According to the agreement of the great powers at the Potsdam Conference in 1945, Korea was divided into northern and southern zones along the 38th parallel as a military operational line. The South remained under U.S. administration after liberation, while the North was under Soviet administration. Due to the onset of the Cold War, unification of the peninsula did not occur, and in 1948, two separate and ideologically antagonistic states emerged: the Republic of Korea in the South and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in the North. The situation escalated on June 25, 1950, when the North Korean army, supported by the USSR and the People’s Republic of China, launched an attack on the South. The three-year conflict, involving UN forces, Soviet pilots, and Chinese “volunteers,” resulted in over three million casualties by some estimates, along with devastation of the landscape and infrastructure. On July 27, 1953, representatives of the DPRK, the UN, and the PRC signed an armistice, and the Korean Peninsula has remained in this state ever since.