the judiciary to act
without fear or favour. In the modern days, the executive makes the
appointment and the judiciary is entitled with the task of administering
justice. The concept of judicial review evolved in the Marbury versus Madison
case in the United States (1804) and is of great importance.
Judicial review is the power to review the acts of the executive and the
legislations made by the legislature. The judiciary is the most important
organ of the government that has to function efficiently in case of the failure
of other organs of government. The prompt delivery of justice helps in the
protection of the weak and to function on the basis of the due process of law.
Constitutional safeguards are mentioned in the modern days to secure the
independence of judiciary and to render impartial justice.

Division of Korea:
Historical Background
End of World War II (19391945)
In November 1943, U.S. president Franklin Roosevelt, British prime minister
Winston Churchill and China's Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek met at the
Cairo Conference in part to discuss what should happen to Japan's colonies,
and agreed that Japan should lose all the territories it had conquered by
force because it might become too powerful. In the declaration after that
conference, a joint statement mentioned Korea for the first time. The three
powers declared that they, "mindful of the enslavement of the people of
Korea are determined that in due course [emphasis added] Korea shall
become free and independent." For some Korean nationalists who wanted
immediate independence, the phrase "in due course" caused great dismay.
Roosevelt later proposed to Joseph Stalin that a substantial number of years
elapse before full Korean independence; Stalin demurred, saying that a
shorter period of time would be desirable. In any case, discussion of Korea
among the Allies waited until imminent victory over Japan.
With the war's end in sight in August 1945, the Allied leaders still lacked
consensus on Korea's fate. Many Koreans on the peninsula had made their

own plans for the future of Korea, which did not foresee the re-occupation of
Korea by foreign forces. Two days following the atomic bombing of Hiroshima
on August 6, 1945, Soviet leaders invaded Manchuria, as per Stalin's
agreement with Roosevelt during the Yalta Conference. The American
leaders worried that the whole peninsula might be occupied by the Soviet
Union, and feared this might lead to a Soviet occupation of Japan. Later
events showed those fears well-founded.
The Soviet forces moved rapidly southward on the Korean peninsula directly
toward the United States forces moving northward. On August 10, 1945 two
young colonels, Dean Rusk and Charles Bonesteel, supervised by Brigadier
General George Lincoln, working on extremely short notice, proposed the
38th parallel as the administrative line for the two armies. They used a small
National Geographic map of Asia to decide on the 38th parallel, dividing the
country approximately in half while leaving the capital Seoul under American
control, a prime consideration. The two men had been unaware that forty
years previous, Japan and Russia had discussed splitting Korea along the
same parallel. The officers forwarded their recommendation which was
incorporated into General Order No. 1 for the administration of postwar
Japan. More interested in obtaining the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido,
Stalin agreed to the dividing line.
As a colony of Japan, the Korean people had been systematically excluded
from important posts in the administration of Korea. General Abe Nobuyuki,
the last Japanese Governor-General of Korea, conferred with a number of
influential Koreans since the beginning of August 1945 to prepare the handover of power. On August 15, 1945, Yo Un Hyong, a moderate left-wing
politician, agreed to take over. He took charge of preparing the creation of a
new country and worked hard to build governmental structures. On
September 6, 1945, a congress of representatives convened in Seoul. The
foundation of a modern Korean state took place just three weeks after
Japan's capitulation. The government, predominantly left wing, comprised of
resistance fighters who agreed with many of communism's views on
imperialism and colonialism.

After World War II

In the South

On September 7, 1945, General MacArthur appointed Lieutenant General

John R. Hodge to administer Korean affairs, Hodge landing in Incheon with his
troops the next day. The "Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea"
sent a delegation with three interpreters, but he refused to meet with them.
The American military authorities focused on dealing with Japan's surrender
and the repatriation of Japanese to Japan. Little changed at first in the
administration of the south; officials then serving under the Japanese
authorities remained in their positions. The United States dismissed the
Japanese governor general in the middle of September, but many Japanese
officials stayed in office until 1946. Those decisions angered many Koreans.
The United States occupation authorities in South Korea faced numerous
communist attempts to foment revolution from 1945 to 1948. The Soviet
Union not only put in place a communist dictatorship in the north, it sought
to take over the south through overthrowing the unstable government there.
The United States supported Princeton-educated Syngman Rhee, who moved
back to Korea after decades of exile in the United States, to provisionally
lead the country. Rhee had proven himself a patriot dedicated to democracy
and free enterprise. Rhee staunchly countered armed rebellions in the south
seeking to overthrow the provisional government and install a Soviet-backed
communist dictatorship. To complicate matters, a number of political
candidates proclaimed communist allegiance and sympathies, openly
attempting to rally support of a communist dictatorship in the south. Clearly,
the goal of communists in Korea, north and south, lay in establishing a
communist dictatorship on the Korean peninsula. From 1945 to 1950,
between 30,000 and 100,000 people would lose their lives in those battles.
In August 1948, the United States supervised a democratic election south of
the 38th parallel in compliance with the United Nations mandate for a free
and open election in Korea. The Soviet Union refused to allow the northern
sector to participate, leading the United Nations to declare Syngman Rhee
the legitimate president of Korea and the Republic of Korea the sole
legitimate government on the Korean Peninsula. The United States then
withdrew its forces to Japan, leaving South Korea with a police force at best
to defend itself. In January 1950, the United States made public statements
that the United States considered Korea beyond its defense perimeter,
leading the North and Soviet Union to believe that the U.S. would not aid
South Korea if attacked.

In the North
In August 1945, the Soviet Army established the Soviet Civil Authority to rule
the country while establishing a domestic regime controlled by the USSR.
Russia established provisional committees across the country putting
communists into key positions. In March 1946, Russia instituted land reform,
dividing land from Japanese and collaborator land owners and distributing it
to farmers. Kim Il-sung, brought by the Soviets to lead the north in
September 1945, initiated a sweeping land reform program in 1946.
Organizing the many civilians and farm hands under the people's
committees, Kim used the power of government to seize control of land
owned by Koreans. He allowed landlords a common share of land with
farmers. Of course, farmers who had been disenfranchised during the
Japanese colonial rule enjoyed the gift. Many of those who owned land
though, seeing the writing on the wall, fled to the south. In a single stroke,
the northern section of Korea lost many talented and educated leaders while
the south gained them. Of course, in the history of communist domination,
the educated and propertied people have suffered persecution and
extermination first; North Korea followed the pattern. According to the U.S.
military government, 400,000 northern Koreans fled south as refugees.
Kim next seized control of key industries, placing them under control of the
North Korean Communist Central Committee. The Japanese had concentrated
heavy industry in the north, cultivating agriculture in the south. Seizing
control of factories, and placing the farm land in the hands of peasants, Kim
further destabilized a weak economy. He had the benefit of massive aid from
Russia, especially weapons. From the beginning of the Soviet occupation of
North Korea, Kim concentrated on building North Korea's military power.
In February 1946 Kim Il-sung, who had spent the last years of the war
training with Soviet troops in the Russian Far East, formed a provisional
government called the North Korean Provisional People's Committee under
his control. He moved systematically to remove rivals and consolidate power.
At the local levels, people's committees eradicated Koreans of wealth and
position, confiscating much of their land and possessions. As a consequence
many of North Korea's leaders disappeared, presumed dead.

Establishment of two Koreas

With tensions growing rapidly between the formerly allied United States and
Soviet Union, a stalemate existed in discussions on how to reconcile the
provisional governments. The United States brought the problem before the
United Nations in the fall of 1947. The USSR opposed UN involvement. The
UN passed a resolution on November 14, 1947, declaring that free elections
be held, after which US and Soviet troops must be withdrawn, and a UN
commission for Korea created. The Soviet Union, although a member with
veto powers, boycotted the voting, refusing to consider the resolution
binding.
In April 1948, a conference of organizations from the north and the south
met in Pyongyang. That conference stalemated, the Soviets boycotting the
UN-supervised elections in Korea, resulting in no UN supervision of elections
in the north. On May 10, the south held elections. Syngman Rhee, won the
popular electing in the midst of a tumultuous political environment. Left-wing
parties, following the Soviet Union's marching orders, boycotted the election,
seeking to instigate wide-spread instability through compromising the
election. In spite of North Korea's, and communist allies in the south's, best
efforts, the Republic of Korea began life on August 13, when Syngman Rhee's
elected government assumed power from the United States provisional
government.

Korean War
In the North, Kim Il-sung declared the Democratic People's Republic of Korea
on September 9, 1948, with Kim the prime minister. The installation of the
DPRK took place without elections, facilitated by the Soviet Union. The
Republic of Korea (South Korea) declared its independence on August 15.
The division of Korea, after existing as a sovereign unified kingdom from 932
to 1910, struck both the North and the South governments as unacceptable.
The clash of ideologies, communist and democratic/free enterprise, in Korea
made the 38th parallel the flash point for the new Cold War.
From 1948 until the start of the Korean War on June 25, 1950, North Korean
forces repeatedly instigated bloody conflicts along the border. On June 25,
1950, Kim Il-sung sprung his full military force, with the backing of the Soviet
Union, against the South. The Cold War's first hot war had begun. The United
Nations, led by the United States, quickly came to South Korea's defense.
The Soviet Union supported the war behind the scenes while Communist

China sent 300,000 troops in support of North Korea. The war raged until July
27, 1953 with the signing of an armistice that put in place a truce which still
stands today. A three-mile wide buffer zone between the states was created,
the Demilitarized Zone or DMZ.

After the Korean War (1953present)

North and South Korea have never signed a formal peace treaty, only
declaring a truce. From 1948 to 1992, authoritarian governments, usually
ruled by a military president, had reigned in South Korea. The South Koreans
tolerated authoritarian rule in the face of a Kim Il-sung determined to reunify
the Korean peninsula by military force. The North failed in several
assassination attempts on South Korean leaders, most notably in 1968, 1974
and 1983; the South Korean military frequently found invasion tunnels under
the DMZ.
In the late 1990s, with the South having transitioned to civilian democracy,
the success of its Nordpolitik policy, and power in the North having been
assumed by Kim Il-sung's son, Kim Jong-il, the two nations began to
cautiously engage for the first time, with the South upholding its Sunshine
Policy beginning in 1998. The two Koreas have adopted an unofficial
Unification Flag, representing Korea at international sporting events. The
South has come to provide the North with significant aid and cooperative
economic ventures (although China provides far more economic aid and
investment), and the two governments have cooperated in organizing
meetings of separated family members and limited tourism of North Korean
sites. The two states, however, still refuse to recognize each other. North
Korea's program to manufacture nuclear weapons and delivery systems has
attracted condemnation by the United Nations and North Korea's neighbors.
The apportionment of responsibility for the division is much debated,
although the older generation of South Koreans generally blame the North's
communist zeal for instigating the Korean War. Many in the younger
generation in South Korea see the division as a byproduct of the Cold War,
criticizing the United States' role in the establishment of separate states, the
presence of US troops in the South, and hostile policies against the North.
Although those differences exist in South Korea, by far the prevailing posture
of South Koreans has been peace through strength. In the North, Kim Jong-il
has no interest in popular sentiment among the North Koreans. Kim's

greatest concern now is how his regime can survive without falling to the
same fate as Romania's Nicolae Ceauescu.