The Unending Korean War: A Social History

Dong-Choon Kim seeks to understand the true impact of the Korean War (1950-1953) on South Korea’s people and society. How did key figures such as President Syngman Rhee respond when North Korean troops crossed the thirty-eighth parallel and what does this tell us about the nature of the South Korean state at the time? How did South Koreans experience the North Korean occupation and what happened once Seoul and other areas were restored? Why were so many people brutally massacred by both sides? How does the war continue to influence South Korean institutions and society? This social history of the Korean War addresses these crucial questions, exposing and probing the war’s deepest wounds, wounds long concealed by Cold War rhetoric and successive oppressive military regimes in the South.