The Allies unilaterally decided to divide Korea without consulting the Koreans in contradiction of the Cairo Conference. The USAMGIK (MGIK = Military Government in Korea) refused to recognize the provisional government of the short-lived People's Republic of Korea (PRK) because it suspected it was communist.
The rival U.S. and Soviet military commands in Korea would set up a Joint Commission to make recommendations of a single free government in Korea. This Commission was treated with great suspicion on both sides from its inception. Most important was the decision that a four-power trusteeship of up to five years would be needed before Korea attained independence.
Veteran American diplomat George F. Kennan, who was then serving in the American embassy in Moscow, observed the proceedings first hand, and wrote in his diary concerning James Byrnes, the American Secretary of State:
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"The realities behind this agreement, since they concern only such people as Koreans, Rumanians, and Iranians, about whom he knows nothing, do not concern him. He wants an agreement for its political effect at home. The Russians know this. They will see that for this superficial success he pays a heavy price in the things that are real."
However, American leaders were suspicious of the people's committees forming all over the peninsula, and suspected that without American intervention, the whole peninsula would elect to come under Communist government and Soviet influence.
Soviet forces arrived in Korea first, but occupied only the northern half, stopping at the 38th parallel, per the agreement with the United States.
April 3 1948
What began as a demonstration commemorating Korean resistance to Japanese rule ended with the Jeju Uprising where between 14,000 and 60,000 citizens were killed by South Korean soldiers. By one estimate, 70% of the villages were burned by the South Korean troops. The uprising lasted until the end of the Korean War.
The southern government conducted a number of military campaigns against left-wing insurgents who took up arms against the government and persecuted other political opponents. Over the course of the next few years, between 30,000 and 100,000 people would lose their lives during the war against the left-wing insurgents.
The Commission has verified over 14,000 civilians were killed in the brutal fighting that involved South Korean military and paramilitary units against pro-North Korean guerrillas. Although most of the fighting had subsided by 1949, fighting continued until 1950. The Commission estimates 86% of the civilians was killed by South Korean forces. The Americans on the island documented the events, but never intervened.
1948
On May 10 1948, South Korea convoked its first national general elections that the Soviets first opposed and then boycotted, insisting that the U.S. honor the trusteeship agreed to at the Moscow Conference.
North Korea held parliamentary elections three months later on 25 August 1948.
In October 1948, the Yeosu–Suncheon Rebellion took place, in which some regiments rejected the suppression of the Jeju uprising and rebelled against the government.
December 24, 1949
South Korean Army massacred Mungyeong citizens who were suspected communist sympathizers or their family and affixed blame to communists. President Rhee's régime expelled communists and leftists from southern national politics. Disenfranchised, they headed for the hills, to prepare for guerrilla war against the US-sponsored ROK Government.
1950
Just before the outbreak of the Korean War, the first president of South Korea, Syngman Rhee, had about 30,000 alleged communists imprisoned; he also had about 300,000 suspected sympathizers or his political opponents enrolled in an official "re-education" movement known as the Bodo League
On 7 June 1950, Kim Il-sung called for a Korea-wide election on 5–8 August 1950 and a consultative conference in Haeju on 15–17 June 1950. On 11 June, the North sent three diplomats to the South, as part of a planned peace overture that South Koreans were certain to reject.
The Korean War begins (25 June 1950)
June 25 1950; The Korean People's Army (KPA) crossed the 38th parallel behind artillery fire at dawn. There were numerous massacres of civilians and atrocities throughout the Korean War. Both sides began killing civilians even during the first days of the war.
27 June 1950; According to Kim Mansik, who was a military police superior officer, President Syngman Rhee ordered the execution of people related to either the Bodo League or the South Korean Workers Party.
The first massacre was started one day later in Hoengseong, Gangwon-do on 28 June. Retreating South Korean forces and anti communist groups executed the alleged-communist prisoners, along with many of the Bodo League members. The executions were without any trials.
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Estimates of the death toll vary. According to Prof. Kim Dong-Choon, Commissioner of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, at least 100,000 people were executed on suspicion of supporting communism; others estimate 200,000 deaths. The massacre was wrongly blamed on the communists for decades. In 2008, trenches containing the bodies of children were discovered in Daejon, South Korea, and other sites.
United States official documents show American officers witnessed and photographed the massacre.
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In one case a US officer is known to have sanctioned the killing of political prisoners so that they would not fall into enemy hands. On the other hand, United States official document showed that John Muccio, then United States Ambassador to South Korea, made recommendations to South Korean President Rhee Syngman and Defense Minister Shin Sung-mo that the executions be stopped. American witnesses also reported the scene of 12- or 13-year old girls' executions. The massacre was also reported to both Washington and General Douglas MacArthur.
North Korean capture of Seoul.
June 28 1950, A number of South Korean National Assemblymen remained in Seoul when it fell. 48 subsequently pledged allegiance to the North. Within days of the invasion, masses of ROK Army soldiers of dubious loyalty to the Syngman Rhee régime were either retreating southwards or were defecting en masse to the northern side, the KPA.
In occupied areas, North Korean Army political officers purged South Korean society of its intelligentsia by executing every educated person—academic, governmental, religious—
who might lead resistance against the North; the purges continued during the NPA retreat.
United Nations response (July – August 1950)
After the UN offensive in which South Korea recovered its occupied territories, the police and militia executed people who were suspected as North Korean sympathizers. In October 1950, the Goyang Geumjeong Cave Massacre occurred. In December British troops saved civilians lined up to be shot by South Korean officers and seized one execution site outside Seoul to prevent further massacres.
When the North Koreans retreated north in September 1950, they abducted tens of thousands of South Korean men. The reasons are not clear but many of the victims had skills, or had been arrested as right-wing activists.
China intervenes (October – December 1950)
In December 1950, National Defense Corps was founded; the soldiers were 406,000 drafted citizens. In the winter of 1951, 50,000 to 90,000 South Korean National Defense Corps soldiers starved to death while marching southward under the Chinese offensive when their commanding officers embezzled funds earmarked for their food. This event is called the National Defense Corps Incident. There is no evidence that Syngman Rhee was personally involved in or benefited from the corruption.
Sancheong-Hamyang
Sancheong-Hamyang massacre was conducted by a unit of the South Korean Army 11th Division. On 7 February 1951, 705 unarmed citizens in Sancheong and Hamyang, South Gyeongsang district of South Korea were killed. The victims were civilians and 85% of them were women, children and elderly people.
The 11th Division also conducted Geochang massacre two days later. Of 719 unarmed citizens in Geochang, The victims included 385 children.
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A researcher for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission disclosed National Defense Ministry official documents on his thesis that the massacre had been done under official South Korean Army order in order to annihilate citizens living in the guerrilla influenced area.
Stalemate (July 1951 – July 1953)
Armistice (July 1953 – November 1954)
Division of Korea (1954–present)
North Korea may have detained up to 50,000 South Korean POWs after the ceasefire. Over 88,000 South Korean soldiers were missing and the Communists' themselves had claimed that they had captured 70,000 South Koreans.
However, when ceasefire negotiations began in 1951, the Communists reported that they held only 8,000 South Koreans. The UN Command protested the discrepancies and alleged that the Communists were forcing South Korean POWs to join the KPA.
The Communists denied such allegations. They claimed that their POW rosters were small because many POWs were killed in UN air raids and that they had released ROK soldiers at the front. They insisted that only volunteers were allowed to serve in the KPA.
The April Revolution
In 1960, the April Revolution occurred and students joined an anti-Syngman Rhee demonstration; 142 were killed by police; in consequence Syngman Rhee resigned and defected to the United States.
After The War
American troops sent to aid South Korea: 5,720,000.
Population of Korea in 1950: 30 million.
Population of North Korea in 1950: 9 million.
Population of North Korea in 1955: 6 million.
Population of South Korea in 1950: 21 million.
I was not able to find the Population count of South Korea in 1955.
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General Curtis Lemay:“ After destroying North Korea’s 78 cities and thousands of her villages, and killing countless numbers of her civilians, [General] LeMay remarked, “Over a period of three years or so we killed off – what – twenty percent of the population.” It is now believed that the population north of the imposed 38th Parallel lost nearly a third its population of 8 – 9 million people during the 37-month long “hot” war, 1950 – 1953, perhaps an unprecedented percentage of mortality suffered by one nation due to the belligerence of another. ”During The Second World War the United Kingdom lost 0.94% of its population, France lost 1.35%, China lost 1.89% and the US lost 0.32%. During the Korean war, North Korea lost close to 30 % of its population
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