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HIS: This Day in History: 1945 – The division of Korea begins when United States troops arrive to partition the southern part of Korea in response to Soviet troops occupying the northern part of the peninsula a month earlier.

 HIS: This Day in History: 1945 – The division of Korea begins when United States troops arrive to partition the southern part of Korea in response to Soviet troops occupying the northern part of the peninsula a month earlier.

The Division of Korea began at the end of World War II in 1945. With the declaration of the Soviet–Japanese War, the Soviet Union occupied the north of Korea and the United States occupied the south, with the boundary between their zones being the 38th parallel.

With the onset of the Cold War, negotiations between the United States and the Soviet Union failed to lead to an independent and unified Korean state. In 1948, UN-supervised elections were held in the US-occupied south only. The American-backed Syngman Rhee won the election while Kim Il-sung was appointed as the leader of North Korea. This led to the establishment of the Republic of Korea in South Korea, which was promptly followed by the establishment of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in North Korea. The United States supported the South, the Soviet Union supported the North, and each government claimed sovereignty over the whole Korean peninsula.

In 1950, after years of mutual hostilities, North Korea invaded South Korea in an attempt to unify the peninsula under its communist rule. The subsequent Korean War, which lasted from 1950 to 1953, ended with a stalemate and has left the two Koreas separated by the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) up to the present day.

On April 27, 2018, during the 2018 Inter-Korean Summit, the Panmunjom Declaration for Peace, Prosperity and Reunification of the Korean Peninsula was adopted between the Supreme Leader of North Korea, Kim Jong-un and the President of South Korea, Moon Jae-in. Later that same year, following the September Inter-Korean Summit, several actions were taken toward reunification along the border, such as the dismantling of guard posts and the creation of buffer zones to prevent clashes. On 12 December 2018, soldiers from both Koreas crossed the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) into the opposition countries for the first time in history.

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