Korean War Anna Gabriela Mosquera Gómez

Carmona, B. G. (2020). ¿Qué pasó en Hiroshima y Nagasaki? Recuperado 8 de marzo de 2021,

de https://www.lavanguardia.com/vida/junior-report/20200806/482576595687/que-paso-

en-hiroshima-y-nagasaki.html

Pruitt, S. (2020). The Hiroshima Bombing Didn’t Just End WWII—It Kick-Started the Cold War.

Recuperado 8 de marzo de 2021, de https://www.history.com/news/hiroshima-nagasaki-

bombing-wwii-cold-war

Romei, S. (2020). The Soviet Union and the Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Recuperado 8 de marzo de 2021, de https://www.wilsoncenter.org/blog-post/soviet-union-

and-atomic-bombings-hiroshima-and-nagasaki

Korean War – Anna Gabriela Mosquera Gómez

Do you know that the division of Korea caused a war that lasted 3 years? This was by the

effort to unify the North and South, taking more than 3.5 million lives in the process. Because the

two different sides were ruled by the communists or capitalists that wanted to have absolute

control of the whole of Korea. But this war has not come to an end for what is known as "The

Forgotten War." So, this text will explain the war and how Korea is nowadays due to the war.

There are many reasons why Korea was divided but the main reason was that Japan lost

the second world war, So Korea was divided between the two powers that won. The Soviets

accepted the north of the parallel 38 and the Americans took the south. This made a confrontation

and a desire to reunify the whole of Korea but, there was a problem the north and south have

different ideologies and politics that cause a conflict. The north was called the democratic

people’s republic of Korea in the north, and the south was called the free democratic republic of

Korea in the south. But Kim II Sung of the regimen of North Korea wants to unify the south

using force with an invasion of the army, with the support of the Soviet Union so, they start to

plan the infringement. On the 25 of June of 1950, the army of Kim II Sung crossed the 38 parallel

and advanced in triumph south. So, the Americans immediately summoned the security council

of the ONU and got a mandate to lead the army to confront North Korea. The movement of North

Korea was a clear sign to go to war.

The war started on the 25 of June of 1950 while the North Korea troops were supported

by China and the U.R.S.S, while the South were supported by the United States and the ONU.

The multinationals troops of the ONU and the EEUU army conquered Pyongyang the capital of

North Korea in October of 1950. A few months later North Korea with the help of China took

Seoul the capital of South Korea on the 4 of January of 1951. After that the general MacArthur

recovered the capital of South Korea and stopped the offensive of North Korea. Since March of

1951, the situation was similar for the two sides where they did not have great advances, only the

taking of small territories without great importance “The armies were in a dangerous impasse

around the 38th parallel. The number of victims was increasing.” (Blakemore, 2021). So, the war

was in the final stretch to end because there were no advances.

After the situation did not change despite the persistence of the two sides to continue, the

U.R.S.S expressed the desire to not become more involved in the conflict and started that it

wishes that the two parts coexist in peace so on July 10 of 1951. Negotiations began and

continued for about two years. “On July 27, 1953, North Korea, China, and the United States

signed an armistice agreement. South Korea, however, objected to the continued division of

Korea and did not agree to the armistice or sign a formal peace treaty. So, while the fighting

ended, technically the war never did.” (Blakemore, 2021). This makes the relationship between

the two countries very unstable to the point of being alarming because at any moment the war

could start again.

Korea remained divided in two by the parallel of 38 degrees, the north was supported by

China and the south by the United States. After the war, a number of deaths was estimated which

reached “Nearly 5 million people died. More than half of these–about 10 percent of Korea’s

prewar population–were civilians.” (History, 2020). In North Korea, Chinese influence supports

the regime. This country after the war was rebuilt from zero, the entire production system

depended on states that also implemented social politics in education, health, and services.

Currently it has had serious economic problems that are causing poverty to grow. For the other

side South Korea also had to be rebuilt from scratch under the capitalist system with serious

social consequences due to the abuses of the large companies with respect to labor. It has a higher

standard of living than the north, but the distribution of wealth is still controlled by the main

transnational companies.

70 years after the beginning of the war, the two Koreas are still divided even though the

desire to reunite is persistent. It has disappeared from the memory of many in addition to being

forgotten because it was put aside by other more “relevant” confrontations. These show that the

confrontation between different systems can destroy a country in two, leaving serious

consequences without affecting those that conflict. I end with the most terrible thing about this

war which is “Undeclared, unresolved, and largely unremembered, the war’s unsettling legacy

lives on.” (Blakemore, 2021).

Bibliography

Blakemore, E. (2021, February 10). The Korean War never technically ended. Here’s why.

History. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/why-korean-war-never-

technically-ended

History.com Editors. (2020, May 11). Korean War. HISTORY.

https://www.history.com/topics/korea/korean-

war#:%7E:text=Korean%20War%20Casualties,-

The%20Korean%20War&text=Nearly%205%20million%20people%20died,more%20tha

n%20100%2C000%20were%20wounded.

Camargo, J. D. M. (2015). Colombia y su participación en la Guerra de Corea: Una reflexión tras

64 años de iniciado el conflicto. Revista Historia y memoria, (10), 199-239.

Atehortúa Cruz, Adolfo León. (2008). Colombia en la guerra de Corea. Folios, (27), 63-76.