The Korean War

The Korean War was the product of Korean politics colliding with those of the Cold War. The peninsula, a Japanese colony from 1910, was divided into separate zones of occupation along the 38th parallel by the Soviet Union and the United States after the Japanese surrender in August 1945. This was not intended to be a permanent measure, but efforts to create a national government in 1947–48 foundered on superpower caution and intra-Korean hostility. Instead, the split hardened and gave geographic expression to the divisions within Korean politics. By the end of 1948, the communist Democratic People’s Republic of