Korean War

The Korean War was fought between North Korea and South Korea from 1950 to 1953. The war began on 25 June 1950 when North Korea invaded South Korea following clashes along the border and rebellions in South Korea.[36][37][38] North Korea was supported by China and the Soviet Union while South Korea was supported by the United States and allied countries. The fighting ended with an armistice on 27 July 1953.

Korean War
Part of the Cold War and the Korean conflict
Clockwise from top: A column of the U.S. 1st Marine Division's infantry and armor moves through Chinese lines during their breakout from the Chosin Reservoir UN landing at Inchon harbor, starting point of the Battle of Inchon Korean refugees in front of a U.S. M46 Patton tank The Seoul city gate Namdaemun, damaged F-86 Sabre fighter jet
Date 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (de facto) (3 years, 1 month and 2 days) 25 June 1950 – present (de jure) (73 years, 2 months, 3 weeks and 4 days) Location Korean Peninsula, Yellow Sea, Sea of Japan, Korea Strait, China–North Korea border Result Inconclusive Territorial changes Korean Demilitarized Zone established North Korea gains the city of Kaesong, but loses a net total of 3,900 km2 (1,506 sq mi), including the city of Sokcho, to South Korea.[1]
Belligerents
South Korea	North Korea
United Nations[lower-alpha 1]  United States  United Kingdom  Canada  Turkey  Australia  Philippines  New Zealand Thailand  Ethiopia  Greece  France  Colombia  Belgium  South Africa  Netherlands  Luxembourg Medical support:[3]  Sweden  India  Denmark  Norway  Italy[lower-alpha 2][5]  West Germany[6] Other support:  Israel[7]  Taiwan  Japan[8] Pakistan[9]  Uruguay[10]  El Salvador  Spain[11]  Yugoslavia[12]	China  Soviet Union Supported by:  Albania  Bulgaria  Czechoslovakia[13]  East Germany[14]  Hungary[14][15]  Mongolia  Poland  Romania[16]
Commanders and leaders
Syngman Rhee Chung Il-kwon Paik Sun-yup Lee Hyung-geun Shin Sung-mo	Kim Il Sung Kim Tu-bong Pak Hon-yong Choe Yong-gon Kim Chaek †
Trygve Lie Dag Hammarskjöld Harry S. Truman Dwight D. Eisenhower George C. Marshall Robert A. Lovett Douglas MacArthur Matthew Ridgway Mark W. Clark Walton Walker James Van Fleet Clement Attlee Winston Churchill	Mao Zedong Zhou Enlai Peng Dehuai Chen Geng Deng Hua Hong Xuezhi Song Shilun Han Xianchu Joseph Stalin Pavel Zhigarev
Strength
Peak strength: (Combat troops) 602,902[17] 326,863[18] 14,198[19][20] 6,146~8,123[21] 5,455[22] 2,282[19] 2,274[22] 1,496[19] 1,389[22] 1,271[23] 1,263[19][23] 1,185[23] 1,068 [22] 900[19] 826[19] 819[19] 52[22] (Medical support and others) 346[24] 170[22] 120[8] 109[22] 100[22] 72[22] Together: 968,302 Total strength:[25][26] (Combat troops) 1,789,000[27] 1,000,000~1,300,000[28] 56,000 26,791 21,212 17,164 7,420 6,326 5,322 5,100 4,992 3,794 3,518 3,498 3,421 826 100 Medical support and others 1,124 630 627 623 189 120 Together: 2,957,797~3,257,797	Peak strength: (Combat troops) 1,450,000[29][30] 266,600[31] 26,000[32] Together: 1,742,000 Total: 2,970,000[33] 72,000[32]
Casualties and losses
Total civilian deaths: 2–3 million (est.)[34][35] South Koreans: 990,968 total casualties[22] North Koreans: 1,550,000 total casualties (est.)[22]

In 1910, Imperial Japan annexed Korea, where it ruled for 35 years until its surrender at the end of World War II on 15 August 1945.[lower-alpha 3] The United States and the Soviet Union divided Korea along the 38th parallel into two zones of occupation. The Soviets administered the northern zone and the Americans administered the southern zone. In 1948, as a result of Cold War tensions, the occupation zones became two sovereign states. A communist state, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, was established in the north under the totalitarian rule of Kim Il Sung, while a capitalist state, the Republic of Korea, was established in the south under the autocratic leadership of Syngman Rhee. Both governments claimed to be the sole legitimate government of all of Korea, and neither accepted the border as permanent.

After failed attempts of negotiations on unification, North Korean army (Korean People's Army or KPA) forces crossed the border and drove into South Korea on 25 June 1950.[39][40] The United Nations Security Council denounced North Korea's actions as an invasion and authorized the formation of the United Nations Command and the dispatch of forces to Korea[41] to repel it.[42][43] The Soviet Union was boycotting the UN for recognizing Taiwan (Republic of China) as China,[44] and the People's Republic of China was not recognized by the UN, so neither could support their ally North Korea at the Security Council meeting. Twenty-one countries of the United Nations eventually contributed to the UN force, with the United States providing around 90% of the military personnel.[45] After the first two months of war, the South Korean army (ROKA) and hastily dispatched American forces were on the point of defeat, retreating to a small area behind a defensive line known as the Pusan Perimeter. In September 1950, a risky amphibious UN counteroffensive was launched at Incheon, cutting off KPA troops and supply lines in South Korea. Those who escaped envelopment and capture were forced back north. UN forces invaded North Korea in October 1950 and moved rapidly towards the Yalu River—the border with China—but on 19 October 1950, Chinese forces of the People's Volunteer Army (PVA) crossed the Yalu and entered the war.[39] The UN retreated from North Korea after the First Phase Offensive and the Second Phase Offensive. Chinese forces were in South Korea by late December. In these and subsequent battles, Seoul was captured four times, and communist forces were pushed back to positions around the 38th parallel, close to where the war had started. After this, the front stabilized, and the last two years were a war of attrition. The war in the air, however, was never a stalemate. North Korea was subject to a massive U.S. bombing campaign. Jet-powered fighters confronted each other in air-to-air combat for the first time in history, and Soviet pilots covertly flew in defense of their communist allies.

The fighting ended on 27 July 1953 when the Korean Armistice Agreement was signed. The agreement created the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) to separate North and South Korea, and allowed the return of prisoners. However, no peace treaty was ever signed, and the two Koreas are technically still at war, engaged in a frozen conflict.[46][47] In April 2018, the leaders of North and South Korea met at the DMZ[48] and agreed to work toward a treaty to end the Korean War formally.[49] The Korean War was among the most destructive conflicts of the modern era, with approximately 3 million war fatalities and a larger proportional civilian death toll than World War II or the Vietnam War. It resulted in the destruction of virtually all of Korea's major cities, with thousands of massacres committed by both sides—including the mass killing of tens of thousands of suspected communists by the South Korean government, and the torture and starvation of prisoners of war by the North Koreans. North Korea became among the most heavily bombed countries in history.[50] Over the course of the war 1.5 million North Koreans are estimated to have fled North Korea.[51]