On this day in 1950, the northern Korean People’s Army crossed the 38th parallel in an offensive to crush the Republic of Korea, an imperialist puppet state established by the U.S., marking the beginning of the Korean War.

the Korean War of 1950-53 was fought between two states that both lay claim to all of the Korean Peninsula, the northern Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) and the southern Republic of Korea (ROK).

The ROK had been established by the occupying U.S. military government in 1948. In 1945, the same military government had banned the left-leaning People’s Republic of Korea, which was based on a network of worker’s committees whose program consisted of pro-labor reforms, such as the abolition of child labor and the eight hour day.

On June 25th, 1950, the DPRK People’s Army crossed the 38th Parallel into ROK territory, intending to crush the state of U.S.-collaborationists. Two days later, the United Nations Security Council, then boycotted by the Soviet Union for not acknowledging the People’s Republic of China (PRC), recommended member states provide military assistance to the Republic of Korea.

The conflict became a proxy war between global superpowers, with the DPRK supported by the Soviet Union and PRC and the ROK supported by the U.S. On July 27th, 1953 the Korean Armistice Agreement was signed, creating the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) to separate North and South Korea. Despite this, no peace treaty was ever signed and the two governments remain at war to this day.

The Korean War was among the most destructive conflicts of the modern era, with approximately 3 million war fatalities, 10% of the total Korean population, a larger proportional civilian death toll than both World War II and the Vietnam War according to historian Charles Armstrong.

The U.S. led a massive, scorched earth bombing campaign against North Korea, making North Korea one of the most heavily bombed countries in human history. Armstrong writes “U.S. planes dropped 635,000 tons of bombs on Korea - that is, essentially on North Korea - including 32,557 tons of napalm, compared to 503,000 tons of bombs dropped in the entire Pacific theatre of World War II. It incurred the destruction of virtually all of Korea’s major cities.”

This campaign of destruction was essential to the success of U.S. intervention: American General Matthew Ridgway stated that, except for air power, “the war would have been over in 60 days with all Korea in Communist hands”.

The Battle At Lake Changjin

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