On June 25, 1950, the Korean War (1950-1953) began when 75,000 members of the North Korean People’s Army crossed the 38th parallel and invaded South Korea. It would be the first military action of the Cold War.
In 1945, superpowers drew a line bisecting the Korean peninsula to separate the Soviet-supported Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (today’s North Korea) from the U.S.-supported Republic of Korea to the South. Essentially a civil conflict, the Korean War became a proxy war between superpowers clashing over communism and democracy. Between 2 million and 4 million people died, 70 percent of them civilians. No peace treaty was ever signed, although in December 2021, North and South Korea, the United States and China agreed to declare a formal end to the war.