About the Author
Fyodor Tertitskiy
Fyodor Tertitskiy is a leading researcher at Seoul's Kookmin University. He holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from Seoul National University, and is author of "North Korea before Kim Il Sung," which you can buy here.
Many of North Korea's most unique features, now set in stone, were defined in the first months of its existence: between August and September 1945.
Unfortunately, this period is not widely covered in history books. Although it was on August 15 that Emperor Hirohito announced the surrender of Japan, the majority of authors begin the story of North Korea in October 1945, when the new political system had already been born.