Saturday, June 25, 2011
On June 25, 1950, under the darkness of pre-dawn, North Korean forces cross the 38th parallel and launch a massive and unexpected military attack on South Korea. The invasion by communist North Korea is the first military act of the Cold War. President Truman is extremely concerned about communist expansion and losing the Korean Peninsula to communist control. Within two days, at Truman’s request, a young United Nations Security Council authorizes a “police action” to drive out the aggressor nation—which is led by the United States. The U.N. therefore shows it cannot remain neutral in the Cold War. The Soviet Union, which surely would have vetoed the resolution, is not present for the Security Council vote as it is boycotting the U.N. for not recognizing Mao’s communist revolution in China nine months earlier. In July 1953, the war that nobody expected to drag on for 3 years ends in a stalemate. An armistice is signed ending the armed conflict, but the two Koreas remain divided.
On Friday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hosted South Korean counterpart Kim Sung-Hwan in Washington on the eve of the anniversary of the war. Relations have never normalized between the Koreas and tensions are again heightened. Over the last year the North has made several aggressive gestures in the Korean Peninsula, and United States and U.N. are anxious to put a stop to Pyongyang’s burgeoning nuclear weapons program. At the D.C. meeting, Clinton emphasized that the U.S. position remains that Pyongyang must improve relations with South Korea, or American sanctions and other forms of pressure on the regime would continue. The U.N. Security Council earlier this month extended for a third term the mandate of the body that overseas U.N. sanctions against North Korea over the country’s testing of nuclear arms.
