Immediately after the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, the US Secretary of Defense declared the 38th parallel as the border between a Soviet and an American occupation zone. This political development was preceded by a Korea that had been under Japanese colonial rule for many years and between the grindstones of imperialist powers, with periods of Chinese rule, but also phases of state autonomy and cultural prosperity. The events of 10th of August 1945 are still relevant today: the Korean War has technically not ended and there is an on-going dangerous conflict between a dictatorship in the north and a democratic economic miracle in the south.