This is the first entry in a multi-part series on the Korean Peninsula with a focus on the origins, developments, and strategy on the Korean Peninsula, with the goal of understanding how the current situation can be improved.

Context

These days it isn't uncommon for North Korea to make headlines. But despite the rhetoric, the situation on the peninsula seems to have stayed the same. Whether it's North Korea threatening to hit their "nuclear button" or Trump inducing "fire and fury", day by day life here in Korea continues unabated, and the prospect of a denuclearized peninsula seems to loom ever in the distance.

How did we get to this point? What can we expect moving forward? What can we do about it?

I'll hope to share some of my insight on these questions on a trip through history, geopolitics, and game theory.

Creating Two Koreas

A map detailing the plans to dismantle the Japanese Empire

Near the end of World War 2, allied forces managed to convince the Soviet Union to declare war on the Empire of Japan, who at the time had been in the process of colonizing the Korean peninsula. This invasion took place three months after allied forces had defeated Nazi Germany in Europe, and began between the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 8, 1945.

Soviet battle plans for the invasion of Manchuria

Facing the enormous Soviet Army in Manchuria and the nuclear annihilation on the home islands, the Empire was forced to unconditionally surrender to allied forces a week later on August 15th (This day is known as National Liberation Day in Korea).

The 38th Parallel

Five days prior to the official announcement of the surrender of Japan, two American officers, who had no prior knowledge of Korea, were assigned the task of defining the occupation zone for American forces after a formal surrender. Seeing that the 38th parallel divided the country in half but gave the capital to American forces, they chose that as the defining border between Soviet and American occupiers. To their surprise, the Soviet Union accepted the offer without modification.

The borders of the Koreas in late 1945.

Both sides installed rulers that were originally intended to oversee their respective occupation zones until a national vote could be conducted to create a new unified Korean government. However, the escalating tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States in the post-world war 2 environment quickly dissolved any hope of a unified Korean government from materializing.

An aerial shot of Seoul before the outbreak of the war.

Over the next 5 years, both sides would carry out mass killings of their ideological enemies, with anywhere from 30,000 to 100,000 suspected communist sympathizers being killed in South Korea, and over 400,000 people escaping the also increasingly brutal North Korean government. The stark ideological differences in the two governments combined with the necessity of superpower support for stability quickly generated extreme animosity toward the two Koreas, who both viewed the other government as illegitimate.

The Forgotten War

If you ask someone about major wars in American history, you might hear examples such as the War for Independence, War of 1812, Civil War, World Wars, the Vietnam War, and Iraq and Afghan wars. But you will seldom hear people mention Korea, despite it being one of the largest military campaigns of the 20th century with many pitched battles that would not be out of place in World War 2.

Target Practice

In 1950, Kim Il-Sung, the leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK, or North Korea) secured permission from Josef Stalin to make preparations for a war to reclaim the southern half of the Korean peninsula, on the condition that Chinese reinforcements would be available if necessary.

Just weeks before the war was scheduled to begin, extensive clashes between North and South forces at the border prompted UN observers to assess the situation. On June 23rd, 1950, they concluded that an attack from the North "was unlikely", and General William Lynn Roberts of the advisory group to Korea boasted a formal invasion would be "target practice" for South Korean forces.

Invasion

At dawn two days later, North Korean Forces launched an all-out invasion across the 38th parallel, quickly routing, encircling, and destroying the unequipped and unprepared South Korean forces. Unlike the previous skirmishes that gave General Roberts such confidence, in the attack North Koreans employed Soviet-made T-34 tanks, which could not be countered by any South Korean equipment. Some heroic South Korean soldiers strapped TNT to themselves, and crawled up to the tanks and exploded themselves to delay the advance.

US 27th Infantry soldiers overlook the Nakdong river.

Two days later, North Korean forces captured the city of Seoul. The Northern armies advanced swiftly, encountering little resistance all the way to the southeastern tip of the peninsula, along the Nakdong River which surrounds the region near the city of Busan. The advance had been so swift that the North Korean logistics forces could not keep up with the advancing front, effectively cutting them off from adequate supply. This delay allowed US forces to begin reinforcing the desperate South Korean armies, and plan a counterattack.

The extent of the Busan perimeter.

Counterattack

On the 10th of September, 1950, General Douglas MacArthur launched a surprise attack on the port of Incheon, near Seoul. Though the North Koreans had been warned by the Chinese that an invasion of Incheon should be expected, the resistance to the American landings were comparatively light. With a large port secured, American Forces began to cut off the North Korean forces near the Busan perimeter, prompting a mass rout of the North Korean Army.

US Marines climb a beachhead in Incheon.

An overview of the Incheon landing plan and following counterattack.

Unable to reorganize, the North Korean forces were swiftly defeated in a campaign that captured Pyongyang in the following month.

Intervention

Chinese forces crossing the Amrok river

Upon receiving news that Americans had successfully landed in Incheon and were well on their way to advancing toward China, Chinese forces began secretly entering North Korean territory. US aerial reconnaissance detected Chinese movement near the border regions, but vastly underestimated the numbers of Chinese forces moving into North Korea by a factor of 15. Over 1 million Chinese soldiers had been waiting in ambush near the Chinese border, and soon overwhelmed the US and ROK armies.

It was during the mass retreat from North Korean territory that General MacArthur considered using over 34 nuclear weapons to stall the Chinese advance, an action that eventually led to his relief of command of the US Forces in Korea.

Stagnation

By January 1951, the Chinese had driven the American and Korean forces back to the 38th parallel, where progress had slowed for each side. Once American and Korean forces had stalled the Chinese advance into the Korean peninsula, US Forces were unwilling to commit to large scale operations to roll back the front. Instead, the focus was on opening negotiations to end the fighting on the peninsula.

US and North Korean negotiators arguing over a prisoner exchange.

From 1951 to 1953, negotiations began and ended, as fighting often sprang up prior to meetings to give more territory once the fighting stopped. These skirmishes often derailed the meetings, along with conflicts of PoW exchanges.

Aftermath

By the time an armistice was signed on July 27th, 1953, more than 2.5 million Koreans had been killed or wounded, and much of the peninsula was destroyed. Intensive bombing campaigns, exacerbated by guerrilla tactics of the North Korean forces, destroyed almost all of the pre-war infrastructure and industry built by the Japanese during the colonial period. The final borders were barely changed from the original division at the 38th parallel, and little seemed to have been accomplished.

The borders at the beginning and end of the war.

A woman and her grandchild in the ruins of Pyongyang.

In the next part of the series we will take a look at the post-war recovery periods for both North and South Korea, and the factors that affected them from the late 1950s to the late 1970s.