Japan's defeat on August 15, 1945 marked a substantial change in Korea's social, economic, and political organization: the structure simply collapsed.

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Japan's defeat on August 15, 1945 marked a substantial change in Korea's social, economic, and political organization: the structure simply collapsed. There was no government to take over when the Japanese withdrew because Korea had been a colony since 1905. This rendered the undertaking of reorganization nearly unfeasible and escalated confused political activity among the Koreans. External conflict was brought in by the intervention of the United States and the Soviet Union who wanted to reconstruct the Korean society. However, because the Korean environment was unlike that of Japan's, the result was unexpectedly different. With the implementation of the communist regime of Soviet Russia by Kim Il Sung and the democratic one of the United States by Syngman Rhee, two opposing governments eventually came to power and the opposite and conflicting ideologies led to civil war.

The national aspiration of the Koreans was to become a united nation under one government. International rivalry between the United States and Soviet Russia extended the problem of disunity. The first agreement between the United States and Russia was the arbitrary division of the country into the North and South so as to have equal influence in the changes of Korean society. This arbitrary line was the 38th parallel. Soon this line acquired political connotations and separated the two spheres of influence; the democratic sphere of the Americans in the South and the Communist sphere of the Soviets in the North.

In December 1945, a meeting was held in Moscow that determined a 5-year trusteeship over Korea by the four Great Powers (Russia, United States, China and England). Furthermore, an American-Soviet conference was planned for March 1946, to discuss the implementation of a provisional Korean government. A conflict arose between Russia and the United States in March. The Russians insisted that only the political parties that had supported the trusteeship be permitted to take part in the selection of the provisional government. The Americans however, noting that few anti-Communist political groups had been interested in the trusteeship (because it was associated with Communists), contended against the Soviets' proposal. The Americans claimed that allowing only those parties that had been initially interested would defeat freedom of speech. In fact, many riots were held by the South Koreans against the trusteeship. On December 30, 1945, during these riots, Song Chin-u, a primary leader of the Conservative Nationalist Group was assassinated. No compromise was negotiated by May 1946 when the joint conference ended. One year later another meeting was held, and yet again the conflict could not be settled. In September 1947, the Americans decided to pass the negotiations over to the United Nations (U.N.). The outcome reached was more in agreement with the American ideology than the Soviets'. It declared:

The Korean question … is primarily a matter for the Korean people themselves and concerns their freedom and independence, and this question cannot be correctly and fairly resolved without the participation of representatives of the indigenous population.


Quickly the United Nations Temporary Korean Commission was created under which general elections were to be held. Outbreaks of violence were becoming more common and the political situation was elevating unrest among the Koreans. Although the United States and Russia were convening at the joint conferences to unify the country under one government, each was promoting their own ideological principals in their area; the Russians promoted communism and the Americans promoted capitalism. The diverging principals were resulting in chaotic behaviour among the Korean people.


North Korea and Soviet Russia

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Meanwhile in July 1945, the North Korean Democratic People's Front was formed, alongside the communist oriented North Korean Labor Party. On March 5, 1946, land reforms were carried out in North Korea. During which almost 15,000 houses, and millions of acres of orchards, farms, and forestland were confiscated. The North Koreans fled to the South away from oppression; historian Andrew C. Nahm considered this oppression to be worse than that of the Japanese rule. The land was redistributed among tilling farmers, and almost 800,000 farming households freely, however, government tax on the land was set as a quarter of the ...

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