A COUNTRY DIVIDED

People!  In this day and age, I have no idea how it’s so difficult to differentiate between the two, but apparently it’s a problem.  And it shouldn’t be a problem, seeing as how your grandparents probably fought and lived through the Korean War.  The conversation usually starts out like this (This is the abridged convo.  For the real convo, read here).
 
“Where are you from?”  …
“No, where are you from from?”
 
I say, “I’m from from Korea.”
 
“Man, that Kim Jong Un is crazy.  What’s up with that?” 
 
If you are still dumbfounded by how this statement pretty much sums up your existence in a bubble, please understand that I am also dumbfounded - by you.  So here is a super fast, abridged edumacation of what happened on that east Asian peninsula. 
 
When Japanese occupation of Korea ceased at the end of WWII, Korea got caught up in the Cold War conflict with the US and Soviet Union.  The country was divided at the 38th parallel, a line roughly in the middle, with two spheres of influence.  The Americans controlled the South, and the Soviets established a communist regime in the North, whose influence they later ceded to China.   
 
In 1950, the North surprise attacked the South and took most of the country, before the UN (and mainly America) intervened.  By the time an armistice was signed three years later, millions had died, and the dividing line ended up being what it had previously been – the 38th Parallel.  And that is the line that separates the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (aka North Korea) and the Republic of Korea (South Korea).
 
For many Koreans, the dream of a unified Korea is still prevalent today.  After all, they share a history of oppression, a language, and their ancestry.  However, North Korea remains a police state, which has been ruled by the same family for three generations.  Kim Jong Un is the grandson of the original Supreme leader of North Korea, Kim Il Sung.
 
So when people say they are from from Korea, they typically mean South Korea – the country you can leave, the country that has internet, and the country you’re allowed to visit without a state sanctioned escort following you around and lying to you about everything you see, i.e. don’t see.