The Causes of the Korean WarOn June 25, 1950, ninety thousand North Korean soldiers invaded South Korea's border defenses. The Korean War had begun, this small-scale civil war would turn into an international conflict. Historically, Korea was once a united country, under Japanese rule between 1905 and 1945. However, the Japanese were undisciplined and did not treat Koreans well. At the end of World War II, it was decided that the country would be divided along the 38th parallel and occupied by Soviet troops in the north and American troops in the south. Syngman Rhee, who had spent some years in exile in America, became president of South Korea in 1948, while Kim Il Sung, after fighting for the Russian Red Army during the war, became leader of the People's Democratic Republic ( communist) in North Korea. I intend to describe the causes and factors that ultimately led to the Korean War. An underlying factor in this conflict is the two very contrasting political systems in North Korea. The communist North led by Kim Ilsung had ties to other communist nations such as China and the USSR. In April 1950, Kim Il Sung visited Moscow, and in May and June military supplies were sent to North Korea, including 150 T-34 tanks. Likewise, China did not want to have a democratic country influenced by the Americans on its borders and it too was likely to always support Kim Il Sung and the North Koreans. In the South, the supposedly democratic government of Syngman Rhee was likely to gain American support due to fears of the spread of communism, sometimes called the "domino theory." However, it is enough... middle of paper ... to include Korea as an area that would have American influence in the event of an invasion. Stalin and the USSR were absent from the UN Security Council to protest the refusal to admit Communist China to the UN. Without this, the USSR could have prevented the UN from supporting the Korean War. In conclusion, the real causes of the Korean War lie in the broader context of Cold War hostility and international relations rather than a civil war in an "insignificant country." In 1949, it was revealed that Russia knew it was capable of using an atomic bomb. In the 1950s, fear of a third world war or great power conflict, internal suspicions of communism in Western politics, and the growing reality of a polarized world led to an increase in population. tension in Cold War hostility; Korea was just a place.