| | South Korea - Open Encyclopedia (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-09) |
 | | After the end of World War II in 1945, the world's super powers divided Korea into two zones of influence, followed in 1948 by two matching governments: a communist North and a United States-influenced South. |
 | | The United Nations-backed South and the USSR-backed North eventually reached a stalemate and an armistice was signed in 1953, splitting the peninsula along the demilitarized zone at about the 38th parallel, which had been the original demarcation line. |
 | | Thereafter, the southern Republic of Korea, under the autocratic government of Syngman Rhee and the dictatorship of Park Chunghee, achieved rapid economic growth. |
| open-encyclopedia.com /South_Korea (1879 words) |