THE KOREAN WAR.

 

The cold war precipitated wars and proxy wars between USA and the Soviet Union on many occasions. One of the oldest direct confrontations between them was the Korean War. It was a meaningless exercise that killed 6 million people and achieved precisely nothing.

It was fought between North Korea and South Korea from 1950 to 1953. It began in 1950 when North Korea invaded South Korea.

North Korea was supported by the Soviet Union and China while South Korea was supported by the USA and its allies.

After the World War II ended in 1945, USA and USSR divided Korea along the 38^th parallel into 2 zones of occupation. North Korea was administered by Russia while South Korea was administered by the USA.  Due to cold war tensions the two zones became 2 different countries North Korea & South Korea. While the North was Communist, the South was a Democracy. Now neither of these countries accepted the border between them.

When North Korea invaded South Korea, the UN denounced the invasion and authorized the formation of a United Command for fighting North Korea. The Soviet Union was then boycotting the UN as it recognized Taiwan as the real China and mainland China was not recognised by it. So China had no representation at the UN and Russia was boycotting it as said earlier. Finally 21 countries provided the UN force with US accounting for 90% of the share.

After the first 2 months of war, the South Korean and the UN forces were on the point of defeat by North Korea. Then a risky amphibious offensive saved the day for them. The USA now wanted to forcibly unify Korea. The UN forces then entered North Korea and rapidly advanced towards the Yalu river which is the border between North Korea and China. The Chinese forces then crossed the Yalu river and entered the war in Oct 1950.

The UN forces then retreated from North Korea and the Chinese forces were in South Korea by December. Seoul was captured by the Chinese 4 times and was lost by them. And the Communist forces wee pushed back to where the war was started near to the 38^th parallel. North Korea was then subjected to a massive bombing campaign by the US.

By early 1953, both Washington and Beijing clearly wanted an armistice, having tired of the economic burdens, military losses, political and military constraints, worries about an expanded war, and pressure from allies and the world community to end the stalemated conflict.

The fighting ended in July 1953 when an armistice agreement was signed. The war had 3 million war casualties and a higher civilian death toll than World War II. It resulted in destruction of all of Koreas major cities. There were mass killings of tens of thousands of suspected Communists by South Korea and torture and starvation of POW’s by North Korea.

Total Civilian deaths in the war are between 2 to 3 million. Total Military deaths 3 million. So a total of 6 million people died in the Korean War. And after all that carnage, the situation remained as it was before the war. So all those 6 million people have died for nothing.