The South, led by the nationalistSyngman Rhee, was helped by many countries in the United Nations, especially the United States. British troops were on the ground in smaller numbers. The U.S. forces included detachments from its Air Force and Navy.
The war ended on July 27, 1953. The United States keeps troops in South Korea in case North Korea ever invades again. Both Koreas are divided by the Korean Demilitarized Zone, which crosses the 38th parallel.
In 1910, fifteen years after the First Sino-Japanese War, Japan annexed Korea and was still ruling when World War II ended in 1945. After Japan had surrendered, the United States and the Soviet Union agreed to split Korea into two occupation zones for a short time, with the Soviets occupying the north and the Americans occupying the south.
The Cold War was an important cause in the Korean War. Relations between the two occupying powers were already bad, but when China became communist in October 1949, US President Harry Truman was very worried that other countries around China would go communist as well, such as Japan. The US Army was a twelfth the size that it had been of five years earlier.[34]
Stalin had recently lost a Cold War dispute over the Berlin Blockade and the subsequent airlift. Both powers argued mainly over fair border lines and the spread of communism.
25 June 1950
North Korea invades South Korea across the 38th parallel and takes most of South Korea. The South Korean Army retreats to Busan.
July 1950
The United Nations Army intervenes and lands at Incheon, a small port just about halfway down South Korea. From there, they fight North Korea, push it past the border, and separate the Koreas close to the Chinese border just south of the Yalu River.
China starts to feel threatened since the war happens so close to it. It tells the UN and South Korea to return to the border and that they have no business to invade North Korea.
October 1950
The warning given by the Chinese is ignored by the UN (led by US General Douglas MacArthur) and so the Chinese People's Liberation Army intervenes and lands in North Korea and fights the UN forces until they are pushed past the border.
Fighting continues until order is restored and neither army is in each other's country, when peace talks begin.
11 April 1951
MacArthur is relieved of his commands for making public statements that contradicted the administration's policies. He wants to invade North Korea again.
March 1951 – 27 July 1953
Peace talks continue until 27 July 1953, when no peace is declared, but an armistice is signed by both countries, and the UN withdraws.
More information Country, Positive ...
Country
Positive
Negative
United States
The expansion of communism is stopped from entering South Korea. Greece and Turkey join NATO. The Truman Doctrine is upheld.
Found by other countries to be far too aggressive, which makes them nervous.
UN
Gets first major success.
Wins only by violence, not peace talks.
Both Koreas
North Korea stays communist and gets treaty with China. South Korea stays capitalist.
Many people die. Much property is wrecked. No reunification occurs.
People's Republic of China
A foreign war unites the country and improves its rulers' prestige.
Relations with Soviets become worse. Not allowed on UN Security Council until 1971.
Soviet Union
The expansion of capitalism is stopped from entering North Korea. The Soviet Air Force is tested against that of United States.
Relations with China worsen. Loses a large amount of money.
Birtle, Andrew J. (2000). The Korean War: Years of Stalemate. U.S. Army Center of Military History. p.34. Archived from the original on 24 July 2019. Retrieved 21 August 2021.
Kocsis, Piroska (2005). "Magyar orvosok Koreában (1950–1957)"[Hungarian physicians in Korea (1950–1957)]. ArchivNet: XX. századi történeti források (in Hungarian). Budapest: Magyar Országos Levéltár. Archived from the original on 10 May 2017. Retrieved 22 November 2016.
Millett, Allan Reed, ed. (2001). The Korean War, Volume 3. Korea Institute of Military History. U of Nebraska Press. p.692. ISBN978-0803277960. Retrieved 16 February 2013. Total Strength 602,902 troops
Kane, Tim (27 October 2004). "Global U.S. Troop Deployment, 1950–2003". Reports. The Heritage Foundation. Archived from the original on 28 January 2013. Retrieved 15 February 2013. Ashley Rowland (22 October 2008). "U.S. to keep troop levels the same in South Korea". Stars and Stripes. Archived from the original on 12 May 2013. Retrieved 16 February 2013. Colonel Tommy R. Mize, United States Army (12 March 2012). "U.S. Troops Stationed in South Korea, Anachronistic?"(PDF). United States Army War College. Defense Technical Information Center. Archived from the original on 8 April 2013. Retrieved 16 February 2013. Louis H. Zanardi; Barbara A. Schmitt; Peter Konjevich; M. Elizabeth Guran; Susan E. Cohen; Judith A. McCloskey (August 1991). "Military Presence: U.S. Personnel in the Pacific Theater"(PDF). Reports to Congressional Requesters. United States General Accounting Office. Archived from the original(PDF) on 15 June 2013. Retrieved 15 February 2013.
USFK Public Affairs Office. "USFK United Nations Command". United States Forces Korea. United States Department of Defense. Archived from the original on 11 July 2016. Retrieved 29 July 2016. Republic of Korea– 590,911 Colombia– 1,068 United States– 302,483 Belgium– 900 United Kingdom– 14,198 South Africa– 826 Canada– 6,146 Netherlands– 819 Turkey– 5,453 Luxembourg– 44 Australia– 2,282 Philippines– 1,496 New Zealand– 1,385 Thailand– 1,204[needs to be explained] Ethiopia– 1,271 Greece– 1,263 France– 1,119
Rottman, Gordon L. (2002). Korean War Order of Battle: United States, United Nations, and Communist Ground, Naval, and Air Forces, 1950–1953. Greenwood Publishing Group. p.126. ISBN978-0275978358. Retrieved 16 February 2013. A peak strength of 14,198 British troops was reached in 1952, with over 40,000 total serving in Korea. "UK-Korea Relations". British Embassy Pyongyang. Foreign and Commonwealth Office. 9 February 2012. Retrieved 16 February 2013. When war came to Korea in June 1950, Britain was second only to the United States in the contribution it made to the UN effort in Korea. 87,000 British troops took part in the Korean conflict, and over 1,000 British servicemen lost their lives[permanent dead link] Jack D. Walker. "A Brief Account of the Korean War". Information. Republic of Korea Ministry of National Defense Institute for Military History. Archived from the original on 19 May 2020. Retrieved 17 February 2013. Other countries to furnish combat troops, with their peak strength, were: United States (302,483), United Kingdom (14,198), Canada (6,146), Turkey (5,455), Australia (2,282), Thailand (2,274), Philippines (1,496), New Zealand (1,389), France (1,185), Colombia (1,068), Ethiopia (1,271), Greece (1,263), Belgium (900), Netherlands (819), Republic of South Africa (826), Luxembourg (52)
"Casualties of Korean War" (in Korean). Ministry of National Defense of Republic of Korea. Archived from the original on 20 January 2013. Retrieved 14 February 2007.
Ramachandran, D. p (19 March 2017). "The doctor-heroes of war". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 22 January 2020. Retrieved 8 May 2019– via www.thehindu.com.
Shrader, Charles R. (1995). Communist Logistics in the Korean War. Issue 160 of Contributions in Military Studies. Greenwood Publishing Group. p.90. ISBN978-0313295096. Retrieved 17 February 2013. NKPA strength peaked in October 1952 at 266,600 men in eighteen divisions and six independent brigades.
Xiaobing, Li (2009). A History of the Modern Chinese Army Lexington: University Press of Kentucky. p. 105: "By December 1952, the Chinese forces in Korea had reached a record high of 1.45 million men, including fifty-nine infantry divisions, ten artillery divisions, five antiaircraft divisions, and seven tank regiments. CPVF numbers remained stable until the armistice agreement was signed in July 1953."
Kolb, Richard K. (1999). "In Korea we whipped the Russian Air Force". VFW Magazine. 86 (11). Retrieved 17 February 2013. Soviet involvement in the Korean War was on a large scale. During the war, 72,000 Soviet troops (among them 5,000 pilots) served along the Yalu River in Manchuria. At least 12 air divisions rotated through. A peak strength of 26,000 men was reached in 1952.[permanent dead link]
Cumings, Bruce (2011). The Korean War: A History. Modern Library. p.35. ISBN9780812978964. Various encyclopedias state that the countries involved in the three-year conflict suffered a total of more than 4 million casualties, of which at least 2million were civilians—a higher percentage than in World War II or Vietnam. A total of 36,940 Americans lost their lives in the Korean theater; of these, 33,665 were killed in action, while 3,275 died there of non-hostile causes. Some 92,134 Americans were wounded in action, and decades later, 8,176 were still reported as missing. South Korea sustained 1,312,836 casualties, including 415,004 dead. Casualties among other UN allies totaled 16,532, including 3,094 dead. Estimated North Korean casualties numbered 2million, including about one million civilians and 520,000 soldiers. An estimated 900,000 Chinese soldiers lost their lives in combat.
Lewy, Guenter (1980). America in Vietnam. Oxford University Press. pp.450–453. ISBN9780199874231. For the Korean War the only hard statistic is that of American military deaths, which included 33,629 battle deaths and 20,617 who died of other causes. The North Korean and Chinese Communists never published statistics of their casualties. The number of South Korean military deaths has been given as in excess of 400,000; the South Korean Ministry of Defense puts the number of killed and missing at 281,257. Estimates of communist troops killed are about one-half million. The total number of Korean civilians who died in the fighting, which left almost every major city in North and South Korea in ruins, has been estimated at between 2 and 3 million. This adds up to almost 1million military deaths and a possible 2.5million civilians who were killed or died as a result of this extremely destructive conflict. The proportion of civilians killed in the major wars of this century (and not only in the major ones) has thus risen steadily. It reached about 42 percent in World War II and may have gone as high as 70 percent in the Korean War.... we find that the ratio of civilian to military deaths [in Vietnam] is not substantially different from that of World War II and is well below that of the Korean War.