The causes of the Korean War - Essay Example

On the other hand, South Korea was being led by Syngman Rhee, a nationalist and was receiving by members of the United Nations and the United States of America. Since the Korean War ended in a truce, there is a presence of the US soldiers in South Korea. This is because, officially, officially, North and South Korea are still at war and thus, there is need to ensure that the US soldiers can make timely military intervention, in the event that North Korea makes an invasion on South Korea. The same truce ensures that South and North Korea remain divided by the 38h parallel.

In light of the gravity of the Korean War, the causes of the Korean War must have also been not only serious, but also cutting across socio-economic and political issues, as shall be seen in the discussion which ensues forthwith. There are scholars such as Brune1 who point out that the historical relationship of the two states also served as a strong run-up to the Korean War. As provisional governments, the North and South divisions competed vigorously over the control of the Korean Peninsula.

This always made the major surrounding players in international politics [Russia, China and Japan] to yield to the temptation of interfering with the political situation in the Korean Peninsula. . Specifically, Kim II-Sung had made efforts to create a Stalinist empire which was built on communist ideals. This regime came complete, having a well established army known as the North Korean People’s Army (NKPA). NKPA was more than adequately stocked with Russian guns, tanks and artillery. On the other hand, South Korea had an unstable political situation.

However, the political and economic situation in the United States began to change when the United States began to support Syngman Rhee as the head of the South Korean state. In the mind of the Soviet Republic, if America was going to continuously fund Rhee and South Korea, then it (Russia) was going to lose its grip on the North. This is because, with the large amount of money that the US had and was ready to spend on its allies, pressure would mount in the north to develop a friendlier outlook towards the United States.

Thus, the Soviet Union sought to strengthen its hold on North Korea as hard as possible. This state of affairs continued to worsen the state of antagonism between the US and the Soviet Union over the affairs of the Korean peninsula. Later, tension and the competitive spirit between the Soviet Union and the US continued to mount when the political leaders who were being backed by the two political rivals ascended the seat of the head of the executive. On 10 May, 1948, the south held its general elections which saw Syngman Rhee become president.

In response, the Soviet Union supported Kim II-Sung politically so that he was declared Prime Minister of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea on 19 September, 1948. These events made it clear for the two political rivals that