Prime Mover Behind the Korean War

Over a long period of time spanning more than 60 years since the Korean war (1950-1953), the world community has thought that north Korea, or the DPRK, started the war against south Korea by “invading” it. It is a misunderstanding of the truth caused by persistent distortion by the United States.

Then, who was the prime mover behind the war?

US Occupation of South Korea—Source of the War

At the time when the Second World War ended in 1945, the United States schemed to draw a line on the 38^th Parallel on the Korean peninsula, which would divide it into the north and the south. And it landed its troops on the southern part of Korea as “liberator” on the pretext of “disarming” the Japanese troops.

This was a product of a political and strategic decision aimed at preventing the Soviet army fighting against Japan from liberating the whole of the Korean peninsula as it had already advanced to the area on the 37^th Parallel.

It planned to make the Korean peninsula a bridgehead for conquering the continent.

Mark Gayn, an American correspondent, said: “We were not a liberation army….From the first days of our landing we have acted as the enemy of the Koreans.”

The American book Modern History of the United States wrote, “In fact, the war by Wall Street against the Korean people began in September 1945, in other words, at the time when its generals set foot in south Korea.”

Now, putting all the facts together, it is obvious that the Korean war would never have taken place if the US had not occupied south Korea.

Military Preparations for the War

The US directed its efforts to organizing and expanding the south Korean army to achieve the “ratio of ten to one” in the balance of forces compared with the north Korean army, and training the former in the American way. It even seized the command of the south Korean army.

It gave south Korea military aid worth over a billion US dollars between 1945 and 1949. While stepping up the combat preparations of the south Korean army, the US ensured that a large force was deployed along the 38^th Parallel, military roads built anew or expanded, and positions laid on a large scale, thus turning south Korea into a giant military base.

American magazine Life issued in July 1950 wrote that never before in the US history had it been so nearly prepared at the start of any war as it was at the start of this war.

The American book Who Began the Korean War wrote that all the preparations for attacking of north Korea were completed by May 1950.

Armed Provocations on the 38^th Parallel—Prelude to the War

South Korean magazine Society and Ideology issued in June 1990 wrote that the number of armed provocations by the south Korean army against north Korea amounted to more than 5 150 in three and half years from 1947 to June 1950, on the eve of the Korean war.

It is none other than the US that organized and commanded those provocations.

It pursued several aims in conducting such armed provocations: First, it was to increase the frequency of armed intrusions and extend them to a war against the north; second, if such intrusions proved not “successful,” it would occupy some tactical vantage points for future armed invasion; third, it wanted to inspect actual combat capabilities of the south Korean army and give further spurs to war preparations.

Armed provocations against the north the US organized in hot pursuit of these aims between 1949 and the first half of 1950 presented a picture similar to that of a full-scale war in scale and frequency.

A paragraph in the American book The Korean War, An Unanswered Question read as follows:

“As is now widely known, the Korean War was not the result of a sudden, unprecedented outbreak of fighting on the Korean peninsula in the early morning of June 25, 1950. Indeed, forays into both halves of the peninsula took place continuously for a period of several years prior to this time and increased in intensity during 1949 as pressure by Seoul ‘to get the job of invasion done’ grew more intense. In fact, some students of Korean affairs contend that the war actually started that year.”

Start of the Korean War

After it had ultimately made sure of its preparations for war provocation, the US set out on the road of executing it.

President Truman sent Secretary of Defense Johnson and Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Bradley to the MacArthur Command in Tokyo, Japan, and senior advisor to the State Department Dulles as presidential envoy to south Korea. They had to examine and confirm the preparations on the spot and issue a directive for starting the war.

Dulles flew to south Korea and went to the 38th Parallel for “inspection” of war preparations. He said to Syngman Rhee that his mission to south Korea was under the instruction of President Truman to inspect war preparations by south Korea and, if there were no imperfection, give an order to go on to march north. Then he urged the south Korean authorities to launch the march without a moment’s delay, as they had wound up all the preparations.

Eventually, on order No. 29 by President Truman the south Korean army under the command of American military advisors, launched a full-scale armed invasion against the DPRK on the dawn of June 25, 1950.

Roberts, the then Chief of the AMAG (American Military Advisory Group) in South Korea, said:

Why have we chosen June 25?

This explains our prudence. 25^th is Sunday. It’s the Sabbath for both the United States and south Korea, Christian states. No one will believe we have started a war on Sunday. In short, it is to make people believe that we are not the first to start a war.