 Korean philosophy today is in its unique, particularized situation in the politically divided Korean peninsula and it can be best illuminated when we historically revisit the socio-political-economic-intellectual development up to now since 1945. Korea was freed from the Japanese colonial rule (1910–1945) with the end of the Second World War. At that time, there were fierce ideological disputes between socialists and liberals. Since then, North Korea has followed Marxism-Leninism, especially the chuch’e (主體 self-reliance) philosophy of its communist founder Kim Il-sŏng (1912–1994), while South Korea has experimented with various theories of philosophy under liberalism. Thus the South Korean philosophy in the 1950s and 60s leaned toward German Idealism and Existentialism. Right after the Korean War (1950–1953), the leading ideology in the South was one-nation-ism (一民主義) that Koreans are one ethnic race speaking one language (Kim Suk-Soo 2008). Such a strong nationalism quickly led to staunch anti-communism. This anti-communism was combined with the nation theory of Fichte and Hegel. The combination of nationalism and anti-communism remained unchanged until the pro-democratic resistance movement in June of 1987 occurred, following an active pursuit of the social critical theory of Frankfurt School in the 1970s and a perilous experimentation with Marxism-Leninism and North Korean ideology of self-reliance in the 1980s. 1990s saw the rise of Neo-rationalism, Post-Marxism, and Post-structuralism. Finally, the issue of environmental value and welfarism came to the fore in the 2000s. South Korean philosophers made continual efforts at democratization as well. The Korean society has now reached a critical juncture where its tradition has come into conflict with modernity and postmodernity. As a matter of fact, its modernization was not achieved voluntarily, i.e., not by the revolution from below but by the order imposed from above (Kim Suk-Soo 2008). In a word, the Korean society was modernized in the pre-modern way. Strictly speaking, Korean society was not modernized until the pro-democratic resistance movement in June of 1987 took place. Now we also see an attempt to solve the problem of modernization not only from the standpoint of Western liberalism but also from the perspective of Post-Marxism as well as from Confucianism. Philosophers inclined toward communitarianism contend that Koreans should not naively accept the liberalism of the West. On this view, the liberalism is not suitable in Korea because the Korean way of life is essentially based on Confucianism. Since South Korean society is now more individualistic and egoistic than ever, these philosophers argue that Korea must develop a Confucian communitarianism in order to solve this problem. Thus, there is a strong demand to recreate the Confucian value in the economic sphere as well as in the political sphere for the purpose of realizing the truly East Asian value that is compatible with a global value.