1.5m lives lost in Korean War

KOREA was split into two after the Second World War when its former ruler Japan surrendered in 1945.

The US held the South, which became a Western-style republic.

The Soviet Union set up a Stalinist dictatorship in the North.

North Korea, backed by the Soviet Union and China, invaded the South in 1950. The three-year Korean War cost 1.5million lives.

Britain sent 100,000 troops to fight alongside the Americans, with 1,078 personnel killed.

Despite an armistice, officially North and South Korea are still at war. In 1997, then-US President Bill Clinton described Korea as the “Cold War’s last divide”.