The Korean Peninsula was once a single nation 🇰🇷 until Japan annexed it in 1910 and ruled for 35 years, right up to the end of World War II ⚔️ Just days before Japan’s surrender, Soviet troops entered from the north, while U.S. forces advanced from the south 🚩 To prevent full Soviet control, the U.S. proposed a temporary division along the 38th parallel, but Cold War tensions turned it into a permanent split, creating two states with opposing ideologies 🟥🟦 In 1950, North Korea launched a war to reunify the peninsula by force 💥 South Korea called for help, and U.S.