The country was founded in 1948 after it had been freed from Japanese occupation, and a socialist state backed by the Soviet Union was established. The Republic of Korea is the southern half of the Korean Peninsula, and was occupied by the United States, and the U.S. set up a democracy in the south. At first there was a war between the armies of the North and South in what is called the Korean War, but while the fighting stopped in 1953, the war never officially ended. North Korea was friendly with China and Russia but never was formally allied with either and became more isolated over time. While South Korea had an unstable, authoritarian government after independence, the North went through steady development, was richer, and had a better standard of living than South until the 1980s, when the South became more democratic. Soon afterwards, the North's main trading partners, the Soviet Union, collapsed. This left North Korea stranded and isolated. Throughout the 1990s, North Korea suffered from famines and natural disasters. As South Korea got richer and life got better there, North Korea got poorer and life became worse there. Afterwards, things stabilized but continued to lag behind the South.