[칼럼] Korea Story 5 - by Atty Jeong-kee Kim

(Newskorea=Seoul) Digital News Team = <Korea Story 5 by Atty Jeong-kee Kim>

● The Misjudgment of the Aggressor Kim Il-sung and the Origins of the Korean War 

These days, the number of people who publicly say that the invasion of the North or the South is not important regarding the Korean War has increased significantly. The position on the Korean War is shocking, but the claim that the Korean War was a by-product of the Chinese civil war is also absurd. To conclude, the Korean War was caused by North Korea's Kim Il-sung as the lead actor, China's Mao Zedong as the supporting actor, and Soviet Union's Stalin as the director.
 
On June 25, 1950, at 4 a.m., North Korean forces launched a surprise attack along the 38th parallel and took only three days to enter Seoul. The North Korean military's strength was overwhelming from the outset, with their ground forces numbering twice that of the South Korean army. North Korea had 180,000 soldiers comprising 10 infantry divisions, one tank brigade, and three independent regiments, while the South Korean army had 94,000 soldiers with eight infantry divisions and two independent regiments. North Korea's combat equipment outnumbered South Korea's by more than three times. At the start of the war, North Korea possessed over 200 tanks, whereas the South Korean army had none. South Korean soldiers would flee or tremble in fear at the mere sound of North Korean tanks. In terms of air power, North Korea had 211 aircraft, including fighters, whereas South Korea had only 22 liaison and training planes.

North Korea planned to occupy Busan within a month by launching simultaneous attacks across the 38th parallel. The main attack force consisted of the 1st Corps, comprising four divisions and one tank brigade. The 3rd and 4th Divisions, along with two tank regiments from the 105th Tank Brigade, were directed towards Uijeongbu-Seoul, while the 1st Division and one tank regiment advanced towards Munsan-Seoul. The 6th Division was to cross the Han River and advance towards Gimpo-Yeongdeungpo.

The secondary attack force, the 2nd Corps, consisted of three infantry divisions and one motorcycle regiment. The 2nd and 12th Divisions, along with the motorcycle regiment, were to advance toward Chuncheon-Gapyeong-Hongcheon-Suwon, bypassing the eastern side of Seoul to encircle the main South Korean forces. The 5th Division, supported by the 766th Guerrilla Regiment and the 945th Marine Brigade, was to advance southward along the east coast towards Pohang. The South Korean forward defense units consisted of four divisions and one regiment. The 17th Independent Regiment was stationed on the Ongjin Peninsula, the 1st Division in Kaesong-Munsan, the 7th Division north of Uijeongbu, the 6th Division north of Chuncheon, and the 8th Division along the east coast. However, due to the lifting of the emergency alert on midnight June 24, many soldiers were away, leaving only half the troops at their posts when the North Korean invasion began.

Why did Kim Il-sung start the Korean War?

First, Kim Il-sung harbored a delusional dream of unification.
Kim Il-sung, born in 1912 during the Japanese occupation, dropped out of Manchuria's Yuwen Middle School, equivalent to a five-year secondary school, in 1927, becoming a 'low-educated intellectual.' From his youth, he engaged in small-scale armed anti-Japanese activities around Manchuria and later fled to the Soviet Far East's Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army to escape Japanese military suppression in 1941, where he worked as an intelligence officer. After liberation, the Soviet Union occupied North Korea and administered it militarily for three years. Soviet Military-General Terentii Shtykov, a close associate of the Soviet Communist Party's leadership, installed Kim Il-sung, then a Soviet army captain, as the leader, implementing a guided governance. Although Kim Il-sung was fortunate to be chosen as the northern leader by the Soviets, during the post-liberation period following World War II, leaders of the Korean peninsula, caught in the international political dynamics that led to the division, harbored a fervent desire for unification. The problem was that Kim Il-sung, who had been involved in armed resistance since his teenage years and witnessed numerous wars, including the Manchurian Incident in 1931, the Sino-Japanese War in 1937, the Pacific War in 1941, and the Chinese Civil War from 1947-49, became obsessed with the unrealistic dream of achieving unification through force during the Cold War era. This resulted in the catastrophic tragedy of a fratricidal war.

Second, Kim Il-sung meticulously prepared for war to realize his dream.
The country that prepares for war wins. This was true for the First Sino-Japanese War and the Russo-Japanese War, where Japan's thorough preparations led to the defeat of China's Beiyang Fleet and Russia's Far Eastern Fleet and Baltic Fleet. The same applies to World War II. Germany's comprehensive war preparations led to the collapse of France, Austria, Netherlands, Poland, and Czechoslovakia, except for Britain and Russia. Of course, the U.S. later entered the war and formed the Allied Forces to fight a joint war, which turned the situation around and prevented Germany from achieving its dream of unifying Europe.

What was the Korean War like? It was a war in which North Korea prepared thoroughly in advance and invaded the South. It took less than three days for Seoul to be taken over, and if Kim Il-sung had not hesitated in Seoul and pushed forward, the war would have already ended before the UN forces, led by the US military, entered the war.

Isn't it surprising that the fledgling state of North Korea could prepare for war within two years after the Soviet military administration ended? Under Soviet guidance, Kim Il-sung trained the North Korean People's Army to be an elite force from 1945 during the Soviet military administration period. How prepared were they? The number of Soviet military advisers in North Korea before the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950 was higher than the number of Soviet advisers in China, demonstrating the extensive Soviet military education. It wasn't just the quality of military education; the North Korean People's Army was fully armed with the weapons left behind by Japan's 34th and 58th Armies.

Additionally, during the Chinese Civil War from 1947-49, two divisions of North Korean troops participated in large-scale combat in Northeast China, gaining valuable combat experience and returning home as formidable forces. This combination of Soviet military training, Japanese weaponry, and Chinese Civil War combat experience provided the conditions for launching a war. In other words, it was easy for North Korea to wage war against the poorly prepared South Korean army, which lacked these three crucial elements.

Third, Kim Il-sung believed Stalin and Mao Zedong would support the war.
Kim Il-sung repeatedly sought Stalin's approval for the war, and Stalin initially refused but eventually gave his consent in January 1950, leading to the surprise invasion on June 25. Why did Kim Il-sung need Stalin's approval? At the time, the Soviet Union was the leader of the communist bloc in the post-war Cold War era, and Stalin was respected as the leader of the global communist movement. Additionally, North Korea desperately needed Soviet technology and financial support, as the Soviet Union was one of the few industrialized nations in the communist bloc.

What about Mao Zedong? Kim Il-sung was confident of Chinese intervention. The relationship between North Korea and China could be seen as an extension of the Ming-Qing tributary system, where China intervened in Korean affairs as it did during the Imjin War by sending troops to repel the Japanese invaders. Similarly, China intervened in the Korean War under the banner of the 'War to Resist America and Aid Korea.' Furthermore, the North Korean People's Army had transformed into an elite force under Soviet guidance after participating in the Chinese Civil War, contributing significantly to Lin Biao's victories in Northeast China, which facilitated the easy capture of Beijing. The Chinese Communist leadership felt a sense of blood-bonded allegiance to North Korea for their support during the civil war. When China was on the verge of recapturing Taiwan, it appointed Peng Dehuai, the legendary commander, to lead its intervention in the Korean War, partly out of gratitude to North Korea for its support during the civil war.

Fourth, Kim Il-sung misjudged.

Kim Il-sung's critical mistake was that he judged that the United States would not participate in the Korean War if it broke out. If they took control of Seoul on the 3rd day of the invasion of the South, and as Park Heon-young declared, hundreds of thousands of South Korean Labor Party members rose up simultaneously across the country and received a surrender from Syngman Rhee, the situation was considered to be over. Although a separate government led by Syngman Rhee was established in South Korea after the U.S. military government ended in 1948, South Korea was still a newly independent nation. The withdrawal of U.S. troops in 1949 created a military imbalance between the North and South. Furthermore, the January 1950 statement by Secretary of State Dean Acheson, excluding South Korea from the U.S. East Asian Defense Perimeter, emboldened Kim Il-sung, igniting his ambitions for unification through force.

☆ Author:  Atty Jeong-kee Kim ☆

[Education]
- Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, Summa Cum Laude, State University of New York at Stony Brook
- Doctor of Jurisprudence, Marquette University Law School
- Senior Executive Program, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
- Research Scholar in North Korean Studies, Peking University

[Experience]
- Consul General of the Republic of Korea in Shanghai
- Commissioner General for the Korean Pavilion at the 2010 Shanghai Expo
- CEO of the Asia-Pacific Local Government Network for Economic and Social Development (CityNet)
- Law Clerk, Milwaukee Circuit Court, USA
- Senior Attorney-at-Law, Dr & Aju LLC
- Distinguished Professor, Graduate School of Political Science, Kookmin University
- Chair Professor, Graduate School of Business, Dongguk University
- Distinguished Visiting Professor, World Economy Research Institute, Nanjing University
- Research Professor, Institute of Oriental Studies, Peking University 
- First President, Soongsil Cyber University

[Publications]
- Georo English Studies Series for College Students [10 volumes] (Georo Publishing)
- I Challenge the Possibility of One Percent (Chosun Ilbo)
- The Art of Negotiation (Cheongnyonneongsin Publishing)
- Korea and the World (Chekmidum Publishing)