The history of South Korea formally begins with the Japanese surrender on 2 September 1945. Noting that, South Korea and North Korea are entirely different countries, despite still being the same people and on the same peninsula. Background After losing the Pacific War in 1945, the Korean region, which was part of Japan's territory, was occupied by American and Soviet forces. In 1948, with the end of the U.S. military government, South Korea declared its independence from Japan as the Republic of Korea.In 1952, when Japan approved the independence of the Korean region under the San Francisco Peace Treaty, it became a completely independent and sovereign nation under international law. The unconditional surrender of Japan led to the division of Korea into two occupation zones (similar to the four zones in Germany), with the United States administering the southern half of the peninsula and the Soviet Union administering the area north of the 38th parallel. This division was meant to be temporary (as was in Germany) and was first intended to return a unified Korea back to its people after the United States, United Kingdom, Soviet Union, and China could arrange a single government for the peninsula. The two parties were unable to agree on the implementation of Joint Trusteeship over Korea because of 2 different opinions. This led in 1948 to the establishment of two separate governments with the two very opposite ideologies; the Communist-aligned Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and the West-aligned First Republic of Korea – each claiming to be the legitimate government of all of Korea. On 25 June 1950, the Korean War broke out. After much destruction, the war ended on 27 July 1953, with the 1948 status quo being restored, as neither the DPRK nor the First Republic had succeeded in conquering the other's portion of the divided Korea. The peninsula was divided by the Korean Demilitarized Zone and the two separate governments stabilised into the existing political entities of North and South Korea. South Korea's subsequent history is marked by alternating periods of democratic and autocratic rule. Civilian governments are conventionally numbered from the First Republic of Syngman Rhee to the contemporary Sixth Republic. The First Republic, arguably democratic at its inception (though preceded by major anti-communist and anti-socialist purges), became increasingly autocratic until its collapse in 1960. The Second Republic was strongly democratic, but was overthrown in under a year and