Rodong Sinmun Friday says this in a bylined article.

It was the calculation of the U.S. imperialists that if they occupy the Korean Peninsula, they can advance into the continent with the peninsula as a springboard and, furthermore, dominate the world. They set it as their strategy to swallow up Korea replacing the Japanese imperialists at a time when the Second World War was close to its end, and rolled up their sleeves to carry it out, the article notes, and goes on:

As it became clear that the U.S. imperialists could not occupy Korea single-handed in face of a rapid speed of attack of the Korean People's Revolutionary Army and the Soviet Army which declared a war against Japan, they hatched a plot to find a substantial solution to the issue of occupying south Korea. That was the "line for sharing duties" to accept the surrender of troops of the Imperial Japanese Army and disarm them.

This proposal was put in a document as "General Order" No. 1 soon to be notified to the allied states on August 13, 1945. It was conveyed to MacArthur in Manila on August 15 before being proclaimed on September 2.

The cunning U.S. imperialists used this document for carrying out their strategy for permanently occupying south Korea and turning it into a colony in a bid to dominate the world. They set this line as the cursed demarcation line which imposed the tragedy of division upon the Korean people. The U.S.-made 38th parallel MDL caused the tragic division of Korea, not a defeated nation.

The U.S. imperialists put south Korea, not a territory of an enemy state, under military occupation and enforced military administration under the pretext of "disarming" troops of the Imperial Japanese Army. These were illegal and high-handed actions.

The history since the fabrication of the 38th parallel MDL goes to prove before the whole world that the U.S. imperialists are the sworn enemy of the Korean nation as they imposed only division and war on it.