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North Korea's Communist Party (Korean Workers' Party - KWP) inaugurated. Soviet-backed leadership installed, including Red Army-trained Kim Il-sung.
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land reform was instituted as the land from Japanese and collaborator land owners was divided and handed over to poor farmers
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Soviet forces departed, the south held a general election
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Syngman Rhee became the first president of South Korea, and U.S. forces left the Korean peninsula
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In this war americans supported the South and chinese the North
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After three years of bloody fighting in which many people died the korean war ended in a truce with Korea still divided into two mutually antagonistic states separated by a heavily forticified De-Militarized Zone (DMZ)
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Rapid industrial growth
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US intelligence-gathering vessel seized by North Korean gunboats.
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Three North Korean infiltrators were killed and five South Korean soldiers wounded at an encounter in Kumchon, Gyeonggi-do
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The two regimes signed a joint declaration on peace and reconciliation for the first time.
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The first of what would be a series of North Korean infiltration tunnels under the DMZ was discovered
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The second North Korean infiltration tunnel was discovered.
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The Axe Murder Incident resulted in the death of two U.S. soldiers and injuries to another four U.S. soldiers and five South Korean soldiers in a neutral zone of the Joint Security Area
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North and South Korea join the United Nations.
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After a series of high-level visits between the two governments, a more extensive agreement on reconciliation, nonaggression, exchange and cooperation was signed
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Death of Kim Il-sung. Kim Jong-il suceeds him as leader, but doesn't take presidential title. North Korea agrees to freeze nuclear programme in return for $5bn worth of free fuel and two nuclear reactors.
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A European Union delegation headed by Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson visits to help shore up the fragile reconciliation process with South Korea. The group represents the highest-level Western diplomatic mission ever to travel to North Korea.
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Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi visits, the first Japanese leader to do so. He meets Kim Jong-il who apologises for the abductions of Japanese citizens in the 1970s and 1980s.
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South Korea fires warning shots after North Korean soldiers cross briefly into their side of the border.
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North Korea claims to test a nuclear weapon for the first time.
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North and South Korea's prime ministers meet for the first time in 15 years.
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North Korean parliament meets for a special session to approve a leadership reshuffle.
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After a Northern warning to cease planned military drills near the island of Yeonpyeong, the South commenced the drill. The North then bombarded the island with heavy artillery in response to the firings related to the South's readiness-exercise and the South returned fire with air force jets and howitzers. On Yeonpyeong, 4 were killed (including 2 civilians) and 15 injured
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Foot and mouth disease hits livestock, threatening to aggravate desperate food shortages.
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The Republic of Korea (South Korea) today is a prosperous nation with a per capita annual income of around $US 10,000,
