After Japan's defeat and Korea's liberation, the Korean Peninsula was divided along the 38th parallel, with U.S. and Soviet forces governing the land above and below the border. In December that year, the U.S., U.K., China, and Soviet Union agreed at the Moscow Conference of Foreign Ministers to establish a trusteeship to govern Korea for up to five years under an interim government.

The Korean people, having long yearned for an independent government since their liberation, could not accept the trusteeship and anti-trusteeship movements started to spread across the country. Left wing forces that had opposed the trusteeship suddenly reversed their stance and began supporting the Moscow Conference decision, further widening the divide between the left and right.

The U.S.-Soviet Union Joint Commission is held following the decision of the Moscow Conference, but the two sides fail to narrow their differences. The Korean Peninsula issue is passed on to the United Nations, and the member nations choose to hold general elections under UN observation. But the elections are held only in South Korea, at the protest of North Korea and the Soviet Union,

198 legislators are elected in the nation’s first general election held on May 10th, 1948. The Constitutional Assembly named the nation the Republic of Korea, promulgated its Constitution, and elected Syngman Rhee and Lee Si-young as the first president and vice president. The establishment of the new government was proclaimed to the world on August 15, 1948. It marked the birth of an independent state, inheriting the spirit of Korea’s provisional government.