The Korean War began on 25 June 1950 when North Korea invaded South Korea. The invasion turned the divided peninsula into a major Cold War proxy conflict between communist powers and United Nations (UN) forces. The war cost over 2 million lives, ruined the Korean economy and left the nation permanently split.
The Korean War began on 25 June 1950 and ended on 27 July 1953...
North Korea invaded the south in an attempt to unify the country under the north's government. The attempt failed, and Korea is still divided in two. Both sides maintain armies along the border where there is an uneasy peace sometimes interrupted by exchanges of artillery fire.
Members of the 3rd Battalion, the Royal Australian Regiment (3RAR) take in the view of Pusan harbour and lighthouse, from the deck of the US troopship Aiken Victory. From Pusan they will move on to Taegu to prepare for their first operations in the Korean War. [AWM HOBJ1346]
The war cost more than 2 million lives and ruined the economy of South Korea for 20 years. It also had implications for a wider conflict, the Cold War.
The main protagonists of that political, economic, military and ideological contest, the Soviet Union and the United States (US), intervened in the Korean War. The Soviet Union and its ally China backed North Korea. The US gathered an alliance under the auspices of the UN to support the south. Australia was one of the 21 UN countries offering support, sending almost 18,000 army, navy and air force personnel.
The most famous leaders of the time were closely involved in the war:
- US presidents Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower
- China's Mao Zedong
- the Soviet Union's Joseph Stalin.
Korea was the only occasion in the Cold War when there was prolonged fighting between Chinese, Russian and American land and air forces. The fighting took place in a rugged, mountainous theatre of war.
Part of the Cold War
Korea was a new kind of war.
With both superpowers possessing nuclear weapons, neither side could aim for total victory because the threat of escalation to nuclear war hung over the conflict. The outcome of the Korean War determined the US to maintain large military forces to constrain communism. The war saw the rise of China as a significant military power, and it was the first time jet aircraft fought jet aircraft.
For Australia, Korea was the first war of the newly formed Australian Army. It was the only time a Royal Australian Navy (RAN) aircraft carrier conducted air operations in war. And the last time the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) engaged in air-to-air fighting.
The Korean War was fought in the context of the Cold War, a 44-year period of conflict which began in 1947 ...
The Cold War was a state of economic, political and military tension between the US and its allies and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and its allies. It ended in 1991 with the disintegration of the USSR.
The US and the USSR were the 2 most powerful of the World War II allies who defeated the Axis powers: Germany, Japan, Italy, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria. After the war, the 2 victors could not agree on the makeup of the postwar world. Tensions first arose in Europe, where their armies faced each other in 1945 after Germany's defeat.
The USSR organised its Eastern European conquests into the Eastern Bloc, which by 1955 had a military alliance known as the Warsaw Pact.
The US and its allies formed the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
Over time, the Cold War spread to Asia and Africa, and most nations aligned either with the US or the USSR. Sometimes each bloc was identified by its economic policy and was called either the 'capitalist Western Bloc' or the 'communist Eastern Bloc.' China, which participated in the Korean War, was a member of the Eastern Bloc.
Those nations that did not wish to take sides formed the Non Aligned Movement.
Throughout the Cold War the USSR and the US were wary of directly confronting one another militarily as both had a well-founded fear that this would escalate into a nuclear war. Instead, wars by proxy occurred. The first one was the Korean War. Proxy wars were characterised by the overlay of domestic friction, such as that between North and South Korea, with the worldwide contest between the US and the USSR.
At the end of World War II, an agreement was made to temporarily split Korea into 2 administrations along the 38th parallel, dividing the country into north and south. The 2 superpowers supported their allies and client states with financial aid, military technology and training. Joseph Stalin, the leader of the USSR, backed Kim Il-Sung, a North Korean communist. President Truman of the US backed Syngman Rhee, the anti-communist first president of South Korea.
The USSR provided support to North Korea when it invaded the south. Within days of the 25 June 1950 invasion, the US declared its intent to stand by South Korea. The US won the support of the UN Security Council, which condemned the invasion and endorsed the US plan to send troops to defend South Korea. Australia was one of the 16 UN members who responded by sending land, sea and air forces.
Communist leaders and their policies
The origin of the Korean War, its course and outcome can be traced to the policies of the leaders and the strategy of the generals.
Premier Kim Il-sung
Kim Il-sung (15 April 1912 to 8 July 1994) was the premier of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea and supreme commander of the North Korean People's Army during the Korean War.
As a member of the Chinese communist-led North-East Anti-Japanese Army, Kim fought the Japanese in Manchuria from 1932 to 1941. Kim's guerrilla record and the support of Soviet occupying authorities secured his political and military control of North Korea before the Korean War.
The invasion of South Korea by North Korea was initiated by Kim's Soviet backers, but it was also Kim's wish to unite his country. After his invasion failed in 1950, the UN offensive into his country and the arrival of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army, Kim's influence waned.
Nevertheless, within North Korea, his status as leader of both the government and the armed forces remained strong. In 1972, Kim became constitutional President of North Korea, and he introduced a new ideology – self-reliance, or Juche.
Kim Il-sung died in 1994 and was succeeded by his son Kim Jong Il. Kim Il-sung retains the title 'Eternal President' and his birthday is celebrated as a public holiday.
Chairman Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong (26 December 1893 to 9 September 1976) was one of the most important figures of the 20th century. He was pivotal to China's involvement in the Korean War.
Mao was a founding member of the Chinese Communist Party. He became chairman of the Central People's Government (China) in 1949 after leading the party to victory in the Chinese revolution.
In alliance with Joseph Stalin, the Premier of the Soviet Union, and Kim Il-sung, Mao helped North Korea prepare for war by sending 3 Korean-manned infantry divisions. The infantry had fought with the communists during the Chinese revolution.
Mao ordered Chinese military intervention in the Korean War in October 1950 when UN troops invaded North Korea. He feared China's exposure to foreign invasion should North Korea be defeated and occupied. Mao saw intervention as a necessity to protect his revolution. China's civil war had just finished and Mao's enemy, the Chinese nationalists under Chiang Kai-shek, were holding the offshore island of Taiwan. Moreover, the UN had demonstrated its hostility to communist China by allowing China's seat in the UN to be retained by Chiang's nationalists.
While the Chinese intervention failed to unify Korea under Kim Il-Sung, it did force the UN to abandon its hope to unify the country under southern leadership and demonstrated China's power to the world.
After the Korean War, Mao helped fund the reconstruction of North Korea. In 1966, Mao launched the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, leading to widespread economic and political ruin. Mao's death in 1976 left an economically depressed China.
Marshal Peng Dehuai
Peng Dehuai (24 October 1898 to 29 November 1974) was the commander of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army in Korea. He served as an army officer for 43 years. Peng lost his parents when he was 9 and worked as a coal miner until he was 16. He was accepted into the Hunan Military Academy. He served as an officer with Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalists, then switched sides in 1927 and joined the Communist Party.
An army commander during the communists' 'Long March', Peng later commanded guerrilla forces behind Japanese lines. After the Japanese surrender, Peng commanded the 1st Chinese Army until the communists won the revolution in 1949.
In 1950, Peng led the 310,000-strong People's Volunteer Army in its intervention in the Korean War. Praised for his spectacular first offensive against General Douglas MacArthur's UN forces, Peng later lost prestige when Chinese attacks proved less successful. Peng nevertheless retained command of Chinese forces in Korea until the war's end.
After the war, Peng was Defence minister until he was arrested during the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s. He was placed under house arrest, tortured and sometimes publicly beaten at rallies designed to humiliate him. Peng died in 1974 at age 76.
Premier Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili) (18 December 1878 to 5 March 1953) was general secretary of the Soviet Union's Communist Party from 1922 to 1953 and Soviet premier from 1941 to 1953. He allied with the US against Hitler's Germany during World War II.
At the 1945 Yalta Conference, Stalin readily agreed to temporarily split Korea into north and south along the 38th parallel. However, he soon fell out with the US and the United Kingdom (UK) over other aspects of the postwar political settlement. This started the Cold War.
Before the Soviets developed their own atomic weapons in 1949, Stalin was reluctant to risk a war with the US by supporting a North Korean invasion of South Korea. He was further encouraged in 1949 by the communist Chinese victory in their civil war with the nationalists. He now had a powerful ally in the North Asia region.
Stalin met Kim Il-sung in Moscow in late 1949 and agreed to provide technical and financial aid for the North Korean invasion. Covertly, he also provided Soviet military personnel, 282 of whom were killed in the Korean War.
After the tide of events turned with the UN landing at Inchon, Stalin distanced himself from the war, although he opposed any peace settlement. Stalin's death in 1953, at age 74, removed a major obstacle to ending the Korean War.
Anti-communist leaders and their policies
The origin of the Korean War, its course and outcome, can all be traced to the policies of the leaders and the strategy of the generals ...
President Syngman Rhee
Syngman Rhee (born Rhee Syngryong) (26 March 1875 to 19 July 1965) was the first president of the Republic of Korea, serving from 1948 to 1960.
In his youth, Rhee was arrested for political activity against the occupying Japanese. After his release, he spent a long period of exile in the US.
When Rhee returned to Korea, he was relatively unknown. His selection as the presidential candidate was part of the UN's efforts to establish stable economic and political arrangements in Korea.
Although backed by the US, he remained deeply resentful that the US prioritised economic assistance to Japan over Korea. Rhee was also a strong anti-communist who regarded communism as another kind of colonisation, similar to that which he had experienced under the Japanese. Like Kim Il-sung, Rhee was committed to a unified Korea.
His presidency was marked by internal political conflict in the south between the end of World War II and the Korean War. Rhee was accused of being a puppet of the US in the Korean War, just as Kim Il-sung was seen as the Soviet pawn. Ultimately, Rhee's hopes of unifying Korea were dashed.
After a postwar period of unpopular rule, he resigned as president and was exiled to Hawaii. He died there in 1965, at age 90, without returning to South Korea.
General Douglas MacArthur
Douglas MacArthur (26 January 1880 to 5 April 1964) had a strong personality. He was a forthright speaker with a very successful military career. MacArthur represented the ultimate soldier-warrior.
After achieving renown in both world wars, MacArthur was appointed Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers to accept Japan's formal surrender and demilitarise the country.
When the Korean War started, MacArthur was appointed Commander of UN forces (UNC, or United Nations Command) in Korea.
Against advice, MacArthur made a bold amphibious landing at Inchon deep in the rear of the North Korean Army, then pinning other UN forces in the Pusan Perimeter. His prestige, high after the action at Inchon, suffered a setback when he failed to foresee the effect of Chinese intervention in the war. This same intervention led President Truman to decide that a complete victory in Korea was impossible and that a negotiated peace was the best that could be hoped for.
MacArthur criticised this peace-negotiation policy, writing that 'There is no substitute for victory.' When someone leaked his views to the media, Truman sacked MacArthur on 10 April 1951, and General Matthew Ridgway replaced him.
MacArthur retired from the military and briefly considered running for president. He served as an advisor to presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy. MacArthur died in 1964 at age 84.
Prime Minister Robert Menzies
Robert Menzies (20 December 1894 to 15 May 1978) was elected to the federal Parliament in 1934, where he quickly made his mark. In 1939, he became prime minister but was forced to resign in 1941. Menzies became prime minister again in 1949. His second term of office was marked by economic prosperity, postwar European immigration and anti-communist policies. Despite his initial opposition to committing Australian military forces to Korea, Menzies accepted the necessity. Menzies was in office for 18 years. He voluntarily retired as prime minister in 1966 and became chancellor of the University of Melbourne. Sir Robert Menzies died in 1978 at age 83.
President Harry Truman
Harry Truman (8 May 1884 to 26 December 1972) was the president of the US from 1945 to 1953. Before entering politics, Truman was a farmer and storekeeper and served as an artillery captain in the US Army during World War I. He was elected to the Senate in 1934. During World War II, he headed the Senate War Investigating Committee. As vice president under Franklin D Roosevelt, Truman became president after Roosevelt's death in April 1945.
The 1948 'Truman Doctrine' was implemented to contain the spread of communism. When the Korean War began, Truman secured UN approval and committed the US to prevent North Korea from occupying South Korea.
Truman's management of the Korean War was characterised by his determination to defeat communist aggression, but also to prevent the war from evolving into a major war between the world's communist and non-communist powers. He died in 1972 at age 88.
Start of the war
North Korea, under Kim Il-sung, had been secretly preparing to invade South Korea for several years ...
The Soviet Union (USSR) supplied weaponry, trained the North Korean armed forces, and its experienced WWII generals devised the invasion plan.
When the Chinese communists under Mao Zedong won their war with the nationalists in 1949, Mao could also assist North Korea. He sent back 20,000 Koreans who fought with the Chinese communists.
Joseph Stalin was at first reluctant to support Kim's proposed invasion because he feared a major war with the US might be the outcome.
By early 1950, Stalin changed his opinion, partly because the USSR had successfully tested its first atomic bomb in 1949. This made the US more cautious in responding to any USSR military move. Stalin also had reason to believe the US would not support South Korea if North Korea invaded.
In January 1950, the US secretary of state Dean Acheson implied in a speech that South Korea was not a vital area of interest to the US. In addition, the US House of Representatives rejected a bill to send financial aid to the south. Although the bill was passed a month later, this suggested to Stalin that the US did not care much about Korea and would stand aside if the north invaded the south.
In April 1950 Kim Il-sung visited Moscow, and Stalin finally agreed to support an invasion. The plan was to take all of South Korea in three weeks, before American intervention, should it happen, could be organised.
In mid-June, North Korean units were secretly moved into position close to the 38th parallel while North Korea's insurgents operating deep in South Korea intensified their activity. To counter the insurgents, the South had to maintain a portion of its fighting troops far from the border. On 25 June, at 4:40 am, the North Korean assault began.
Korea, October 1950. A US Army soldier (right) and two Australians of 3RAR carry out security checks on loads carried by Korean refugees. At left, two boys stand beside a wagon laden with household goods, while at rear, two US Army soldiers sit on the turret of a Sherman M4A3 medium tank. These tanks often supported 3RAR in action. Donor Ian Robertson. [AWM P01813.633]
Communist advance to Pusan
At 0400 on 25 June 1950 130,000 North Korean (KPA) soldiers supported by 200 tanks, SU76 assault guns and 600 artillery guns, crossed the 38th parallel into South Korea ...
The KPA's objective was to destroy the South Korean (ROK) army, capture Seoul and 'liberate' South Korea. In response to the invasion, some ROK units, such as the 17th Regiment, the 6th Division and the 8th Division, put up determined resistance. A sea-borne KPA commando raid on the port of Pusan was destroyed. In contrast, ROK units defending Seoul were squandered in futile piecemeal attacks against much stronger KPA forces, with many losing over half their strength.
On 27 June Seoul was evacuated amidst scenes of chaos, and soon thereafter the first KPA units entered the city. Despite at times fanatical resistance from improvised ROK units, the KPA offensive could not be halted. UN airpower (including 77 Squadron RAAF) intervened quickly, though it would take time to reach its full potential. Desperate to support the beleaguered South Koreans, the US scratched together a force from its garrison soldiers in Japan, Okinawa and Hawaii. The first of these to engage the KPA was a 540-man battle group called Task Force Smith, which, on 5 July at Osan south of Seoul, was driven back in confusion and suffered heavy losses.
While ROK units continued to retreat and resist, more US troops were sent into combat. At Kum River on 14 to 16 July, the US 34th Regiment, which had already suffered one defeat, was forced into disorderly retreat, and the US 19th Regiment was shattered. At Taejon between 19 and 21 July, the understrength US 24th Division was also routed by KPA attacks. The next reinforcement to arrive through Pusan, the KPA objective, was the US 1st Cavalry Division, which also could not halt the KPA.
On 25 July, a battalion of the US 25th Regiment was destroyed in an ambush.
Elsewhere, US and ROK forces did better. The US 27th Regiment inflicted heavy losses on the KPA, and ROK 23rd Regiment, with UN air and naval support, defeated the 5th KPA Division assault on Pusan from the north. These actions helped hold the UN defence line.
Four weeks after the war began, Pusan, in the south-eastern corner of the country, remained the only part of South Korea that had not fallen to the communists.
Educational activities
Map of the Korean War
For this exercise, you will need an atlas or digital map, this downloadable map and coloured pencils
Instructions
- Using an atlas, first write the names of all 5 countries in the middle of each country. Communist: China, the Soviet Union (now called Russia), North Korea. Anti-communist: South Korea and Japan.
- Now lightly colour in red a band around the borders of each of the 3 communist countries. In blue, do the same for the anti-communist countries that supported the United Nations (UN).
- Using your atlas, mark on the map the following 11 places: Yellow Sea, Korea Strait, Sea of Japan*, Pyongyang (the capital of North Korea), Seoul (the capital of South Korea), Inchon and Pusan (now called Busan) – other important cities in Korea (leave a gap between Inchon and Seoul), Iwakuni – an Australian base in Japan, Sasebo, also in Japan (the main UN navy base), Shenyang (the main Chinese base for the Korean War) and Vladivostok (the main Russian base for the Korean War).
Now, using one colour (not blue or red) for communist events or places of importance and another colour for UN places or events, write the numbers below next to each arrow or dot you make on the map.
- Imagine, but do not draw, a line from Inchon to the easternmost end of the border between North and South Korea. Halfway along this line, make a dot and write the word Kapyong (now known as Gapyeong). This was the scene of the Battle of Kapyong, one of Australia's most significant actions during the war.
- Halfway between Inchon and Seoul, make a dot and write the word Kimpo. This was the Royal Australian Air Force airfield during the Korean War.
- Anywhere just off the coast of North Korea in the Yellow Sea and in the Sea of Japan, draw a simple outline of a ship in each sea. The Royal Australian Navy patrolled these waters to prevent North Korea's allies from supplying North Korea by sea.
- Draw an arrow by land from Shenyang to Pyongyang. This was the way China sent troops and supplies to help North Korea.
- Draw an arrow by land from Vladivostok to Pyongyang. This was the way the Soviet Union sent supplies to help North Korea.
- Draw an arrow from Sasebo to Pusan. This was the route by which most UN troops and supplies came to Korea from their bases in Japan.
- Draw a quarter of a circle in the bottom right-hand corner of Korea. The quarter circle should be about 60 km from Pusan at all points. Use your atlas to calculate this. The area within the quarter circle was known as the Pusan Perimeter. The first North Korean attack on South Korea pushed the South Koreans and the United Nations troops all the way back to here.
- Draw an arrow by sea from Sasebo through the Yellow Sea to Inchon. When the North Koreans were attacking the UN at the Pusan Perimeter, the UN landed a large force behind them at Inchon to cut them off.
- Draw a straight arrow from Seoul to Iwakuni. This is the air route Australian nurses flew in Australian transport aircraft to bring wounded soldiers from the battlefront to hospital in Japan.
* The Australian Government and the Department of Veterans’ Affairs do not take a position on whether the body of water between Japan and the Republic of Korea should be referred to as the ‘Sea of Japan’ or the ‘East Sea’.
Political background to the Korean War
The course and cause of the Korean War was mainly determined by nations and leaders outside of Korea. Use this website and other credible sources to answer the following questions about the politics of the war.
- What was the Cold War?
- How was the Cold War connected to the Korean War?
- Who were the anti-communist leaders, and which one was the most powerful?
- Who were the communist leaders, and which one was the most powerful?
- What is the connection between the Korean War and nuclear weapons?
- How did North Korea's allies help it during the Korean War?
- Why did Australia become involved in the Korean War?
- Which leader did most to prolong the war and why?