However, when this effort proved unsuccessful, the United States and the Soviet Union both established their own friendly governments, resulting in the current division of the Korean Peninsula.

The 38th parallel north was chosen to separate the two occupation zones on August 10 by two American officers, Dean Rusk and Charles Bonesteel, working on short notice and with little information on Korea.

According to author Paul M. Edwards, the United States government had little interest in Korea, and relied on General Douglas MacArthur, who was in command of the occupation of Japan, to make most of the post-war decisions.

MacArthur, however, was already "overloaded" with the work that needed to be done in Japan, so he ordered the commander of Operation Blacklist Forty, Lieutenant General John R. Hodge, to maintain a "harsh" occupation of Korea.

However, following a complaint from the Korean people, the American military government in Tokyo officially had Korea removed from Japan's political and administrative control on October 2, 1945.

Edwards says that General Hodge's most significant contribution to the occupation was the alignment of his military government with that of Korea's wealthy anti-Communist faction, and the promotion of men who had previously collaborated with the Japanese into positions of authority.

The conservative faction's Korea Democratic Party, supported by landlords and small-business owners, also opposed the assembly because their main leaders were excluded from it by the USAMGIK.

Despite this, the United States and South Korea signed a military assistance pact on January 26, 1950, but only $1,000 worth of signal wire had arrived in country by the time of the outbreak of the Korean War on June 25, 1950.