North Korea is an ancient oriental civilization with a history of 5000 years. According to the general view of historians, in ancient Korea before BC, there were three dynasties in the northern part of the peninsula, namely, Tan Jun Korea, Jizi Korea and Wei Man Korea, while there were tribal countries such as Mahan, Chen Han and Abandoning Korea in the south. Around AD, the peninsula entered a period in which Koguryo, Baekje and Silla coexisted for more than 700 years. In the 7th century, Silla and Tang Dynasty jointly destroyed Goguryeo and Baekje, and basically unified the peninsula. Since then, South Korea has become a unified country. /kloc-Silla declined in the 0/0 century and was replaced by the Koryo dynasty. At the end of 14, the Korean dynasty (Li dynasty) replaced Korea until 19 10 was annexed by Japan. 1945 defeated Japan and recovered Korea. Looking at the history of North Korea, compared with the history of China, there are two obvious characteristics: first, since the peninsula formed a unified country in the 7th century, until the end of World War II, except for Li Zhichu's short-lived struggle for power and profit, the country has been unified without great division; Second, every dynasty in North Korea is a country with a long history, and its rule has remained stable for a long time. Silla was founded in 975, and North Korea and South Korea lasted for 474 years and 5 18 years respectively. North Korea's long-term stability and reunification in history are due to its nationality, geography, traditional political culture and many other factors. North Korea is one of the few single-nation countries in the world, and it has never been divided and turbulent due to ethnic contradictions as often seen in the history of other countries. Since Chinese characters were introduced to North Korea after BC, North Korea has been using Chinese characters, and it was not until the beginning of this century that pinyin characters gradually replaced Chinese characters. For as long as 2000 years, this common language has never been different because of different dialects, which greatly enhanced the affinity within the country. North Korea's territory is peninsula and mountains, and people's activity area is relatively narrow. Whether politically or economically, all parts of the country have strong interdependence. North Korea has maintained close and stable relations with China since ancient times. When the country is in trouble, it helps each other in the same boat, which enhances the country's ability to overcome difficulties and maintain unity and stability. The interaction of the above factors has formed a political culture in which the Korean nation advocates peace, stability, order and unity. 1840 After the Opium War, China declined and western forces began to erode North Korea. Especially after the Meiji Restoration in 1868, Japan embarked on the road of foreign aggression and pointed its finger at North Korea. However, due to the suzerain-vassal relationship between China and North Korea at that time, Japan's aggression against North Korea was contained in the next 20 years. However, after all, the declining Qing Empire lost to the expanding Japan, so when Japan decided to end the confrontation between China and North Korea by military action in 1894 and provoke the Sino-Japanese War, China's army was completely defeated. After the war, Japan forced the Qing government to sign the treaty of shimonoseki with it, the main content of which was to announce the end of the suzerain-vassal relationship between China and North Korea and recognize the "independence" of North Korea, which actually opened the way for Japan to deprive North Korea of its national rights step by step. As early as the eve of the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, Japan used force to force the North Korean government to carry out "internal reforms" according to Japan's wishes. After the war broke out, the Japanese forced North China to "chase after South Korean soldiers, abrogate China's Covenant" and tied North Korea to a chariot. After the war, Japan completely controlled Korea. At this time, Russia, with great expansion ambitions, immediately took the opportunity to enter North Korea, where Japan competed with Russia for 10 years. In order to keep the victory of its invasion of Korea under the overall disadvantage, Japan took advantage of the coronation of Russian Emperor Nicholas II in May 1896 to send important officials to Russia for secret talks, and proposed that Japan and Russia divide Korea with 38 north latitude as the boundary. However, Russia has plans to establish "Yellow Russia" in North Korea at this time, so it rejected Japan's proposal. A few years later, Japan's military strength expanded and it could compete with Russia in North Korea. 1903, Russia proposed to divide Korea by the line of 39 north latitude. This time, Japan refused. The two sides refused to give in to each other, and finally 1904 the Russo-Japanese War broke out. After Japan won, it forced North Korea to sign the Treaty for the Protection of Japan in 1905 without scruple, and publicly reduced North Korea to a protectorate. 19 10, Japan further imposed the Japan-Korea Merger Treaty on North Korea and directly annexed it. From then on, the Korean people will live in conquered people for 36 years until the Japanese defeated and surrendered in World War II. How is the 38th parallel formed? After World War II entered 1943, the fascist defeat of Germany, Italy and Japan began to appear, and the heads of major allies of the United States, the Soviet Union, Britain and China frequently contacted each other to discuss post-war world arrangements. On the Korean issue, from June 5438 to August 0945, the heads of allied countries reached two major understandings. 1. South Korea should be independent after the war. This idea was first put forward by Chiang Kai-shek and supported by the United States and Britain. It was written into the Cairo Declaration published in June 1943 1 1, and the Soviet Union expressed "complete agreement" at the Tehran meeting. However, when Korea became independent after the war, the "Declaration" used such vague words as "for a considerable period of time", which shows that big countries have different ideas. 2. Implement "four-nation trusteeship" for North Korea. This was put forward by American President Roosevelt. He advocated that the United States, China and the Soviet Union should jointly govern North Korea for 30 years in order to cultivate its independence. The Soviet Union advocated four countries in the United States, plus Britain, but the trusteeship period should be shortened. The allies reached an agreement during the Yalta meeting. However, since then, there has been no consultation among major powers on the specific implementation measures of trusteeship. 1during the Potsdam meeting in July 1945, the military leaders of the United States and the Soviet Union reached an agreement on the scope of activities of the naval and air forces of the two sides after the Soviet Union declared war on Japan, but no clear boundaries were drawn between the two armies. Therefore,1After the Soviet Union declared war on Japan on August 8, 945, the Soviet army immediately landed in northern Korea and pushed south, probably occupying the entire peninsula, while the US military was still fighting fiercely with the Japanese in the Pacific Ocean far away from the peninsula. In this case, the State Council proposed that the US military immediately land in the south of the peninsula and head north to avoid the Soviet Union occupying the whole of Korea, but the US military thought it was impossible. In order to find a solution, they held an emergency meeting on the evening of August 10. Therefore, rusk (later US Secretary of State) and one of his colleagues put forward a plan to take the 38th parallel in central Korea as the dividing line between the US and Soviet ground forces. This proposal was approved by Truman on 13 and sent to the Soviet Union and the British government on 15. The Soviet Union agreed, because Stalin intended to make concessions in North Korea in exchange for the United States agreeing to the Soviet Union's occupation of Hokkaido, Japan (in fact, the United States insisted on monopolizing Japan without making concessions). /kloc-in March of 0/5, Japan surrendered. On September 2, MacArthur, commander-in-chief of the Pacific Allied Forces, announced the decision of the United States and the Soviet Union on the 38th parallel in an order. Soviet troops that had entered the south of the 38th line immediately retreated to the north of the line. On September 7th, American troops landed at the southern tip of the peninsula. Since late August, personnel and materials exchanges have been prohibited on both sides of the 38th parallel, railways have been cut off, communication links have been interrupted in early September, and North and South Korea have been divided. There are several theories about why the 38-line was chosen. One view is that it is purely military, and its appearance is an accidental and convenient measure. American President Truman and other authorities hold this view. Another view is that rusk and others directly concocted the 38th parallel, saying that it was determined after weighing the balance of power between the United States and the Soviet Union at that time, because the 38th parallel roughly divided North Korea, and Seoul, the political and economic center of North Korea, was just south of this line at that time, which not only increased the possibility of acceptance by the Soviet Union, but also gave the United States a slight advantage in North Korea. However, some scholars in South Korea suspect that there may be a secret transaction between the United States and the Soviet Union behind the 38th parallel, but they have not found any archival basis for this. North Korea's division is developing towards immobilization. After the US and Soviet troops occupied both sides of the 38th parallel, they ruled the occupied area according to their own model. In the north, with the support of the Soviet army, the "Fifth Political Bureau of North Korea" was established in June 1945+065438+ 10. 1946 In February, the "Provisional People's Committee of Korea" headed by Kim Il Sung was established to carry out democratic reforms in the northern half. 1947 In February, the provisional authorities-the Korean People's Assembly and the Korean People's Committee were elected by universal suffrage. In the south, after landing, the U.S. military announced the dissolution of all Korean autonomous organizations and the establishment of a "Military and Political Department" to exercise direct military rule over South Korea, and prohibited the "provisional government of the Republic of Korea" headed by China, Chongqing and Jin Jiu from returning to China ("provisional officials" can only return to China in their personal capacity). Because after the collapse of Japanese colonial rule, the Korean people were disgusted with accepting a new foreign ruling institution and rebelled one after another. 1947 In February and June, the US military authorities set up a civil administration and an interim government composed of Koreans respectively, but the actual power was still in the hands of the US military. Because the appearance of the 38th parallel separated the industry and energy in the north from the grain in the south, which caused great difficulties to the economic recovery and people's life in the north and the south, the American and Soviet occupation authorities had to hold consultations on resuming the North-South exchanges. But at this time, the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union is changing from a wartime ally to a post-war opponent, and it is no longer possible to cooperate. 1September 1947, the United States unilaterally submitted the North Korean issue to the United Nations. Subsequently, the United Nations adopted a resolution to establish a unified North Korean government through universal suffrage throughout North Korea under its supervision. The Soviet Union resolutely refused and prohibited United Nations inspectors from entering the north of the 38th parallel. Li Chengwan, leader of the United States and South Korea, insisted on separate elections. Then, in May of 1948, South Korea held a general election, and in August of 15, it announced the establishment of the Republic of Korea with Li Chengwan as its president. Faced with this situation, the north also held a general election in August. On September 9, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea was established with Kim Il Sung as Prime Minister. In this way, two countries appeared on both sides of the 38th parallel, each declaring its own government as the sole legal government. They are tit for tat. After the founding of North and South Korea respectively, Soviet troops withdrew from the northern half of Korea in June 1948+02, and American troops also withdrew from South Korea in June of the following year. After the founding of North and South Korea, the relationship between the two sides deteriorated rapidly, and bloody conflicts occurred from time to time on the 38th parallel. According to statistics, more than 2,600 armed conflicts, large and small, occurred on the 38th parallel of 1949, and the scale became larger and larger. By1June 25th, 950, an all-out war finally broke out. The original intention of this war was to restore national unity by force, but the result of the three-year war was that both sides retreated to the 38th parallel. In this way, the confrontation between the two sides of the 38th parallel and the split state of the country have been maintained.