Phases of the Korean War

[Chicom]

Map of Korean War
http://www.wwnorton.com/college/history/tindall/tinimage/koreanwr.gif

[JKP]

insufficient data.

[ReD_ReBeL]

ahh The Korean War, what a dirty war this was....

ATROCITIES

Declassifed U.S. document: "The army has requested we strafe all civilian refugee parties approaching our positions. To date, we have complied with the army request in this respect"North Korean troops, South Koreans, Chinese and United States personnel targeted civilians and/or mistreated POWs in some cases. Specifically, there is extremely strong evidence to suggest:

*North Korean and Chinese troops reportedly tortured and executed prisoners on a number of occasions, including shooting wounded soldiers lying at their feet.

*American troops were under orders to consider any unidentified people on the battlefield approaching their position as hostile and neutralize them. The reason for these orders was that Communist infiltrators frequently hid among Korean refugees or that supposed refugees were actually composed of Communist infiltrators. On some occasions (No Gun Ri) hundreds of refugees caught in the fighting were allegedly shot and strafed.

*Communist forces rounded up and executed thousands of civilians in captured villages. It is claimed that more than 100,000 were killed in 1950 during the capture of Seoul alone.

*South Korean forces executed without trial tens of thousands of alleged "Communist sympathizers".

[Janus]

There were about 3 phases to the war. The North Korean army invaded on June 25, 1950. This resulted in a heavy Western reaction particularly from the US which sent troops over by July. The North was able to push these forces into the Pusan perimeter by September. Thus the second phase, or Incheon landing was accomplished, which cut North Korean lines and forced a major withdrawal. The refusal of the US to avoid China's warning in crossing the 38th parallel and the gradual proximity of US forces to the Chinese border caused the Chinese intervention in October, 1950. Despite initial successes, the Chinese were not able to follow through on them since their army was not modernized yet and still relied on unefficient supply techniques. Therefore, a stalemate had been reached by July of 1951. A cease-fire was established in July, 1953 which created the current DMZ (demilitarized zone).