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Korea is Divided into two Countries
2 Koreas were created due to USA's inability to trust USSR's stationing of troops in North Korea after getting rid of the japanese invaders. -
Mac Arthur Assessment of ROK army
This attempt is to restrain Syngman Rhee Rhee from uniting Korea. MacArthur’s assessment of the ROK army in March 1949 as a force that ‘should be capable of offering token resistance to invasion and providing no plausible basis of allegations of being a threat to North Korea. -
Soviet successful testing of the atomic bomb
The Soviets exploded their first atomic bomb in September 1949, shattering the American monopoly on nuclear weapons and strengthening the Soviet position with respect to the US. This changed Stalin's mind to allow Kim to unite Korea under communism. -
CCP's victory in the Chinese Civil War
The Soviet position was further strengthened when the Chinese communists won the Chinese civil war in October 1949 -
Stalin's approval of Kim's plans
As early as January 1950, Stalin cautiously agreed to Kim’s invasion plans. Indeed Stalin agreed to Kim’s invasion plan as he was looking after the interests of the Soviet Union. If Kim could conquer South Korea, a united communist Korea would further secure Russia’s borders, threaten America’s new ally Japan, and place at his disposal South Korea’s extensive reserves of lead -
Acheson's defence perimeter speech
Kim estimated the war would be short, due to Dean Archeson’s defense perimeter speech on 12 January 1950 in which South Korea was omitted from a list of countries the US would automatically defend in the event of aggression -
The Korean War
On June 1950, 90000 North Korean forces, with 150 T-34 tanks were ordered to cross the 38th parallel by Kim Il Sung, which started the Korean War. -
UN Resolutions
The US sponsored a resolution in the United Nations Security Council, calling for military action against North Korea. The resolution was only passed as the USSR was boycotting meetings of the Security Council in response to the American refusal accept newly communist China as a permanent member of the Council. But even if USSR was there to veto, the USA would still be able to intervene using the general assembly using the Uniting For Peace Resolution. -
China intervenes in Korean War
China sent 200000 troops to help the North Korean army and that had added a new dimension to the war. China’s reason for sending help was simple, they were afraid that US’s rollback would affect the sovereignty of China behind the Yalu river, and that the US might use this opportunity to help the KMT push back into mainland China -
Peace talks
from July 1951 to 1953, Kim asked Stalin to make peace as North Korea was suffering heavily from American air bombardment but Stalin insisted on holding it as it was to the Soviet Union's advantage to keep the resources United States tied down in Korea. Also, he believed that the war would also drain American fighting spirit. Thus, it can be seen that North Korea was merely a pawn in the greater game of geopolitical chess played by the two superpowers. -
End of Korean War
Stalin died and thus the Korean war was able to end. However, it could also be dragged on by the prisoners of war issue. Prisoner of war (POW) issue, where USA and USSR disagreed with each other over the future of POWs. USA wanted the POWs to be able to choose where they want to go after they were released while USSR wanted all POWs to be repatriated to where they were from.
