ABSTRACT
The division of Korea was a legacy of the Cold War. While the Cold War ended long ago, there are no signs that Seoul and Pyongyang will reconcile and reunify any time in the near future. Soviet Russia and the United States were equally responsible for the division of the Korean peninsula along the 38th parallel. During the Cold War, Soviet Russia relished its status as a global superpower who effectively competed with the U.S. for world domination and who was dreaded worldwide for its formidable military capability. When the Russian Federation was born from the ashes of the Soviet Union at the end of 1991, it lost two distinct features of its predecessor, that is, its status as a global power and the leader of the communist world. Russia is now a Eurasian regional power that renounces its communist past.
