The history of the Korean Peninsula is long and arduous, replete with invasions and expulsions of invaders. In the modern era, Korea was split in two at the end of WWII, after having been occupied by Japan for 35 years. Less than 5 years later, the Korean War began, eventually costing over 36,000 American lives and nearly 5,000 MIAs. The war hasn’t actually ended–active fighting ceased with an Armistice on July 27, 1953.
The Kim family has ruled the North despotically since the division. The third generation tyrant is Kim Jong Un, who succeeded his father after Kim Jong Il’s death in 2011.
The United States and the world community have tried various unsuccessful measures to restrict the Communist regime’s attempts to reunify the peninsula through force. One of the worst was the Clinton Administration’s “Agreed Framework” in 1994 that provided the North with additional nuclear capabilities and a lifting of sanctions for a ‘promise’ they’d behave. North Korea didn’t keep their end of the bargain. They attempted their first intercontinental ballistic missile launch in 1998.
The George W. Bush administration, mired in wars in Afghanistan and Iraq after the 9/11 attacks, made no progress in reining in the rogue regime. The North claimed it made a successful test of a nuclear bomb in October 2006. This has not been conclusively confirmed.
During the Obama administration, North Korea developed their nuclear bomb capability and the ability to deliver weapons across continents. Their first confirmed test of a nuclear weapon occurred on May 25, 2009, and they successfully launched a satellite on December 12, 2012. In 2013, the North vastly ratcheted up tensions with numerous missile tests and completely ignoring world pressure to avoid war. Their reckless behavior continued throughout the Obama administration unabated, and into the Trump presidency.