Korea had been part of Japan’s empire since 1910 and after Japan’s surrender at the end of the Second World War (1945), Russia entered North Korea and USA entered South Korea as a temporary occupation. The occupying forces, however, could not agree on a unified government acceptable to both sides. In 1947, therefore, the UN sent over a commission to try to reach a settlement but with no success.
Elections then commenced in 1948 when Syngman Rhee became president of South Korea after winning an election supervised by the UN, and the People’s Democratic Republic was set up in North Korea by the Russians, headed by a communist government under Kim Il Sung. Soon after this, the Russians and Americans withdrew their forces.