38th parallel,
parallel
of latitude that in East
Asia roughly
demarcates
North and
South Korea. The line
was chosen by
U.S. military planners
at the Potsdam Conference, in July 1945, as an army boundary,
north of which the
U.S.S.R. was to accept
the surrender of the Japanese forces in Korea and south of which
the Americans were to accept the Japanese surrender. The line
was intended as a temporary division of the country, but the
onset of the
Cold War led to the establishment
of a separate U.S.-oriented regime in South Korea under Syngman
Rhee and a communist regime in North Korea under Kim Il-sung.
After the onset of the
Korean War between North
and South Korea in June 1950, United Nations forces, which,
under U.S. general Douglas MacArthur, had come to the aid of
the south, moved north of the 38th parallel in an attempt to
occupy North Korea. With the intervention of Chinese troops,
the war came to a stalemate roughly along that parallel. The
cease-fire line, fixed at the time of the armistice agreement,
gave South Korea possession of an eastern mountainous area north
of the parallel, which was the major battlefront when the demarcation
line was fixed.
Copyright (c) 1995 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Related Propaedia Topics:
Korea since 1945