During the Japanese colonial period, Koreans struggled at home and abroad to regain independence. On March 1, 1919, Korean nationalists declared independence, setting off widespread demonstrations against the Japanese. Koreans refer to these events as the March 1 Movement. Korean exiles in Shanghai created a provisional government in China. Koreans in the U.S. raised money to help the independence movement. Japan responded to nationalist demands with harsh crackdowns, killing many civilians.

Korea Divided
Korea was finally liberated on August 15, 1945, when Japan surrendered at the end of World War II ended. But the Cold War began, tensions rose between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. 1945, U.S. policy planners in Washington, D.C. divided the Korean peninsula along the 38th Parallel into two military occupied zones. U.S. forces would occupy the southern half of the peninsula and Soviet force the northern half. In that way, the U.S. hoped to prevent Soviets from occupying all of Korea. The two occupation zones were supposed to be united later on. Instead, the Cold War deepened the division.

In August 1948, the non communist Republic of Korea (ROK) in the south was born. Its first president was Dr. Syngman Rhee. In September 1948, the communist Democratic People's Republic of Korea was proclaimed. Its first leader was Kim Il-sung.

Cold War tensions over Korea erupted into war in 1950 when North Korean forces invaded South Korea. Aided by the Soviet Union and China, North Korean forces pushed deep into South Korea. United Nations and U.S. forces commanded by General Douglas MacArthur helped South Korea drive back the invaders. The Korean War dragged on until 1953 when an armistice was signed. The fighting cost the lives of 3 million Koreans, about 900,000 Chinese communist, and 54,000 American soldiers. The Korean people had fought the war primarily to reunify their divided country. However, the war left Korea divided. Two rival regimes in North Korea and South Korea became heavily armed states, and Korea remains a divided land today.

Modern Times
Since 1948, North Korea and South Korea have developed along very different lines. Communist North Korea became a socialist state ruled by a totalitarian dictator, Kim Il-sung. In the 1960's and 1970's, it achieved steady economic growth. However, this growth then stagnated due partly to Kim Il-sung's strict policy of juche, or self-sufficiency. Under this policy, North Korea rejected foreign assistance, preferring instead to create a generally isolated itself from the world. North Koreans were not allowed to travel abroad and received little or no information about the world except what the government chose to give.

Since the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union in the early 1990's and Kim Il-sung's death in 1994, North Korea has experienced many setbacks. Since the mid-1990's, it has suffered from floods and droughts that have caused one of the worst famines in this century. Because North Korea is a closed society, no one knows how many millions of people have died from starvation and disease. International relief agencies have been allowed to provide some aid, but their access has been limited. South Korea has offered help, but North Korea has been reluctant to accept it. Today, North Korea remains a closed country with an economy on the edge of collapse and struggling to survive.