NEW EASTERN OUTLOOK 🌐 (@NEO_Journal)

🇰🇵🔫🇰🇷The Korean War of 1950–53: Forgotten Lessons and Inconvenient Truths ➿➿➿➿➿➿➿➿➿➿ July 27 marks another anniversary of the cessation, but not the conclusion, of the Korean War of 1950–53. Although conflicts in Africa may surpass it in human casualties, the scale of structural devastation and the threat of nuclear weapons use are unrivaled. The memory of the Korean War must not be allowed to fade—but that memory must be accurate. ✏️Konstantin Asmolov is a PhD in History and Leading Research Fellow at the Centre for Korean Studies, Institute of China and Contemporary Asia, Russian Academy of Sciences. ➡️The Korean War was the only conflict in the realms of which Soviet and American pilots looked at one another through their gunsights. Although often called "Stalin's war," it was a civil war. Until spring 1950, Moscow rejected North Korea's plans for forcible reunification. Pyongyang promised a swift blitzkrieg: after capturing Seoul, 200,000 local communists would launch a nationwide uprising. Military action along the 38th parallel had been underway for some time—up to three armed clashes per day, involving companies and battalions. Historians acknowledge that the initiator of most clashes was the South Korean side. Syngman Rhee intended to provoke a conflict to secure direct US military intervention. The Korean War was the only conflict in the realms of which Soviet and American pilots looked at one another through their gunsights. ➡️South Korea prepared for offensive war—documents captured by North Korean forces, Syngman Rhee's correspondence with American lobbyists, and the absence of developed defensive positions all point to this. Russian military historian Aleksey Isaev notes: North Korean tanks suffered losses primarily from American air strikes, not anti-tank artillery or minefields—pointing to the absence of prepared defenses. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission demonstrated that documented victims of the "White Terror" are twice that of the "Red Terror." In mass graves, remains of civilians bearing signs of torture were found—massacres carried out by South Korean formations not under direct American control. More than 100,000 people were killed simply by virtue of membership in the "Bodo League." 🟦When peace talks began, the only party that sabotaged the process to the very end was South Korea—provocations under "false flag" aimed at derailing negotiations. The US even contemplated a military coup against Syngman Rhee (Operation Everready) but reached a conditional compromise: the armistice was signed, though South Korea did not place its signature on it. The Mutual Defence Treaty of autumn 1953 subordinated ROK forces to the UN Command to prevent Rhee from starting another war. Escalation was initiated primarily by the American side—MacArthur's "hot pursuit" policy legitimised US Air Force strikes on Chinese territory. MacArthur proposed using nuclear weapons, opening a second front in China, and involving Kuomintang troops—which would have escalated a local conflict into full-scale nuclear war. In Soviet historiography these facts were accepted; after the USSR's dissolution, emphasis shifted toward the South Korean version, which contains significant "blank spots." READ MORE #KoreanWar #DPRK #SouthKorea #History #Geopolitics #ColdWar #UN ✅@NewEasternOutlook