This comprehensive collection of facsimile documents contains all available diplomatic reports regarding Korea that are housed in the British National Archives. From the documents it can be seen that the modern history and status of Korea was dependent upon the rivalries between, and the comparative strengths of, the three countries that lay adjacent to Korea - Russia, China and Japan. After the Second World War, the vacuum caused by the elimination of Japan meant that the Soviet Union, the USA and Communist China now vied for influence in Korea, and the post-1945 division of the peninsula into North and South Korea and the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950 are symbols of that rivalry. The communist - capitalist struggle for hegemony within Korea is the defining issue issue from the armistice in 1953 to the final report in this collection in 1970.
