This article may be too long to read and navigate comfortably. When this tag was added, its readable prose size was 15,000 words. Consider splitting content into sub-articles, condensing it, or adding subheadings. Please discuss this issue on the article's talk page.(June 2023)
When World War II ended, Korea, which had been a Japanese colony for 35 years, was liberated and then divided by the Soviet Union and US at the 38th parallel into two occupation zones.[e] After political attempts for an independent and unified Korea stalled, each zone formed its own government in 1948. The north was led by Kim Il Sung in Pyongyang, while the south by Syngman Rhee in Seoul. Both claimed to be the sole legitimate government of all Korea and engaged in limited battles along the border.[35][36][37]
After Seoul's persecution of communists, Pyongyang initiated an invasion and North Korean troops crossed the 38th parallel on 25 June 1950.[38][39] In the absence of the Soviet Union,[d] the United Nations Security Councildenounced the attack and recommended countries to repel the North Korean army (KPA), under the United Nations Command.[41] UN forces comprised 21 countries, with the US providing around 90% of military personnel.[42][43]
The combat ended on 27 July 1953 when the Korean Armistice Agreement was signed, allowing the exchange of prisoners and the creation of the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). The conflict displaced millions of people, inflicting 3 million fatalities and a larger proportion of civilian deaths than World War II or the Vietnam War. Alleged war crimes include the killing of suspected communists by Seoul and the torture and starvation of prisoners of war by the North Koreans.[citation needed] North Korea became one of the most heavily bombed countries in history.[44] Virtually all of Korea's major cities were destroyed.[45] No peace treaty was ever signed, making this a frozen conflict.[46][47]
^Kocsis, Piroska (2005). "Magyar orvosok Koreában (1950–1957)" [Hungarian physicians in Korea (1950–1957)]. ArchivNet: XX. századi történeti források (in Hungarian). Budapest: Magyar Országos Levéltár. Archived from the original on 10 May 2017. Retrieved 22 November 2016.
^Birtle, Andrew J. (2000). The Korean War: Years of Stalemate. U.S. Army Center of Military History. p. 34. Archived from the original on 24 July 2019. Retrieved 21 August 2021.
^Millett, Allan Reed, ed. (2001). The Korean War, Volume 3. Korea Institute of Military History. U of Nebraska Press. p. 692. ISBN978-0803277960. Retrieved 16 February 2013. Total Strength 602,902 troops
^ abcdefgUSFK Public Affairs Office. "USFK United Nations Command". United States Forces Korea. United States Department of Defense. Archived from the original on 11 July 2016. Retrieved 29 July 2016. Republic of Korea – 590,911 Colombia – 1,068 United States – 302,483 Belgium – 900 United Kingdom – 14,198 South Africa – 826 Canada – 6,146 Netherlands – 819 Turkey – 5,453 Luxembourg – 44 Australia – 2,282 Philippines – 1,496 New Zealand – 1,385 Thailand – 1,204[clarification needed] Ethiopia – 1,271 Greece – 1,263 France – 1,119
"UK-Korea Relations". British Embassy Pyongyang. Foreign and Commonwealth Office. 9 February 2012. Retrieved 16 February 2013. When war came to Korea in June 1950, Britain was second only to the United States in the contribution it made to the UN effort in Korea. 87,000 British troops took part in the Korean conflict, and over 1,000 British servicemen lost their lives[permanent dead link]
Jack D. Walker. "A Brief Account of the Korean War". Information. Republic of Korea Ministry of National Defense Institute for Military History. Archived from the original on 19 May 2020. Retrieved 17 February 2013. Other countries to furnish combat troops, with their peak strength, were: United States (302,483), United Kingdom (14,198), Canada (6,146), Turkey (5,455), Australia (2,282), Thailand (2,274), Philippines (1,496), New Zealand (1,389), France (1,185), Colombia (1,068), Ethiopia (1,271), Greece (1,263), Belgium (900), Netherlands (819), Republic of South Africa (826), Luxembourg (52)
^Ramachandran, D. p (19 March 2017). "The doctor-heroes of war". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 22 January 2020. Retrieved 8 May 2019 – via www.thehindu.com.
^Shrader, Charles R. (1995). Communist Logistics in the Korean War. Issue 160 of Contributions in Military Studies. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 90. ISBN978-0313295096. Retrieved 17 February 2013. NKPA strength peaked in October 1952 at 266,600 men in eighteen divisions and six independent brigades.
^Xiaobing, Li (2009). A History of the Modern Chinese Army Lexington: University Press of Kentucky. p. 105: "By December 1952, the Chinese forces in Korea had reached a record high of 1.45 million men, including fifty-nine infantry divisions, ten artillery divisions, five antiaircraft divisions, and seven tank regiments. CPVF numbers remained stable until the armistice agreement was signed in July 1953."
^ abKolb, Richard K. (1999). "In Korea we whipped the Russian Air Force". VFW Magazine. 86 (11). Retrieved 17 February 2013. Soviet involvement in the Korean War was on a large scale. During the war, 72,000 Soviet troops (among them 5,000 pilots) served along the Yalu River in Manchuria. At least 12 air divisions rotated through. A peak strength of 26,000 men was reached in 1952.[permanent dead link]
^Cite error: The named reference xu was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Cite error: The named reference Cumings p. 35 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Cite error: The named reference Lewy pp. 450-453 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^"The creation of an independent South Korea became UN policy in early 1948. Southern communists opposed this, and by autumn partisan warfare had spread throughout Korean provinces below the 38th parallel. The newly formed Republic of Korea Army (ROKA) in the south and the North Korean border constabulary as well as the Korean People's Army (KPA) in the north engaged in a limited border war." Millett, Allan R. "Korean War". Encyclopædia Britannica. Archived from the original on 24 April 2016. Retrieved 21 April 2016.
^ abCite error: The named reference Devine 2007 819-821 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Lee, Steven Hugh (14 June 2014). "The Korean War in History and Historiography". The Journal of American-East Asian Relations. 21 (2): 185–206. doi:10.1163/18765610-02102010. Historian Kim Hakjoon argues that the many telegrams that Moscow and P'yǒngyang exchanged from January to June 1950, and, more important, the secret meetings between Stalin and Kim [Il Sung] in Moscow in April and Mao and Kim in Beijing during May, confirmed that the three Communist leaders were responsible for starting the Korean War on the morning of 25 June 1950.
Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).