The Korean War

Korea, freed from Japan in 1945, was divided along the 38th parallel into Soviet and American zones, and in 1948 a state arose in each. On 25 June 1950 the forces of the North cross the parallel and within a month hold almost the whole peninsula. The UN Security Council—in the absence of the Soviet representative—sends the troops of sixteen countries under American command; the landing at Inchon in September turns the war, and by November the UN forces stand on the Yalu river, at the border of China. Then hundreds of thousands of Chinese "volunteers" enter Korea and throw them back south of Seoul. From the summer of 1951 the front stands at the same 38th parallel, and talks over prisoners drag on for two years; on 27 July 1953 an armistice is signed—there is no peace treaty to this day. Millions died, most of them civilians. It is the first war of the Cold War and the first war under the UN flag—the same UN that three years earlier had voted on the partition of Palestine.