In August 1945, the Korean People’s Revolutionary Army, in co-operation with the Soviet troops, launched the general offensive to liberate Korea and brought Japan to its knees. The defeat of Japan upset American dreams of placing the whole Korean peninsula under US control and using it as a springboard for its strategy of world domination. Unable to realise its wild ambition, the USA put forward a so-called “practical solution” for occupying half of the Korean peninsula.
Under instructions from US President Truman, the State-War-Navy Co-ordinating Committee prepared a draft for the Soviet and US troops to disarm the Imperial Japanese army with the 38th parallel of the Korean peninsula as the dividing line. Truman approved it on the spot. It became “General Order No 1” that was issued to the Allied Powers on 13th August. In fact, the 38th parallel as a dividing line in Korea was never the subject of international discussions; it was unilaterally contrived by the USA.
According to this order, the advance contingent of the US 24th Army Corps arrived at Kimpho Airport on 4th September 1945 and the corps landed in Inchon, Pusan and Mokpho between 8th September and mid-October.
Referring to this, even Americans say that Wall Street’s war against the Korean people started practically from September 1945 when its generals landed in south Korea.
The USA rigged up and expanded the south Korean puppet army and trained it in the American way with a view to keeping the balance of forces at a “ratio of ten to one” over the north Korean army. It also seized its prerogative of supreme command over the puppet army.
From 1945 to 1949, the USA gave south Korea military aid worth over a billion dollars. Whilst stepping up the combat readiness of the puppet army, it deployed its reinforced forces in the areas along the 38th parallel whilst building new or repairing positions and military roads on a large scale.
At the same time, the US imperialists egged the puppet army on to launch armed provocations against north Korea along the 38th parallel. Their armed provocations from 1947 to June 1950 numbered over 5,150.
Such provocations were not simple ‘armed clashes’, they were ‘test wars’ committed repeatedly with a focus on the directions of main attack according to military action plans for the ‘northward expedition’.
Fujishima Udai, a Japanese commentator, said on 4th July 1975: “The US scheme to unleash a war in Korea did not kick off unexpectedly on 25th June 1950, which is usually called the day of the outbreak of the Korean war. It started from 1947 right after the Second World War.”
After rounding off war preparations, the US imperialists buckled down to action. Truman sent Secretary of Defence Johnson, Chair of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Bradley and State Department Advisor Dulles to Seoul and Tokyo on the pretext of discussing a “peace treaty” with Japan so as to ultimately secure the preparations for war against north Korea.
Dulles arrived in Seoul in mid-June 1950 and made final examination of the war preparations of the puppet army in a trench along the 38th parallel. Giving instructions to south Korean puppet leader Syngman Rhee, he said he came here with Truman’s order to inspect the preparations for a “northward march” with his own eyes and kick it off if everything was okay. He added that there was no need for further delay.
On 25th June 1950, the south Korean puppet army, in combat readiness under the direct command of the American Military Advisory Group, launched a sudden armed invasion of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) all along the 38th parallel.
But the US imperialists suffered an ignominious defeat in the war at the hands of the Korean people who turned out in the heroic struggle to defend the destiny of their country and nation.
Naenara
