Video: 'Korean War - PART 1, Prelude to war (1945) 6.25' (Sep. 8, 1945, at 5:31)

(Saturday, September 8, 1945, a few minutes after noon KST) — Six days after the formal surrender of the Empire of Japan to the Allies U.S. forces landed at Incheon, Korea, and established a military government shortly thereafter.

The unconditional surrender of Japan, combined with fundamental shifts in global politics and ideology, led to the division of Korea into two occupation zones with the United States administering the southern half of the peninsula and the Soviet Union taking over the area north of the 38th parallel.