The Division of Korea was an unpredicted consequence of the surrender of Japan at

the end of the second world war and it represents the cause of the growing
discrepancies (along with the tensions that follow) between North Korea and South
Korea.
How exactly did the separation of two countries which have had the same culture
and language for centuries occur? After the United States and the USSR accepted
Japans surrender, the Korean territory (which was under Japanese occupation), it
was decided that the USSR would occupy the region North of the 38 th parallel and
that the USA would occupy the Southern one. This agreement would have remained
in effect until both of the regions decided upon a unified government. However, the
whole scheme failed with the emergence of the Cold War between USA and USSR in
1947, along political discrepancies between citizens of the two regions led to an
absence of communication between the two occupants, who both claimed they
were the rightful representatives of the Korean people.
This marked the beginning of the tensions between South and North Korea, marked
by the Korean War in 1950 whose consequence was the loss of a great number of
human lives and the creation of a ceasefire line between the two countries. Today,
North and South Korea have extremely different political views and government
bodies in control, and economic and financial conditions on either side are also quite
different for both sides. Since the 1950 conflicts there have been several
negotiation attempts, all of which have failed. It is extremely unlikely that the two
countries will be able to reunite at this state, due to the extreme differences in
politics, economics, rights and government.