Effects of the Korean War

Korean War

Cause and Effects of the Korean War

In June of 1950 armed forces of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, also known as North Korea, crossed the border and invaded the Republic of Korea, known as South Korea. This precipitated three years of war between the United States, which led the United Nation's forces supporting the South Koreans, and the North Koreans with their allies from the People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union. In short it was a war between the major Communist powers and the Free World set on the Korean peninsula.

Historians have debated the causes and effects of the war since it happened but almost every one can agree that the division of the Korean Peninsula after the Second World War was the first step toward war. In the wake of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the surrender of Japan left the victorious allies unprepared for the political consequences for the territories that Japan had occupied during the war. As a result, the United States agreed to split the Japanese occupied territory of Korea along the 38th parallel, forming two occupation zones with the Soviet Union occupying the North and the United States the South.

The newly created United Nations called for free election in both the North and South to reunify the country under a single, freely elected government. However, the North, with it's Soviet allies, refused to participate and the elections only occurred in the South. The refusal of the North to participate must be considered the second major cause as it established two, ideologically hostile nations, each intent on reunifying the country under its ideology.

Finally, the third major cause of the Korean was the fact that the Soviet Union was boycotting the United Nations at the same time that U.N. Resolution 82 and 83 was being considered. Resolution 82 condemned the North's invasion while 83 authorized United Nations forces to aid in the defense of South Korea. The Soviet Union, which had a permanent seat on the Security Council and would have been in a place to veto both measures, was boycotting the session. Because the newly established Communist nation of China had not been given a permanent seat on the council, the Soviet Union decided to boycott the session and was not there to oppose the resolutions. Without this turn of events, it is unlikely that the United Nations would have authorized the use of force to aid the South leading to the collapse of the South and the unification of the Korean Peninsula under Communist rule.

But the war did happen and as a result the nation remains split to this very day. While the border is not exactly the same as it was prior to the war, Korea is still split roughly along the 38th parallel. This split has led to the biggest result of the war, two very different nations. North Korea remains a communist dictatorship with a centralized government, a police state, an economy that is in ruins, starving people and is isolated from the world in general. On the other side of the border is one of the most thriving democracies with a booming economy and international acceptance. South Korea currently is one of Asia's leading economic powers and its people experience free elections, a free press, and a free society.