Historical Background

(From the Liberation from Japan in 1945 to the Mi-
litary Coup in May, 1961).

ty

Liberation and Partition —

 

At the Cairo Conference in 1943, President Roosevelt,
Prime Minister Churchill, and Generalissimo Chiang
Kai-Shek agreed that Korea should be free and independ-
ent “In due course”. This declaration was re-affirmed at
Yalta in February, 1945, by President Roosevelt, Prime
Minister Churchill, and Soviet Russian dictator Joseph
Stalin. In December, 1945, the Foreign Ministers of the
four Great Powers agreed in Moscow that a joint trustec-
ship should govern Korea -until self-government could
be established. This proposal aroused great resentment

 

in Korea, which had expected ‘mmediate independence
following the defeat of Japan.

The thirty-eighth parallel, which separated American
and Soviet forces in Korea, quickly became a barrier to
transportation and trade, and it became more and more
obvious that the Russians regarded this line as a politi-
cal boundary rather than a military administrative con-
venience. Under these circumstances, the United States
in 1945 proposed that a joint American-Soviet Commis-
sion be established to seek economic and administrative
unity, and finally to bring about the establishment of
an independent government for the entire peninsula.