The Republic of Korea, commonly known as South Korea or the Korea Republic (Korean: 대한민êµ, , ), is an East Asian state on the southern half of the Korean Peninsula. To the north, it is bordered by North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea), with which it was united until its division by the Soviet Union and the United States in 1945 (Two countries were supposed to temporarily occupy Korean peninsular in order to disarm the defeated Japanese army after the end of WWII, but the Cold War started between the Soviet Union and the US, and it resulted the Korean War in 1950). To the west, across the Yellow Sea, lies China, and to the southeast, across the Korea Strait, lies Japan.
