Flawed split sowed seeds of war

Split in two

Korea used to be just one country, but for a long time it was caught between the wars of China and Japan. From 1910 until 1945, it was ruled by the Japanese. But after the second world war, when Japan surrendered, Korea was divided into North and South, along the 38th parallel.

The split, formalised in 1948, was in accordance with a United Nations resolution, which gave control of the North to the Soviet Union, and control of the South to the United States. That, as it turned out, was not a good idea. Families were torn apart and the nation was divided by two opposing forces - capitalism and communism - as both sides became pawns in the cold war.

The cold war

The second world war was the deadliest in human history. Between 50 million and 70 million people were killed and millions more left maimed, widowed and orphaned. Cities had been bombed into rubble and infrastructure completely destroyed. But the damage was limited to Europe, Asia and a little of Northern Africa.

After the US bombed Japan with nuclear weapons, it seemed as if it would be the most powerful nation in the world, and peace would reign. But the world had entered the cold war. It would be a war where battles were fought indirectly between the West and the Communist Bloc.

The Soviet Union had been working on nuclear weapons, but it was limited in its supply of uranium. Once it had access to Eastern Europe, it was able to complete its research. The West thought the Soviets would only get a bomb around the mid-1950s, but the first Soviet nuclear bomb was detonated on August 29, 1949. A nuclear arms race had begun.