The division of Korea began on August 15, 1945 when the official announcement of the surrender of Japan was released, thus ending the Pacific Theater of World War II. During the war, the Allied leaders had already been considering the question of Korea's future following Japan's eventual surrender in the war. The leaders reached an understanding that Korea would be liberated from Japan but would be placed under an international trusteeship until the Koreans would be deemed ready for self-rule. In the last days of the war, the United States proposed dividing the Korean peninsula into two occupation zones with the 38th parallel as the dividing line. The Soviets accepted their proposal and agreed to divide Korea.
Lyuh Woon-hyung giving a speech in the Committee for Preparation of Korean Independence in Seoul on 16 August 1945
Welcome celebration for the Red Army in Pyongyang on 14 October 1945
Japanese handed over the government to the US army in Seoul on 9 September 1945
Anti-trusteeship Movement [ko] protests in the South (December 1945)
South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone; though it also claims the land border with China and Russia. The country's western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eastern border is defined by the Sea of Japan. South Korea claims to be the sole legitimate government of the entire peninsula and adjacent islands. It has a population of 51.96 million, of which roughly half live in the Seoul Capital Area, the ninth most populous metropolitan area in the world. Other major cities include Incheon, Busan, and Daegu.
Seokguram Grotto from the Silla era, a UNESCO World Heritage Site
The oldest surviving metal movable type book, the Jikji, was printed in 1377, and Goryeo created the world's first metal-based movable type in 1234.
The Tripitaka Koreana — the Buddhist canon (Tripiṭaka) carved onto roughly 80,000 woodblocks and stored (and still remaining) at Haeinsa, also a UNESCO World Heritage Site
Changdeok Palace, pictured in 2014, one of the Five Grand Palaces of Seoul built during the Joseon Dynasty and a UNESCO World Heritage Site