Korea why did it split

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player. For hundreds of years Korea has been a battleground for competing nations and ideas, but the last century - possibly the darkest in the peninsula's history - has seen it divided as never before.

Japan used its victory to annex Korea in , having already installed a puppet leader. Emperor Sunjong was the last 'united' Korean leader and the last emperor in a dynasty stretching back years.

By the time he died in the Japanese were completely in control and attempting to undermine Korea's unique cultural identity. The Korean language and customs were suppressed and at one point Tokyo even tried to enforce a law stating that all second names should be Japanese.

It was divided into two spheres of influence along the 38th parallel. The Americans controlled south of the line - the Russians installed a communist regime in the north, later ceding influence to China. COVID Austria to place millions of unvaccinated people into lockdown 'in days' as coronavirus cases surge. At the end of the war, Koreans were united in joy and hope that they were going to be a single independent country. The establishment of the division—made without their input, let alone their consent—eventually dashed those hopes.

Further, the location of the 38th Parallel was in a bad place, crippling the economy on both sides. Most heavy industrial and electrical resources were concentrated north of the line, and most light industrial and agricultural resources were to the south. Both North and South had to recover, but they would do so under different political structures. The South declared itself a nation in May Rhee was formally installed as the first president in August and immediately began waging a low-level war against communists and other leftists south of the 38th parallel.

Meanwhile, in North Korea, the Soviets appointed Kim Il-sung , who had served during the war as a major in the Soviet Red Army, as the new leader of their occupation zone. He officially took office on Sept. Kim began to quash political opposition, particularly from capitalists, and also began to construct his cult of personality. In , Kim Il-sung decided to try to reunify Korea under communist rule.

He launched an invasion of South Korea, which turned into the three-year-long Korean War. South Korea fought back against the North, supported by the United Nations and manned with troops from the United States.

The conflict lasted from June to July and killed more than 3 million Koreans and U. A truce was signed at Panmunjom on July 27, , and in it the two countries ended up back where they started, divided along the 38th parallel.

One upshot of the Korean War was the creation of the Demilitarized Zone at the 38th parallel. Electrified and constantly maintained by armed guards, it became a nearly impossible obstacle between the two countries.

Hundreds of thousands of people fled the north prior to the DMZ, but afterward, the flow became a trickle of only four or five per year, and that restricted to elites who could either fly across the DMZ, or defect while out of the country.

During the Cold War, the countries continued to grow in different directions. By , the Korean Workers' Party was in full control of the North, farmers were collectivized into cooperatives, and all commercial and industrial enterprises had been nationalized.

South Korea remained committed to libertarian ideals and democracy, with a strong anti-communist attitude. In , the Communist bloc abruptly collapsed, and the Soviet Union dissolved in North Korea lost its main economic and governmental support. The People's Republic of Korea replaced its communist underpinnings with a Juche socialist state, focused on the personality cult of the Kim family.

From to , a great famine struck North Korea. Despite food aid efforts by South Korea, the U. In , the Gross Domestic Product per capita for the South was estimated to be 12 times that of the North; in , a study found that North Korean preschoolers are smaller and weigh less than their South Korean counterparts. Energy shortfalls in the North led to the development of nuclear power, opening the door for the development of nuclear weaponry. Technically speaking, however, the two Koreas are still at war.

Beyond the political divide, are Koreans in the North and South all that culturally different? If so, how? Koreans in the South and North have led separate lives for almost 70 years.

Korean history and a collective memory of having been a unified, independent state for over a millennium, however, are a powerful reminder to Koreans that they have shared identity, culture and language. For example, in both Koreas the history of having resisted Japanese colonialism is an important source of nationalism. Consider, too, the Korean language. About 54 percent of North Korean defectors in South Korea say that they have no major difficulty understanding Korean used in South Korea.

Only 1 percent responded that they cannot understand it at all. In North Korea, repression, surveillance and punishment are pervasive features of social life.