The Korean War! Why?

The Korean War started on June 25,1950 and ended in July 27,1953.

At the end of WorldWar2 in 19545, Korea was freed from Japanese control. North Korea was occupied by the soviets while South Korea was occupied by American forces.

By 1948, the country was divided in half at the 38th parallel with the capitalist south by Syngman Rhee and the communist north by Kim-il-Sung.

The soviet troops withdrew from Korea in 1948 and the US troops withdrew in 1949.

However North and South Korea as enemies of one another would not accept the border between them as permanent. The North Koreans attacked south Korea on June 25th, 1950. Advancing across the 38th parallel. Around 75,000 troops of the North Korean peoples army defeated the Republic of Koreans army with success, capturing the capital city of Seoul, then occupying the whole of South Korea except for Busan.

this was the problem, as the president Truman and the United States wanted to contain the spread of communism by preventing the domino effect i.e., if Korea fell, so would other countries to the ideology

South Korea appealed for support, and the United States pushed a resolution through the United nations Security Council. the USSR didn’t used its VETO power and it was boycotting the council because the new communist China was not accepted. In China’s seat was the pro-U.S Chinese Nationalist Government of Taiwan. An appeal was made by the Security Council for North Korea to withdraw its troops, but was ignored. As a result, approval was granted for UN army made of international force of 16 nations to send help to South Korea , commanded by general MacArthur.

The UN troops composed mainly of Americans, landed in South korea in early july, but were soon pushed back on defense by the North Korean forces, forming a perimeter around Busan to defend the line until reinforcements arrived in August.

On, September 15, the US Marines X Corps launched an amphibious assault at Inchon. The North Korean troops were pushed back on the retreat over the 38th parallel, and soon Seoul was recaptured along with the whole of South Korea by the end of the month.

On, October 12th they captured Pyongyang, the North Korean Capital and the Yalu River, which was the border with the communist China. China retaliated by helping North koreans by sending the Chinese troops. The UN troops were pushed over by the new forces with heavy losses.

Again by January 1951, Chinese and North Korean troops had captured Seoul. In june 1952, more US troops were sent to Korea, eventually driving the North Korea to 38th parallel and stabilizing the front.

in July, peace talks began, but there was no compromising. Meanwhile fighting continued and the American Pilots fought in the air against Soviet pilots using Chinese jet fighters.

General Dwight D Eisenhower took over as a president in early 1953 and sought an end to the war. After 2years of negotiations, and armistice was signed on July 27th, 1953 at Panmunjom, on the 38th parallel

A demilitarized zone was setup which stands till date.