During the sudden Japanese collapse in August
Duringthe war, The Cairo conference of 1943, attended by Winston Churchill , FranklinRoosevelt, and Chiang Kai Shek, discussed at length on what to do with theterritories under Japanese occupation. Later, the YaltaConference in 1945, consisting of the US, Great Britain, Soviet Union andChina, the US President Franklin D. Roosevelt proposed to Soviet Premier JosephStalin a four-power trusteeship for Korea consisting of the United States,Great Britain, the USSR and the Republic of China.
Stalin agreed to Roosevelt’ssuggestion in principle, but they did not reach any formal agreement on thefuture status of Korea. Throughout the Potsdam Conference in July 1945, U.S.military leaders insisted on encouraging the Soviet to declared war againstJapan. On August 8, 1945, the Soviets declared war on Japan. (Lee, K., Lew, Y. I.
, Lee, K., Hahn,B., & Lee, J. H. ) With the sudden Japanesecollapse in August 15 1945 , Soviets took a chance to advance into Korea andquickly controlled the Korea Peninsula, and the U.S government decided to proposeda plan that would divided Korea Peninsula a half under the 38th parallel,leaving the Soviets to occupy Korea in the north with 9 million people and anAmerican to occupy in the south with 16 million people.
The Soviets agreed andmoved quickly to occupy major cities north of the 38th parallel while the U.S.military began to occupy the southern half of the peninsula. (TheKorean War : Setting the Stage and Brief Overview, n.d.)i.
The Southern ZoneOn September 7, 1945, GeneralMacArthur appointed Lieutenant General John R. Hodge to administer Koreanaffairs. The United State authorities that occupied in South Korea focused ondealing with the Japanese surrender and also faced many communist attempts from1945 to 1948. The Soviet Union not only want to make the northern partcommunist, but it want to take over the south through overthrowing the unstablegovernment. Syngman Rhee, who moved back from the US toKorea, was supported by The United States to lead the country. He proved aDemocratic person. Under Rhee, he fought against the armed rebellion in thesouth that seek to overthrow the government.
Most of the rebellions aresupported by the Soviets.The United States and the SovietUnion were discussed about the trusteeship of Korea, but no solution has come.In September 1947, The U.
S. passed the matters of Korea to the United Nationseven though the Soviets rejected. The UN agree with the U.
S and createdThe United Nations Temporary Commission on Korea (UNTCOK).In 1948, the election Were held inSeoul, South Korea , but the Soviet Union and North Korea refused toparticipate, and the election went on without North Korea. so the UN declaredSyngman Rhee as the president of the Republic of Korea (ROK) on August 15, 1948.Later the United States withdrew its forces to Japan, leavingSouth Korea with a police force at best to defend itself. (A Divided Korea Heads for War: 1948–1950,n.
d.) ii. The Northern ZoneThe Soviets appoint Kim-II Sung asthe leader in the north. In March 1946, Russia created a land reform program,taking most land from the Japanese and many land owners and distributing to thefarmers. In that time, Thelandlords who used to control the most part of land had to share with thefarmers, and the farmer really enjoyed that gift. As Many educated leader,landlord, and the rich saw the way of controlling the country, they started tomove to the South. Around 400,000 northern Koreans led south as refugees, accordingto the U.
S military government. (Division of Korea ,n.d.)Kim also seized the control of keyindustries, placing them under control of the North Korean Communist CentralCommittee, especially he got massive aid from Soviet Union, especially weapons.(Division of Korea ,n.d.
)Despite the South Korea’ electionnew president, North Korea announced the upcoming elections for a new Koreangovernment. On September 9, 1948, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea(DPRK) was created, and Kim II Sung, serving during the war as a major in theSoviet Red Army, was elected as its premier. At the end of 1948, the SovietUnion withdrew all of its troops from North Korea. (A Divided Korea Heads forWar: 1948–1950 ,n.d.)
