1945-1948 > relations between North and South Korea → hostile but relatively quiet. → Kim and Rhee disliked each other intensely. → Each felt → that he should be ruler of reunified Korean Peninsula.
Kim tried several times → to persuade Stalin → support an attempt to reunify Korea.
- Stalin took little interest.
- Soviet resources → had been severely stretched during WWII.
- his overwhelming priority → was to create buffer zone of communist states in Eastern Europe → to protect USSR.
- Stalin was not keen to stir up more conflict with US and further strain Soviet resources → by arming and supplying north Korea in war
Rhee → also eager → to force issue of Korean reunification.
- While Rhee had backing of US → Truman refused to provide South Korea with large supplies of weapons →fear they would be used to attack North Korea.
- even so → he initiated border clashes to capture territories in the North.
July 1949 → South Korean warships → attacked North Korea’s military installations near Taedong River → sinking most of North Korea’s west coast fleet. from 1949 onwards → fierce fighting → broke out frequently → around 38th parallel. other border skirmishes and hundred of small scale assaults → also occured across parallel → during first half of 1950.
- resulted in heavy casualties on both sides in some of these encounters.
end of 1948 → Korean Peninsula → divided → became a place of great tension.
- Civil war between North and South to unify the country → was very real possibility.