South Korea–United States relations
Following Japanese surrender at the end of the Second World War, the Allied Powers divided the Korean peninsula along the 38th Parallel with two occupation zones with the United States in the south, and the Soviet Union in the north that would later become North Korea. On August 15, 1948, the southern half of Korea declared independence as the Republic of Korea with Syngman Rhee as president. The United States recognized the Republic of Korea as an independent state on January 1, 1949 and diplomatic relations between two countries were established on March 25 in the following year.
Cross-border skirmishes and raids at the 38th Parallel escalated into open warfare when the North Korean forces invaded South Korea on June 25, 1950. The Korean War broke out when North Korea invaded South Korea. In response, 16 member countries of the United Nations, including the United States, came to the defense of South Korea. It was the first significant armed conflict of the Cold War with extensive deployment of American and other troops.
United States in the 1950s
The war, which lasted from June 25, 1950, until the was signed on July 27, 1953, started as a civil war between communist North Korea and the Republic of Korea (South Korea). The United States, acting on behalf of the United Nations, sought to repel the North Korean invasion. A monument for the veterans of the war was not created until the 1990s. When the war began, North and South Korea existed as provisional governments competing for control over the Korean peninsula, due to the division of Korea by outside powers. While originally a civil war, it quickly escalated into a proxy war between the capitalist powers of the United States and its allies and the communist powers of the People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union. The war began when North Korea invaded South Korea.