The Korean peninsula was first established around the fourth century when the Chinese colonies were replaced by three kingdoms. These three kingdoms were very competitive and maintained very close ties to China hoping to gain an advantage over each other. The three kingdoms unified at around 660 and drove all Chinese establishments out, and at around 668 the Korean people became a nation; creating there own language, culture and making Buddhism their state religion. Over the years while Korea was still young uprisings tore the new nation apart, however, a military officer named Wang Kon took over power and reunited the new nation in 935. In Korea there was a golden age which lasted from 1392 to 1910 but this ended with the invasions of Japan and the Manchurians. The invasions were stopped but hurt Korea economically which led to greater problems. So at around 1910 Japan attempted to eliminate all that was Korean, and when Koreans held a massive demonstration called March First Movement thousands of Korean civilians were killed by the Japanese. .
Then at the end of World War II, Japanese again abused Korea with forced labor. At the end of the war Korea was divided at the 38th parallel with the U.S.S.R. controlling the North and the South controlled by the United States. While trying to unify the nation back together the cold war begins and stopped all talks and Korea was never unified again. With unification out of the way North Korea decided to make a surprise attack in 1950 which started the Korean War. This war ended in 1953 with an armistice between the divided nation and is separated now by the most heavily guarded border in the world.
Park Chung Hee an army general and veteran of the Japanese imperial army took power after a brief period of democracy in South Korea. About 13 years later North Korea tries to assassinate President Park but kills the first lady instead. Park, at the end of his rule thought that he was a deity and declared martial law in South Korea, and during student rallies Park Chung Hee was assassinated by the Korean Central Intelligence Agency.
