EXPLAINED: HOW THE KOREAN PENINSULA WAS DIVIDED

For centuries North and South Korea were unified and ruled by generations of dynastic kingdoms. After the Russia-Japanese War, Japan occupied Korea in 1905 and formally annexed it five years later. Korea remained under Japanese colonial rule for 35 years until the end of World War II, during which the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as the two superpowers.

The Korean Peninsula became an unexpected casualty of the escalating Cold War between the two rival superpowers, and was divided as North and South Korea, and has remained divided ever since for more than 70 years.

In August 1945, the two new super powers divided control over the Korean Peninsula. Over the next three years (1945-48), the Soviet Army and its proxies set up a communist regime in the area north of latitude 38˚ N, or the 38th parallel. South of that line, a military government was formed, supported directly by the United States.

After that what happened in the intervening years and how the Chinese came to influence North Korea can be seen here and below,

How the Korean peninsula was divided https://t.co/1d5GU4LZ1Y

— SCMP News (@SCMPNews) February 17, 2019