After three years of fighting, over 1 million combat casualties, and at least that many civilian deaths, the situation on the Korean peninsula was restored to the status quo ante bellum (“the state existing before the war”). The two Koreas remained divided by the 38th parallel, but their respective governments have since developed in starkly different ways. The South is a representative democracy with one of the world’s most advanced economies, while the North, which has been under the rule of Kim Il-Sung and his descendants for more than 75 years, is one of the poorest countries in Asia.