[soft music] North Korea is one of the most important news items of today, but have you ever wondered: Why is there a North and a South Korea?

[intro music] News from North and South Korea has been dominating our timelines, social media, and TV screens for years, especially in light of the U.S.'s ongoing conflicts with North Korea.

But to fully understand the complexity of our current political moment, it's important that we stop to ask ourselves: Why are North and South Korea two separate nations, and how did this divide occur?

So, most people focus on World War II and the Korean War, but to really understand this question, we have to start further back.

By the tail end of the 19th century, imperialism had spread throughout the world as nations looked to establish their economic and military might, as well as their sovereignty, or complete independence as a country.

At that time, Korea was considered a "tributary state" of China, which is the term for a region that is under the control of another nation.

The Chinese Qing Empire was dominant in the region, but the Japanese empire was working to establish itself and test its military strength.

Because Korea was directly bordered by China to the north and Japan to the south, it became a significant legal battleground between the two countries during the first Sino-Japanese War in 1894 to 1895.

When Japan defeated China, Japanese officials became instrumental in recognizing Korean independence after the 1895 signing of the Treaty of Shimonoseki.

But if Japan was trying to subsume and control Korea, why would Japanese officials want Korea to first become independent?

In his book, "The Great Enterprise," Professor Henry Em notes the beginning of Korean sovereignty on January 7, 1895.

King Gojong of Joseon, ruler of Korea, swore an oath of independence at the behest of the Japanese.

He said, "All thought of dependence on China "shall be put away so that the heritage of independence may be secured."

This marked the shift from Chinese oversight as a tributary state to a form of Westphalian sovereignty, or a policy of a nation having complete legal authority and control over its own affairs.

But it's important to note that while this declaration of independence from China was a shift in Korean's status as a nation, it wasn't without influence from the Japanese empire.

In December of 1894, the Japanese envoy and minister to Korea, Inoue Kaoru, compelled King Gojong to make this speech of independence in order to make Western ideals of sovereignty more widespread in Korea because Japan was interested in acquiring imperial control over its neighbor.

Professor Em argues that first, by declaring itself a sovereign country, Korea began publicly acting under Western law, decreasing aid and oversight from China's Qing Empire.

And second, that Japan could now increase control over Korea through a series of treaties designed to work in favor of Japanese economic interests.

King Gojong became emperor in 1897, and while, on the surface, Korea gained a Western model of sovereignty through his declaration, other world powers continued to interfere.

Okay, so we've set out some earlier dates for the establishment of Korean sovereignty in the late 19th century, but how did North and South Korea emerge as two individual nations?

Well, remember those treaties that I mentioned earlier?

They effectively worked to place Korea further and further under Japanese control and influence.

The 1905 Japan-Korea Protectorate Treaty effectively eliminated Korea's sovereignty, so we see the status of Korea shift again from independent nation to a protected state within eight years.

And interestingly enough, the 1905 treaty was rumored to be signed without the consent of the Korean government.

Gojong was forced to abdicate the throne in 1907 and an independence movement spread throughout the country.

And Japanese General Ito Hirobumi was assassinated by independence activist An Jung-geun in 1909.

Starting with the Japan-Korea Annexation Treaty of 1910, until 1945, Japan ruled over Korea, and through a series of harsh laws, attempted to eradicate Korean cultural practices.

As a result, this period was marked by intense conflict as Korea sought to free itself from Japanese rule.

One of the big moments was the March 1st Movement in 1919, where activists assembled in Seoul to read the Korean declaration of independence they had drafted.

After this, the provisional government of the Republic of Korea was established as a resistance movement.

Its headquarters were located in China to evade Japanese oversight.

But no resistance movement is every completely unified.

There were other factions that supported different political models and strategies for economic recovery.

One of these was the communist Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army, who conducted raids on the northern border.

And one leader of this communist guerilla force was Kim Il-sung, the future leader of North Korea.

But then World War II happens, and Japan joins the Axis powers.

And because the Japanese still controlled Korea, thousands of Korean men were forcibly enlisted in the Japanese army, and thousands of Korean women were forced into sexual slavery as "comfort women" for soldiers.

Japanese control over Korea continued until they surrendered to the Allied forces in August of 1945 at the conclusion of World War II.

But the end of World War II left a lot of questions as to who would control what in the Pacific Theater.

Allied forces were interested in occupying defeated regions as part of the terms of Japanese surrender, so even though Japanese rule had ended, Korea's status was altered again by the agreements drawn up between the U.S., Soviet Union, UK, and China.

Only this time, we began to see a desire to demarcate the nation internally into two regions-- North and South, not unlike the division of Germany into East and West.

At the Moscow Conference in 1945, the U.S., UK, and Soviet Union agreed to establish the Far Eastern Commission and Allied Council for Japan, with the approval of China.

The aim of the commission was to "control and formulate "the policies, principles, and standards" in the region in line with the Japanese terms of surrender.

The language of this agreement was couched in the terms of trusteeship, where the Soviet Union and the U.S. would assist in the eventual establishment of an independent Korean state.

So, Russia primarily took over the North of the country, with the U.S. controlling the South with the division along the 38th Parallel.

But ultimately, Cold War politics got, well, a little hot.

As you would expect, the U.S. centered its occupation on capitalist economic policies, and the Soviet Union's occupation focused on communist policies.

As the U.S. and Soviet Union's conflicts increased, Korea was again caught in the middle.

The Korean People's Army, led by Kim Il-sung was an armed force that was built out of a guerilla movement that stood in opposition to Japanese rule.

They invaded the southern region of Korea in 1950.

When the KPA crossed the 38th Parallel, they began a war with the Republic of Korea Army.

This sparked the onset of the Korean War, which lasted until 1953.

Both the U.S. and the Soviet Union continued their support of South and North Korea, respectively.

After that, the division of the two nations became more and more concrete, leading to the formation of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea-- AKA North Korea, and the Republic of Korea-- AKA South Korea, although the official border has fluctuated.

So, how does it all add up?

It seems that the division of Korea into two separate countries has much less to do with a natural division and more to do with international powers wrestling over the terms of nationhood, imperialism, and independence at the turn of the century.

If we follow this rough timeline correctly, Korea went from kingdom and tributary state to sovereign nation and empire, to protectorate, to annexed region, to falling under U.S. and Soviet influence in a trusteeship, to independence, all within a few short decades.

That's an extremely rapid and varied change in status for a country to go through.

And most of these changes in status are centered around wars Korea wasn't directly waging and economic negotiations between other, larger nations.

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