Examples of Distortions

Russia: “There was great tension between the two countries Syngman Rhee insisted on invasion of the North. There were numerous confrontation in the areas near the 38^th Parallel and military activities were initiated on June 25, 1950.” (Secondary School Social Studies for 11^th graders, Modern History 1939-1992, Prosvichenie, 1993.)

China: “In the dawn of June 25^th, the U.S. and the Rhee Syngman regime, after having made all the necessary war preparations started a large scale offensive against the North on all fronts along the 38^th Parallel.” (Dong Sheng Xu, Wei Li, Commentary on Contemporary International Issues, Social Science Documents Publishers, 1992.)

Comment

  There are two major contentions concerning the outbreak of the Korean War: “the North invaded the South” and “the South invaded the North.” The former postulates that the Korean War was started by an attack on the South by North Korea supported by the Soviet Union and China as part of a master plan to communize all of Asia. The latter postulates that the US and South Korea started the war jointly.

All the evidence confirms that the invasion was begun by the North against the South, and this is now widely acknowledged and accepted as undeniable.

The Korean War broke out on June 25, 1950 as a result of an invasion of the South by North Korea, which was seeking to unify the entire Korean Peninsula under Communist rule. The all-out, preemptive attack had been carefully planned and prepared in advance.

The circumstances at the time the war broke out clearly testify to that effect. On the day of the attack, only one-third of the South Korean Army was on duty because the rest had been given leaves of absence the day before to returned to their homes to help out in the peak farming season. Thus the South Korean Army as not able to properly defend Seoul and the city was seized in three days. In addition, there was a huge gap between the North and South Korean armies in size and number of weapons and equipment. At the time of the outbreak of the war, the North Korean army was twice the size of the South Korean Army. While the North Korean Army had one tank division and one air force division, the South Korean Army did not have either a single tank or a fighter plane; it was not only short of personnel but also lacked equipment. Under these poor conditions, the South was overwhelmed by the North.

  The fact that the invasion was led by the North is more clearly evidenced by documents captured from the North Korean Army during the war and the classified documents from that period that were recently delivered to the South Korean Government by the Russian Government. Example include Reconnaissance Order No.1 dated June 15, 1950 and issued by the General Staff of the North Korean People’s Army to each division and Combat order No.1 dated June 22, 1950 issued by the Soviet Military Advisory Staff to each division through the General Staff of the North Korean People’s Army.

  It is thus clear that the Korean War was caused by an attack from the North, and this is supported by the circumstances at the time of the outbreak of the war, the significant gap in the power and readiness of the North and South Korean armies at the time and disclosure of relevant documents by the former Communist countries after the collapse of the Cold War system.