The Korean War was a civil war fought between 1950 and 1953 on the Korean Peninsula, which had been divided by the temporary occupations of the Soviet Union and the United States. The war began on June 25, 1950, when North Korea attacked South Korea and was greatly expanded when the United Nations, led by the United States, and later Peoples' Republic of China, entered the conflict. The conflict ended when a cease-fire was reached on July 27, 1953. When the fighting subsided, the war left the two Koreas devastated and heavily scarred. Both Koreas had almost no modern buildings due to American bombings and strikes. Both Koreas' economies were heavily damaged. And both Koreas were separated by the Korean Demilitarized Zone, remaining technically at war up to the present day with no formal...more >> peace treaty being signed. Today, North Korea remains a communist state, isolated from the outside world; while South Korea with a capitalist liberal democracy has grown to be of the largest economies.