nt which the other denounced as illegitimate and which claimed to represent all of Korea and not just the half over which it held temporary power. Within six months there was occasional raiding across the 38th Parallel and major exchanges of gunfire. The United States had taken the Korean problem to the United Nations, and two months later the UN agreed that Korea should be an independent country and voted to create a temporary commission to bring this about. The members from eastern Europe, however, boycotted the vote, and when a UN commission reached Korea in 1948 ready to supervise the elections, it was refused admission to North Korea. Having no recourse, the commission recommended free elections in the south, and these were held May 10, 1948. In August, Syngman Rhee became the first president of South Korea, and four months later the Republic of Korea was recognized by the United Nations as the only free state in Korea. It was given only diplomatic recognitio
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