Korean War

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Korean War

The Korean War was the first war in which the United Nations played a major role in. It was also part of the cold war between the US and Soviet Union. One of the deadliest war in history, it took many lives in such a short span of time of three years. Even after all these deaths, the conflict isn't completely resolved in Korea. There are still American troops stationed in South Korea, in case the Communists decide to take aggressive action.

In WW II, Japan had gained control in Korea. At the end, when Japan was defeated by the Allies, the US and Soviet forces moved in Korea . Korea was divided to serve as the purpose to move the Japanese troops out. The line which was at the 38th parallel divided the country in about half. The Soviet forces were responsible for the north and the US for the south part of Korea. Later, this partition was made permanent. In 1947, the UN declared for elections to be held in all of Korea to decide one government for the country. However, North Korea refused to take part in the elections and didn't allow it. So on May 10, 1948, South Korea voted for a national assembly which set up the Republic of Korea. On September 9, North Korea set up the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. North and South Korea claimed the whole country and their troops fought several times between 1948-1950. The US removed it's troops from South Korea in 1949. It also said that Korea was outside of US defense line. North Korea saw it's chance for military action to take over South Korea.

In June 1950, North Korea surprised South Korea with an attack. At the time, the North Korean Army had 135,000 soldiers, most of them veterans of WW II. It also had airplanes, tanks, and artillery that outnumbered South Korea by three to one. On the other hand, South Korea had 65,000 combat troops who had small arms and light artillery. On the day the war began, the UN Security Council issued a resolution demanding the Communist retreat back to the 38th parallel. The Soviet Union was a permanent member of the Security Council. However, it didn't go to the meeting because it had been boycotting the Council meetings. This was because the Council was denying the Communist Chinese government. If the Soviet Union had been there, it could have voted against the resolution or deliver a veto. North Korea chose to disregard the resolution. On ...

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...raged the Soviets to go ahead with the peace talks. Finally on March 28, the Communists agreed to exchange sick and injured prisoners. Between April and May, 684 sick and injured prisoners were received for the return of 6,670 communist prisoners. Later, on April 26, the communists agreed with voluntary repatriation. An armistice was signed on July 27, 1953. In 1954, Soviet and UN nations met in Switzerland to decide a permanent peace plan. This never happened because questions still remained about the unification of Korea.

There were many outcomes to this war; however, they weren't very good. The US spent $67 billion on the war. Korea was heavily damaged and their property damages were more than one billion dollars. About one million Korean civilians were killed. This doesn't even include the soldiers who gave up their lives. There were about 580,000 UN and South Korean troops killed and 1,600,000 Communists were killed. After all these deaths, Korea ended up being the way it was when the war started. One outcome remains to be decided and dealt with. It's if North and South Korea will ever reach peace because even today American troops are stationed there, just in case.

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