Putting this here as well as the actual entries thread:
The Divine Protectorate of Righteous Korea (DPRK)
During the Joseon Era of Korea, Christianity faced unprecedented growth in an Oriental nation as a visiting Protestant missionary converted the young and impressionable Prince and later King Cheoljong, sometimes called by his Anglicized name, King Charles Jong I, in reference to both phonetic similarity, and to St. Charles Hyun Song-mun, beginning a tradition of Koreans having two names: their Christian name for private use and their Korean name for public use. While the dynasty would still fall, by the end of the Joseon Era, Korea had gained a predominantly Christian society, particularly in the south. Once occupied by Japan, the Korean Christians would face much persecution, but this would ironically only grow and radicalize the faith, with Christians leading the revolts against the Japanese all the way until proper independence in the southern half of the peninsula. In the aftermath of World War II, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) under Chairman-Secretary Georgy Zhukov occupied the northern half of the peninsula, and the United States of America (USA) under President Franklin D. Roosevelt occupied the South jointly with the German National Socialist Republic under Fuhrer Henning von Tresckow. In the North, due to lessened infrastructural loss and greater agricultural output, the Soviets were able to spin a puppet state first, and created the Korean Workers' Republic (KWR) under Chairman-Secretary Cho Man-sik, which began a hardline stance against religion and especially Christianity: in the North, as the war began to wane the Japanese began using spies in Christian Sermons infiltrating the resistance easily via this method, as well as having collaborators come in as priests and begin preaching that God had decreed the Korean people fight for their righteous rulers. Seeing this as evidence of religion being only a means of control, the Man-sik administration demonized all forms of faith and instituted a tax upon those who officially called themselves any denomination of any faith, with a ban on proselytizing and preaching of all kinds. The religious were deemed not to be trusted, and were the first on the list of suspected "Traitors of the People."
Seeing this persecution, the more religious and anti-communist Germans and Americans began promoting Christianity, hoping that the common connection between all three nations would keep them forever out of the Soviet sphere. This, combined with the already positive sentiment towards Christians in the south, drove the faith's spread to encompass over 80% of the population. While Germany wanted a pluralist fascist state and the US wished to create a democratic republic, the steady path to independence for the rest of the peninsula was already veering towards a theocracy. The Transitional Government of Allied-Occupied Korea was quickly dominated by Christian fundamentalist groups, some merely moralist republicans, others theocrats, some monarchists, even quit a few fascists. As time went on, the Coalition of the Ever Faithful, later the Party of Eternal Faith became the premier power in the TGAK, and when drafting the Constitution of Korea, inserted Christianity as a permanent and integral institution for the Korean nation. After months of deliberation, a fascist theodemocracy was created, with one supreme ruler known as the Patriarch being chosen from the devout military by an unelected board of Christian bishops and ministers. He would have the ability to overrule the Supreme Diet, which would be elected every seven years with staggered elections, though only Christians could run, and eventually only members of the Party of Eternal Faith could run. The Judicial Branch consisted of the Court of the Nation, being elected Christian officials who held the power of Constitutional Interpretation, as well as being able to overrule the Patriarch with unanimous vote that must then be approved by 2/3 vote of the Diet. The first Patriarch was Saul Paik (Korean Name: Paik Sun-yup), succeeded by Charles Park (Korean Name: Park Chung-hee)
In 2012, the death of Patriarch Charles Park saw him succeeded by James Kim (Korean name: Kim Jong-nam), who announced that the Supreme Diet would be suspended until further notice, as investigations revealed that the previous, 94-year old leader had not died of old age, but was rather poisoned by ambitious young officials (allegations that Kim was one of these and has now simply turned in his old conspirators have, of course, been denied). This has not helped the nation's pariah state status, especially following its testing of "Peacemaker" atomic bombs and harsh obedience to Biblical Law, with stonings being televised daily.
The term "Righteous Korea" was used initially to speak of all of Korea as being simply a "righteous nation." However, as the Cold War continued, the term increasingly and quickly came to represent the idea that the southern state was the better of the two, and the one on the correct path. The North has since liberalized, officially becoming the Democracy of Free Korea in 2002. Today, most people refer to the nations as "Free Korea" and "Righteous Korea", which has replaced the old terms of "Red Korea" and "Divine Korea". The new generation have begun a new name trend: "Right Korea" (from Righteous) and "Left Korea" (both as a pun and in reference to its far-left past and current leftist political culture).
