Japanese occupation and a divided Korea in North Korea
Japanese occupation and a divided Korea in North Korea
The Japanese exercised rule of the peninsula until their defeat in WWII in 1945. Japan was forced to surrender the territory and the Allied Powers divided the nation at the 38th Parallel, with the Soviet Union occupying the northern half and the United States occupying the southern half. The divide was supposed to be temporary however the political power struggle between the two nations to gain influence over the unified Korea led each to establish governments within their newly created territories. North Korea was established as its own nation in 1948, following the Soviet Communist model, with Kim Il-Sung as its leader.
Conflicts between the North and South were common in the early years and the tension came to a head in 1950 when North Korea launched an invasion of South Korea, starting the Korean War. The Soviet Union and China fought alongside the North against the South backed by the United States and UN. The US was able to drive North Korea all the way up near the Chinese border, but when the Chinese sent their army, the US was driven back south. The war finally resulted in the signing of an armistice in 1953, maintaining the original borders set prior to the war. Because no treaty has been signed since the armistice, the nations are officially still at war.
The Most Frequently Asked Travel Questions about North Korea
Where To Stay & Best Hotels in North Korea - updated Apr 2024
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North Korea Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.
