1950 in South Korea 25 June 1950 in the whole of Korea. The Korean War happened because the North Korean forces surprised the South Korean army and the small U.S. force stationed in the country, and quickly headed toward the capital of South Korea. The trigger for the war was when, in 1950, Syngman Rhee, who was the South Korean president those days, boasted that he was going to attack North Korea. It was a good enough excuse, so the North Koreans invaded South Korea. This started the actual fighting. On 26 June 1950, U.S. President Harry S. Truman directs General Douglas MacArthur to
Foreign relations of South Korea established. Upon the onset of the Korean War, U.S. forces were sent to defend South Korea against invasion by North Korea and later China. Following the Armistice, South Korea and the U.S. agreed to a "Mutual Defense Treaty", under which an attack on either party in the Pacific area would summon a response from both. In 1968, South Korea obliged the mutual defense treaty, by sending a large combat troop contingent to support the United States in the Vietnam War. The U.S. Eighth Army, Seventh Air Force, and U.S. Naval Forces Korea are stationed in South Korea. The two nations