Was the North/South division of Korea a wholly artificial split forced upon it by the US and USSR or was it a continuation of existing cultural/political trends in post-WW2 Korea?

by Xxxn00bpwnR69xxX

It is sometimes claimed that South Korea is a right-wing puppet state set up by the US, and cite the American overthrow of the indigenous People's Republic of Korea as evidence. However, during the Korean War, the South Korean army acquitted itself very well, after its initial shock, and the South Korean government showed some degree of public support that would be hardly characteristic of a puppet government, and never experienced a significant communist insurgency in the way South Vietnam did.
TL:DR: How and why did Korean political culture across North and South Korea come to be so wildly different?

livelifetitan

Simply put, both Koreas went their own ways. DPRK pursued the Soviet Lifestlyle, while SK pursued the American Dream lifestyle. SK is a global economic powerhouse, at par with Japan, due to large FDI investments in the country. DPRK, well, I don't think I need to explain. :)

For some time, DPRK was ahead of SK in lifestyle and economy, but when the Soviet factor disappeared, DPRK fell like a house of cards, as USSR couldn't strain its economy more. DPRK now is just more of a weapons storage place than anything else in my opinon.