1945: Ending Japanese rule:
At the end of World War II, after Japan’s defeat, Soviet troops enter the north of Korea, while U.S. troops enter the south to jointly occupy the country and disarm the Japanese.

1947: South Korea established:
U.S.-backed United Nations commission on elections is created to choose a single Korean government, but the commission is refused entry into Soviet-occupied northern Korea. In the south, with U.S. backing, the Republic of Korea is set up, and a year later, Syngman Rhee is elected president.

1948: North Korea established: 
With Soviet backing, the Democratic People’s Republic is formed. Kim Il Sung, a former leader in the resistance against the Japanese, is North Korea’s first prime minister. In 1972, he becomes president. 

1950: War breaks out:
In June, North Korean troops invade the south, in an effort to unite the country by force. At South Korea’s request, U.S.-led United Nations troops fight alongside the South Koreans to push back North Koreans. By September, with North Korean troops holding most of the country, Gen. Douglas MacArthur lands U.S. troops at Inchon and begins retaking the peninsula. By November, his troops are at the Yalu River border with China. This sparks a massive Chinese offensive.

1953: Country divided: 
After three years of back-and-forth warfare, the battle lines harden near the 38th parallel. The Korean War ends in July with a truce, but the two sides remain technically at war. South Korea signs mutual-aid treaty with the United States. 

1960s-1970s: Cold War alliances:
North Korea signs friendship treaties with Beijing and Moscow, receiving military, political and economic aid from both. In South Korea, protests erupt over Korea’s division, and against the U.S.-backed military government. In Kwangju in 1980, security forces kill 240 protesters. At the same time, however, the combination of Confucianism and military-style discipline helps to launch South Korea from an impoverished country to a world industrial power.

1980s: South and North adjust to new world order:
As South Korea’s economic and educational levels soar, they also increase their demands for democratic government, and force the first multiparty elections in the country. In 1992, South Korea elects Kim Young-sam its first civilian president in three decades. North Korea grows increasingly nervous, and reclusive, as Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev introduces "perestroika," and the Soviet Union begins to crumble. Pyongyang leans towards Beijing.

1994: Death of a leader:
Under growing pressure from the international community for its suspected nuclear weapons program, and facing sanctions, Kim Il Sung tells former U.S. president Jimmy Carter he is ready to compromise, and he offers an unprecedented summit meeting with South Korean President Kim Young-sam. However, Kim Il Sung dies shortly before the summit is to be held, leaving his son, Kim Jong Il, to succeed him.

1996: Talks begin:
The United States proposes four-party peace talks between the Koreas, the United States and China. Later, ties between North and South Korea are seriously strained when a North Korean submarine runs aground during an incursion into South Korean waters. Pyongyang later apologizes.

1997: Glacial transition begins:
The United States, China and the two Koreas begin historic peace talks in Geneva aimed at reaching a treaty officially ending the Korean War. Ground is broken in North Korea on the first reactor project stemming from the 1994 nuclear pact. Also, the official mourning period for Kim Il Sung expires and his son, Kim Jong Il, assumes full command of the state as reports of starvation and severe malnutrition in North Korea continue. South Korea, by this time the 11th largest economy in the world, is clobbered by the Asian economic crisis, which ultimately leads to economic reform, and greater transparency.

A captured North Korean submarine is lifted onto the deck of a South Korean ship.

1998: Sunshine policy, and clouds:
South Korean president Kim Dae-Jung takes office and announces a new "Sunshine policy" of economic and cultural contacts with the North, and offers a summit with Kim Jong-Il, who works to consolidate his power. Several incidents nearly reverse the thaw -- a defunct North Korean spy submarine is found in South Korean waters, and North Korea test fires a long-range missile over Japan, prompting international anger. However, later in the year, reclusive North Korea begins allowing tours of South Koreans to sacred Mt. Kumgang for the first time.

2000: Summit breakthrough:
Pyongyang launches a diplomatic offensive, agreeing to meetings between Kim Jong-Il and Kim Dae-jung during a June 12-14 summit in Pyongyang, marking the first 
face-to-face meeting between rival Korean leaders. In the 
run-up, Pyongyang resumes relations with Italy and 
Australia, while holding a series of talks on normalizing 
ties with the U.S. and Japan.

2002-2003: Tensions flare 
President Bush labels North Korea part of an "axis of evil" with Iran and Iraq, angering Pyongyang. In October, North Korea admits to a U.S. official that it has a secret uranium enrichment program, a violation of the 1994 Agreed Framework, prompting the United States to suspend delivery of fuel oil supplies provided for under the same deal. Pyongyang says it will restart the nuclear reactor it had closed under the agreement, kicks out U.N. nuclear monitors, disavows the 1968 Nuclear Non-proliferation treaty and later threatens to abandon the 50-year old armistice on the peninsula. The Bush administration, focused on the conflict with Iraq, continues to say North Korea is a diplomatic dispute, but puts some forces on alert for a possible Asian conflict.