Why Did North Korea Invade the South

8/10/2019 Why Did North Korea Invade the South

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Why did NorthKorea invadethe South?By Lily, Rida and Sian


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Context - Before 45

From 10 45, Korea was controlled by Japan.During the war, the U.S. and the USSR suggested

that after Korea was liberated from Japaneseoccupation, a group of trustees should guideit towards independence.


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Korea Between 45 and 49 It was decided at Yalta in 45

that Korea should be split

along the 38th parallel.

Soviet troops entered the

northern part of Korea(12.08.45) and U.S. troops

entered the South (08.09.45).

In late 45 the two superpowers began 18 months

of unsuccessful negotiations on the issue of Koreanreunification.

By the time they finally withdrew in 48-49, twoKoreas had effectively been createda pro-Soviet North, and a pro-American South.


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US Involvement

Initially, the Americans were keen

to get out of Korea. In Sept 47,

the JCS (Joint Chiefs of Staff

the heads of the U.S. armedforces), said that it was pointless

keeping them there as Korea

was of no strategic significance.

However, Cold War tensions

increased, and Truman rejected

JCS proposals for early

withdrawal.


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Syngman Rheeo In November 47, the USA

pressured the UN into supervising

elections which were supposedto reunify Korea. The problem

was, that these elections were

only controlled in the South.

o They resulted in the election of

the pro-American, anti-Sovietleader Syngman Rhee, in May

48.


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DPRK and Kim Il Sung In September 48, the DemocraticPeoples Republic of Korea (DPRK)was established under theleadership of Kim Il Sung.

Kim Il Sung had been given Sovietmilitary training and had led aKorean body of troops in the Sovietarmy during WW2.

DPRK was militarily superior to ROKas the USSR had armed it. The

Americans had not armed ROK as

they feared that Rhee might

prove aggressive towards DPRK.


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Start of the Korean Civil War Kim Il Sung and Syngman Rhee were both very

nationalistic and ambitious, and wanted their

country reunified. There were many border

clashes before all out war began, mostlyinitiated by ROK. They began in 48, and

peaked in the summer of 49.

In 50, Kim Il Sung invaded South Korea. Very

often, Rhees government was viewed as

despotic, and was consistently unpopular with

the people, so Kim thought that this move might

inspire a popular rebellion against the leader.


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Stalins Role It was crucial for Kim to get

Stalins approval for the

invasion of ROK. Without USSR

fighter planes, the leaderwould not have been able to

make an effective attack.

Throughout 49, Stalin

repeatedly stopped Kim from

attacking ROK, because he

feared US intervention.


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Stalins Role Eventually however, he gave Kim the go-ahead. There

are several reasons for this:1. Stalin feared Mao Ze-dong as a potential rival for the

leader of world communism. He encouraged Kim inorder to occupy the U.S. with Communist China. This

would weaken both the U.S. and China, meaning theUSSR would naturally become more powerful.2. Stalin was anxious about rising Japan, which was only

100 miles from Korea. Korea has borders with Russia. Hefelt that the Soviet Union and Communism would bothbe safer if the whole Korean peninsula was Communist.

3. In Jan 50, the Republican dominated Congress rejecteda bill that gave aid to Korea in order to show theirdistaste for Truman having lost China. The bill waseventually passed the following Feb, but the initialrejection of the bill suggested that Korea did not greatlymatter to the U.S., and that an attack on ROK might not

be opposed.


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Why Invade? Stalin had a very large role in NK

invading SK.

Berias son (one of Stalins

henchmen) said it was Stalinwho actually pressed to attackSK.

In 1949, he had provided NKwith 87 T-34 tanks, armouredvehicles and self propelledguns, and 50,000 veterans who

served in the Peoples LiberationArmy in Chinas Civil War.Attacks could be arguablyforeseen.

In Feb 1950, he gave further military aid, making theintention of attack obvious


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Why Invade? Kim Il Sung was greatly under

Stalins influence, as he hadlived in Russia, and served in the

Soviet Army as a battalioncommander.

It could be argued that Stalin advised invasion due to theCold War, and to show US that it was no longer the mostpowerful nation in the world.

Also, the fact that US troops withdrew from SK in September1949, indicated that the US didnt feel strongly about SK,

and so Stalin felt that it would be an easy attack. Another reason for invasion was that Dean Acheson made a

speech on 12 January 1950, saying that the US Pacificdefence perimeter excluded mainland Asia, implying thatthe US did not have much interest in SK.


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Why Invade?

More importantly, NSC 48 wasmade to Stalin by Soviet spies,

which again implied that SK wasnot a vital US interest.

These factors led to Stalin believing that invading and

taking over SK would not be much of an issue for the USand so gave Kim Il Sung the go-ahead to invade, and soon Sunday 25 June, the North launched an attack acrossthe 38thparallel towards the Southern capital of Seoul.

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Why Did North Korea Invade the South