At the end of WWII, Korea was split along the 38^th Parallel. North Korea became communist and was ruled by Kim Il Sung. South Korea was capitalist and was governed by Syngman Rhee. Both sides wanted to unite the country under their own control.

In 1950 Northern troops attacked the South, with permission from Stalin. The USA had recently withdrawn their troops from South Korea and he believed that they wouldn't intervene. The North Korean army succeeded in driving South Korean forces out of nearly all the country, apart from Pusan province in the south.

The USA persuaded the United Nations to support military action to drive communist forces out of South Korea. The UN only agreed to this because the USSR had walked out of the UN the previous year in protest at the UN’s refusal to recognise Mao’s new communist government in China.

GCSE Conflict in Asia 1950 - 1975 AQA

The Start of the Korean War