KOREAN
PENINSULA – GEOGRAPHY
News:
Rising tensions in the
Korean peninsula | Explained
What's
in the news?
●
There has been a notable uptick in
provocative moves by North Korea and the subsequent rebuttals by South Korea
and its allies.
Key
takeaways:
●
North Korea has rescinded its national
objective of Korean reunification and has formally categorised South Korea as
an adversarial state.
●
The country has also ramped up the
frequency and diversity of its missile tests, expanding its strategic
capabilities.
●
These actions were responded to by South
Korea through joint military drills with the U.S. and Japan.
●
The ongoing developments in the Korean
peninsula have raised serious concerns about the deterioration of the
international security environment and a deepening of major power rivalry.
Korean Peninsula:
●
The peninsula is over 900 km long and is
located between the Sea of Japan,
also known as the East Sea, to the east and the Yellow Sea to the west in East Asia.
Countries
in Korean Peninsula:
●
The peninsula is divided into two countries – the Democratic People's Republic of Korea
(North Korea) and the Republic of Korea (South Korea).
●
The Korean peninsula is mostly mountainous
and rocky, making less than 20% of the land suitable for farming.
●
The warm and cold currents off the coast
of Korea attract a wide variety of species and the numerous islands, inlets and
reefs provide excellent fishing grounds.
●
The demilitarized
zone (DMZ) incorporates territory on both sides of the cease-fire line as
it existed at the end of the Korean War (1950–53).
38th
Parallel:
●
The 38th parallel (38° N) roughly
demarcates North Korea and South Korea.
●
The Potsdam
Conference (1945), near the end of World War II, chose it as the
bifurcation border.