38th parallel<\/a>Military vehicles crossing the 38th parallel during the Korean War.(more)<\/p>\n In their hurried effort to disarm the Japanese army and repatriate the Japanese population in Korea (estimated at 700,000), the United States and the Soviet Union agreed in August 1945 to divide<\/a> the country for administrative purposes at the 38th parallel<\/a> (latitude 38\u00b0 N). At least from the American perspective, this geographic division<\/a> was a temporary expedient; however, the Soviets began a short-lived reign of terror in northern Korea that quickly politicized the division by driving thousands of refugees south. The two sides could not agree on a formula that would produce a unified Korea, and in 1947 U.S. President Harry S. Truman<\/a> persuaded the United Nations (UN) to assume responsibility for the country, though the U.S. military remained nominally in control of the South until 1948. Both the South Korean national police and the constabulary doubled in size, providing a southern security force of about 80,000 by 1947. In the meantime, Kim Il-sung strengthened his control over the Communist<\/a> Party as well as the northern administrative structure and military forces. In 1948 the North Korean military and police numbered about 100,000, reinforced<\/a> by a group of southern Korean guerrillas based at Haeju<\/a> in western Korea.<\/p>\n The creation of an independent South Korea became UN policy in early 1948. Southern communists opposed this, and by autumn partisan warfare had engulfed parts of every Korean province below the 38th parallel. The fighting expanded into a limited border war between the South\u2019s newly formed Republic of Korea Army<\/a> (ROKA) and the North Korean border constabulary as well as the North\u2019s Korean People\u2019s Army<\/a> (KPA). The North launched 10 cross-border guerrilla incursions in order to draw ROKA units away from their guerrilla-suppression campaign in the South.<\/p>\n In its larger purpose the partisan uprising failed: the Republic of Korea (ROK) was formed in August 1948, with Syngman Rhee as president. Nevertheless, almost 8,000 members of the South Korean security forces and at least 30,000 other Koreans lost their lives. Many of the victims were not security forces or armed guerrillas at all but simply people identified as \u201crightists\u201d or \u201creds\u201d by the belligerents<\/a>. Small-scale atrocities became a way of life.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tQuick Facts<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDate: \t\t\t\t\t\t\t(Show\u00a0more)<\/p>\n \t\t<\/p>\n Britannica Quiz<\/p>\n Pick Your Battles Quiz<\/p>\n <\/a> <\/p>\n The partisan war also delayed the training of the South Korean army. In early 1950, American advisers judged that fewer than half of the ROKA\u2019s infantry<\/a> battalions were even marginally ready for war. U.S. military assistance consisted largely of surplus light weapons and supplies. Indeed, General Douglas MacArthur<\/a>, commander of the United States\u2019 Far East Command (FECOM), argued that his Eighth Army, consisting of four weak divisions in Japan, required more support than the Koreans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Revolution, division, and partisan warfare, 1945\u201350 The Korean War had its immediate origins in the collapse of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":43758,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[170,1252,1251,1250,31,4924],"class_list":["post-43757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-korea","tag-article","tag-britannica","tag-encyclopeadia","tag-encyclopedia","tag-korea","tag-korean-war"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43757\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJune 25, 1950 – July 27, 1953 <\/p>\n![\"Civil](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/civil-war-cannon-overlooks-keneesaw-mountain-national-battle.jpg\")
<\/p>\n