History of Korea

This article is about the history of Korea. It covers the time up to the division of Korea before the Korean War. See History of North Korea and History of South Korea for the post-war period.

The division of Korea

Main article: Division of Korea

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The unconditional surrender of Japan, the earlier collapse of Nazi Germany, combined with fundamental shifts in global politics and ideology, led to the division of Korea into two occupation zones effectively starting on September 8, 1945, with the United States administering the southern half of the peninsula and the Soviet Union taking over the area north of the 38th parallel. This division was meant to be temporary and was first intended to return a unified Korea back to its people until the United States, United Kingdom, Soviet Union, and Republic of China could arrange a trusteeship administration.

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At the Cairo Conference on 22 November 1943, it was agreed that Korea would be free "in due course as one unified country”; at a later meeting in Yalta in February 1945, it was agreed to establish a four-power trusteeship over Korea. In December 1945, a conference convened in Moscow to discuss the future of Korea. A 5-year trusteeship was discussed, and a joint Soviet-American commission was established. The commission met intermittently in Seoul but deadlocked over the issue of establishing a national government. In September 1947, with no solution in sight, the United States submitted the Korean question to the UN General Assembly.

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Initial hopes for a unified, independent Korea quickly evaporated as the politics of the Cold War and opposition to the trusteeship plan from Korean anti-communists resulted in the 1948 establishment of two separate nations with diametrically opposed political, economic, and social systems. In June 1950 the Korean War broke out, ending any hope of a peaceful reunification for the time being. See History of North Korea and History of South Korea for the post-war period.

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The United States established a capitalist, pro-American government in the south named the Republic of Korea (대한민국 / 大韓民國) while the Soviet Union enabled Kim Il-sung to take power and establish a communist, pro Soviet government in the northern half of the Korean Peninsula called the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (조선민주주의인민공화국 / 朝鮮民主主義人民共和國).

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Korea: — For other places called Korea, see: Korea (disambiguation)...

Korean War: The Korean War (Korean: ????/????), from June 25, 1950 to July 27, 1953, was a conflict between North Korea and South Korea. Some consider this Cold War-era conflict to have been a proxy war between the United States and its Western democratic allies and the Communist powers of the People's Republi...

History of North Korea: History of North Korea: Following World War II, Korea, which had been a colonial possession of Japan since 1910, was occupied by the Soviet Union (in the north) and the United States (in the south). After a period of political conflict the country was divided into the Democratic People's Republic o...

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