Second Korean War | |||||||||
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Part of the Great Interlude | |||||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||||
North Korea | South Korea United States Supported by: | ||||||||
Commanders | |||||||||
Kim Man-Il Ri-hwan Kim Il-chol † Kim Yong-chun † Guo Boxiong |
Lee Hoi-chang Cho Yung-kil Kim Jong-hwan Jeb Bush Al Gore Nico Lorenz Junichiro Koizumi John Howard | ||||||||
Strength | |||||||||
2,900,000 150,000 Total: 3,050,000 |
2,300,000 100,000 10,000 7,500 2,000 Total: 2,419,500 | ||||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||||
675,000 dead
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630,000 dead
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The Second Korean War (in Korean: 통일 전쟁, "War of National Reunification") was a war fought between North Korea (with partial support from the People's Republic of China) and South Korea (with the support of the United States and partial support from the European Union, Japan, and the Oceanic Republic). The war was a result of half a century long period of tension between the south and North. It finally broke out into an all out war on November 5, 2004 with an invasion of Seoul via underground tunnels, allowing the KPA to surprise and overwhelm ROK and US troops. After a half year long period of bloody conflict that resulted in the deaths of 4 million people in total and two nuclear strikes by the DPRK, the war came to end with the capture of Pyongyang and arrest of Kim Man-il
Background[]
Since the end of the First Korean War (1950-1953), the two Koreas had been firmly divided along the 38th parallel north, establishing a highly-militarized border. While the war had devastated both countries, neither renounced their claims to the other half of the peninsula, and continued to support themselves as the legitimate government.