Korea After Liberation

1. After Liberation:
Division
1945-1953

3. The South: US occupation
-USA Military Govt.: Korean National Police (1945) - more than 80% from Japanese colonial forces
-Grass-root independent movement: Communists led the resistance against Japan
-People’s Committees: execution of pro-Japanese police & officials, land reform, unification
-Shanghai Provisional Government: Kim Ku (nationalist & conservative)
- Rhee Seung Man elected as president for Republic of Korea(Mar 1948): anti-communist
-> ROK Army: former Japanese forces, right-wing youth groups (those who fled from Northwest)
Kim Sok-won who tracked Kim Il Sung in Manchuria as a Japanese official
-> Collaboration with landlords, capitalists, pro-Japanese bureaucrats and official

4. Leftist Resistance
-South Korean Labor Party: independent of Soviet or North influence, guerrilla warfare in
villages, strong in Southwest and Southeast
-Jeju Island, controlled by native people’s committee, protested the separate election,
suppressed by right-wing police of mainlanders, more than 27,000 out of the island population
300,000 died (1948)
-Yosu uprising(1948): 6th & 14th regiments refused to a mission against Cheju guerillas and seized
control of Yosu, people’s committee executed captured policemen, officials, landlords ->
suppressed by American and ROK army
-Suppression of communism: more than 30,000 alleged communists in jail (1950)

5. The North:
-North Korea: Soviet satellite, Kim Il Sung as a puppet leader?
-People’s committee: land reform without compensating landlords, nationalization of major
industries formerly owned by the Japanese
-Communist Party’s open door policy: masses of peasants in party ranks
-Elimination of non-leftist opposition: nationalist & Christian leaders ousted, limited political
freedom with tight control and surveillance
-Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (1948): Kim Il Sung as premier
-Soviet army withdrew from N Korea (at the end of 1948)
-Korean soldiers who fought in the Chinese civil war for CCP joined Korean People’s Army

6. Pre-war Contexts
-Border conflict between North and South (1949): Kaesong & Ongjin
-ROK Army: increase of pro-Japanese officials and refugees from North -> anti-communist
-North(Kim Il Sung): hoped for southern provocation to justify the move for unification
-Soviet Union: did not approve Kim Il Sung’s idea to attack Ongjin, later Stalin’s acquiescence
-USA: worried that South army wanted to invade the North, restrained Rhee while helping to
enhance ROK Army (100,000) with American equipment
-China: sought to conquer Taiwan, invaded Jinmen(Quemoy) island (1949), did not want US
engagement

7. Acheson Defense Line: Misperception?

8. Outbreak of Korean War
-On June 25th, 1950: North Korea crashed into ROK lines in Ongjin and launched a general
invasion eastward including Kaesong and Kangwon Province
*there were conflicts between N & S on June 24th as in the summer of 1949
-June 28th, 1950: Seoul occupied
-August 1950: North pushed down to the perimeter of Pusan (assisted by peasant guerrillas)
=>People’s committees restored for land redistribution and trials of pro-Japan
collaborators
-Sept. 1950: MacArthur landed in Inchon harbor -> North’s rapid withdrawal to the Yalu River
=> South arrested communist collaborators and traitors, many of whom were executed

9. Phases of Korean War(1950-1953)

10. Korean War from the side of China
-China decided to intervene in Korea War(Oct. 1950): in return for North
Koreans’ help in its civil war against KMT (Assist-Korea & Resist-US War)
-200,000 Chinese troops infiltrated North Korea (Mao’s son, Anying, died in the
battle)
-PRC’s ‘human wave’ tactics dismayed the outside world
-Jan. 1951, UN troops retreated back to the south
-Taiwan gained the stronger support of US
-Reinforced the image of US as China’s prime enemy
-Success in preventing unification of Korea allied with US