For more than 40 years, North and South Korea couldn’t agree on a basic point: which government actually had the right to represent the Korean Peninsula.

The battle extended beyond the Demilitarized Zone, playing out in the corridors of the U.N. and the capitals of newly independent states across the developing world, as both Koreas lobbied for recognition and tried to out-maneuver each other for allies. 

On Sept. 17, 1991, the rivalry reached a once-unlikely conclusion, as the U.N. admitted both Koreas as members without a single dissenting vote, simultaneously granting each a seat in the global body they had