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The first year of the Korean War created an enormous refugee problem. After the North Koreans invaded (June 1950), fighting raged up and down the Peninsula. The North Koreans Army, heavily armed by Soviet leader Josef Stalin emboldened by the atomic bomb, drove the poorly equipped South Korean Army joined by a few American units rushed to the Peninsula into a pocket at the southern tip of Korea around the port of Pusan. The United Nations authorized military action to save South Korea -- United Nations Security Council Resolution 84 (July 1950). General MacArthur staged a brilliant amphibious landing at Inchon which cut off North Korean supply lines and retook the South Korean capital of Seoul (September 1950). United Nations (mostly American) forced surged north, approaching the Yalu River on the northern border with China. MacArthur had dismissed the danger of a Chinese intervention assuring President Truman that they would never dare. . But they intervened in force (November 1950), driving the U.N. forced back south and seizing Seoul once again. MacArthur organized a counter offensive (February 1951) and regained Seoul (March 1951). It is at this time that MacArthur began openly criticizing the President an unprecedented case of rank insubordination, Truman replaced MacArthur with Gen. Matthew Ridgeway (April 1951). Ridgeway repelled a massive Chinese offensive and stabilized the front just north of the 38th Parallel, roughly the frontier at the time the North Koreans invaded a year earlier. After this, few additional refugees were created, but South Korean was left with an enormous refugee problem. This was the end of major ground movements, but had created an enormous refugee problem. The Korean War refugees for some reason are some of the least covered refugees of the 20th century and one of the most tragic refugee groups. The impact of the Korean conflict on the Korean civilian population was particularly traumatic. Precise date is unknowable, but the toll on the civilian population was enormous. There are believed to have been some 3-4 million casualties (dead, injured, and missing). There are estimates that some 1 million people in the north fled south to escape from the advancing Chinese Army (December 1950-April 1951). The refugee flow was virtually all one way, civilians moving south, fleeing the Communists. Very few Koreans fled north as the U.N. armies broke out of the Pusan Perimeter (September 1950). Many thought that their flight south would be temporary. They left land, property, heirloom, and family members behind that they would be reunited after only a brief period of separation. Family members found themselves permanently separated. A few were briefly reunited when the two Koreas agreed to unification visits (2002). [Haan] Others managed to flee as a family group, but failed to keep together as they trekked south. Parents were killed or captured. Children became lost or died of exposure and malnutrition. There were incidents of soldiers firing on refuges, but the greater problem was exposure in cold weather and the lack of food and water. There was no provision for refugees, especially during the first year of the war when the battle lines swung widely north and south over virtually the entire length of the peninsula. During this period it was only American GIs sharing their provisions that saved many from starvation, especially the children. As the war progressed and the font line was stabilized, relief efforts became more regularized One important group was CARE, a relief organization at the end of World War II to assist people in War-torn Europe.
The first year of the Korean War created an enormous refugee problem. After the North Koreans invaded (June 1950), fighting raged up and down the Peninsula. The North Koreans Army, heavily armed by Soviet leader Josef Stalin emboldened by the atomic bomb, drove the poorly equipped South Korean Army joined by a few American units rushed to the Peninsula into a pocket at the southern tip of Korea around the port of Pusan. The United Nations authorized military action to save South Korea United Nations Security Council Resolution 84 (July 1950). General MacArthur staged a brilliant amphibious landing at Inchon which cut off North Korean supply lines and retook the South Korean capital of Seoul (September 1950). United Nations (mostly American) forced surged north, approaching the Yalu River on the northern border with China. MacArthur had dismissed the danger of a Chinese intervention assuring President Truman that they would never dare. But China intervened in force with massed waves of infantry, (November 1950), driving the U.N. forced back south and seizing Seoul once again. MacArthur organized a counter offensive (February 1951) and regained Seoul (March 1951). It is at this time that MacArthur began openly criticizing the President an unprecedented case of rank insubordination, Truman replaced MacArthur with Gen. Matthew Ridgeway (April 1951). Ridgeway repelled a massive Chinese offensive and stabilized the front just north of the 38th Parallel, roughly the frontier at the time the North Koreans invaded a year earlier. After this, few additional refugees were created, but South Korean was left with an enormous refugee problem. This was the end of major ground movements, but had created an enormous refugee problem.
The Korean War refugees for some reason are some of the least covered refugees of the 20th century and one of the most tragic refugee groups. The impact of the Korean conflict on the Korean civilian population was particularly traumatic. Precise date is unknowable, but the toll on the civilian population was enormous. There are believed to have been some 3-4 million casualties (dead, injured, and missing). There are estimates that some 1 million people in the north fled south to escape from the advancing Chinese Army and the imposition of Communist rule (December 1950-April 1951).
The U.N. advance north provided a narrow window of opportunity to escape Communist rule. Upon seizing power, North Korean Communists like other Communists closed the borders. North Koreans were not allowed to leave their new country. After the Chinese dive the United Nations forces south, again the borders were closed. And since the War, Korean dictators have steadily hardening the border. The Soviet Union quickly created hard borders. But East Germany carried it to new extremes with the Berlin Wall (1961). This was rapidly hardened over time and extended to the entire border with West Germany. It was killing border that did succeeded in largely preventing emigration. It was the time the most deadly border barrier ever created in all of history. North Korean dictator Kim Jung Un has now done the same. Perhaps not as technologically advance. He has now created barriers that make it basically impossible to escape. And his border barrier are not just the DMZ with South Korea, but now with China and Russia as well. The East Germans did not believe they needed a hardened border with fraternal socialist states, Kim Jung Un is determined to cut off North Korea from all foreign influences.
The fighting in 1950-51 had covered almost all the Peninsula, but he refugee flow was virtually all one way, civilians moving south, fleeing the Communists. Very few Koreans fled north as the U.N. armies broke out of the Pusan Perimeter (September 1950).
North Koreans fled with both immediate and extended family, but it was impossible to keep the family together in war-time conditions. Families were separated in the rush southward not only in war time conditions as well as the severe winter conditions. Parents were captured or killed and children were separated or died of starvation and lack of medical care. Many North Koreans thought that their flight south would be temporary. They left land, property, heirloom, and family members behind, hoping that they would be reunited after only a brief period of separation. Tragically, family members found themselves permanently separated. A few were briefly reunited when the two Koreans agreed to unification visits (2002). [Haan] Most fled as family groups, but but often were usable to keep together as they trekked south. Parents were killed or captured. Children became lost or died of exposure and malnutrition.
Korea does not have a tradition of carrying for orphans. Family is very important to Koreans and still is. Orphans who were not taken in by family faced a difficult life and the younger children a desperate stuggle for life itself. We know of no orphanages or institutional fscilities crrying for orphabns until the 20th century. The first known orpohanage was Pung Duck Won (1913). Several other orphanages appeared during this period, most of Christian foundation and financed by American or European Christisn charities. Many more were set up after Japan surrendered and the United States and the Soviet Union occupied the country. This was a period of enormous disorder. The Japanese including Japanese civilisans left. Koreans were returning from Japan and other foreign areas where the Jaopanese had taken them. Large numbers of abandoned or orphaned children were wandering about the streets. Many small orphanages were established, again often involving Christian foundation. It was the Korean War, however, that created an unprecedented refugee and orphan problem. Many civilians were killed in the fighting. The North Koreans executed many South Korans, both people associsted with the Government and social classes like merchants and landowners believed to be hostile to Communism. In the wake of the War, over 100,000 orphaned children wandered the streets. Some 400 orphanages were set up for the children, many supported by American servicemen and overseas Christian charities. Placing the children proved a problem. Few Korean families wanted to take in orphans, A factor here was economic devestation, but perhaps even more important was a cultural predelection against caring for unrelated children. So the orphanages began placing the children abroad. Many of the early adoptions were mixed-race children, the children of Anmrican servicemen and Korean women. Korean attitudes toward racial purity led to these children being turned over to orphanages and eventuslly adopted overseas. Koreans had no problem with this as it was seen as a way of getting rid of children that were not fully Korean. Foreign adoptions, however, continued with fully Korean babies. These foreign adoptions eventually became a national embarassment as Korean became one of the Asian Tigers and an increasingly affluent country.
There were incidents of soldiers firing on refuges, but the greater problem was exposure in cold weather and the lack of food and water. There was no way of providing for refugees, especially during the first year of the war when the battle lines swung widely north and south over virtually the entire length of the peninsula. The South Korean Government was basically incapacitated by the invasion. And The United Nations was having difficulty just providing for its forces in the field. During this period it was only American GIs sharing their provisions that saved many from starvation, especially the children.
China and the Americans adopted two radically different tactics. The Chinese Army used mass eave attacks, through huge waves of infantry at American positions. This proved effective when the Chinese first intervened at the Yalu. American troops were at the extreme range of their logistical train and had not established fixed defensive positions. They became less effective as the fighting moved south. The United States could not match Chinese manpower. So the American response was concentrated fire power, both artillery and air power. Fire power on that scale inevitably affects civilians especially refugees moving in the open. The weaponry involved was essentially World War II technology none of the modern smart weaponry that can be used to limit civilian casualties. As is commonly the case today. Those who want to demonize the United States use incidents to counter the overwhelming thrust of history. One of these took place even before the Chinese entered the war--the so called No Gun Ri Massacre in which some 163 refugees were killed with the North Korea Army was driving south (July 1950). The circumstances at the time are debated, but what may have been the circumstances. 163 lives when the fate of millions are being determined are not central. A South Korean officer so what was important, the Americans were going to enter the fight to stop the North Koreans. It meant in essence that South Korea was going to survive. And the impact of that can be seen in the Miracle on the Han in comparison to the dystopian nightmare of North Korea.
The Chinese and North Koreans were hostile to refugees moving south. Communists like to think of their regimes as creating perfect societies-- earthly paradises for workers and peasants. People fleeing these paradises thus by definition must be class enemies. But of course Communist societies are hardly perfect societies and inevitably are societies that people try to flee from. And as a result, the secret police are used to close the borders and usually do a very good job at it, beginning with the Soviet Union. They even managed to prevent starving Ukrainian peasants from escaping,
As the war progressed and the font line was stabilized, relief efforts became more regularized One important group was CARE, a relief organization at the end of World War II to assist people in War-torn Europe.
Haan, Phil de. "50 Years And Counting: The Impact of the Korean War on the People of the Peninsula" (May 2002).
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