38th Parallel Analysis

The war that raged in Korea between 1950 and 1953 did not begin as a huge international conflict during the Cold War, but would eventually become that once the United States and other countries decided to get involved in the Korean Civil War (Office of the Historian). Korea, throughout its history, was owned by other countries. From 1910 until the end of World War II, Japan had control and influence of Korea as a whole. Because Japan was on the losing side of World War II, the future of Korea was in the hands of the Allies (Great Britain, Russia, and the United States were the major three). It was decided that with the surrender of the Japanese in Korea, the Soviet Union would accept the surrender above the 38th Parallel (a latitudinal line that crosses through Korea), while the United States would accept below the 38th Parallel. While this separation was meant to be only temporary, …show more content…
Under influence of the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China, both communist nations, Korea above the 38th Parallel was shown the communist way from the beginning (Kim 519). From the end of World War II, the Soviets began supplying the Koreans in the North with weapons from both the surrendered Japanese, and from the Soviet Union itself (Kim 519). It is stated that even before the Korean war officially began, the Soviets had supplied the Northerners with “15,000 rifles, 139 pieces of artillery, 37 T-34 tanks, 94 various aircraft, and spare parts for them.” (Kim 519). The Soviet Union would continue to supply weapons and other things to the DPRK throughout the Korean war, and in return would receive goods that were abundant in Korea’s north side (Kim 523). Leader of the DPRK, Kim Il Sung, believed that it was necessary to receive weapons from the Soviet Union and the few that they could receive from communist China in order to protect and arm themselves for the impeding war (Kim