Daniel Sherwood’s Weblog

The Formation of the DPRK and the ROK

The History of the Formation of North and South Korea is insightful when attempting to understand current relations between the two countries. Geographically the Koreas are positioned at the eastern coastal region of Asia, between China and Japan. For many years Korea was under Japanese control. Korea remained under Japanese rule until the end of World War II after Japans defeat by US and allied forces. In 1945 the countries fate was dramatically changed when the United States and the Soviet Union divided the country in half along the 38^th parallel. In December of 1945 a joint Soviet-American commission was established with the intent of rejoining the north and south. The commission failed to come to an agreement of terms and halted all talks during the onset of the Cold War. Failure to reunite the country resulted in the progression of apposing political ideologies where the north adopted the communist practices of the Soviet Union and the south followed the United States. In 1948 North and South Korea became independent states; North Korea officially became the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) and South Korea the Republic of Korea (ROK). Two years later the DPRK invaded the ROK in an attempt to militarily reunite the two halves. UN forces came to the aid of South Korea and effectively halted the advance of the DPRK beyond the 38^th parallel. An armistice agreement was reached on July 27^th, 1953 at what is now known as the demilitarized zone (DMZ). Since then North Korea has remained under communist rule and the two countries have been unsuccessful in peacefully reuniting.