The story of North Korea
Pyongyang has been at odds with its neighbours since inception
The frayed relationship between North Korea and the West has roots that trace back to the end of the Second World War, the defeat of Japan and the post-war peace and conditions imposed on the Korean peninsula by the winning Allied powers.
From 1910 onwards, the Japanese Empire had annexed Korea into its territories, imposing a puppet regime and enforcing strict compliance to its colonial authority.
With Japan’s defeat and surrender in September 1945 the Korean peninsula was divided between North and South along the 38th Parallel. The South, was to be administered by the United States, while the North was to be administered by Russia.
The subsequent polarisation between the former Second World War allies in a Cold War between East and West, meant the Soviet Union established an ardently Communist regime in Pyongyang, with the US promoting an open and liberal society in Seoul. By the time the Soviets withdrew from North Korea in 1948, their appointed strongman, Kim Il-sung had his sights set on re-unifying the peninsula under a Communist regime — a move opposed by Josef Stalin in the Kremlin.
China had been engulfed in a long and brutal civil war from 1945 onwards. It ended in 1949 with the victory of Mao Zedong and his Communist forces, and the retreat of Chiang Kai-shek to the island of Formosa, now Taiwan.
With Mao in power in Beijing, he agreed to send Chinese Red Army troops to North Korea to assist Kim Il-sung in his planned invasion of the South. The Kremlin also gave its blessing.
Brutal war
In the early hours of June 25, 1950, the North launched a ferocious artillery barrage on its southerly neighbour, followed by 230,000 North Korean and Red Army troops storming over the 38th Parallel. Within two days Seoul had fallen as the Communists pushed further south.
US President Harry Truman ordered US troops to the south to assist while the UN Security Council approved member states to assist. A loose alliance of 12 states, including the UK, Canada and Australia, joined on the side of the South. Within weeks, the North had essentially taken control of most of the South, with forces aligned with Seoul limited to a narrow strip around the port city of Busan. That siege was only lifted following a decision by General Douglas McArthur to launch a counter-invasion to retake Seoul and split the North’s forces.
During the course of three years of fighting, Seoul changed hands four times and both sides essentially fought to a standstill in conflict that claimed the lives of 1.6 million civilians — and another 406,000 North Korean soldiers, 600,000 more in the Red Army, 217,000 South Korean troops and 60,000 US and UN servicemen. Some estimates put the total death toll over the three years at 4 million.
The fighting ended on July 27 with a ceasefire, with both sides settling in along the DeMilitarised Zone (DMZ).