In order to understand the current situation in North/South Korea, it's important to have a basic understanding of its recent history. I'll keep it short, but here are the basics:
1910: Japanese colonize Korea and commit atrocities on the Korean population throughout their occupation (north and south were one country) and thus begins an intense hatred of the Japanese which continues to this day
1932: Kim Il Sung joins the resistance against Japanese occupation
1945: WWII ends. This is where is starts to get interesting. As most of the world is taught, the Allies, led by the Americans in the Pacific defeated the Japanese (Soviet Union joined the Pacific War just as it was ending). However, North Koreans are taught that Kim Il Sung himself defeated the Japanese. And here the logic on their part seems to take a hit. They acknowledge happily that the USA dropped an atomic bomb (and are therefore evil), but that that did not defeat the Japanese. They can name no battles where Kim defeated the Japanese. Only that he alone expelled them from the Korean peninsula
1945ish: As the cold war begins, the Korean peninsula is split into North and South along the 38th parallel with the North aligned with communist Soviet Union/China under Stalin and Mao and the South aligned with the USA/UN. Kim Il Sung becomes the founding father of DPRK. Kim founds the country based on the Juche idea which is a philosophy of "self reliance".
1950: North Korea attacks South Korea and thus begins the Korean War. This is another important thing to understand. Kim Il Sung asked Soviet permission to attack the South. Stalin was not pleased about it and gave his permission with the understanding that if they attacked, they would do so without material Soviet support (other than some Soviet MIG's flown by Soviet pilots dressed in N. Korean uniforms). But here again is where written history is altered in N. Korea. According to N. Korean history, the Americans actually started the war by attacking them first. At the time, the Soviet Union also went along with this story. However, after the fall of the Soviet Union and the release of KGB documents from this time, it was confirmed that Kim actually started the war with Soviet approval. Because of this belief in North Korea, while the rest of the world calls it the "Korean War", the North Koreans refer it to the "Victorious Fatherland Liberation War"
1950-1953: Violently bloody Korean War is fought essentially between USA/S. Korea and the N. Koreans/Chinese/Soviets.
1953: Armistice is signed to temporarily halt the Korean War until a full peace treaty can be negotiated. To this day, no peace treaty has been signed meaning technically both sides are still at war. Also interesting is the fact that the armistice was signed by three parties: Chinese, N. Korean and US led United Nations. S. Korea, in a significant mistake, did NOT sign the peace treaty. To this day, the fact that they did not sign it is all the proof the N. Koreans need that S. Korea is actually just a puppet of the USA and therefore not to be trusted. DMZ is established and quickly becomes the most heavily armed and militarized border in the world
1950's-80's: N. Korea outpaces S. Korea in economic growth during the early years of this period. However, over time, the democratic and capitalistic South eventually becomes the world's 11th largest economy while the North, with its planned and dictated economy and production begins to depend more and more on communist Soviet Union to prop up their economy.
1976: Ax Murder Incident in DMZ occurs and war almost breaks out again
1989: Soviet Union collapses and N. Korea loses it's largest benefactor. As a result, their economy begins to implode.
1990's: Famine strikes N. Korea and the government announces the "Let's Eat Two Meals a Day" campaign in an effort to preserve food.
1994: Kim Il Sung dies. He is named Eternal President for Life and bronze statues of him are mounted in every city in the nation to represent his eternal presence. His son, Kim Jong Il takes over and introduces his "songun" policy which means "military first" and allocates all resources first to the military before to the general population
1995: Massive flooding hits North Korea and wipes out about 30% of the countries grain supplies. It is estimated that during the famine and floods of the 90's, anywhere between 600,000 and 2,000,000 North Koreans die of starvation
2002: President Bush labels N. Korea as part of the Axis of Evil
2006: N. Korea successfully tests its first nuclear bomb
2009: N. Korea successfully tests another nuclear bomb
2010: N. Korea sinks the Cheonan S. Korean warship but refuses to take responsibility. Also in 2010, N. Korea shells the S. Korean island of Yeonpyeong
As of now all talks, joint economic efforts and travel between N. and S. Korea are suspended until N. Korea meets Western demands of giving up its nuclear program and accepting responsibility for the sinking of the Cheonan.
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