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Explainer | How the Korean peninsula was divided
- Following the second world war, two separate governments were established in 1948 – one backed by the US in the South, the other backed by the Soviet Union in the North
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Korea was annexed by Japan in 1910 and liberated in 1945 at the end of the second world war.
The US and the Soviet Union agreed to partition the Korean peninsula into two occupation zones. This division was meant to be temporary but cold war rivalry and ideological differences set the stage for a bloody conflict that ended in an armistice without a peace treaty.
How was Korea carved up?
In August 1945, two young US colonels arbitrarily partitioned the peninsula along the 38th parallel with a National Geographic map for reference. The Soviet Union agreed to the proposed demarcation line as a condition of the surrender of Japanese troops in Korea.
At the Moscow Conference for Foreign Ministers in December 1945, the Allies agreed to place Korea under a four-power trusteeship of up to five years until it became an independent state. After international efforts to achieve unification failed, two separate governments were established in 1948.
UNTCOK oversaw elections that were held only in the US-occupied southern half of the peninsula.
The American-backed Republic of Korea (South Korea) was founded on August 15, with Syngman Rhee elected as president.
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