---
node: division_era
type: period
slug: division_era
title: "Division era"
lead: "After liberation in 1945 the peninsula was split at the 38th parallel, and two separate states were founded in 1948. The division continues today."
published: 2026-07-09
updated: 2026-07-09
image_file: division_era.jpg
image_source: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chairman_of_the_Joint_Chiefs_of_Staff_Navy_Adm._Mike_Mullen,_center_of_group,_tours_the_Demilitarized_Zone_separating_North_and_South_Korea_in_Panmunjom,_Republic_of_Korea_071105-N-TT977-151.jpg"
image_author: "MC1 CHAD J. MCNEELEY"
image_license: "Public domain"
---

## Overview

Liberation brought occupation zones divided at the 38th parallel — Soviet in the north, American in the south — in 1945. When unification talks failed, two states were founded in 1948: the Republic of Korea on August 15 and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea on September 9.

## Key developments

The Korean War of 1950–53 devastated the peninsula and ended in an armistice — no peace treaty — with the DMZ near the old dividing line.

The South rose from deep poverty through export-led industrialization, the "Miracle on the Han River," won democratization in 1987, and became a global economic and cultural power. The North built a dynastic one-party state under the Kim family, suffered a famine in the 1990s in which death estimates range from hundreds of thousands to over a million, and pursued nuclear weapons.

## End and transition

Inter-Korean summits in 2000, 2007, and 2018 eased tensions at moments; the division continues.