South Korea

==== Korean War ====
On 25 June 1950, [[Operation Pokpung|North Korea invaded]] South Korea, sparking the [[Korean War]], the [[Cold War]]'s first major conflict, which continued until 1953. At the time, the Soviet Union had boycotted the UN, thus forfeiting [[United Nations Security Council veto power|their veto rights]]. This allowed the UN to intervene in a civil war when it became apparent that the superior North Korean forces would unify the entire country. The Soviet Union and China backed North Korea, with the later participation of millions of [[People's Volunteer Army|Chinese troops]]. After an ebb and flow that saw both sides facing defeat with massive losses among Korean civilians in both the north and the south, the war eventually reached a stalemate. During the war, Rhee's party promoted the [[Ilminism|One-People Principle]], an effort to build an obedient citizenry through ethnic homogeneity and authoritarian appeals to [[nationalism]].<ref name="Hwang93">Su-kyoung Hwang, ''Korea's Grievous War.'' Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016; pg. 90–95.</ref>

The [[Korean Armistice Agreement|1953 armistice]], never signed by South Korea, split the peninsula along the [[Korean Demilitarized Zone|demilitarized zone]] near the original demarcation line. No peace treaty was ever signed, resulting in the two countries remaining technically at war. Approximately 3 million people died in the Korean War, with a higher proportional civilian death toll than [[World War II]] or the [[Vietnam War]], making it one of the deadliest conflicts of the Cold War era.<ref name="Kim p.45">{{cite book|last=Kim|first=Samuel S.|chapter=The Evolving Asian System|title=International Relations of Asia|publisher=[[Rowman & Littlefield]]|year=2014|isbn=978-1-4422-2641-8|page=45|quote=With three of the four major Cold War fault lines—divided Germany, divided Korea, divided China, and divided Vietnam—East Asia acquired the dubious distinction of having engendered the largest number of armed conflicts resulting in higher fatalities between 1945 and 1994 than any other region or sub-region. Even in Asia, while Central and South Asia produced a regional total of 2.8 million in human fatalities, East Asia's regional total is 10.4 million including the [[Chinese Civil War]] (1 million), the Korean War (3 million), the [[Vietnam War]] (2 million), and the [[Pol Pot]] [[Cambodian genocide|genocide]] in Cambodia (1 to 2 million).}}</ref><ref name="Cumings p. 35">{{cite book|last=Cumings|first=Bruce|author-link=Bruce Cumings|title=The Korean War: A History|publisher=[[Modern Library]]|year=2011|isbn=978-0-8129-7896-4|page=35|quote=Various encyclopedias state that the countries involved in the three-year conflict suffered a total of more than 4 million casualties, of which at least 2 million were civilians—a higher percentage than in World War II or Vietnam. A total of 36,940 Americans lost their lives in the Korean theater; of these, 33,665 were killed in action, while 3,275 died there of nonhostile causes. Some 92,134 Americans were wounded in action, and decades later, 8,176 were still reported as missing. South Korea sustained 1,312,836 casualties, including 415,004 dead. Casualties among other UN allies totaled 16,532, including 3,094 dead. Estimated North Korean casualties numbered 2 million, including about one million civilians and 520,000 soldiers. An estimated 900,000 Chinese soldiers lost their lives in combat.}}</ref> In addition, virtually all of Korea's major cities were destroyed by the war.<ref name="Lewy pp. 450-453">{{cite book|last=Lewy|first=Guenter|author-link=Guenter Lewy|title=America in Vietnam|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|year=1980|isbn=978-0-19-987423-1|pages=[https://archive.org/details/americainvietnam00lewy/page/450 450]–453|quote=The total number of Korean civilians who died in the fighting, which left almost every major city in North and South Korea in ruins, has been estimated at between 2 and 3 million. This adds up to almost 1 million military deaths and a possible 2.5 million civilians who were killed or died as a result of this extremely destructive conflict.|title-link=America in Vietnam}}</ref>