North Korea in the Korean War North Korea in the Korean War The Korean War started when North Korea invaded South Korea, and ended on July 27, 1953 with the armistice creating the well-known Korean Demilitarized Zone. In August 1945, two young aides at the State Department divided the Korean peninsula in half along the 38th parallel. The Russians occupied the area north of the line and the United States occupied the area to its south. On June 25, 1950, the Korean War began when some 75,000 soldiers from the North Korean People’s Army poured across the 38th parallel, the boundary between the Soviet-backed Democratic People’s
North Korea in the Korean War these, about 10 percent of Korea’s pre-war population, were civilians. This rate of civilian casualties was higher than in World War II and the Vietnam War. Nearly 10,000 North and South Korean soldiers were also killed in battle before the war even began. North Korean casualties amount at around 600,000 civilians and 406,000 soldiers. Unlike World War II and Vietnam, the Korean War did not get much media attention in the United States. The most famous representation of the war in popular culture is the television series "M*A*S*H", which was set in a field hospital in South Korea. The series