The Korean War: KS3 History Guide

On 25 June 1950, North Korean forces crossed the 38th parallel and invaded South Korea. Within days, the conflict had drawn in the United Nations, and within months China had entered the fighting. The Korean War lasted three years, cost millions of lives, and ended in an armistice — not a peace treaty — that technically still holds today.

A divided peninsula: the Cold War background

Korea had been a Japanese colony since 1910. When Japan surrendered in August 1945, the peninsula was divided at the 38th parallel: the Soviet Union occupied the North, and the United States occupied the South. By 1948, two separate governments had consolidated their rule. In the North, Kim Il-sung led a communist state backed by the USSR and China. In the South, Syngman Rhee led a US-backed authoritarian government. Both leaders claimed to represent all of Korea; both wanted reunification on their own terms. The division was intended to be temporary. It was not.

The conflict fits into the broader context of the Cold War — the global ideological and military rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union after 1945. Korea became a test case of the American policy of containment: the idea that communist expansion beyond the areas it already controlled must be stopped. Historians debate how far the Cold War framework explains what happened in Korea, and how far it obscures the specifically Korean dimensions of a conflict that was simultaneously a civil war.

North Korea invades: the war begins

At dawn on 25 June 1950, the Korean People's Army (KPA) crossed the 38th parallel with Soviet-supplied tanks and artillery, quickly overwhelming South Korean defences. The capital Seoul fell within three days. South Korean and American forces were pushed back to a small perimeter around the southern port city of Pusan — the Pusan Perimeter — and came close to being driven into the sea entirely.

The United Nations Security Council authorised military action to defend South Korea. The Soviet Union was at the time boycotting the Security Council over the question of China's UN seat, and so was unable to use its veto. Sixteen nations ultimately contributed forces under predominantly American command, led by General Douglas MacArthur.

Key events of the Korean War 1950–1953

Date | Event | Significance
25 June 1950 | North Korea invades South Korea | War begins; UN Security Council authorises military response
September 1950 | Inchon landings | MacArthur's flanking manoeuvre drives KPA back north
October 1950 | China enters the war | UN forces pushed south; Seoul changes hands again
January 1951 | Seoul falls to Chinese/North Korean forces | Lowest point for UN forces in the war
July 1951 | Armistice talks begin at Kaesong | Negotiations drag on for two years
27 July 1953 | Armistice signed at Panmunjom | Ceasefire along a line close to the 38th parallel

China enters: a war transformed

In September 1950, MacArthur launched a brilliant amphibious landing at Inchon, far behind North Korean lines. The KPA collapsed and UN forces drove rapidly northward, recapturing Seoul and pushing toward the Yalu River — the border between North Korea and China. MacArthur was confident China would not intervene. He was wrong.

In October 1950, the Chinese People's Volunteer Army entered the war in massive numbers, pushing UN forces rapidly southward. Seoul fell to Chinese and North Korean forces in January 1951. The character of the war changed entirely: instead of a swift campaign for reunification, it became a grinding attritional conflict fought largely along a front line that stabilised roughly at the 38th parallel by mid-1951.

MacArthur publicly disagreed with President Harry Truman's policy of limiting the war to the Korean peninsula and was dismissed in April 1951. General Omar Bradley summarised Truman's reasoning: an expanded war against China would be "the wrong war, at the wrong place, at the wrong time, and with the wrong enemy." The question of whether to limit or expand the conflict is one historians continue to weigh when assessing the war's strategy.

Stalemate and armistice

Armistice talks began in July 1951 but dragged on for two difficult years. The most contentious issue was prisoner repatriation: whether prisoners of war who did not wish to return home should be forced to do so. The armistice was finally signed at Panmunjom on 27 July 1953.

The agreement established a Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) along a ceasefire line close to — but not identical to — the 38th parallel where the war had started. Crucially, no peace treaty was ever signed. Korea remains technically in a state of war; the DMZ is one of the most heavily militarised borders on earth. Families separated by the division in 1945 remained separated. The conflict that was supposed to resolve the question of Korean unity resolved nothing.

The human cost was immense. Approximately 36,000 Americans and around 1,100 British personnel died. Estimates of Korean civilian deaths range from two to three million. Chinese military deaths are estimated at between 180,000 and 900,000. The Imperial War Museum and the National Archives hold testimonies of British veterans whose experience of the war offers a perspective often missing from accounts focused on American or Korean actors.

Historians debate: was the Korean War a success or a failure?

The evidence pushes in different directions, and the answer depends entirely on whose perspective you adopt and what question you are asking.

From the perspective of containment, the Korean War can be called a success: South Korea survived as an independent state. The communist advance was stopped. South Korea today is a prosperous democracy of more than fifty million people. On this reading, the cost — terrible as it was — achieved something durable.

From another angle, the war ended almost exactly where it started, at immense human cost, with no peace treaty, and with Korea still divided. North Korea remained communist and today possesses nuclear weapons. The reunification both Koreas sought was not achieved. From a Korean perspective — north or south — the peninsula remained divided, families permanently separated, and the risk of renewed conflict always present.

Historians also debate the war's origins: was it primarily a Cold War conflict driven by superpower rivalry, or a Korean civil war into which the superpowers intervened? The answer shapes how we assign responsibility and judge outcomes. Before settling on an argument, ask yourself: what does "success" mean, and from whose perspective are you measuring it?

Frequently asked questions

Why did the Korean War start in 1950?

North Korea, backed by the Soviet Union and China, invaded South Korea on 25 June 1950. The immediate military trigger was the Korean People's Army crossing the 38th parallel. Underlying causes include the Korean desire for reunification under different competing governments, the Cold War rivalry between the US and the USSR, and the specific decisions of Kim Il-sung, Stalin, and Mao Zedong. Historians debate how far the war was a Cold War proxy conflict and how far it was a specifically Korean civil war — and the two explanations are not mutually exclusive.

Why did China enter the Korean War in October 1950?

When UN forces drove northward toward the Yalu River — the border between North Korea and China — the Chinese government under Mao Zedong feared that an American military presence on its border posed an existential threat. China intervened with massive force in October 1950, pushing UN forces back south and transforming a war that had seemed nearly won into a grinding stalemate. The Chinese intervention is one reason historians argue that MacArthur's decision to advance to the Yalu was a serious strategic miscalculation.

What was the outcome of the Korean War?

The armistice of 27 July 1953 established a ceasefire along a line close to the 38th parallel — almost exactly where the war had started three years earlier. No peace treaty was ever signed. Korea remains divided to this day, with the heavily militarised DMZ separating North and South. From one perspective, South Korea's survival and prosperity make the war a qualified success; from another, the enormous human cost for no territorial change and no political resolution raises profound questions about what was achieved.

Why is the Korean War sometimes called "the forgotten war"?

The Korean War is sometimes called "the forgotten war" because it followed the Second World War — which loomed so large in public memory — and preceded the Vietnam War, which dominated later Cold War debate. It also ended not in clear victory but in an unresolved armistice, which made straightforward commemoration difficult. The Imperial War Museum holds testimonies of British veterans of the conflict whose experiences offer a valuable counterpoint to American-dominated accounts, and these sources reward careful reading.

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