While the short answer is the Korean war, the reality is that seeds for the separate Republic of Korea and Democratic People's Republic of Korea goes back much further and has to do with the late 19th century Chinese imperialism and the formation of different resistance factions to the early 20th century Japanese annexation of Korea.

Originally released by Knowledgemotion, 2017. Streaming video file encoded with permission for digital streaming by Infobase on February 21, 2020.