Chapter 2 2. The outbreak of civil war

If there was no Cold War between the US and the Soviet Union, it would not be a big problem to divide North Korea into two occupied areas, North and South, just because of the need to surrender to Japan.The problem is that the United States and the Soviet Union quickly changed from wartime allies to rivals and engaged in a Cold War, making North Korea an important battlefield in the Cold War. In July 1946, Truman said: "North Korea has become a battleground for the struggle between two major ideological systems, and our victory in Asia will depend on the struggle in North Korea." The Soviet Army and the U.S. Army implemented completely different policies in their respective occupied areas, making North and South Korea develop in different directions.

After Japan surrendered, calls for an independent and free country in North Korea kept rising. On August 24, North Hamgyong Province first established a spontaneously formed provisional government institution-the People's Committee.Subsequently, people's committees were successively established in various provinces and counties of North Korea.At the same time, the Korean National Alliance and various political forces announced the establishment of the "Korean People's Republic". Immediately after the U.S. military entered southern Korea, it announced the imposition of military control to the south of the 38th parallel, disbanded the established people's regime - the people's committees at all levels and the political institutions of the "People's Republic of Korea", and at the same time used Japan's colonial governing institutions to maintain "order". ".The commander of the Japanese forces stationed in North Korea asked Hodge, the commander of the occupying forces, to retain a Japanese armed police force to protect his personnel and the 600,000 Japanese nationals in North Korea from reprisals.Hodge immediately agreed.In Hodge's view, "the Koreans are as much pussies as the Japanese," and intends to treat them both as vanquished enemies.

On the basis of the former Japanese colonial government, the U.S. military established the military government of South Korea, retaining most of the Japanese officials and police.The Japanese police, who hated the Korean people, turned into law enforcement officers of the US "military government".The U.S. occupying forces would rather be kind to members of the former Japanese colonial regime than suppress left-wing organizations and patriots in South Korea.The perverse actions of the Americans aroused strong dissatisfaction among the South Korean people. Hodge reported to the Joint Chiefs of Staff: "In South Korea, people blame the United States for division, and the people in this area hate all Americans more and more." Truman admitted in his memoirs: "Most Koreans want neither American soldiers, too, do not want Russian soldiers to remain on their own soil.... In the autumn of 1946, in the areas we occupied, there were several riots and demonstrations, and in a few cases our troops had to refrain from The demonstrators opened fire."

In order to resist the so-called "infiltration of the Communist Party", the military government, with the encouragement of Washington and MacArthur's headquarters, vigorously supported the anti-communist forces in South Korea. In June 1945, Syngman Rhee, who had left his hometown for 30 years and was in exile in the United States, asked the United States to recognize him as the leader of the North Korean government.At first, the United States refused to recognize Syngman Rhee's "interim government".But then the US government changed its mind. In late October, MacArthur took the 69-year-old Syngman Rhee back to Seoul from the United States by military plane.In front of another North Korean leader, Kim Koo, MacArthur made it clear that Syngman Rhee would be the ruler.

According to MacArthur's order, Hodge held a return ceremony for Syngman Rhee in Seoul.Hodge wants "all North Koreans to support their leader Syngman Rhee". In February 1946, the military government established the "Democratic House" mainly composed of right-wing elements, and appointed Syngman Rhee as the speaker. North Korea's development is relatively orderly.The Soviet Army did not establish a military government, but only established a military control agency - the Garrison Command, and established an agency responsible for civil affairs - the Civilian Government in the 25th Army Command.The Soviet army recognized the people's committees established in various places and took measures to make them a formal political institution in northern North Korea. On February 7, 1946, representatives of various democratic political parties, social organizations, and local people's committees in northern North Korea held a meeting in Pyongyang to establish the North Korean Provisional People's Committee as the central political authority in the northern half of North Korea.Kim Il Sung was elected chairman.Under the leadership of the Provisional People's Committee, North Korea carried out land reform and the nationalization of former Japanese industries, among many other democratic reforms.

Due to the de facto confrontation between North and South Korea and the growing demands of the Korean people for immediate independence, the joint trusteeship of major powers has become difficult to achieve.Hodge and his political advisers believe that the United States should gradually transfer power to the anti-communist forces headed by Syngman Rhee and establish a regime that obeys the orders of the United States.But Washington was not prepared to do so immediately. In December 1945, Bernas proposed at the meeting of the three foreign ministers in Moscow that the headquarters of the occupying forces of the United States and the Soviet Union should form a unified organization to govern the whole of Korea, and then at an appropriate time, the United States, the Soviet Union, China, and the United Kingdom would deal with it in the name of the United Nations. North Korea implements five-year trusteeship.Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov agreed to the trusteeship of the four countries, but advocated the establishment of the Koreans' own provisional government as the actual administrative body.The final agreement reached at the meeting stipulated that representatives of the U.S. and Soviet Occupation Force Commands formed a joint committee to consult with various democratic political parties and social organizations in North Korea on the issue of establishing a provisional democratic government in North Korea, and put forward their own proposals for the consideration of the U.S. and Soviet governments; Suggestions on trusteeship should also be put forward for consideration by the governments of the United States, the Soviet Union, China, and Britain.

After the agreement of the Moscow Foreign Ministers Meeting was announced, the right-wing forces in South Korea, in order to establish an anti-communist regime, took advantage of the people's desire for rapid independence to create "anti-management" public opinion, regardless of the facts, saying that the United States favored North Korea's independence while the Soviet Union advocated trusteeship.The policy of the US government has also changed. In February 1946, the U.S. State Department, War Department, and Navy Department Coordinating Committee stated in a policy document that it would be difficult for the joint committee to reach an agreement, and that the United States should establish a "provisional government" in southern Korea after the committee was deadlocked.

After the meeting of the Joint Commission began in March 1946, the United States and the Soviet Union had a heated debate on the nature of "democratic political parties and social organizations."The Soviet Union demanded the exclusion of right-wing organizations that created "anti-management" public opinion, while the United States insisted that they participate in the consultations as representatives of "public opinion" in South Korea.The meeting adjourned in May without any results.After the resumption of the meeting in May of the following year, the two sides continued the above-mentioned debate. In September, the United States used its influence in the United Nations to forcefully include the North Korean issue on the agenda of the second session of the United Nations General Assembly. On November 14, under the control of the United States, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution on the North Korean issue, deciding to set up the UN Interim Commission on North Korea, which would oversee the holding of parliamentary elections throughout North Korea, and then establish a unified government of North Korea.Earlier, the United States proposed to terminate the work of the joint committee at the joint committee meeting.

North Korea refused to let the United Nations Interim Committee on North Korea enter the country, and the United States manipulated the "Interim Committee of the General Assembly" (in order to prevent the Soviet Union from exercising its veto power in the Security Council, the United States proposed at the second session of the General Assembly that each member state send a representative to form the Interim Committee of the General Assembly , during the period from the closing of the second session of the UN General Assembly to the opening of the third session of the UN General Assembly, the implementation of six related tasks authorized by the UN General Assembly. The UN General Assembly passed the proposal of the United States on November 3, 1947) and adopted a resolution to hold elections in South Korea alone.

On May 10, 1948, elections were held in South Korea and the "National Assembly" of South Korea was formed. On August 15, the government of the Republic of Korea was formally established. The North confronted each other.The Democratic Front for Korean National Unification led by Kim Il Sung held elections for the Supreme People's Assembly on August 25. On September 9, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea was formally established, and Kim Il Sung was elected Prime Minister of the Cabinet. Immediately after the founding of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, foreign troops were called upon to spill out of the Korean peninsula.The withdrawal of Soviet troops from North Korea was completed by the end of 1948. On June 30, 1949, the United States announced that the withdrawal of U.S. troops in South Korea had been completed.

After the withdrawal of American and Soviet troops, the struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union on the Korean issue did not stop.This kind of struggle is intertwined with the struggle between North and South Korea and has intensified.There are more and more misunderstandings, differences, and contradictions between the two sides, and the rift is getting bigger and bigger. Against the backdrop of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, there was a fierce struggle between the two regimes and systems in the North and the South on how to achieve reunification and who to reunify with, which could not be reconciled, and finally led to the outbreak of the Korean War. Due to the insufficient military strength of the United States, it is very difficult to achieve its global strategic goals.In order to ensure the needs of strategic key areas, the United States does not regard South Korea as a key area.Therefore, it was once envisaged that in the event of a war in the Far East, the U.S. military would not be used directly to defend South Korea, nor would the Korean Peninsula be used as a base to launch an attack on the Asian continent. On January 12, 1950, US Secretary of State Acheson announced the Far East Strategy adopted by the National Security Council and approved by Truman in a speech at the National Press Club.Acheson announced that the United States' "defense ring" in the western Pacific starts from the Aleutian Islands, passes through Japan, and ends at the Ryukyu Islands and the Philippines.North Korea and Taiwan are not included in this line of defense. In the eyes of the U.S. authorities, the value of South Korea lies not in itself, but in its influence on the "credibility" of the United States throughout the Cold War.Therefore, Acheson also said in his speech that if there is a military attack on the area beyond this line, it must "first rely on the people under attack to resist, and then rely on the obligations of the entire civilized world under the Charter of the United Nations." .Immediately after the outbreak of the Korean War, the United States intervened under the banner of the "United Nations" in an armed manner, which was logical and not a sudden change in US policy. The United States has not "abandoned" South Korea.According to the "Interim Military Agreement between South Korea and the United States" signed in August 1948, the United States sent a large military advisory group composed of 500 people to South Korea, and equipped them with all levels of command departments of the South Korean Army; the military equipment provided to South Korea was worth 1.1 billions of dollars, including 100,000 rifles, 50 million rounds of ammunition, 2,000 rocket launchers, more than 40,000 military vehicles and various artillery (this figure comes from the official US military history "The US Army in the Korean War-Before and After the War broke out" ). In January 1950, the United States and South Korea signed another military aid agreement, and South Korea received US$10.97 million in military aid.Syngman Rhee's army was actively expanded and armed both before and after the U.S. withdrawal. In August 1948, the "South Korea National Defense Garrison", which was mainly composed of military officers and policemen during the former Japanese rule in Korea, had five brigades and fifteen regiments with a total of more than 50,000 people, and its name was also changed to "National Defense Forces". In May 1949, the South Korean Army upgraded brigades to divisions, and the army expanded to eight divisions and 23 regiments, with a strength of more than 100,000 troops.Since then, South Korea's military power has continued to expand.According to U.S. war history books, by June 1950, South Korea had a total strength of more than 150,000 troops, including 94,808 troops in eight divisions of the Army, 6,145 Coast Guards, 1,865 Air Forces, 48,273 policemen, and armored vehicles. 27 vehicles, more than 700 guns, 140 anti-tank guns, more than 1,900 rocket launchers, more than 2,100 military vehicles, more than 20 ships, and 22 aircraft. Rhee Chengman strongly advocated the unification of North Korea by force. On January 21, 1949, he publicly stated at a press conference that he hoped that "the national army will advance northward." On February 7, he delivered a speech in the National Assembly. If North Korea cannot be reunified peacefully with the help of the United Nations North Korea Commission, then the national army must march to North Korea.He said: "The division between the North and the South must be resolved by war." On September 30, he said in a letter to his friend and American Robert Oliver: I firmly believe that now is the best time to take psychological steps to unite with the Communist forces in the North who are loyal to us in order to eliminate the rest of him.We will squeeze Kim Il Sung's troops into the mountains, where we will starve them to death.At that time, our defense line can be established on the mouth of the Tumen River and the Yalu River.Our situation will get better. One week before the outbreak of the Korean Civil War, US State Department adviser John Foster Dulles visited South Korea and inspected the 38th parallel.Dulles is visiting South Korea on behalf of Secretary of State Acheson.When he delivered a speech at the South Korean Congress, he clearly stated: "If South Korea is attacked and invaded, the United States will defend South Korea." Dulles told the South Koreans with considerable certainty: "In case South Korea is invaded by the North, the United States has sufficient defenses." Be prepared, and have a perfect plan to deal with it.” The Democratic People's Republic of Korea has made a series of efforts to realize the peaceful reunification of the country.At the same time, necessary military preparations were also made.Weapons and equipment were imported from the Soviet Union, various military branches were formed, and military training was strengthened. In May 1949, Kim Il Sung sent Jin Yi, director of the Political Department of the People's Army, to China to request that the North Korean divisions in the Chinese People's Liberation Army be returned to North Korea.The North Korean troops are mainly concentrated in the Fourth Field Army, with about 40,000 people, who have contributed to the victory of the Chinese revolution.With the final victory of the Chinese revolution and the establishment of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea established, some of them expressed their desire to return to their homeland to join the People's Army.Mao Zedong agreed to let the two North Korean divisions in the Northeast return to North Korea, and the other division that was fighting in the south could return to North Korea after completing its mission.In July of the same year, two North Korean divisions returned to North Korea and were incorporated into the People's Army. According to Stalin's report to Stalin by the Soviet ambassador to North Korea, Stekov, by August 1949, the Korean People's Army had five infantry divisions, one infantry brigade, one mechanized division, two artillery brigades and one with seventy-four aircraft. China's small air force, with a total strength of more than 80,000 people, and another 41,000 garrison troops.Later, the People's Army developed again.By the time the Korean War broke out, the People's Army had ten infantry divisions, one tank brigade, and air force, navy, and garrison troops, totaling more than 135,000 people, equipped with heavy weapons such as T-34 tanks, Jacques fighter jets, and 122mm howitzers. In January 1950, Kim Il Sung formally proposed to the Soviet Union the possibility of unifying Korea by military means and asked the Soviet government to support it.In the same month, Jin Guangxia was sent to wait until China requested to bring back 14,000 North Korean fighters.China agreed to their request, and these people returned to North Korea in the spring of 1950 and were incorporated into the People's Army. In April, Kim Il Sung went to Moscow for talks with Stalin.Stalin agreed with Kim Il Sung's analysis of the situation in North Korea and his idea of ​​preparing to unify the country by military means. In May, Kim Il Sung went to China and informed Mao Zedong of his talks with Stalin. Realizing the reunification of Korea is the common wish of the Korean people and conforms to the fundamental interests of the Korean people. Although the choice of war is not ideal, it is understandable.In order to achieve reunification, both the North and the South made military preparations.Moreover, the conflict on the 38th parallel was first provoked by South Korea. From January to April 1949, South Korea used troops ranging from companies to battalions to attack north of the 38th parallel 37 times. In May, the South Korean army dispatched more than 4,100 people to attack the People's Army garrison positions near Kaesong, north of the 38th parallel. In July, South Korea once again dispatched brigade-sized troops to attack the north.According to statistics from North Korea, South Korea made 1,836 provocations on the 38th parallel throughout 1949. The scale of conflicts ranges from small to large, and the road to peaceful reunification is blocked. In the end, it is inevitable that civil wars will break out and solve problems by force. Due to the subsequent armed intervention of the United States (although the United States captured the flag of the United Nations), the nature of the Korean Civil War changed.The Korean people's domestic revolutionary war for independence and reunification evolved into a national liberation war against imperialist aggression.