A World Divided - Teaching About North And South Korea

When you ask people what North Korea conjures up in their minds, often the same responses are given - secretive, poor, aggressive and Team America. The latter still makes me chuckle to this day. Kim Jong-il singing "I`m so lonely" and dropping Hans Blix (the UN Weapons` Inspector) into a tank of sharks is priceless. Yet contrast this with a Channel 4 news piece I watched yesterday and the reality of living in the guarded state becomes more disturbing.

Children dying of malnutrition and widespread famine are shocking reminders of how the communist system has not worked in this corner of the world.

However, one of the last bastions of the Cold War actually provides us with an interesting inroad for pupils studying this period of the twentieth century. A monster movie called `Pulgasari` financed by Kim Jong-il himself, is a perfect propaganda piece to get pupils interested in the period. With special effects by the Japanese team behind Godzilla, snippets of the film are excellent for showing the romantic theories of communism (you can watch an excerpt on YouTube).

The basic plot is the struggle of the peasant people to overthrow their corrupt rulers (a monarchy) and succeed to do so with the help of a zilla-like beast. This is a perfect introductory source to explore the communist philosophy and make comparisons to its ideological enemy - Democracy.

The creation of a separate Korea was a significant event in the Cold War as it drew the boundaries in Asia on ideological grounds. The teaching resource, on the Guardian Teacher Network- Our World Divided: North and South Korea from Wayland Books provides excellent background information with which pupils can learn how decisions and discussions lead to the division of the country.

By separating the class into groups representing countries in the United Nations, a debate could be held exploring in detail the feelings of each side. Information cards on the countries would give pupils a brief background to the events and help get into the mind-set for the debate. By keeping at least one pupil to act as chair will ensure the activity doesn`t descend into a slanging match.

The separation of North and South Korea is often talked about for its political ramifications. Though hugely important as it is, as with many facets of history, often one of the most interesting and varied is the study of the ordinary people that live through it. Again this resource helps pupils to understand this history by the use of a case study of an individual and his family. By showing the human side of the separation of the state, pupils can begin to develop and extend their empathetic skills. One method with which to do this is by introducing drama techniques into history. Getting pupils to take on roles as families split when the country was divided and then act out short sketches in the form of historical theatre, is an effective way in which to do this.

The Korean War was one conflict among a whole host that took place during the Cold War. This also provides us with a great opportunity to assess its significance with the more publicised and well known Vietnam War. The latter had US casualty figures at around 58,000, yet the Korean War in some estimation was not far behind. But does this have to be the only variable with which to compare the conflicts? Getting students to come up with indicators by which to compare clashes might be an engaging way of exploring turning points in the Cold War.

Have some more fun by throwing in other conflicts from the period and getting pupils to rank them in order of significance.

On reflection, I realise my fondness of the Team America movie could be used as another explorative tool in the classroom. Providing you can find clips that have no swearing, elements of Team America could be used to discuss the secretive nature of the communist state.

By comparing clips of Kim Jong-il with newspaper and other sources, pupils could discuss the authoritarian nature of his leadership and especially the effects on the North Korean populace. Furthermore, using the information found in this resource, students could create a graph that charts the development of the country from the 1950s including changes to infrastructure and military spending. Both of these activities provide an interesting insight into political leadership in a Communist state. We have a living, breathing entity in North Korea that offers pupils an opportunity to study an important chapter in World history.