Korea: From Pusan to the Yalu

In August of 1945, following the surrender of Japanese troops in Korea, American and Soviet negotiators agreed to an administrative decision of the peninsula at the 38th parallel. With the nation divided between two opposing political systems, the seeds of civil war had been planted.

In this series, we follow the first year of the Korean conflict. On June 25, 1950, North Korea unexpectedly attacked and overran US and South Korean troops, pushing them to the Pusan perimeter, a tiny southeast corner of the peninsula. Reinforcements eventually arrived and repelled the North Koreans. Aided by General MacArthur’s brilliant counterattack at Inchon, the Koreans were driven back past the 38th parallel to the Yalu River, the boundary of Chinese Manchuria. In November, the Chinese launched their first offensive. U.N. forces were pushed back below the 38th parallel, and in January of 1951 evacuated Seoul.