korean war

1. Korean War: from which
perspective?

2. What do you know about
Korean War

4. Picture by U.S. soldier, South Korea, 1951

6. June 25, 1950
Kim Il Sung’s responsibility
Southern communists’ advice (Pak
Hŏnyŏng)
Under NK occupation:
Restoration of people’s committees
Land reform
A “people’s war”

7. Who started the war?
North Korea: 121000 soldiers,
artillery 600, air force 310
South Korea: 69000 soldiers,
artillery 129, air force 30
June 25, 1950 started
Seoul was taken in three days
China and Soviet was not
informed
By July 31, NK controlled 97%

9. UN troops
16 countries sent troops (5 more sending medical
personnel)
U.S.A. 302,483
Great Britain 14,198
Canada 6,146
Turkey 5,455
Australia 2,2,82
Thai 2,274
Philippines 1,496
New Zealand 1,389
Why didn’t Soviet use their veto power?
Ethiopia 1,271
Greece 1,263
South Africa 1,255
France 1,185
Colombia 1,068
Belgium 900
Netherlands 819
Luxemburg 48

11. From containment to rollback
Incheon landing, mid-Sept.
1950
9.28 recaptured Seoul
Crossing the 38th parallel
(9.30)
Occupation of the north:
captured Pyongyang by
mid-October
atrocities by NK troops
in retreat

12. Chinese entry
into the war
Why?
What role did Soviet play?
Chinese People Volunteer
army
About 200,000
General Peng

14. C-NK offense began on Nov. 27, 1950
1950.12.6. NK recaptured Pyongyang
1951.1.4. Seoul fell again
the panic in Washington
contemplation on using A-bombs
By spring 1951 fighting stabilized
1951. 4. 11. Truman Sacks General MacArthur
http://www.history.com/topics/korean-
war/videos#sherman-pratt-survives-the-korean-
war
file:///Users/xduan/Desktop/Korean_war_1950-

15. Negotiations
 Started 1951. 7
 Failed on the decision of where the border line
should be
 Confrontation for two years
 Heavy bombing on NK
 Secret involvement of Soviet air force
 Nuclear threats

16. Picasso, Massacre in Korea (1961)

19. Mass movement of people between NK and SK:
Political impact on SK:
Anti-communism
the rise of the military
Political impact on NK:
the rise of political monopoly
Further isolated
Role of the Korean War for the economic recovery of Japan
Impacts of the Korean War

20. • On Moodle, you can find several links to primary sources
on Korea war.
• Pick 2 pieces of primary sources that interest your group,
the two information needs to be interrelated in some ways
• Talk about: what information you can get from the two
sources, how do they response to each other? What
research question can you ask on the primary sources?
• Be ready to share with the class
Group activity: primary
sources reading

23. SK statistics:
SK military 147,000 killed; 131,000 missing
civilians 245,000 killed; 330,000 missing
total 853,000 killed or missing/ about 3 million
casualties
NK statistics:
NK military 294,000 killed; 91,000 missing
civilians 406,000 killed; 680,000 missing
total 1.47 million killed or missing
Chinese: 184,128 death; 21,836 missing; 715,872 injured
U.S.: 54,246 soldiers died (33,625 in action);
115,000 injured; 1,500 missing
Other nations: 3,194 death
Casualties