The Stalemate
By July of 1951 the opposing forces more or less strung out along the 38th parallel, engaging in combat, but seizing little new ground. Both sides fought more for the avoidance of losing any ground, with the UN forces attempting to recover all of South Korea. As they fought each other some of the more famous actions of the Korean War took place. These include the Battles of Bloody Ridge, Heartbreak Ridge, and Pork Chop Hill. As the battles took place the front gyrated back and forth. Casualties on both sides continued to mount. Meanwhile negotiations for a ceasefire were conducted, starting at Kaesong.
The Chinese suffered far higher casualties than the UN forces opposing them. Part of this was due to the length of their supply lines and the inadequate means of traversing them. The ongoing bombing of all of North Korea added to their supply problems. The Chinese were simply not able to get sufficient supplies to the front throughout the war and the lack of medical supplies and faulty military gear increased the casualties in their ranks. Attempts to provide better anti-aircraft defenses were unsuccessful as 1951 ground into 1952, and the two opposing forces simply added to the attrition.
The negotiations for a cease fire broke off and then were restarted in Panmunjon, a village on the border between the two Koreas. Little progress was made when the talks were restarted. Neither North nor South Korea wanted to release the prisoners of war they had taken to the other side. The problem was that many captured communist troops did not want to return to either China or North Korea, according to the South Koreans. The North Koreans did not want to repatriate South Korean laborers they had forcibly sent to the North in the early months of the war.
When an agreement was finally reached it was based on a proposal made by the Indian government, and divided the two Koreas along the 38th parallel, creating a demilitarized zone between the two nations. It has been monitored by both the North Koreans and the United Nations since. The war ended in an armistice signed by all parties on July 27, 1953, and North Korea claimed victory. There has never been a peace treaty between the two countries, nor between the United Nations and North Korea. Since the signing of the armistice to the present day, acts of aggression by the North Koreans have taken place along the DMZ and on the seas around the Korean Peninsula.
The United Nations and the South Korean Army suffered a combined 178,000 dead during the three years of the war, with more than 550,000 wounded. Another 32,000 were missing in action. The communist forces had between 400,000 and 800,000 killed, and up to an estimated 800,000 wounded. More than 2.5 million civilians were killed in the conflict. More than half of the civilians killed in the war were North Korean. The Korean Peninsula was divided before the war and remained so, on more or less the same lines, after the war. US troops have maintained a continuous presence in South Korea ever since.
Where do we find this stuff? Here are our sources:
“The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War”, by David Halberstam, 2008
“A Short History of the Korean War”, by James L. Stokesbury, 1990
“Korea: The Limited War”, by David Rees, 1964
“Wrong Turns in Korea”, by Robert Dallek, American Heritage Magazine, Fall Issue, 2010
“Echoes of a Distant War”, by Bernard A. Weisberger, American Heritage Magazine, July/August 1994
“New Evidence of Korean War Killings”, BBC News, April 21, 2000