In this light, the factors that helped lead to the Korean War are: First, the division of North and South Korea post World War II along the thirty-eighth parallel with Russia overseeing the North and the United States overseeing the South. Second, the development of Korean People’s Committees following their liberation from Japanese rule, and the different treatment of these committees in the North and in the South. Third, the National Assembly elections in May 1948 in South Korea that led to the establishment of a Republic of Korea and the election of Syngman Rhee as president; followed by a countermove in North Korea with the establishment of the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea and the appointment of Kim Il Sung as premier. Fourth, the period of political violence, skirmishes, and guerilla warfare that followed soon after the establishment of the ROK, and peaked during the winter of 1949-50. Finally, a lull in the fighting as each side attempted to gain the support of their international counterparts, and the invasion by the DPRK in June 1950 (Cumings 1983:41, 138-139).

When the Russian army moved into North Korea, the Koreans in Pyongyang welcomed them enthusiastically. The people of Korea had suffered extreme duress and hardships while the Japanese had occupied their country. The North especially suffered as it had been “…economically, politically, and socially the marginal part of Korea for centuries” (Armstrong 2003:13). The North Koreans had bad land on which to grow crops, had been largely excluded from holding higher offices, and were known for their “unruliness, violence, and independence” (Armstrong 2003:14). When the Japanese tightened their rule in the 1920’s, the people began to migrate into Manchuria, China, and the U.S.S.R. These Koreans began to strike out against the Japanese through guerilla warfare and peasant uprisings, the beginnings of strong feelings of anti-colonialism and fierce nationalism amongst the majority of the Korean people. These resistance groups were largely wiped out by the Japanese in the brutal “annihilation campaigns” of the 1930’s (Armstrong 2003:21). These events sparked in the Korean a strong desire for independence and laid the framework for communism to take hold due to the large number of peasants and workers who had suffered and desired reform.

In all, the Korean War seems to be more of a civil war than an international war, or a war of democracy against communism. The roots of communism came from the harsh treatment of Koreans under Japanese occupation and their reaction to that oppression. As Bruce Cumings wrote, the Japanese colonial period had the biggest effect on Korea this century (Halliday and Cumings 1988:15). When World War II ended and Korea was split into two different zones to be occupied, the future was foretold of events to come. Because of the importance of legitimacy in Korean history and culture, this separation was made to be much more volatile when the United Nations allowed only for elections in South Korea, and recognized only that regime. The Soviets fostered communism in North Korea and the North Koreans embraced it. The United States fought the leftist viewpoint, and was fought for it. If the peninsula had not been divided in 1945, there is a good possibility that there would have been no war at all. However, it was divided, and laid the foundation for what was to come. It would be ignorant to say that the Korean War was solely a civil war, but its origins were as a civil war; the two Koreas interacted and forced the international community to react, and the international community acted and the Korean people had to react. The only fact that seems to be truly concrete is that the division of Korea into North and South started the snowball of the Korean War bounding down the Turak mountain range.

According to Bruce Cumings, “The first formal Korean policy-commitment to a multilateral trusteeship,

Some topics in this essay:
South Korea, North Korea, Il Sung, North Koreans, Korean War, Syngman Rhee, South Koreans, Yosu Rebellion, USSR Koreans, People’s Committees, south korea, north korea, syngman rhee, korean war, thirty-eighth parallel, united nations, kim il sung, south koreans, kim il, il sung, people’s committees, national assembly elections, american military government, south korean government, korean labor party,