Partition and raids
Occupation, two states, Jeju 3 April (1948), and a militarised parallel before the conventional war.
Any honest history starts in 1945, not only at dawn on 25 June 1950: occupation, two constitutions, and a militarised parallel.
The war's three campaigns -- south, north, then stalemate -- are easier to teach than the two-year negotiation that killed men for outposts while the text of an armistice was haggled.
Timeline
- Division at the 38th
US and Soviet occupiers choose the 38th parallel as a temporary line. Japanese rule ends; two military governments begin.
- Two republics
ROK (15 August) and DPRK (9 September) are proclaimed. Separate armies and ideologies replace occupation improvisation.
- Invasion
KPA crosses the parallel. Seoul falls in days. UNSC Resolution 83 follows on 27 June.
- Pusan Perimeter
Eighth Army and ROK hold a southeastern corner. August is the existential month of the ROK.
- Inchon
Operation Chromite lands at Inchon; Seoul is retaken on 28 September; KPA retreats north in disorder.
- China enters
PVA forces clash with UN troops in late October; the full shock hits in November. The UN retreats from the Yalu in winter.
- Seoul lost and retaken
Chinese/NK offensive takes Seoul again; Ridgway's counteroffensives restore a line near the parallel by spring.
- Talks begin
Armistice negotiations open at Kaesong, later Panmunjom. Fighting continues on ridges while diplomats argue POWs.
- ROK resistance to armistice
Rhee releases anti-communist POWs to complicate a deal; the US negotiates side assurances and a defense treaty.
- Armistice signed
Clark (UNC), Nam Il (DPRK), and Peng's deputy sign. Guns largely fall silent. No Korean peace treaty follows.
Eras
Invasion and perimeter
KPA southward rush; Taejon; the stand at Pusan.
Inchon to the Yalu
Chromite, Seoul, the UN crossing north, and the approach to China's border.
Chinese war and restabilisation
Chongchon, Chosin/Jangjin, the retreat, Ridgway's restoration, Seoul's last recapture.
Talks and ridges
Kaesong/Panmunjom, air war, outpost battles, and the July 1953 signature.
Milestones
UN Command precedent
The first large armed enforcement under the UN flag -- legally unique because of the Soviet boycott.
Chinese intervention
The PVA's entry made clear that a unified Korea under UN/ROK arms would mean war with the PRC.
Armistice without treaty
A ceasefire that became a seventy-year political system.
The signature at Panmunjom stopped a movement war and started a border system. It did not restore 1945's "temporary" line as a mere administrative convenience.
South Korean truth commissions since the 1990s have documented wartime civilian massacres on the southern side as well as northern and US air-war harm -- a fuller ledger than 1950s pamphlets.