The Korean War

In 25 June 1950, the communist North Korean army, supplied by China and the Soviet Union, crossed the 38th parallel and invaded South Korea.

In 1948, the Republic of Korea and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea were established, practically they were divided two different nations in Korean peninsula. Kim Il-sung, the leader of the North Korea, wanted to reunify with the use of armed force even before the two nations were established, so China and Soviet's military assistance was precondition.

In 29th June 1949, U.S. Army completed evacuation except the military advisory group, and that gave Kim ill-sung the crucial motivation to start a war. 

The Korean War, started by a surprise attack of North Korea in 25th June 1950, showed a preponderance of North Korea.

In September 1950, the Operation Chromite turned the tide of the war, but the UN forces' going north cross the 38th parallel caused Chinese auxiliary troops took a part in the Korean war.

In July 1953, even though, Syngman Rhee, the first Korean president, opposed a ceasefire, military armistice agreement was sign by UN forces, China and North Korea, finally the Korean War which continued about 3years was ended.

Attempts to reunification

 Following the outbreak of the Korean War, there were several attempts to reunification. A former president Kim Dae-jung who won a Nobel prize for peace is remebered the president put most efforts to achieve reunification by Korean people. He tried to

References

Kallie Szczepanski (n.d.). The Joseon Dynasty in Korea. Retrieved 24 August 2012 from http://asianhistory.about.com/od/southkorea/p/JoseonDynasty.htm
 - This provides information about the Joseon dynasty. It does not give whole history of Joseon, but mentioned some major events of the dynasty. It described about circumstance before the Joseon dynasty was established, the first king of the dynasty and some events like the King sejong invented Korea script. Main reason that I linked this article is this includes the history of Japanese invasions. It might help understand about the history before the Japanese colonial era.

National Museum of the U.S air force (2011). "FAT MAN" Atomic bomb and "LITTLE BOY" Atomic bomb. Retrieved 24 August 2012 from http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/search/generalsearch.asp?q=fat+man&site=Museum and http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=1026
 - Both of these two articles show brief information about two atomic bombs. When and where those were dropped and how it delivered. At the same time, it described about the power of those bombs, for instance, in article of "Little boy", it says "it detonated at an altitude of 1,800 feet over Hiroshima".

Korea Award (2009). Resistance Against Japan's Policy of Assimilation. Retrieved 24 August 2012 from http://www.koreaaward.com/kor/233
 - This article mainly describes about Korean resistance in Japanese colonial era. It explains reason why Japan needed colonies and what they needed from their colonies at the first. And then, it shows relatively detailed description of Korean people's lives under Japanese rein. Lastly, it states activities and some members of Korean resistance.

Tore Frängsmyr [The Novel Foundation] (2001) Novel peace prize 2000 Kim Dae-jung. Retrieved 27 September from http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2000/dae-jung-bio.html

 - Achievement of a former president Kim dae-jung

Spartacus Educational (n.d.). Kim Il sung. Retrived 28 September from http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/COLDsung.htm

Micheal Hickey (2011). The Korean War : An Overview. Retrived 30 September from http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/coldwar/korea_hickey_01.shtml

Military History Magazine (2006). Korean War : Operation Chromite. Retrived 30 September from http://www.historynet.com/korean-war-operation-chromite.htm

The NewYork Times  http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/northkorea/index.html

The Korea Herald
http://view.koreaherald.com/kh/list.php?ct=020104000000

The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/

Historical background & Introduction

Introduction 

 Korea is the only divided nation in the world. When I was a child, West Germany and East Germany reunified, so people said that someday we will too and I had no idea this divided history remains this long at that time. I was too little to understand situation between two Koreas. Even though I am a Korean, since someday I didn't care about North Korea anymore and neither did most young people in Korea. As time goes by, the possibility of reunification is getting slender. And I want to treat about this, why and how they were divided and what happened in the past, so we can predict what is going to happen in the Korean peninsula in the future.



          

Japanese colonial era and national division

In the Korean peninsula, there are two countries, North Korea and South Korea, which used be the one country, Joseon.


 In 1910, Joseon was forced to become a Japanese colony. Since that, the fact that Korean resistance didn't have a pivot to against Japan caused their every attempts to recover the sovereignty of the Korea had to be failed.

 In 15th August 1945, the Korea became an independent country. However, because becoming independent was not achieved by itself, what happened after becoming independent seemed paying the penalty for this.

 In July 1945, just before the World War 2 finished, U.S.A, Soviet and Britain held a top-level meeting in Potsdam.  They made a trusteeship plan to Korea. Korea territory was divided by a new boundary, it was called 38th parallel.



 In 8th August 1945, first atomic bomb "Little boy" was dropped on Hiroshima, at the same time, in Manchuria, The soviet union's southward movement started with a declaration war against on Japan.

 In 9th August 1945, second atomic bomb 'Fat Man'  was dropped on Nagasaki, the Japanese emperor declared unconditional surrender in the day after this.



 In 10th August 1946, the U.S.A made a draft about surrendering, the Japanese force which was in the Chinese territory surrendered to China, the force which was engaging in the battle with Soviet force surrendered to Soviet, and the forces in the Japanese territory surrendered to U.S.A.

 Lastly, In Korean territory, the force in north of 38th parallel was decided to surrender to Soviet, the force in south of 38th parallel was decided to surrender to U.S.A. And that was the beginning of division of Korean territory.