The Korean War began with an invasion from the north
On this day · 25 June 1950
On June 25, 1950, North Korean troops poured across the 38th parallel, igniting the first armed clash of the Cold War.
On June 25, 1950, the North Korean People’s Army launched a coordinated assault across the 38th parallel, the line that had divided the peninsula since 1945, and drove south toward Seoul. Leader Kim Il-sung had moved only after securing Stalin’s backing.
The attack became the Cold War’s first shooting conflict. Within days, President Harry Truman committed American air, naval, and ground forces to a United Nations effort and named Gen. Douglas MacArthur to command it—the first time the UN authorized force to repel an invasion.
The front swung violently up and down the peninsula as China entered on the North’s side. Fighting ground to a halt near where it had begun.
An armistice signed on July 27, 1953 stopped the combat but never formally ended the war.
The boundary it froze, the Demilitarized Zone, still divides Korea today—one of the world’s most fortified borders.
Sources & references
2 referencesWell-established. Corroborated by 2 independent sources.
