section_path: History/Modern history
section_name: Modern history
paragraph_text: Modern history
  
  Despite intentions to liberate a unified peninsula in the 1943 Cairo Declaration, escalating tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States led to the division of Korea into two political entities in 1948: North Korea and South Korea.
  
  In the South, the United States appointed and supported the former head of the Korean Provisional Government Syngman Rhee as leader. Rhee won the first presidential elections of the newly declared Republic of Korea in May 1948. In the North, the Soviets backed a former anti-Japanese guerrilla and communist activist, Kim Il-sung, who was appointed premier of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in September.
  
  In October, the Soviet Union declared Kim Il-sung's government as sovereign over both the north and south. The UN declared Rhee's government as "a lawful government having effective control and jurisdiction over that part of Korea where the UN Temporary Commission on Korea was able to observe and consult" and the government "based on elections which was observed by the Temporary Commission" in addition to a statement that "this is the only such government in Korea." Both leaders engaged in authoritarian repression of political opponents. South Korea requested military support from the United States but was denied, and North Korea's military was heavily reinforced by the Soviet Union.