Korea – the 60 year war

In the early morning hours of June 25, 1950 the opening shots of the Korean War were fired.

At the time, few could have predicted how seminal this event would be in shaping world history. While the Korean War itself was only fought over a period of three years, no peace agreement was ever reached. In her new book ‘Brothers At War’, Sheila Miyoshi Jager provides a compelling historical analysis of a conflict that set the agenda for much of the Cold War. 

Sheila Miyoshi Jager is Luce Associate Professor and Director of East Asian Studies at Oberlin College, Ohio. She has written extensively on modern and contemporary Korean politics and history.

Would you describe the various phases of the Korean War? 

When most people think of the Korean War, they focus on the events that occurred between June 25, 1950 when North Korean forces invaded South Korea, and July 27, 1953, the date of the armistice signing when fighting on the peninsula came to an end.