Korea (Korean (Korean language): ?? "Hanguk" IPA?han?ku?k—-South and North Korea, rsp. (cf. etymology (#Etymology))) is a territory of East Asia that was formerly unified under one state, but now divided into two separate states and a region in northern China. Located on the Korean Peninsula, it borders China (Peoples Republic of China) to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the east by the Korea Strait.

Korea was united until 1948; at that time it was split into South Korea and North Korea. South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea, is a capitalist, democratic (democracy) and developed country, with memberships in the United Nations, WTO, OECD and G-20 major economies. North Korea, officially the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, is a single-party communist country founded by Kim Il-sung and currently led by his son Kim Jong-il.

Archaeological and linguistic evidence suggest the origins of the Korean people (Koreans) were in Altaic language-speaking people from south-central Siberia, who populated ancient Korea (History of Korea) in successive waves from the Neolithic age to the Bronze Age. The adoption of the Chinese writing system ("Hanja" in Korean) in the 2nd century BC, and Buddhism in the 4th century AD, had profound effects on the Three Kingdoms of Korea.

During the latter part of the Joseon Dynasty, Koreas isolationist policy earned it the Western nickname the "Hermit Kingdom". By the late 19th century, the country became the object of the colonial designs of Japan and Europe. In 1910, Korea was forcibly annexed by Japan (Korea under Japanese rule) and remained occupied until the end of World War II in August 1945.

In 1945, the Soviet Union and the United States agreed on the surrender (surrender of Japan) and disarming of Japanese troops in Korea; the Soviet Union accepting the surrender of Japanese weaponry north of the 38th parallel (38th parallel north#Korea) and the United States taking the surrender south of it. This minor decision by allied armies soon became the basis for the division of Korea by the two superpowers, exacerbated by their inability to agree on the terms of Korean independence. The two Cold War rivals then established governments sympathetic to their own ideologies, leading to Koreas current division into two political entities: North Korea and South Korea.