Korea

**Korea,** officially the **United Republic of Korea** (URK), was a sovereign state in East Asia, constituting the whole of the Korean Peninsula. Koreans led a distinctive urban lifestyle in the densely populated hubs of Seoul and Pyongyang. With the unification of East Asia into a single Associated State in 2140, the country became a state of the new Association and a major player in Association politics. Since the end of the Republic, Korea has remained part of the Association of East Asia.

## History

### **Division**

In 1945, the Soviet Union and the United States agreed on the surrender of Japanese forces in Korea in the aftermath of World War II, leaving Korea partitioned along the 38th parallel, with the North under Soviet occupation and the South under U.S. occupation. These circumstances soon became the basis for the division of Korea by the two superpowers, exacerbated by their incapability to agree on the terms of Korean independence. The Communist-inspired government in the North received backing from the Soviet Union in opposition to the pro-Western government in the South, leading to Korea's division into two political entities: North Korea (formally the Democratic People's Republic of Korea), and South Korea (formally the Republic of Korea). This eventually led to the Korean War in 1950, which ended in a stalemate without a formalized peace treaty in 1953, a factor that contributed to the high tensions which would divide the peninsula for over seven decades. Both countries competed with each other as the sole legitimate government of all of Korea.

From 2017–2018, tensions in Korea grew as a result of growing tensions between the DPRK, ROK, and the U.S. over the North's nuclear weapons program.

### **Reunification**

The Korean reunification was the process that began in 2029 in which the territory of the former Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) joined the Republic of Korea (South Korea) to form the reunited nation of Korea. The end of the unification process is officially referred to as Korean Unity Day, celebrated on 11 February, 2031 and commemorated yearly from there on out. Following Korean reunification, Seoul was once again designated as the capital of united Korea. The actual process of reunifying, however, would ultimately take decades, only really ending with the outbreak of the Third World War.

In the 2040s, as Japan began to impose a more tangible threat to the Korean peninsula, the US began offering military and financial assistance to Korea. This buildup of the military provided much needed economic relief, but also united the country in a way that previous attempts never had been able to. The Korean government reopened North Korean military facilities and factories, driving southern experts north to manage the creation of a wartime economy, and brought the country together with a propaganda campaign designed by Hwang Sye-kyun, a former North Korean propaganda artist. Japan's invasion galvanized this effort, and unified Koreans against a common enemy like they had not seen in a century. In an irony of history, the national capital was temporarily relocated to Pyongyang after the Japanese took Seoul.

## Geography

The Korean peninsula extends southwards for about 1,100 km (680 mi) from continental Asia into the Pacific Ocean and is surrounded by the Sea of Japan (East Sea) to the east, and the Yellow Sea (West Sea) to the west. The Korea Strait connecting the first two bodies of water separates Korea from Japan while the Yalu River to the North served as a border with China. Korea is mainly mountainous, and there are many islands off the south coast, providing numerous natural defenses from the elements.