Korean War

The Korean War(한국 전쟁) was a war fought in Korea between armies from North Korea and from South Korea. The war began on 4:30 AM on June 25, 1950 and fighting stopped July 27, 1953. More than two million Koreans died, most of them in the north.
Both sides blame each other for starting the war. The north, led by communist Kim Il-Sung, was helped mostly by People's Republic of China, and the USSR. The south, led by nationalist Syngman Rhee, was helped by many countries in the United Nations, and especially by the United States. The war ended with a truce. South Korea and North Korea are still officially at war, and the United States still keeps troops in South Korea, in case North Korea ever invades again. North and South Korea are divided by the 38th parallel.

Causes

Crossing the border between North and South Korea

There were many causes, the main ones were:

Different plans for Korea

Japan had ruled over Korea in 1910 and was still ruling Korea when World War Two ended. When Japan lost in the war, Korea had to be split into two parts and it was agreed by the USA and the USSR that the two countries would get a part each (USSR having North and USA having South). This was at first to be not for a long time and at the Council of Foreign Minister's Moscow Conference in December 1945, The United States and USSR agreed on Korea having a provisional government (a government set up quickly when a large country's government does not work anymore). This was difficult because of the growing Cold War (see next cause).

The Cold War.
The Cold War was an important cause in the Korean War. Relations between the USA and the USSR were bad and when China became Communist in October 1949, the President of the USA, Harry Truman, was very worried that other countries around China may also become Communist, such as Japan.

Reputation.
Truman had just spent a lot of money to make the American Army much bigger and Americans wanted to see this new powerful Army in action. Joseph Stalin's people also wanted to see Stalin get better results. Stalin had recently lost the fight during the Berlin Blockade and subsequent airlift, and wanted another chance to prove that he could beat America, the Korean War was his chance.

Support.
The United Nations had just been created and a war would give it the chance to prove to people that the UN was strong and would not fail like the League of Nations had done earlier.
Syngman Rhee was also in trouble, he was a democrat surrounded by Communists. He could have made a Communist country attack him to get support from other democratic countries that would otherwise just ignore him.

Events

• 25^th June 1950
• North Korea invades South Korea and takes most of South Korea. The South Korean Army retreats to Busan.
  

July 1950

UN Forces landing at Inchon

• United Nations army intervenes and lands at Inchon, a small port just about half-way down South Korea, from there on they fight the North Korean army and push them past the border separating North and South Korea and close to the Chinese border, just south of the Yalu River.
• China starts to feel threatened with the war happening so close to them and tells the UN Army and the South Korean army to return to the border and that they have no business to fight so far into North Korea.

October 1950

• The warning given by the Chinese is ignored by the UN (led by an American general, Douglas MacArthur) and so the Chinese army, called the People's Liberation Army, invades North Korea and helps the North Koreans fight the UN until the UN forces are pushed past the border separating North and South Korea.

December 1950

• Because MiG-15s are beating America's P-80 Shooting Stars, the F-86 Sabre is put into the Air Force.

February 1951

• Fighting continues until order is restored and neither army is in the other country. Peace talks begin.
  

March 1951 - 27^th July 1953

• Peace talks during this time, on the 27^th July 1953 no peace has been declared but an armistice has been signed by both countries and the UN withdraws.

Results

Country	Good	Bad
USA	Stopped communist expansion. Greece and Turkey joined. The Truman Doctrine had been upheld. NATO	Far too aggressive, this made other countries nervous
UN	First major success	Could only win through violence, not peace talks
Both Koreas	North Korea got a treaty with China. South Korea stayed Capitalist	Both lost a great deal of money, civilians, property. Much lower chance of re-unification
China	Reputation went up. Were united in defense against the UN	USSR relations became worse. Banned from the UN Security Council
USSR	They had helped North Korea stay Communist, able to test their Air Force against the United States	Chinese relations became worse. Lost a great deal of money

Statistics

Total Strength

United Nations

• South Korea - 590,969 soldiers
• United States of America - 480,002
• Britain - 62,998
• Canada - 26,791
• Australia - 16,999
• Turkey - 5,000
• Philippines - 7,002
• Netherlands - 3,971
• France - 3,425
• New Zealand - 1,384
• Thailand - 1,239
• Ethiopia - 1,283
• Greece - 1,249
• Colombia - 1,062
• Belgium - 891
• South Africa - 873
• Luxembourg - 44
  • Total - about 968,000 soldiers

Communist

• North Korea - 260,108
• China - 780,092
• Soviet Union - 25,969
  • Total - about 1,065,000 soldiers

Crosses

South Korea

• South Korea - 50,000 deaths - 175,802 wounded
• United States - 36,503 deaths - 92,073 wounded
• Turkey - 721 deaths - 2,109 wounded
• Canada - 507 deaths - 1,001 wounded
• Australia - 380 deaths - 1,192 wounded
• New Zealand - 41 deaths
• France - about 69 deaths
• Luxembourg - 2 deaths - 2 wounded

North Korea

• North Korea - 319,000 deaths
• China - about 300,000 Deaths
• Soviet Union - about 300 Deaths

Extra Information

The popular television show M*A*S*H was about American doctors serving in the Korean War. The show lasted longer than the war did.

Other pages

• The Cold War

Other websites

• In depth article on the Korean War - not recommended to Simple Wikipedia users
• A Korean War timeline of events
• Educational site containing biographies, interviews, factsheets etc
• Search list of names of the dead
• Photos of the Korean War - Equipment, combat etc