Korea

A. What kinds of problems were created as a result of two separate Korean states being set up in 1948?

Korea’s division led to a war which proved as serious as any of the difficulties encountered by those nations. A unique set of internal and external factors combined to create a conflict which almost precipitated a nuclear war.

B. Describe what took place on the morning of June 25th, 1950.

On June 25, 1950, North Korean forces invaded the South Korean army, and quickly headed toward the capital of Seoul. The United States responded by pushing a resolution through the U.N.’s Security Council calling for military assistance to South Korea. The American intervention moved North Korea out. This action, however, led to the intervention of communist Chinese forces in late 1950, as Americans crossed the chinese border. In 1953, the United States and North Korea signed a cease-fire that ended the conflict. The cease-fire agreement also resulted in the continued division of North and South Korea at just about the same geographical point as before the conflict.

C. How did the United States convince the United Nations to support intervention in Korea?

At the end of World War Two, Korea was effectively split in two; the south was in the hands of America while Russia dominated the north. The United Nations had already involved itself in the affairs of Korea when in 1947, before partition, it had declared its intentions that elections should be held for a government for the whole country and that the United Nations would oversee these elections to ensure that they were fair.