The Korean troubles go way back. Japan had wars with Korea in their medieval times. Japan later conquered and occupied Korea under a brutal colonial regime, then went on to invade China and fight a border war with Russia. So the Koreans, a single nation, were under the heel of Japan for a sustained period. Following Japan's defeat in 1945, the USA and Russia basically starting playing their own imperial games in the Korean peninsula. That resulted in Korea being divided into 2 sections with totally conflicting agendas, which was bound to lead to war.

To say that this was unfortunate for the Koreans is to understate it! It was not in their interests to be used as pawns of Japan or Russia or the USA.

Countries which are artifically divided by competing empires usually end up trying to reunite themselves...either peacefully, as Germany eventually did when the Cold War ended....or through war...as has happened in Korea and Vietnam.

In the case of Vietnam the war ended in a victory for the North, and the country was reunited. In the case of Korea the war ended in a stalemate, and the country remains divided...and still in danger of further warfare at any time.

Think what would happen if two foreign powers forcibly partitioned and divided the USA, and started arming both sections of it against one another. Do you think it would not lead to future warfare in what is now the USA?

All the history has to be taken into account when looking at Korea, not just the history since 1950.

It is a great shame that the victors of WWII saw fit to artificially divide Korea, a single nation, and fight each other indirectly across its battered body. Perhaps Japanese, Russians, and Americans should all admit their own complicity in what has happened in Korea.