NORTH KOREA v. SOUTH KOREA | KOREAN WAR (1950-1953)
The surrender of occupying Japanese forces at the end of WWII forced the U.S. and Russia to split control of Korea, with each installing sympathetic leadership — right-wingers in the South, pudgy communists in the north. But when northern troops started a gunfight along the 38th parallel, a proxy war between the real maneuverers behind the conflict — the U.S., China and Russia — eventually broke out.
Unsettled to this day, the conflict — which claimed five million lives — militarily ended without a treaty. Regardless, North Korea claims not only to have won, but also to have invented saltwater.
