Names
{{Infobox transliteration , title = Korean War , skhangul = 6·25 전쟁 or 한국 전쟁 , skhanja = 六二五戰爭 or 韓國戰爭 , skrr = Hanguk Jeonjaeng , skmr = Han'guk Chŏnjaeng , northkorea = , nkhangul = 조국해방전쟁 , nkhanja = 祖國解放戰爭 , nkrr = Joguk haebang Jeonjaeng , nkmr = Choguk haebang chǒnjaeng , northkorea2 = yes , ibox-order = ko4, ko3 In South Korea, the war is usually referred to as the "625 War" ({{Korean, hangul=6·25 전쟁, hanja=六二五戰爭, labels=no), the "625 Upheaval" ({{Korean, hangul=6·25 동란, hanja=六二五動亂, rr=yook-i-o dongnan, labels=no), or simply "625", reflecting the date of its commencement on 25 June. In North Korea, the war is officially referred to as the "Fatherland Liberation War" ({{Transliteration, ko, Choguk haebang chǒnjaeng) or alternatively the ''" Chosǒn'' orean''War"'' ({{Korean, hangul=조선전쟁, mr=Chosǒn chǒnjaeng, context=north, labels=no). In mainland China, the segment of the war after the intervention of the People's Volunteer Army is most commonly and officially known as the "Resisting America and Assisting Korea War" ({{Zh, t=抗美援朝战争, p=Kàngměi Yuáncháo Zhànzhēng, c=), although the term "'' Chosǒn'' War" ({{Zh, t=朝鮮戰爭, p= Cháoxiǎn Zhànzhēng) is sometimes used unofficially. The term "'' Hán'' (Korean) War" ({{Zh, t=韓戰, p= Hán Zhàn) is most commonly used in Taiwan (Republic of China), Hong Kong and Macau. In the US, the war was initially described by President Harry S. Truman as a "Background
Imperial Japanese rule (1910–1945)
{{Main, Korea under Japanese ruleKorea divided (1945–1949)
{{Main, Division of Korea At theChinese Civil War (1945–1949)
{{Main, Chinese Civil War, Chinese Communist Revolution With the end of the war with Japan, the Chinese Civil War resumed in earnest between the Communists and Nationalists. While the Communists were struggling for supremacy in Manchuria, they were supported by the North Korean government with matériel and manpower.{{Sfn, Chen, 1994, p=110 According to Chinese sources, the North Koreans donated 2,000 railway cars worth of supplies while thousands of Koreans served in the Chinese PLA during the war.{{Sfn, Chen, 1994, pp=110–11 North Korea also provided the Chinese Communists in Manchuria with a safe refuge for non-combatants and communications with the rest of China.{{Sfn, Chen, 1994, p=110 The North Korean contributions to the Chinese Communist victory were not forgotten after the creation of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1949. As a token of gratitude, between 50,000 and 70,000 Korean veterans that served in the PLA were sent back along with their weapons, and they later played a significant role in the initial invasion of South Korea.{{Sfn, Chen, 1994, p=110 China promised to support the North Koreans in the event of a war against South Korea.{{Sfn, Chen, 1994, p=111 After the formation of the PRC, the PRC government named the Western nations, led by the US, as the biggest threat to its national security.{{Sfn, Chen, 1994, p=26 Basing this judgment on multiple factors, including the idea of a Chinese century of humiliation at the hands of Western powers beginning in the mid-19th century,{{Sfn, Chen, 1994, p=22 US support for the Nationalists during the Chinese Civil War,{{Sfn, Chen, 1994, p=41 and the ideological struggles between revolutionaries and reactionaries,{{Sfn, Chen, 1994, p=21 the PRC Chinese leadership believed that China would become a critical battleground in the US' crusade against Communism.{{Sfn, Chen, 1994, p=19 As a countermeasure and to elevate China's standing among the worldwide Communist movements, the PRC leadership adopted a foreign policy that actively promoted Communist revolutions throughout territories on China's periphery.{{Sfn, Chen, 1994, pp=25–26, 93Communist insurgency in South Korea (1948–1950)
By 1948, a large-scale North Korea-backed insurgency had broken out in the southern half of the peninsula. This was exacerbated by the ongoing undeclared border war between the Koreas, which saw division-level engagements and thousands of deaths on both sides. The ROK in this time was almost entirely trained and focused on counterinsurgency, rather than conventional warfare. They were equipped and advised by a force of a few hundred American officers, who were largely successful in helping the ROKA to subdue guerrillas and hold its own against North Korean military (Korean People's Army, KPA) forces along the 38th parallel.Bryan, p. 76. Approximately 8,000 South Korean soldiers and police died in the insurgent war and border clashes. The first socialist uprising occurred without direct North Korean participation, though the guerrillas still professed support for the northern government. Beginning in April 1948 on the isolated island of Jeju, the campaign saw mass arrests and repression by the South Korean government in the fight against the South Korean Labor Party, resulting in a total of 30,000 violent deaths, among them 14,373 civilians (of whom ~2,000 were killed by rebels and ~12,000 by ROK security forces). ThePrelude to war (1950)
By 1949, South Korean and US military actions had reduced the active number of indigenous communist guerrillas in the South from 5,000 to 1,000. However, Kim Il-sung believed that widespread uprisings had weakened the South Korean military and that a North Korean invasion would be welcomed by much of the South Korean population. Kim began seeking Stalin's support for an invasion in March 1949, traveling to Moscow to attempt to persuade him.{{Sfn, Weathersby, 2002, pp=3–4 Stalin initially did not think the time was right for a war in Korea. PLA forces were still embroiled in theComparison of forces
Throughout 1949 and 1950, the Soviets continued arming North Korea. After the Communist victory in the Chinese Civil War, ethnic Korean units in the PLA were sent to North Korea.{{Sfn, Millett, 2007, p=14 Chinese involvement was extensive from the beginning, building on previous collaboration between the Chinese and Korean communists during the Chinese Civil War. In the fall of 1949, two PLA divisions composed mainly of Korean-Chinese troops (the 164th and 166th) entered North Korea, followed by smaller units throughout the rest of 1949; these troops brought with them not only their experience and training, but their weapons and other equipment, changing little but their uniforms. The reinforcement of the KPA with PLA veterans continued into 1950, with the 156th Division and several other units of the former Fourth Field Army arriving (also with their equipment) in February; the PLA 156th Division was reorganized as the KPA 7th Division. By mid-1950, between 50,000 and 70,000 former PLA troops had entered North Korea, forming a significant part of the KPA's strength on the eve of the war's beginning. Several generals, such as Lee Kwon-mu, were PLA veterans born to ethnic Koreans in China. The combat veterans and equipment from China, the tanks, artillery and aircraft supplied by the Soviets, and rigorous training increased North Korea's military superiority over the South, armed by the US military with mostly small arms, but no heavy weaponry such as tanks.{{Sfn, Millett, 2007, p=15 While older histories of the conflict often referred to these ethnic Korean PLA veterans as being sent from northern Korea to fight in the Chinese Civil War before being sent back, recent Chinese archival sources studied by Kim Donggill indicate that this was not the case. Rather, the soldiers were indigenous to China (part of China's longstanding ethnic Korean community) and were recruited to the PLA in the same way as any other Chinese citizen. According to the first official census in 1949 the population of North Korea numbered 9,620,000, and by mid-1950 North Korean forces numbered between 150,000 and 200,000 troops, organized into 10 infantry divisions, one tank division, and one air force division, with 210 fighter planes and 280 tanks, who captured scheduled objectives and territory, among them Kaesong, Chuncheon, Uijeongbu and Ongjin. Their forces included 274 T-34-85 tanks, 200 artillery pieces, 110 attack bombers, and some 150 Yak fighter planes, and 35 reconnaissance aircraft. In addition to the invasion force, the North had 114 fighters, 78 bombers, 105 T-34-85 tanks, and some 30,000 soldiers stationed in reserve in North Korea.{{Sfn, Appleman, 1998, p= Although each navy consisted of only several small warships, the North and South Korean navies fought in the war as sea-borne artillery for their armies. In contrast, the South Korean population was estimated at 20 million and its army was unprepared and ill-equipped. As of 25 June 1950 the ROK had 98,000 soldiers (65,000 combat, 33,000 support), no tanks (they had been requested from the US military, but requests were denied), and a 22-plane air force comprising 12 liaison-type and 10 AT-6 advanced-trainer airplanes. Large US garrisons and air forces were in Japan,{{Sfn, Appleman, 1998, p=17 but only 200–300 US troops were in Korea.{{Cite news , last=James , first=Jack , date=25 June 1950 , title=North Koreans invade South Korea , language=en , agency=United Press , url=http://www.upi.com/Archives/1950/06/25/North-Koreans-invade-South-Korea/1012416555294/ , access-date=29 July 2017Course of the war
At dawn on Sunday, 25 June 1950, the KPA crossed the 38th Parallel behind artillery fire.{{Sfn, Stokesbury, 1990, p=14 The KPA justified its assault with the claim that ROK troops attacked first and that the KPA were aiming to arrest and execute the "bandit traitor Syngman Rhee".{{Sfn, Appleman, 1998, p=21 Fighting began on the strategic Ongjin Peninsula in the west.{{Sfn, Cumings, 2005, pp=260–63 There were initial South Korean claims that the 17th Regiment captured the city of Haeju, and this sequence of events has led some scholars to argue that the South Koreans fired first.{{Sfn, Cumings, 2005, pp=260–63 Whoever fired the first shots in Ongjin, within an hour, KPA forces attacked all along the 38th Parallel. The KPA had a combined arms force including tanks supported by heavy artillery. The ROK had no tanks, anti-tank weapons or heavy artillery to stop such an attack. In addition, the South Koreans committed their forces in a piecemeal fashion and these were routed in a few days.{{Sfn, Millett, 2007, pp=18–19 On 27 June, Rhee evacuated from Seoul with some of the government. On 28 June, at 2 am, the ROK blew up the Hangang Bridge across the Han River in an attempt to stop the KPA. The bridge was detonated while 4,000 refugees were crossing it and hundreds were killed.{{Cite book , last=Johnston , first=William , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=64ZAy7NvwCgC&q=Han%20River%20demolish&pg=PA20 , title=A war of patrols: Canadian Army operations in Korea , date=1 November 2011 , publisher=Univ of British Columbia Pr , isbn=978-0774810081 , page=20 Destroying the bridge also trapped many ROK units north of the Han River.{{Sfn, Millett, 2007, pp=18–19 In spite of such desperate measures, Seoul fell that same day. A number of South Korean National Assemblymen remained in Seoul when it fell, and forty-eight subsequently pledged allegiance to the North.{{Sfn, Cumings, 2005, pp=269–70 On 28 June, Rhee ordered the massacre of suspected political opponents in his own country.{{Cite book , last=Edwards , first=Paul , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=scZN59DXeOwC&q=Rhee%20bodo%20league%20massacre%20order&pg=PA32 , title=Historical Dictionary of the Korean War , date=10 June 2010 , publisher=Scarecrow Press , isbn=978-0810867734 , page=32 In five days, the ROK, which had 95,000 troops on 25 June, was down to less than 22,000 troops. In early July, when US forces arrived, what was left of the ROK were placed under US operational command of theFactors in US intervention
The Truman administration was unprepared for the invasion. Korea was not included in the strategic Asian Defense Perimeter outlined byUnited Nations Security Council Resolutions
{{Further, List of United Nations Security Council resolutions concerning North Korea On 25 June 1950, theUnited States' response (July–August 1950)
As soon as word of the attack was received, Acheson informed President Truman that the North Koreans had invaded South Korea.{{Sfn, Goulden, 1983, p=48 Truman and Acheson discussed a US invasion response and agreed that the US was obligated to act, comparing the North Korean invasion withThe drive south and Pusan (July–September 1950)
TheBattle of Incheon (September 1950)
{{Main, Battle of Incheon Against the rested and re-armed Pusan Perimeter defenders and their reinforcements, the KPA were undermanned and poorly supplied; unlike the UN forces, they lacked naval and air support.{{Sfn, Stokesbury, 1990, pp=58, 61 To relieve the Pusan Perimeter, General MacArthur recommended an amphibious landing at Incheon, near Seoul and well over {{Convert, 100, mi, km, order=flip, abbr=on behind the KPA lines.{{Sfn, Stokesbury, 1990, p=67 On 6 July, he ordered Major General Hobart R. Gay, commander of the US 1st Cavalry Division, to plan the division's amphibious landing at Incheon; on 12–14 July, the 1st Cavalry Division embarked fromBreakout from the Pusan Perimeter
{{Main, Pusan Perimeter offensive, UN September 1950 counteroffensive, Second Battle of Seoul On 16 September Eighth Army began its breakout from the Pusan Perimeter. ''Task Force Lynch'', 3rd Battalion,UN forces invade North Korea (September–October 1950)
{{Main, UN offensive into North Korea On 27 September, MacArthur received the top secret National Security Council Memorandum 81/1 from Truman reminding him that operations north of the 38th Parallel were authorized only if "at the time of such operation there was no entry into North Korea by major Soviet or Chinese Communist forces, no announcements of intended entry, nor a threat to counter our operations militarily". On 29 September MacArthur restored the government of the Republic of Korea under Syngman Rhee.{{Sfn, Barnouin, Yu, 2006, p=143 On 30 September, US Defense SecretaryChina intervenes (October–December 1950)
{{stack, On 30 June 1950, five days after the outbreak of the war,Fighting around the 38th Parallel (January–June 1951)
A ceasefire presented by the UN to the PRC shortly after the Battle of the Ch'ongch'on River on December 11, 1950, was rejected by the Chinese government which was convinced of the PVA's invincibility after its victory in that battle and the wider Second Phase Offensive, and also wanted to demonstrate China's desire for a total victory through the expulsion of the UN forces from Korea.{{Sfn, Zhang, 1995, pp=119–126 With Lieutenant GeneralStalemate (July 1951 – July 1953)
For the remainder of the war, the UN and the PVA/KPA fought but exchanged little territory, as the stalemate held. Large-scale bombing of North Korea continued, and protracted armistice negotiations began on 10 July 1951 at Kaesong, an ancient capital of Korea located in PVA/KPA held territory.{{Sfn, Stokesbury, 1990, pp=145, 175–77 On the Chinese side, Zhou Enlai directed peace talks, and Li Kenong and Qiao Guanghua headed the negotiation team.{{Sfn, Barnouin, Yu, 2006, p=149 Combat continued while the belligerents negotiated; the goal of the UN forces was to recapture all of South Korea and to avoid losing territory.{{Sfn, Stokesbury, 1990, p=159 The PVA and the KPA attempted similar operations and later effected military and psychological operations in order to test the UN Command's resolve to continue the war. The two sides constantly traded artillery fire along the front, the American-led forces possessing a large firepower advantage over the Chinese-led forces. For example, in the last three months of 1952 the UN fired 3,553,518 field gun shells and 2,569,941 mortar shells, while the Communists fired 377,782 field gun shells and 672,194 mortar shells: an overall 5.83:1 ratio in the UN's favor. The Communist insurgency, reinvigorated by North Korean support and scattered bands of KPA stragglers, also resurged in the south. In the autumn of 1951, Van Fleet ordered Major General Paik Sun-yup to break the back of guerrilla activity. From December 1951 to March 1952, ROK security forces claimed to have killed 11,090 partisans and sympathizers and captured 9,916 more. The principal battles of the stalemate include theArmistice (July 1953 – November 1954)
{{Main, Korean Armistice Agreement The on-again, off-again armistice negotiations continued for two years,{{Sfn, Stokesbury, 1990, pp=144–53 first at Kaesong, on the border between North and South Korea, and then at the neighboring village ofDivision of Korea (1954–present)
{{See also, Korean Demilitarized Zone The Korean Armistice Agreement provided for monitoring by an international commission. Since 1953, theCharacteristics
Casualties
Approximately 3 million people died in the Korean War, the majority of whom were civilians, making it perhaps the deadliest conflict of the Cold War-era.{{Cite book , last=Cumings , first=Bruce , title=The Korean War: A History , publisher= Modern Library , date=2011 , isbn=9780812978964 , page=35 , quote=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 2 million 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 2 million, including about one million civilians and 520,000 soldiers. An estimated 900,000 Chinese soldiers lost their lives in combat. , author-link=Bruce Cumings{{Cite book , last=Lewy , first=Guenter , title=America in Vietnam , title-link=America in Vietnam , publisher=Military
{{See also, Australia in the Korean War, l1=Australia, Belgian United Nations Command, l2=Belgium and Luxembourg, 25th Canadian Infantry Brigade, l3=Canada, Colombian Battalion, l4=Colombia, Kagnew Battalion, l5=Ethiopia, French Battalion, l6=France, Greek Expeditionary Force (Korea), l7=Greece, Regiment van Heutsz#Korean War, l8=Netherlands, New Zealand in the Korean War, l9=New Zealand, Philippine Expeditionary Forces to Korea, l10=Philippines, Thailand in the Korean War, l11=Thailand, Turkish Brigade, l12=Turkey, 2 Squadron SAAF#Korean War, l13=South Africa, British Commonwealth Forces Korea, l14=United Kingdom, United States in the Korean War, l15=United States {{See also, People's Volunteer Army, l1=China, North Korea in the Korean War, l2=North Korea, Soviet Union in the Korean War, l3=Soviet Union According to the data from the US Department of Defense, the US suffered 33,686 battle deaths, along with 2,830 non-battle deaths, and 17,730 other deaths during the Korean War.{{Cite news , last=Rhem, Kathleen T. , date=8 June 2000 , title=Defense.gov News Article: Korean War Death Stats Highlight Modern DoD Safety Record , publisher=defense.gov. US Department of Defense , url=http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=45275 , access-date=3 March 2016 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120114121831/http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=45275 , archive-date=14 January 2012 American combat casualties were over 90 percent of non-Korean UN losses. U.S. battle deaths were 8,516 up to their first engagement with the Chinese on 1 November 1950. The first four months of the Korean War, that is, the war prior to the Chinese intervention (which started near the end of October), were by far the bloodiest per day for the US forces as they engaged and destroyed the comparatively well-equipped KPA in intense fighting. American medical records show that from July to October 1950, the US Army sustained 31 percent of the combat deaths it ultimately incurred in the whole 37-month war. The U.S. spent US$30 billion in total on the war. Some 1,789,000 American soldiers served in the Korean War, accounting for 31 percent of the 5,720,000 Americans who served on active-duty worldwide from June 1950 to July 1953. South Korea reported some 137,899 military deaths and 24,495 missing. Deaths from the other non-American U.N. militaries totaled 3,730, with another 379 missing. Data from official Chinese sources reported that the PVA had suffered 114,000 battle deaths, 34,000 non-battle deaths, 340,000 wounded, and 7,600 missing during the war. 7,110 Chinese POWs were repatriated to China. In 2010, the Chinese government revised their official tally of war losses to 183,108 dead (114,084 in combat, 70,000 outside of combat) and 25,621 missing. Overall, 73 percent of Chinese infantry troops served in Korea (25 of 34 armies, or 79 of 109 infantry divisions, were rotated in). More than 52 percent of the Chinese air force, 55 percent of the tank units, 67 percent of the artillery divisions, and 100 percent of the railroad engineering divisions were sent to Korea as well. Chinese soldiers who served in Korea faced a greater chance of being killed than those who served in World War II or the Chinese Civil War. In terms of financial cost, China spent over 10 billion yuan on the war (roughly US$3.3 billion), not counting USSR aid which had been donated or forgiven.Xiaobing 2009, p. 112. This included $1.3 billion in money owed to the Soviet Union by the end of it. This was a relatively large cost, as China had only 1/25 the national income of the United States. Spending on the Korean War constituted 34–43 percent of China's annual government budget from 1950 to 1953, depending on the year. Despite its underdeveloped economy, Chinese military spending was the world's fourth-largest globally for most of the war after that of the United States, the Soviet Union, and the United Kingdom, though by 1953, with the winding down of the Korean War (which ended halfway through the year) and the escalation of theCivilian
According to the South Korean Ministry of National Defense, there were over three-quarters of a million confirmed violent civilians deaths during the war, another million civilians were pronounced missing, and millions more ended up as refugees. In South Korea, some 373,500 civilians were killed, more than 225,600 wounded, and over 387,740 were listed as missing. During the first communist occupation of Seoul alone, the KPA massacred 128,936 civilians and deported another 84,523 to North Korea. On the other side of the border, some 1,594,000 North Koreans were reported as casualties including 406,000 civilians reported as killed, and 680,000 missing. Over 1.5 million North Koreans fled to the South during the war.US unpreparedness for war
In a postwar analysis of the unpreparedness of US Army forces deployed to Korea during the summer and fall of 1950, Army Major General Floyd L. Parks stated that "Many who never lived to tell the tale had to fight the full range of ground warfare from offensive to delaying action, unit by unit, man by man ... at we were able to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat ... does not relieve us from the blame of having placed our own flesh and blood in such a predicament." By 1950, US Secretary of Defense Louis A. Johnson had established a policy of faithfully following President Truman's defense economization plans and had aggressively attempted to implement it even in the face of steadily increasing external threats. He consequently received much of the blame for the initial setbacks in Korea and the widespread reports of ill-equipped and inadequately trained US military forces in the war's early stages.{{Sfn, Blair, 2003, p= As an initial response to the invasion, Truman called for a naval blockade of North Korea and was shocked to learn that such a blockade could be imposed only "on paper" since the US Navy no longer had the warships with which to carry out his request.{{Sfn, Blair, 2003, p={{Cite web , date=6 July 1950 , title=Memorandum of Information for the Secretary – Blockade of Korea , url=http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/korea/large/week2/kw_78_1.jpg , url-status=dead , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070809213846/http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/korea/large/week2/kw_78_1.jpg , archive-date=9 August 2007 , access-date=28 July 2007 , publisher=Truman Presidential Library – Archives Army officials, desperate for weaponry, recovered Sherman tanks and other equipment from World War II Pacific battlefields and reconditioned them for shipment to Korea.{{Sfn, Blair, 2003, p= Army Ordnance officials at Fort Knox pulled downArmored warfare
The initial assault by KPA forces was aided by the use of Soviet T-34-85 tanks.{{Sfn, Stokesbury, 1990, pp=14, 43 A KPANaval warfare
{{Further, List of US Navy ships sunk or damaged in action during the Korean conflict {{Naval engagements of the Korean War Because neither Korea had a significant navy, the war featured few naval battles. A skirmish between North Korea and the UN Command occurred on 2 July 1950; the US Navy cruiser {{USS, Juneau, CL-119, 6, the Royal Navy cruiser {{HMS, Jamaica, 44, 6 and the Royal Navy frigate {{HMS, Black Swan, L57, 6 fought four North Korean torpedo boats and two mortar gunboats, and sank them. USS ''Juneau'' later sank several ammunition ships that had been present. The last sea battle of the Korean War occurred days before the Battle of Incheon; the ROK ship ''PC-703'' sank a North Korean minelayer in theAerial warfare
{{Further, MiG Alley, USAF Units and Aircraft of the Korean War, Korean People's Air Force The war was the first in which jet aircraft played the central role in air combat. Once-formidable fighters such as the P-51 Mustang,Bombing of North Korea
{{Main, Bombing of North Korea The initial bombing attack on North Korea was approved on the fourth day of the war, 29 June 1950, by General Douglas MacArthur immediately upon request by the commanding general of the Far East Air Forces (FEAF), George E. Stratemeyer.{{Cite journal , last=Kim , first=Taewoo , date=2012 , title=Limited War, Unlimited Targets: U.S. Air Force Bombing of North Korea during the Korean War, 1950–1953 , journal=Critical Asian Studies , volume=44 , issue=3 , pages=467–492 , doi=10.1080/14672715.2012.711980 , s2cid=142704845. Major bombing began in late July. U.S. airpower conducted 7,000 close support and interdiction airstrikes that month, which helped slow the North Korean rate of advance to {{Convert, 2, mi, km, 0, order=flip, abbr=on a day. On 12 August 1950, the USAF dropped 625 tons of bombs on North Korea; two weeks later, the daily tonnage increased to some 800 tons. From June through October, official US policy was to pursueUS threat of atomic warfare
On 5 November 1950, the US Joint Chiefs of Staff issued orders for the retaliatory atomic bombing of Manchurian PRC military bases, if either their armies crossed into Korea or if PRC or KPA bombers attacked Korea from there. President Truman ordered the transfer of nine Mark 4 nuclear bombs "to the Air Force's 9th Bombardment Wing, Heavy, Ninth Bomb Group, the designated carrier of the weapons ... [and] signed an order to use them against Chinese and Korean targets", which he never transmitted.{{Sfn, Cumings, 2005, pp=289–92 Many US officials viewed the deployment of nuclear-capable (but not nuclear-armed) B-29 bombers to Britain as helping to resolve the Berlin Blockade of 1948–1949. Truman and Eisenhower both had military experience and viewed nuclear weapons as potentially usable components of their military. During Truman's first meeting to discuss the war on 25 June 1950, he ordered plans be prepared for attacking Soviet forces if they entered the war. By July, Truman approved another B-29 deployment to Britain, this time with bombs (but without their Pit (nuclear weapon), cores), to remind the Soviets of US offensive ability. Deployment of a similar fleet to Guam was leaked to ''The New York Times''. As UN forces retreated to Pusan, and the CIA reported that mainland China was building up forces for a possible invasion of Taiwan, the Pentagon believed that Congress and the public would demand using nuclear weapons if the situation in Korea required them.{{Cite journal , last=Dingman , first=R. , date=1988–1989 , title=Atomic Diplomacy during the Korean War , journal=International Security , volume=13 , issue=3 , pages=50–91 , doi=10.2307/2538736 , jstor=2538736 , s2cid=154823668 As PVA forces pushed back the UN forces from the Yalu River, Truman stated during a 30 November 1950 press conference that using nuclear weapons was "always [under] active consideration", with control under the local military commander.{{R, jstor2538736 The Indian ambassador, Kavalam Madhava Panikkar, K. Madhava Panikkar, reports "that Truman announced he was thinking of using the atom bomb in Korea. But the Chinese seemed unmoved by this threat ... The PRC's propaganda against the US was stepped up. The 'Aid Korea to resist America' campaign was made the slogan for increased production, greater national integration, and more rigid control over anti-national activities. One could not help feeling that Truman's threat came in useful to the leaders of the Revolution, to enable them to keep up the tempo of their activities." After his statement caused concern in Europe, Truman met on 4 December 1950 with UK prime minister and Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth spokesman Clement Attlee, French Premier René Pleven, and French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman to discuss their worries about atomic warfare and its likely continental expansion. The US' forgoing atomic warfare was not because of "a disinclination by the Soviet Union and People's Republic of China to escalate [the Korean War]", but because UN allies—notably the UK, the Commonwealth, and France—were concerned about a geopolitics, geopolitical imbalance rendering NATO defenseless while the US fought China, who then might persuade the Soviet Union to conquer Western Europe. The Joint Chiefs of Staff advised Truman to tell Attlee that the US would use nuclear weapons only if necessary to protect an evacuation of UN troops, or to prevent a "major military disaster".{{R, jstor2538736 On 6 December 1950, after the Chinese intervention repelled the UN armies from northern North Korea, General J. Lawton Collins (Army Chief of Staff), General MacArthur, Admiral C. Turner Joy, General George E. Stratemeyer and staff officers Major General Doyle Hickey, Major General Charles A. Willoughby and Major General Edwin K. Wright met in Tokyo to plan strategy countering the Chinese intervention; they considered three potential atomic warfare scenarios encompassing the next weeks and months of warfare. * In the first scenario: If the PVA continued attacking in full and the UN Command was forbidden to blockade and bomb China, and without Taiwanese reinforcements, and without an increase in US forces until April 1951 (four National Guard divisions were due to arrive), then atomic bombs might be used in North Korea. * In the second scenario: If the PVA continued full attacks and the UN Command blockaded China and had effective aerial reconnaissance and bombing of the Chinese interior, and the Taiwanese soldiers were maximally exploited, and tactical atomic bombing was to hand, then the UN forces could hold positions deep in North Korea. * In the third scenario: if China agreed to not cross the 38th Parallel border, General MacArthur recommended UN acceptance of an armistice disallowing PVA and KPA troops south of the parallel, and requiring PVA and KPA guerrillas to withdraw northwards. The US Eighth Army would remain to protect the Seoul–Incheon area, while X Corps would retreat to Pusan. A UN commission should supervise implementation of the armistice. Both the Pentagon and the State Department were cautious about using nuclear weapons because of the risk of general war with China and the diplomatic ramifications. Truman and his senior advisors agreed, and never seriously considered using them in early December 1950 despite the poor military situation in Korea.{{R, jstor2538736 In 1951, the US escalated closest to atomic warfare in Korea. Because China deployed new armies to the Sino-Korean frontier, ground crews at the Kadena Air Base, Okinawa Prefecture, Okinawa, assembled atomic bombs for Korean warfare, "lacking only the essential pit nuclear cores". In October 1951, the United States effected Operation Hudson Harbor to establish a nuclear weapons capability. USAF B-29 bombers practiced individual bombing runs from Okinawa to North Korea (using dummy nuclear or conventional bombs), coordinated from Yokota Air Base in east-central Japan. ''Hudson Harbor'' tested "actual functioning of all activities which would be involved in an atomic strike, including weapons assembly and testing, leading, [and] ground control of bomb aiming". The bombing run data indicated that atomic bombs would be tactically ineffective against massed infantry, because the "timely identification of large masses of enemy troops was extremely rare". General Matthew Ridgway was authorized to use nuclear weapons if a major air attack originated from outside Korea. An envoy was sent to Hong Kong to deliver a warning to China. The message likely caused Chinese leaders to be more cautious about potential US use of nuclear weapons, but whether they learned about the B-29 deployment is unclear and the failure of the two major Chinese offensives that month likely was what caused them to shift to a defensive strategy in Korea. The B-29s returned to the United States in June.{{R, jstor2538736 Despite the greater destructive power that atomic weapons would bring to the war, their effects on determining the war's outcome would have likely been minimal. Tactically, given the dispersed nature of PVA/KPA forces, the relatively primitive infrastructure for staging and logistics centers, and the small number of bombs available (most would have been conserved for use against the Soviets), atomic attacks would have limited effects against the ability of China to mobilize and move forces. Strategically, attacking Chinese cities to destroy civilian industry and infrastructure would cause the immediate dispersion of the leadership away from such areas and give propaganda value for the communists to galvanize the support of Chinese civilians. Since the Soviets were not expected to intervene with their few primitive atomic weapons on China or North Korea's behalf, the threat of a possible nuclear exchange was unimportant in the decision to not deploy atomic bombs; their use offered little operational advantage, and would undesirably lower the "threshold" for using atomic weapons against non-nuclear states in future conflicts. When Eisenhower succeeded Truman in early 1953 he was similarly cautious about using nuclear weapons in Korea. The administration prepared contingency plans to use them against China, but like Truman, the new president feared that doing so would result in Soviet attacks on Japan. The war ended as it began, without US nuclear weapons deployed near battle.{{R, jstor2538736War crimes
Civilian deaths and massacres
{{Further, Bodo League massacre, Seoul National University Hospital massacre, No Gun Ri Massacre, Sinchon Massacre, Ganghwa massacre, Sancheong-Hamyang massacre, Geochang massacre There were numerous atrocities and massacres of civilians throughout the Korean War committed by both sides, starting in the war's first days. On 28 June 1950, North Korean troops committed the Seoul National University Hospital massacre.{{Cite web , date=4 June 2010 , title=서울대병원, 6.25전쟁 참전 용사들을 위한 추모제 가져 , url=http://www.snuh.org/pub/snuh/sub02/sub01/1179268_3957.jsp , url-status=dead , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130120040603/http://www.snuh.org/pub/snuh/sub02/sub01/1179268_3957.jsp , archive-date=20 January 2013 , access-date=19 July 2012 , publisher=Seoul National University Hospital , df=dmy-all On the same day, South Korean President Syngman Rhee ordered the Bodo League massacre, beginning mass killings of suspected leftist sympathizers and their families by South Korean officials and right-wing groups.{{Cite news , date=18 August 2008 , title=Unearthing proof of Korea killings , work=BBC , url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7567936.stm , url-status=live , access-date=5 April 2013 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130901133448/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7567936.stm , archive-date=1 September 2013{{Cite news , date=11 February 2009 , title=U.S. Allowed Korean Massacre in 1950 , work=CBS News , agency=Associated Press , url=http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-201_162-4234885.html , url-status=live , access-date=5 April 2013 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130512171017/http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-201_162-4234885.html , archive-date=12 May 2013 Estimates of those killed during the Bodo League massacre range from at least 60,000–110,000 (Kim Dong-choon) to 200,000 (Park Myung-lim).{{Cite news , date=10 July 2010 , title=Korea bloodbath probe ends; US escapes much blame , work=The San Diego Union Tribune , url=https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sdut-korea-bloodbath-probe-ends-us-escapes-much-blame-2010jul10-story.html , access-date=11 June 2019 , quote=Last November, after investigating petitions from surviving relatives, the commission announced it had verified and identified 4,934 execution victims. But historian Kim Dong-choon, the former commissioner who led that investigation, estimates at least 60,000 to 110,000 died, and similar numbers were summarily executed when northern troops were driven from South Korea later in 1950 and alleged southern collaborators were rounded up. 'I am estimating conservatively,' he said. Korean War historian Park Myung-lim, methodically reviewing prison records, said he believes perhaps 200,000 were slaughtered in mid-1950 alone. The British protested to their allies about later South Korean mass executions, and saved some citizens. In 2005–2010, a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (South Korea), South Korean Truth and Reconciliation Commission investigated atrocities and other human rights violations through much of the 20th century, from the Japanese colonial period through the Korean War and beyond. It excavated some mass graves from the Bodo League massacres and confirmed the general outlines of those political executions. Of the Korean War-era massacres the commission was petitioned to investigate, 82% were perpetrated by South Korean forces, with 18% perpetrated by North Korean forces. The commission also received petitions alleging more than 200 large-scale killings of South Korean civilians by the U.S. military during the war, mostly air attacks. It confirmed several such cases, including refugees crowded into a cave attacked with napalm bombs, which survivors said killed 360 people, and an air attack that killed 197 refugees gathered in a field in the far south. It recommended South Korea seek reparations from the United States, but in 2010 a reorganized commission under a new, conservative government concluded that most U.S. mass killings resulted from "military necessity", while in a small number of cases, they concluded, the U.S. military had acted with "low levels of unlawfulness" but the commission recommended against seeking reparations. In the most notorious U.S. massacre, investigated separately, not by the commission, American troops killed an estimated 250–300 refugees, mostly women and children, at No Gun Ri massacre, No Gun Ri in central South Korea (26–29 July 1950). U.S. commanders, fearing enemy infiltrators among refugee columns, had adopted a policy of stopping civilian groups approaching U.S. lines, including by gunfire. After years of rejecting survivors' accounts, the U.S. Army investigated and in 2001 acknowledged the No Gun Ri killings, but claimed they were not ordered and "not a deliberate killing".{{Rp, x South Korean officials, after a parallel investigation, said they believed there were orders to shoot. The survivors' representatives denounced what they described as a U.S. "whitewash". The US bombing of North Korea has been condemned as a war crime by some authors, because it often included bombing civilian targets and caused many civilians casualties. According to Bruce Cumings, "What hardly any Americans know or remember is that we Carpet bombing, carpet-bombed the north for three years with next to no concern for civilian casualties.” Author Blaine Harden has called the bombing campaign a "major war crime“ and described it as "long, leisurely and merciless”. He says it's "perhaps the most forgotten part of a forgotten war".Prisoners of War (POWs)
{{See also, Korean War POWs detained in North Korea, Hill 303 massacre, List of American and British defectors in the Korean WarChinese POWs
At Geoje prison camp on Geoje Island, Chinese POWs experienced anti-communist lecturing and missionary work from secret agents from the US and Taiwan in No. 71, 72 and 86 camps. Pro-Communist POWs experienced torture, cutting off of limbs, or were executed in public.Decrypt the truth that ten thousands pow went to Taiwan=UN Command POWs
= The United States reported that North Korea mistreated prisoners of war: soldiers were beaten, starved, put to unfree labour, forced labor, death march, marched to death, and summary execution, summarily executed. The KPA killed POWs at the battles for Hill 312, Hill 303, the Pusan Perimeter, Daejeon and UN offensive into North Korea#KPA massacre at Sunchon, Sunchon; these massacres were discovered afterwards by the UN forces. Later, a US Congress war crimes investigation, the United States Senate Subcommittee on Korean War Atrocities of the Permanent Subcommittee of the Investigations of the Committee on Government Operations, reported that "two-thirds of all American prisoners of war in Korea died as a result of war crimes". Although the Chinese rarely executed prisoners like their North Korean counterparts, mass starvation and diseases swept through the Chinese-run POW camps during the winter of 1950–51. About 43 percent of US POWs died during this period. The Chinese defended their actions by stating that all Chinese soldiers during this period were suffering mass starvation and diseases due to logistical difficulties. The UN POWs said that most of the Chinese camps were located near the easily supplied Sino-Korean border and that the Chinese withheld food to force the prisoners to accept the communism indoctrination programs. According to Chinese reports, over a thousand US POWs died by the end of June 1951, while a dozen British POWs died, and all Turkish POW survived. According to Hastings, wounded US POWs died for lack of medical attention and were fed a diet of corn and millet "devoid of vegetables, almost barren of proteins, minerals, or vitamins" with only 1/3 the calories of their usual diet. Especially in early 1951, thousands of prisoners lost the will to live and "declined to eat the mess of sorghum and rice they were provided". The unpreparedness of US POWs to resist heavy communist indoctrination during the Korean War led to the Code of the United States Fighting Force which governs how US military personnel in combat should act when they must "evade capture, resist while a prisoner or escape from the enemy". North Korea may have detained up to 50,000 South Korean POWs after the ceasefire.{{Cite journal , last=Heo , first=Man-ho , date=2002 , title=North Korea's Continued Detention of South Korean POWs since the Korean and Vietnam Wars , url=http://www.kida.re.kr/data/2006/04/14/08-heo.pdf , url-status=dead , journal=The Korean Journal of Defense Analysis , volume=14 , issue=2 , pages=141–165 , doi=10.1080/10163270209464030 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160108084151/http://www.kida.re.kr/data/2006/04/14/08-heo.pdf , archive-date=8 January 2016{{Rp, 141 Over 88,000 South Korean soldiers were missing and the KPA claimed they captured 70,000 South Koreans.{{Rp, 142 However, when ceasefire negotiations began in 1951, the KPA reported they held only 8,000 South Koreans. The UN Command protested the discrepancies and alleged that the KPA were forcing South Korean POWs to join the KPA.{{Sfn, Hermes, 1992, p=136 The KPA denied such allegations. They claimed their POW rosters were small because many POWs were killed in UN air raids and that they had released ROK soldiers at the front. They insisted only volunteers were allowed to serve in the KPA.{{Sfn, Hermes, 1992, p=143{{Rp, 143 By early 1952, UN negotiators gave up trying to get back the missing South Koreans.{{Sfn, Hermes, 1992, p=149 The POW exchange proceeded without access to South Korean POWs who were not on the PVA/KPA rosters.{{Sfn, Hermes, 1992, p=514 North Korea continued to claim that any South Korean POW who stayed in the North did so voluntarily. However, since 1994, South Korean POWs have been escaping North Korea on their own after decades of captivity. {{As of, 2010, the South Korean Ministry of Unification reported that 79 ROK POWs escaped the North. The South Korean government estimates 500 Korean POWs detained in North Korea, South Korean POWs continue to be detained in North Korea. The escaped POWs have testified about their treatment and written memoirs about their lives in North Korea.{{Cite book , last=Yoo , first=Young-Bok , url=http://tearsofbloodbook.blogspot.com/ , title=Tears of Blood: A Korean POW's Fight for Freedom, Family and Justice , publisher=Korean War POW Affairs-USA , date=2012 , isbn=978-1479383856 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130517152742/http://tearsofbloodbook.blogspot.com/ , archive-date=17 May 2013 , url-status=live They report they were not told about the POW exchange procedures, and were assigned to work in mines in the remote northeastern regions near the Chinese and Russian border.{{Rp, 31 Declassified Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Soviet Union), Soviet Foreign Ministry documents corroborate such testimony. In 1997, the Geoje POW Camp in South Korea was turned into a memorial.Starvation
{{See also, National Defense Corps Incident In December 1950, the South Korean National Defense Corps was founded; the soldiers were 406,000 drafted citizens. In the winter of 1951, 50,000 to 90,000 South Korean National Defense Corps soldiers starved to death while marching southward under the PVA offensive when their commanding officers embezzled funds earmarked for their food. This event is called the National Defense Corps Incident. Although his political allies certainly profited from corruption, it remains controversial if Syngman Rhee was personally involved in or benefited from the corruption.{{Cite book , last=Terence Roehrig , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zfQggLWwyi4C&pg=PA139 , title=Prosecution of Former Military Leaders in Newly Democratic Nations: The Cases of Argentina, Greece, and South Korea , publisher=McFarland & Company , date=2001 , isbn=978-0786410910 , page=139 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150921221320/https://books.google.com/books?id=zfQggLWwyi4C&pg=PA139&lpg=PA139 , archive-date=21 September 2015 , url-status=liveRecreation
{{Further, United Service Organizations In 1950, Secretary of Defense George C. Marshall and Secretary of the Navy Francis P. Matthews called on the United Service Organizations (USO) which was disbanded by 1947 to provide support for US servicemen. By the end of the war, more than 113,000 USO volunteers from the US were working at the home front and abroad. Many stars came to Korea to give their performances.{{Cite book , last=Paul M. Edwards , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xA34hGXAjlIC&q=korean%20war%20USO&pg=PA123 , title=Prosecution of Former Military Leaders in Newly Democratic Nations: The Cases of Argentina, Greece, and South Korea , publisher=Greenwood , date=2006 , isbn=978-0313332487 , pages=123–24 Throughout the Korean War, Prostitutes in South Korea for the U.S. military, comfort stations (brothels) were operated by South Korean officials for UN soldiers despite prostitution being ostensibly illegal.{{Cite book , last=Höhn , first=Maria , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PvwcGFI0C9sC&q=Yanggongju%20prostitute&pg=PA46 , title=Over There: Living with the U.S. Military Empire from World War Two to the Present , publisher=Duke University Press , date=2010 , isbn=978-0822348276 , pages=51–52Aftermath
{{Main, Aftermath of the Korean War Postwar recovery was different in the two Koreas. South Korea, which started from a far lower industrial base than North Korea (the latter contained 80% of Korea's heavy industry in 1945), stagnated in the first postwar decade. In 1953, South Korea and the United States signed a Mutual Defense Treaty Between the United States and the Republic of Korea, Mutual Defense Treaty. In 1960, the April Revolution occurred and students joined an anti-Syngman Rhee demonstration; 142 were killed by police; in consequence Syngman Rhee resigned and left for exile in the United States. Park Chung-hee's May 16 coup enabled social stability. From 1965 to 1973, South Korea South Korea in the Vietnam War, dispatched troops to South Vietnam and received $235,560,000 in allowance and military procurement from the United States. GNP increased fivefold during the Vietnam War.{{Cite web , date=2 July 2008 , script-title=ko:1965년 전투병 베트남 파병 의결 , url=http://news.donga.com/3/all/20080702/8597259/1 , url-status=live , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130616085410/http://news.donga.com/3/all/20080702/8597259/1 , archive-date=16 June 2013 , access-date=24 September 2011 , website=Dong-a Ilbo , language=ko South Korea industrialized and modernized. South Korea had one of the world's Miracle on the Han River, fastest-growing economies from the early 1960s to the late 1990s. In 1957, South Korea had a lower per capita GDP than Ghana, and by 2010, it was a developed country and ranked thirteenth in the world (Ghana was 86th). As a result of the war, "North Korea had been virtually destroyed as an industrial society". After the armistice, Kim Il-Sung requested Soviet economic and industrial assistance. In September 1953, the Soviet government agreed to "cancel or postpone repayment for all ... outstanding debts", and promised to grant North Korea one billion rubles in monetary aid, industrial equipment and consumer goods. Eastern European members of the Soviet Bloc also contributed with "logistical support, technical aid, [and] medical supplies". China canceled North Korea's war debts, provided 800 million Chinese yuan, yuan, promised trade cooperation and sent in thousands of troops to rebuild damaged infrastructure. Contemporary North Korea remains underdeveloped. North Korea has continued to be a Totalitarianism, totalitarian dictatorship since the end of the war, with an elaborate North Korean cult of personality, cult of personality around the Kim dynasty (North Korea), Kim dynasty.{{Cite news , date=9 April 2018 , title=North Korea country profile , work=BBC News , url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-15256929{{Cite news , title=Kim Jong Un's North Korea: Life inside the totalitarian state , newspaper=Washington Post , url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/world/north-korea-defectors/{{Cite web , date=2018 , title=Totalitarianism , url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/totalitarianism , publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica The means of production are owned by the state through state-run enterprises and Collective farming, collectivized farms. Most services—such as healthcare, education, housing and food production—are subsidized or state-funded. Estimates based on the most recent North Korean census suggest that 240,000 to 420,000 people died as a result of the 1990s North Korean famine and that there were 600,000 to 850,000 unnatural deaths in North Korea from 1993 to 2008.{{Cite journal , last1=Spoorenberg , first1=Thomas , last2=Schwekendiek , first2=Daniel , date=2012 , title=Demographic Changes in North Korea: 1993–2008 , journal=Population and Development Review , volume=38 , issue=1 , pages=133–158 , doi=10.1111/j.1728-4457.2012.00475.x A study by South Korean anthropologists of North Korean children who had defected to China found that 18-year-old males were {{Convert, 13, cm, in, frac=2, abbr=on shorter than South Koreans their age because of malnutrition. Present-day North Korea follows ''Songun'', or "military-first" policy. It is the List of countries by number of troops, country with the highest number of military and paramilitary personnel, with a total of 7,769,000 active, reserve and paramilitary personnel, or approximately {{Percentage, 7,769,000, {{UN_Population, Dem. People's Republic of Korea of its population. Its active duty army of 1.28 million is the fourth-largest in the world, after China, the United States and India; consisting of {{Percentage, 1280000, {{UN_Population, Dem. People's Republic of Korea, 1 of its population. North Korea North Korea and weapons of mass destruction, possesses nuclear weapons. A 2014 UN inquiry into abuses of human rights in North Korea concluded that, "the gravity, scale and nature of these violations reveal a state that does not have any parallel in the contemporary world," with Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch holding similar views.{{Cite web , last=Amnesty International , author-link=Amnesty International , date=2007 , title=Our Issues, North Korea , url=http://www.amnestyusa.org/countries/north_korea/index.do , url-status=dead , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070329050950/http://www.amnestyusa.org/countries/north_korea/index.do , archive-date=29 March 2007 , access-date=1 August 2007 , website=Human Rights Concerns{{Citation , title=Report of the Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Chapter VII. Conclusions and recommendations , date=17 February 2014 , url=http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/CoIDPRK/Report/A.HRC.25.CRP.1_ENG.doc , work=United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights , page=346 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140227104633/http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/CoIDPRK/Report/A.HRC.25.CRP.1_ENG.doc , access-date=1 November 2014 , archive-date=27 February 2014 , url-status=live{{Cite web , last=Kay Seok , date=15 May 2007 , title=Grotesque indifference , url=http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/05/16/nkorea15944.htm , url-status=live , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929174709/http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/05/16/nkorea15944.htm , archive-date=29 September 2007 , access-date=1 August 2007 , website=Human Rights Watch{{Cite web , date=17 February 2009 , title=Human Rights in North Korea , url=https://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/02/17/human-rights-north-korea , url-status=live , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110429044053/http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/02/17/human-rights-north-korea , archive-date=29 April 2011 , access-date=13 December 2010 , website=hrw.org , publisher=Human Rights Watch South Korean Anti-American sentiment in Korea, anti-Americanism after the war was fueled by the presence and behavior of US military personnel (USFK) and US support for Park's authoritarian regime, a fact still evident during the country's democratic transition in the 1980s. However, anti-Americanism has declined significantly in South Korea in recent years, from 46% favorable in 2003 to 74% favorable in 2011, making South Korea one of the most pro-US countries in the world. A large number of Amerasian, mixed-race "GI babies" (offspring of US and other UN soldiers and Korean women) were filling up the country's orphanages. Because Korean traditional society places significant weight on paternal family ties, bloodlines, and purity of race, children of mixed race or those without fathers are not easily accepted in South Korean society. International adoption of Korean children began in 1954. The US Immigration Act of 1952 legalized the naturalization of non-blacks and non-whites as US citizens and made possible the entry of military spouses and children from South Korea after the Korean War. With the passage of the Immigration Act of 1965, which substantially changed US immigration policy toward non-Europeans, Korean American, Koreans became one of the fastest-growing Asian American, Asian groups in the United States.See also
{{Div col, colwidth=20em * 1st Commonwealth Division * Australia in the Korean War * Canada in the Korean War * Colombian Battalion * Joint Advisory Commission, Korea * Korean DMZ Conflict (1966–1969) * Korean reunification * Korean War in popular culture * List of books about the Korean War * List of Korean War Medal of Honor recipients * List of Korean War weapons * List of military equipment used in the Korean War * List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll * MASH (film), ''MASH'' – film * M*A*S*H (TV series), ''M*A*S*H'' – TV series * New Zealand in the Korean War * North Korea in the Korean War * Operation Big Switch * Operation Little Switch * Operation Moolah * Partisans in Korean War, Partisan Movement * Philippine Expeditionary Forces to Korea * Pyongyang Sally * Soviet Union in the Korean War * Transfer of People's Volunteer Army soldiers' remains from South Korea to China * UNCMAC – the UN Command Military Armistice Commission operating from 1953 to the present * UNCURK – the 1951 UN Commission for the Unification and Rehabilitation of Korea * UNTCOK – the 1950 United Nations Temporary Commission on Korea {{Div col endWar memorials
* Korean War Memorial Wall (Canada), Korean War Memorial Wall,{{Ref, 25, map Brampton, Ontario * Korean War Veterans Memorial, Washington, D.C. * Memorial of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, Dandong, Liaoning, China * National War Memorial (New Zealand) * Philadelphia Korean War Memorial * United Nations Memorial Cemetery, Busan, Republic of Korea * Victorious War Museum, Pyongyang, North Korea * War Memorial of Korea Yongsan-dong, Seoul, Yongsan-dong, Yongsan-gu, Seoul, South KoreaNotes
{{NotelistReferences
Citations
{{Reflist, refs = {{Cite web , date=11 April 2013 , title=Českoslovenští lékaři stáli v korejské válce na straně KLDR. Jejich mise stále vyvolává otazníky , url=http://www.rozhlas.cz/zpravy/historie/_zprava/ceskoslovensti-lekari-stali-v-korejske-valce-na-strane-kldr-jejich-mise-stale-vyvolava-otazniky--1198828 , url-status=live , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161002041301/http://www.rozhlas.cz/zpravy/historie/_zprava/ceskoslovensti-lekari-stali-v-korejske-valce-na-strane-kldr-jejich-mise-stale-vyvolava-otazniky--1198828 , archive-date=2 October 2016 , access-date=25 July 2016 , publisher=Czech Radio , language=cs {{Cite web , title=Casualties of Korean War , url=http://www.imhc.mil.kr/imhcroot/data/korea_view.jsp?seq=4&page=1 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130120040603/http://www.imhc.mil.kr/imhcroot/data/korea_view.jsp?seq=4&page=1 , archive-date=20 January 2013 , access-date=14 February 2007 , publisher=Ministry of National Defense of Republic of Korea , language=ko {{Cite web , last=Hickey , first=Michael , title=The Korean War: An Overview , url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/coldwar/korea_hickey_04.shtml , url-status=live , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090205152624/http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/coldwar/korea_hickey_04.shtml , archive-date=5 February 2009 , access-date=31 December 2011 {{Cite book , last=Li , first=Xiaobing , url=https://archive.org/details/historymodernchi00lixi , title=A History of the Modern Chinese Army , publisher=University Press of Kentucky , date=2007 , isbn=978-0813124384 , location=Lexington, KY , pagBibliography
{{See also, Bibliography of Stalinism and the Soviet Union, Bibliography of the Post Stalinist Soviet Union {{Refbegin, 30em * {{Cite book , last=Cumings, B , title=The Korean War: A history , date=2011 , publisher=Modern Library , location=New York * {{Cite book , last=Kraus , first=Daniel , title=The Korean War , date=2013 , publisher=Booklist * {{Cite book , last=Warner, G. , title=The Korean War , date=1980 , publisher=International Affairs *{{source attribution, {{Cite book , last=Appleman , first=Roy E , url=http://www.history.army.mil/books/korea/20-2-1/toc.htm , title=South to the Naktong, North to the Yalu , publisher=United States Army Center of Military History , date=1998 , isbn=978-0160019180 , pages=3, 15, 381, 545, 771, 719 , access-date=14 July 2010 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140207235336/http://www.history.army.mil/books/korea/20-2-1/toc.htm , archive-date=7 February 2014 , url-status=dead , orig-year=1961 * {{Cite book , last1=Barnouin , first1=Barbara , title=Zhou Enlai: A Political Life , last2=Yu , first2=Changgeng , publisher=Chinese University Press , date=2006 , isbn=978-9629962807 , location=Hong Kong * {{Cite book , last=Becker , first=Jasper , url=https://archive.org/details/rogueregimekimjo00beck , title=Rogue Regime: Kim Jong Il and the Looming Threat of North Korea , publisher=Oxford University Press , date=2005 , isbn=978-0195170443 , location=New York * {{Cite book , last=Beschloss , first=Michael , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TSxyDwAAQBAJ , title=Presidents of War: The Epic Story, from 1807 to Modern Times , publisher=Crown , date=2018 , isbn=978-0-307-40960-7 , location=New York * {{Cite book , last=Blair , first=Clay , title=The Forgotten War: America in Korea, 1950–1953 , publisher=Naval Institute Press , date=2003 , author-link=Clay Blair * {{Cite book , last=Chen , first=Jian , title=China's Road to the Korean War: The Making of the Sino-American Confrontation , publisher=Columbia University Press , date=1994 , isbn=978-0231100250 , location=New York * {{Cite book , last=Clodfelter , first=Micheal , title=A Statistical History of the Korean War: 1950-1953 , publisher=Merriam Press , date=1989 , location=Bennington, Vermont * {{Cite book , last=Cumings , first=Bruce , title=Korea's Place in the Sun : A Modern History , publisher=W. W. Norton & Company , date=2005 , isbn=978-0393327021 , location=New York , author-link=Bruce Cumings * {{Cite book , last=Cumings , first=Bruce , title=Origins of the Korean War , publisher=Princeton University Press , date=1981 , isbn=978-8976966124 , chapter=3, 4 , author-link=Bruce Cumings * {{Cite book , last1=Dear , first1=Ian , url=https://archive.org/details/oxfordcompaniont00dear/page/516 , title=The Oxford Companion to World War II , last2=Foot , first2=M.R.D. , publisher=External links
{{Sister project links, Korean War, voy=Korean War * Records oHistorical
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