Korean War
The Korean War was fought between North Korea and South Korea from 1950 to 1953. It began on 25 June 1950 when North Korea invaded South Korea and ceased after an armistice on 27 July 1953. The north was supported by China and the Soviet Union while the south was supported by United Nations (UN) forces[c] led by the United States.
For other conflicts and wars involving Korea, see List of Korean battles. For the conflict from 1945 to the present, see Korean conflict.
When World War II ended in 1945, Korea, which had been a Japanese colony for 35 years, was temporarily divided by the United States and the Soviet Union along the 38th parallel.[d] Due to Cold War tensions, however, each half became a sovereign state. North Korea was led by Kim Il Sung, and South Korea was led by Syngman Rhee. Both claimed to be the sole legitimate government of all of Korea and neither accepted the 38th parallel as permanent.
The two sides were engaged in border skirmishes, while the South also suppressed an uprising in Jeju (April 1948 - May 1949) abetted by Pyongyang.[35][36][37] On 25 June 1950, the north's Korean People's Army (KPA) invaded below the 38th parallel.[38][39] In the absence of the Soviet Union,[c] the United Nations Security Council denounced the attack and recommended countries to repel the KPA under the United Nations Command.[41] UN forces would eventually include twenty one countries, with the United States providing around 90% of the military personnel.[42][43]
After the first two months of war, the South Korean army (ROKA) and its allies were nearly defeated, holding onto only the Pusan Perimeter. In September 1950, however, UN forces landed at Incheon, cutting off KPA troops and supply lines. They invaded North Korea in October 1950 and advanced towards the Yalu River—the border with China. On 19 October 1950, the Chinese People's Volunteer Army (PVA) crossed the Yalu and entered the war.[38] UN forces retreated from North Korea following PVA's first and second offensive. Communist forces captured Seoul again in January 1951 before losing it. Following the abortive Chinese spring offensive, they were pushed back to the 38th parallel, and the final two years turned into a war of attrition.
The combat ended on 27 July 1953 when the Korean Armistice Agreement was signed, allowing the exchange of prisoners and the creation of the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). The conflict displaced milions of people, inflicted around 3 million fatalities and a larger proportion of civilian deaths than World War II or the Vietnam War. Alleged war crimes include the killing of suspected communists by the South Korean government and the torture and starvation of prisoners of war by the North Koreans. North Korea became one of the most heavily bombed countries in history.[44] Virtually all of Korea's major cities were destroyed.[45] No peace treaty was ever signed, making this a frozen conflict.[46][47]
Korean War
6·25 전쟁 or 한국 전쟁
六二五戰爭 or 韓國戰爭
Hanguk Jeonjaeng
Hanguk Jeonjaeng
Han'guk Chŏnjaeng
조국해방전쟁
祖國解放戰爭
Joguk haebang Jeonjaeng
Joguk haebang Jeonjaeng
Choguk haebang chŏnjaeng
Characteristics
Casualties
About 3 million people died in the Korean War, most of them civilians, making it perhaps the deadliest conflict of the Cold War era.[33][34][287][288][289] Samuel S. Kim lists the Korean War as the deadliest conflict in East Asia—the region most affected by armed conflict related to the Cold War.[287] Although only rough estimates of civilian fatalities are available, scholars from Guenter Lewy to Bruce Cumings have noted that the percentage of civilian casualties in Korea was higher than in World War II or the Vietnam War, with Cumings putting civilian casualties at 2 million and Lewy estimating civilian deaths in the range of 2 million to 3 million.[33][34]
Cumings states that civilians represent at least half of the war's casualties, while Lewy suggests that the civilian portion of the death toll may have gone as high as 70%, compared to Lewy's estimates of 42% in World War II and 30%–46% in the Vietnam War.[33][34] Data compiled by the Peace Research Institute Oslo lists just under 1 million battle deaths over the course of the Korean War (with a range of 644,696 to 1.5 million) and a mid-value estimate of 3 million total deaths (with a range of 1.5 million to 4.5 million), attributing the difference to excess mortality among civilians from one-sided massacres, starvation, and disease.[290] Compounding this devastation for Korean civilians, virtually all major cities on the Korean Peninsula were destroyed as a result of the war.[34] In both per capita and absolute terms, North Korea was the country most devastated by the war. According to Charles K. Armstrong, the war resulted in the death of an estimated 12%–15% of the North Korean population (c. 10 million), "a figure close to or surpassing the proportion of Soviet citizens killed in World War II".[120]