Korean War Stories told by Y. S. Kim

The Origin of the 38th Parallel

It is known to Koreans that the 38th parallel was created by Americans. After the Soviet Union declared war against Japan on August 7, 1945, the advancement of Soviet troops was so fast that they were likely to take over the entire Korean Peninsula by the end of August. Dean Rusk and John Bonsteel during their Pentagon night duties asked Soviet authorities to stop at the 38th parallel. Dean Rusk later said his decision was based on the location of the capital city of Seoul. Yes, Joseph Stalin agreed to stop, and pulled out Soviet troops already in the south of the 38th parallel. The question is why Joseph Stalin had to "obey" the order from these two mid-level officials in the U.S. government, without questioning their credentials. In 1945, John Bonsteel was a colonel of the U.S. Army, and Dean Rusk was also a mid-level official at the State Department. Bonsteel later served as the commander of the U.N. Forces in Korea as a four-star general, and Dean Rusk was the secretary of state in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations (1961-1969), but they were rather insignificant figures in 1945. I heard several times Dean Rusk saying that he told Soviet authorities to stop at the 38th parallel, but he never gave an explanation of why Joseph Stalin had to obey his order. Here is my explanation.

• In February of 1945, Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt, and Joseph Stalin got together in the Crimean resort town of Yalta and discussed how to end the war quickly and how to divide up the world after the the war. At that time, the end of Hitler's Germany was near, but Japan was still putting up strong resistance against American troops in the Pacific Ocean. While this conference was going on, the United States was making preparations for the IwoJima landing, where more than 20,000 American soldiers died.

  At the same time, the United States was developing nuclear explosive devices, but they were not included in any of the military options. The only thing Americans knew was that Japanese soldiers never surrender. Thus, the only way to finish the war was to land American troops in the Japanese mainland. Americans estimated that the landing could cost at least 150,000 and up to 500,000 American lives.

• American military planners were conscious of the one-million-strong Japanese army in Manchu, usually called Kantow-Goon. This ruthless army was known as Kwantong Goon to Koreans and Kantonsky army to Russians. Once Americans start landing on the Japanese mainland, those Kantow-Goon troops would come, and kill all Americans.

  The best way to deal with this problem was to let Soviet troops take care of these formidable "weapons of mass destruction." This was precisely what happened at the Yalta conference.

  The conference was attended by Stalin (host), Churchil and Roosevelt. Churchil was interested in keeping Poland under British influence, against Stalin. Churchil eventually failed, and I assume that this was the reason why he lost the election held during the Potsdam conference in June of of 1945, after Hitler's death.

  Roosevelt was interested in using Soviet troops to take care of Japanese troops in Manchu. In one late evening, Roosevelt visited Stalin without Churchil to ask him to attack Japanese Kantonsky army in Manchu. Stalin agreed on the condition that Americans provide logistics for the Soviet army. Roosevelt agreed to provide tons of military supplies, including 8,000 GMC trucks. As a consequence, both Soviet and American troops came to Korea on the same trucks. I was in the North in 1945, and I saw Soviet troops on American GMC trucks with ten wheels.

• Roosevelt and Stalin both wanted to let the other side do the dirtiest job. The meeting was brief and they did not even write down their agreement.

  Roosevelt was happy because Stalin would take care those Japanese troops in Manchu. On the other hand, Stalin's understanding was that he would take care of the Kantonsky army, and let Americans take case of the Japanese mainland defense force. Stalin knew that all combat units of the Kantonsky army were pulled out from Manchu and sent to Burma for the ill-fated Imphal (to conquest India) operation. The Kantonsky army Americans feared most was simply a paper tiger.

  Stalin knew further that the Japanese mainland defence force was still a formidable fighting unit. Stalin's understanding of the Yalta agreement was that Soviets take care of the Kantonsky army (very easy job) with American supplies -- really profitable business.

  While this was going on, two separate Japanese units were in Korea. One unit was the 17th Regional Army headquartered in Seoul. This unit was a component of the mainland defense force.

  The other unit consists of logistic bases for the Kantonsky army, and their headquarters was in Pyongyang.

  There were no boundaries between these two Japanese army units, but the 38th parallel approximately separates their operational areas. This is the precisely the reason why Stalin ordered his troops to stop at the 38th parallel, and pulled back some of the troops already in the South.

  Mountains of Sorae (north) seen from Baeknyun Island (south). photo from Yonhap News.

• In 1945, I was at the village of Sorae, about 50 kilometers north of the 38th parallel. There the engineers of the Japanese mainland defense force were building bunkers against possible American landing. You can see the mountains of Sorae from the Baeknyun Island. Thus, according to Stalin's understanding, my home village should have gone to the American side. This tells how approximate the 38th parallel was.

  Here is the final question. Was Dean Rusk aware of the Yalta agreement between Roosevelt and Stalin? Vaguely Yes, but not in terms of the two separate Japanese army units in Korea. He was not in a position to know what went on between Roosevelt and Stalin.

From 1945 to 1950

In preparation. There are many interesting stories I could post. Please come again.

From June 21 to June 29, 1950

It was June 25, 1950. It was a usual Sunday morning, but the atmosphere in Seoul was different. At 1:10 PM in the afternoon, Seoul's radio broke the news. The North Korean army started large-scale attacks across the 38th parallel which then was the border between the North and South. The report further said the North Korean army units are headed by the tanks along the Dongduchun route directly north of Seoul.

There was the 8th Division of the South Korean army equipped mostly with US-made M-1 rifles and a number of machine guns. How do I know? I was there on June 4, three weeks before the 6.25 day. I accompanied my father who was a high-ranking officer in Korea's defense ministry. He was one of those who went there to inspect the supply situation for the troops. This inspection team was organized by Colonel Chang Do-Young who was the intelligence chief of the Korean army. Chang later became the army chief of staff and had to weather Park Chung-Hee's military take-over in 1961.

• The inspectors asked the field officers what they need most. They said "ammunition!" They said they do not have enough ammo even for target practices. Among other questions, I remember Col. Chang asking what North Koreans are up to on the other side. The field officers said they are building a road toward us. Chang asked them whether they know why. The field commanders said "No idea." They had no ideas because the concept of tanks was not within the scope of the South Korean commanders.

  At that time, South Koreans troops were equipped with semi-automatic M-1 rifles with a magazine of eight rounds, while their Northern counterparts had manually-fed Soviet-made Mosin-Nagant rifles (designed in 1891) with five rounds. Thus, South Koreans felt they were superior, but they failed to grasp new variables: tanks and airplanes.

• At 4:00 AM on June 25, North Koreans crossed the 38th parallel with 180 Soviet-built tanks looking like these. They were T-34 tanks which destroyed German army in Stalingrad (1942-43), and thereafter.

  It took North Koreans three days to completely destroy the South Korean army, and march into the capital city of Seoul on June 29 (1950).

Kim Il-Sung with Dr. Lee Seung-Gi (around 1960).

• Kim Il-Sung and Lee Sung-Gi. Who is Lee Seung-Gi? Dr. Lee studied in Japan before 1945. He studied there how to extract cotton like fibres from coals, while American were interested in extracting silk-like fibres from petroleum. This American product is called nylon. Cotton and silk. Which is more important to humans? Coal and petroleum. Which is easier to get?

  After 1945, he took a position at SNU and became the dean of the Engineering College. He was in that position when the Korean War broke out. He was forced to the North, but Kim Il-Sung encouraged him to continue his research. He was thus able to bring his research result to a production stage, as is seen in this photo.

  I once read his article in one of North Korean propaganda books. There he said Americans were very nasty when he attempted to get supports from American military authorities right after 1945, and this is the reason why he moved to the North voluntarily. It could be true that Americans could not appreciate the originality of Korean scientists at that time (this is true even now according to my experience), but he should have stayed in the South on the American side with much richer scientific resources.

• Yi Kwang-Su. I do not have to explain who he was, not many young people know he was kidnapped by NK communists during the summer of 1950. He was only 58 years old, but was in poor health. He died in the North soon after he went there. Click here for a detailed story.

• When I entered SNU's Engineering College in 1954, Mr. Woo Hyung-Joo was the central figure in the Department of Electrical Engineering. He was a graduate of Japan's Waseda University, and was a professor at Kim Il-Sung University. He came to the South during the 1.4 retreat. Not many professors had doctoral degrees in Korea at that time.

• Who composed the Song of General Kim Il-Sung? I ask this question whenever I meet Koreans from the North in Russia. They cannot answer this question. They do not know the composer fled to the South during the 1.4 retreat. It would not be right for me to mention his name while he is not telling about himself. Every Korean I met from the North is very proud of Dr. Lee Seung-Gi whose photo is shown above. He is their national hero.

to be continued

I have already written many stories on the Korean War. It is a matter of editing them for this webpage. Please come again for more interesting stories.

In the meantime, you will be interested in some of the photos taken during the war period.