The Korean War

The Korean War began on June 25, 1950, when 75,000 North Korean soldiers poured over the 38th parallel into South Korea to impose communism on its neighbor.l The Korean War was the first military action of the Cold War.d The Korean War began at 4:30 a.m. on June 25, 1950, and ended on July 27, 1953. There are still more than 7,000 U.S. soldier missing in action from the war.a The North Korean film Unsung Heroes (1978) glorifies members of the North Korean military while depicting war crimes by South Korean and the U.S. In its cast were several U.S. soldiers who had defected to North Korea.j The 38th parallel was first suggested as a dividing line in 1896 The Korean War took a heavy toll—up to a total of 5 million dead, wounded, or missing, and half of them civilians.a Although actual hostilities during the Korean War ended on July 27, 1953, Congress lengthened the war period to January 31, 1955, to extend benefit eligibility for soldiers because peace was so uncertain after the 1953 peace negotiations.b Compared to WW II, there are few movies about the Korean War. Some of the most well known include The Manchurian Candidate (1962), Pork Chop Hill (1959), andBirthday Boy (2004). a North Koreans who were born after the Korean War in the late 1950s are on average about 2 inches shorter than South Koreans.g In March 2013, North Korea declared the 1953 armistice that ended the Korean War invalid.k At the end of the conflict, the combatants signed a cease-fire at 10:00 a.m. on July 27, 1953. There was not a treatise or an official end to the Korean War.d