Clockwise, from top: UN forces reach the 38th parallel; F-86 Sabre fighter aircraft in Korean combat; Incheon harbour, starting point of the Battle of Inchon; Chinese soldiers welcomed home; 1st. Lt. Baldomero Lopez, USMC, over the top of the Incheon seawall.
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| Conflict | Korean War | | Date | 25 June 1950 � present
(Armistice signed 27 July 1953)
( ) | | Location | Korean Peninsula | | Status | * Cease-fire armistice
* North Korean invasion of South Korea repelled
* UN invasion of North Korea repelled
* Chinese invasion of South Korea repelled
* Korean Demilitarized Zone established, little territorial change at the 38th parallel border, essentially uti possidetis | Territorial
changes | DMZ; both gained little border territory at the 38th parallel. | Republic of Korea
United Nations
(UN Resolution 84)
Combat support
bullets=yes
title=Combat support
Australia
Belgium
Canada
Colombia
Ethiopian Empire
France France
Kingdom of Greece
Luxembourg
Netherlands
New Zealand
Philippines
Union of South Africa
Thailand
Turkey
United Kingdom
United States
Medical support
bullets=yes
title=Medical support
Denmark
India
Italy
Norway
Sweden
Supplies support
bullets=yes
title=Supplies support
Argentina
Bolivia
Brazil
Chile
Costa Rica
Cuba
Ecuador
El Salvador
Iceland
Israel
Lebanon
Liberia
Mexico
Nicaragua
Pakistan
Panama
Paraguay
Peru
Uruguay
Venezuela
| Democratic People's Republic of Korea
People's Republic of China
Soviet Union (limited)
Medical support
bullets=yes
title=Medical support
Bulgaria Bulgaria
Czechoslovakia
Hungary Hungary
Poland Poland
Romania Romania
| South Korea Rhee Syngman
South Korea Chung Il-kwon
South Korea Paik Sun-yup
United States Harry S. Truman
United States Dwight D. Eisenhower
United States Douglas MacArthur
United States Matthew Ridgway
United States Mark Wayne Clark
UK Clement Attlee
AU Robert Menzies
CA Louis St. Laurent
Philippines Elpidio Quirino
Philippines Fidel V. Ramos
Turkey Tahsin Yazıcı
| North Korea Kim Il-sung
North Korea Pak Hon-yong
North Korea Choi Yong-kun
North Korea Kim Chaek
China Mao Zedong
China Peng Dehuai
Soviet Union Joseph Stalin
| South Korea 590,911
United States 480,000
United Kingdom 63,000
Canada 26,791
Australia 17,000
Philippines 7,430
Turkey 5,455
Netherlands 3,972
France 3,421
Kingdom of Greece 2,163
New Zealand 1,389
Thailand 1,273
Ethiopian Empire 1,271
Colombia 1,068
Belgium 900
Union of South Africa 826
Luxembourg 44
Total: 1,207,010 | North Korea 260,000
China 926,000
Soviet Union 26,000
Total: 1,212,000
Note: The figures vary by source; peak unit-strength varied during war. | Republic of Korea
137,899 KIA
450,742 WIA
24,495 MIA
8,343 POW
United States
36,516 dead (including 2,830 non-combat deaths)
92,134 wounded
8,176 MIA
7,245 POW
United Kingdom
1,109 dead
2,674 wounded
1,060 MIA or POW
Turkey
721 dead
2,111 wounded
168 MIA
216 POW
Canada
516 dead
1,042 wounded
Australia
339 dead
1,200 wounded
France
300 KIA or MIA
Greece
194 KIA
459 wounded
Colombia
163 dead
448 wounded
2 MIA
28 POW
Thailand
129 KIA
1,139 wounded
5 MIA
Netherlands
123 KIA
Philippines
112 KIA
Belgium
101 KIA
478 Wounded
5 MIA
New Zealand
33 KIA
South Africa
28 KIA and 8 MIA
Luxembourg
2 KIA
Total: 778,053 | D.P.R. Korea:
215,000 dead
303,000 wounded
120,000 MIA or POW
P.R. China
(Official data):
183,108 dead (including non-combat deaths)
383,218 wounded
25,621 MIA
21,400 POW
'(U.S. estimate):
400,000+ dead
486,000 wounded
21,000 POW
Soviet Union:
282 dead
Total: 1,187,682 � 1,545,822 | Total civilians killed/wounded: 2.5 million (est.)
South Korea: 990,968
373,599 killed
229,625 wounded
387,744 abducted/missing
North Korea: 1,550,000 (est.) |
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The Korean War (25 June 1950 � armistice signed 27 July 1953) was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China (PRC), with military material aid from the Soviet Union. The war was a result of the physical division of Korea by an agreement of the victorious Allies at the conclusion of the Pacific War at the end of World War II. The Korean peninsula was ruled by Japan from 1910 until the end of World War II. Following the surrender of Japan in 1945, American administrators divided the peninsula along the 38th Parallel, with United States troops occupying the southern part and Soviet troops occupying the northern part.
The failure to hold free elections throughout the Korean Peninsula in 1948 deepened the division between the two sides, and the North established a Communist government. The 38th Parallel increasingly became a political border between the two Koreas. Although reunification negotiations continued in the months preceding the war, tension intensified. Cross-border skirmishes and raids at the 38th Parallel persisted. The situation escalated into open warfare when North Korean forces invaded South Korea on 25 June 1950. It was the first significant armed conflict of the Cold War.
The United Nations, particularly the United States, came to the aid of South Korea in repelling the invasion, but within two months the defenders were pushed back to the Pusan perimeter, a small area in the south of the country, before the North Koreans were stopped. A rapid UN counter-offensive then drove the North Koreans past the 38th Parallel and almost to the Yalu River, and the People's Republic of China (PRC) entered the war on the side of the North. The Chinese launched a counter-offensive that pushed the United Nations forces back across the 38th Parallel. The Soviet Union materially aided the North Korean and Chinese armies. In 1953, the war ceased with an armistice that restored the border between the Koreas near the 38th Parallel and created the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), a 2.5 mi (4 km) wide buffer zone between the two Koreas. Minor outbreaks of fighting continue to the present day.
With both North and South Korea sponsored by external powers, the Korean War was a proxy war. From a military science perspective, it combined strategies and tactics of World War I and World War II: it began with a mobile campaign of swift infantry attacks followed by air bombing raids, but became a static trench war by July 1951.
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