Korean War Causes

The war on Korean pennisula never really ended, causing two Koreas divided in 1953, millions Koreans died as well thousands of families seperated, and the most dangerous boundary in the world created. Scholars have discussed about many issues about the Korean War, but the most dominant debate has focused on whether the conflict had origninated from international or domestic origins. The very first cause that contributed to the outbreak of the war started from the collapse of the Japanese colonialization at the end of the World War II. Korea was different from China and Manchuria or the other Western colonies occupied by Japan, it did not have a feudal regime or a native government, which were supposed to usurp power after liberation. As

The idea was not supported by Korean people, because Koreans already socially split themselves into rival categories with contradicting leaders: Kim Il-Sung from North who committed communism and had fought in anti-Japanese guerilla armies in China and Syng-Man Rhee from South who was educated in the United States and the president of Korean Provisional Government in exile. While the US persuaded the United Nations to hold responsibility in Korea and the US military remained to protect the South until 1948, in the North, Kim Il-Sung nourished his control over the Communist party and its military power with the assistance from the Soviet Union. On June 25, 1950, with techinical assitance and number of Soviet specialists, North Korean army forces poured across the 38th parrallel and quickly seized Seoul after three days. This invasion surprised both South Korea and the US forced stationed there and was refered as the first military action during the Cold War. The US immediately urged the United States Security Council to aid the South Korea. Although the American intervention helped South Korean

It was no longer a fight between North and South Korea, it was about the Cold War, in which both USSR and the US wanted to gain the dominant power. During the heat of the Cold War, USSR just tested their own atomic bomb, ending the US's monopoly in nuclear weapons. President Truman who believed profoundly in the Domino theory was afraid of the communism expansion, that was why Truman decided to contain USSR by intervening in Korea and not losing any other country to communinst's rule. In reply to that, Stalin gave Kim an approval to invade the South, however, he only made the firm permission about the invasion when USSR successfully acquisited an atomic bomb, hence the US was not a big threat anymore. Stalin denied and agreed with Kim due to very paricular and good reasons at that time. And as for the People's Republic of China, even though at that time, China was newly established and its domestic as well as economic situation was not in good condition to carry any foreign intervention, it was still determined to send troops to assist North Korean for some reasons: to deal with the security concerns of the US invasion, to encounter against anti-Communist forces and to consolidate the authority of Communist Party of