Korea (Korean: 한국, hangug), officially the Republic of Korea (Korean: 대한민국, Daehanmingug), is a sovereign nation sharing land borders with the People’s Republic of China and Russia to the northwest and is separated from Japan by the Sea of Japan and the Korean Strait. Its capital and largest city is Seoul, with Busan, Pyongyang, and Incheon serving as major economic and cultural centers.

Formed in 1948 from the former territories of the Japanese colony of  Joeseon (Japanese: 朝鮮, Chōsen) under a coalition backed jointly by Chinese and Soviet authorities, it went through decades of communist opression. Through a series of turbulent but ultimately stabilizing political reforms of the 1990s that blended socialist planning with capitalist elements, largely based on the Chinese model. With Chinese help, Korea quickly became a major regional power and one of the world’s fastest-growing advanced economies into the 21st century, earning the nickname “China’s Little Brother”.

Its territories consist of the Korean Peninsula, however de-jure it also claims Jeju Island administered by Japan.