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This article reports that since the Soviet press is controlled and expresses the views of Soviet leaders it can be used as a guide to the attitudes and intentions of the Soviet Union concerning any specific issue with which the Soviet public-prints deal. While the Soviet press does not necessarily reveal what Russian or Communist public opinion is, the press does establish what the Soviet Government wants Russian and Communist opinion to be. Because of the nature of the Soviet state reading of the numerous Soviet press organs to ascertain official policy need not be extensive. Local newspapers in the U.S.S.R. rarely contradict either the facts or opinions expressed in "Pravda" and "Izvestia." Therefore, an examination of those two newspapers provides an accurate index to official Soviet party and government attitudes toward any given situation. From the end of the Second World War until 1948 and 1949 Korea was occupied in the north by Soviet troops and in the south by American military forces. This military occupation, the result of a military decision taken during the Second World War, became an obstacle to the postwar political unification of Korea.