The Conflict

The Korean Peninsula has been divided for fifty years by political conflict, with the tensions occasionally resulting in military action. In 2000, North Korea and South Korea met for a legendary summit. The meeting of the leaders was followed by limited and temporary reunification of families separated by fifty years of war and political animosity.

Political

• At the end of World War II, the victorious Allies (the United States, the Soviet Union, France, and England), decided to temporarily divide and occupy Korea, formerly occupied by Japan. The United States occupied the south and the Soviet Union the north. As Cold War animosities between the West and the Soviet Union solidified, both South Korea and North Korea established their own governments, claiming the right to the entire Korean Peninsula.
• Cold...