The Korean Peninsula

The division of Korea led North Korea led North Korea to invade South Korea to obtain a united, undivided Korea. From 1905 to 1945 the Korea Peninsula was under Japanese control.

It should be noted that North Korea’s communist ally and veto holder, the Soviet Union, was absent from this meeting in protest of the communist China’s exclusion from the Security Council. A United Nations defense force led by the United States, came to the of South Korea and in a rapid counter-offensive, they were able to push the North Koreans back past the 38th parallel close to Yalu River along the border with China. Warnings from Communist China that it would intervene should UN forces push past the 38th parallel were ignored by UN Commanders and true to their word, the Chinese Intervened on behalf of the North pushing UN and ROK forces back to the 38th parallel. In 1953, the war ended with an armistice that restored the border between the Koreas near the 38th Parallel and created the Korean Demilitarized Zone, a 4 Km wide buffer zone between the two Koreas (Edwards 2005).

The division of Korea into South Korea and North Korea was the result of the 1945 Allied victory in World War II, leaving the countries in disagreement with a 2.5 mile gap separating the countries. Following this, the Korean War occurred between North and South Korea, in which a United Nations force led by the United States of America fought for the South, and China fought for the North, making the USA an instant enemy of North Korea. In July 1953, the Korean War came to an end.

In June 1950, 90,000 soldiers from the communist Korean People’s Army crossed the 38th Parallel into South Korea. The most important reason for a military response from the US was the document NSC 68, which stated that they must meet communism wherever it arises. Due to this document, it was the US assumption that the invasion on South Korea was not a Civil War due to the events in Korea, and the permanent divide in 1948. However, there was also US domestic policies, and Truman’s fear of being accused of being ‘soft on communism,’ as well as the US based organisation, the UN, which was a new institution, which Truman had to support. Furthermore, containment in Europe and Asia and the

Secondly all communications between North and South will be cut off, and the South Korean ships and airliners be banned from passing through North Korean territorial waters and airspace. According to Yonhap news official said in a statement “This is a deliberate provocation aimed to spark off another military conflict in the West Sea of Korea and thus push to a war phase the present north-south relations”.

The Soviet-supported North Korea tried to reunite the US-controlled South Korea by force. The Korean War was called a war but wasn’t actually a “war” because war was never declared by either side, so it was actually called a United Nation police action. North Korea attacked South without warning and Harry Truman and the United Nations vowed to defend South Korea (Doc. C). The battle almost pushed

mmunism. After North Korea’s invasion of South Korea, it became evident that South Korea’s survival required outside intervention. The United States was to take action alone, but reconsidered due to the high risk of a Soviet and Chinese response and then referred the issue to the United Nations where member nations were asked to provide assistance to South Korea. Therefore, the Korean war was an international war in which the United States used the United Nations to Further its anti-communist policies due to the fact that communism was democracy’s greatest enemy.

He planned to attack from behind the enemy and destroy their supply line, crushing the North between his troops and the troops in Pusan. The attack took place at Incheon’s harbor where the tides went up to 30ft high so the North would think that it is unlikely to get attacked their. It took place September 15, 1950, starting with bombing the shore and landing at just the right time at high tide caught the North by surprise and they managed to capture Incheon and Seoul. The troops at Pusan pushed, and chased the North back across the 38th parallel, taking over 100,000 soldiers prisoner (Perritano 15).

After the climatic end of WWII, countries across the world were at each other throats, the main two standouts being the Soviet Union in Russia, and the United States. Onsetting the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union had negotiations about unifying Korea, which ultimately failed leading to North Korea being controlled by the communist Soviet Union, and South Korea being a democratic republic being formed by United Nations’ (UN) supervised elections. Years after the division of Korea, North Korea had begun to made advances on South Korea’s border which was seen as a North Korean invasion by the UN, which had the UN and the US being a main force to stop the impending invasion, later having 16 other nations come into the Korean War,

A.North and South Korean agreed to stop fighting and to have a truce(history: July 27). The

MacArthur’s staff drew up plans with three possible locations: Inchon, Kunsan, and Chumunjin. MacArthur favored Inchon over the other locations due to its proximity to

Korea, like Germany, had been occupied by Soviet and United States forces at the end of World War II. Korea was split in half via the 38th parallel after the Japanese Empire fell near the end of the conflict. The soviets occupied the north side of the line and the Americans occupied the south. “By the end of the decade, two new states had formed on the peninsula. In the south, the anti- communist dictator Syngman Rhee (1875-1965) enjoyed the reluctant support of the American

Under Yi Sŏng-Gye’s son King Sejong, considered Korea’s greatest ruler, inventions like the rain gauge, the use of a movable type, and the birth of Korean alphabet called Hangeul, still in use today, surfaced. (Piddock, 27-28) They ruled the entire peninsula for 500 years. Then Korea was annexed by neighbors Japan in 1910. Korea continued to be under Japan until 1945 when it was liberated at the end of World War II. (“North Korea”, Culturegrams) “With the defeat of Japan in 1945, the Allies agreed to divide the Korean Peninsula between the Soviet Union and the United States at the thirty-eighth parallel as a temporary measure.” (Piddock, 30) The Soviet Union received the Northern part of Korea, and the United States the South. “.. Soviet forces closed off northern Korea at the thirty-eighth parallel and placed Korean communists in power there.” Evidently, North Korea was bound to turn communist.

There also have been various reasons why North Korea revealed to us their HEU plan. One theory is that they wanted us to notice them. They did not want us to disengage and isolate from them.

The Unification of the Korean peninsula could come in two distinct forms, the first, unification under Communist North Korean rule, which would be preferable to China, and the North Korean regime. The second, naturally favored by the United States is unification under ROK control. Echoing the sentiment of Zhe Feng, A professor at the Peking University, who asserted that the “1961 mutual assistance treaty between China and North Korea had become irrelevant—a dead letter—with the end of the Cold War because China had already abandoned the North.” The opinion of South Korea’s then vice foreign minister, Chun Yung-woo, who reportedly stated, “China would be comfortable with a reunified Korea controlled by Seoul and anchored to the United States in a ‘benign alliance.’”