Although the Korean War only lasted for just over three years, it was still a bitter, bloody conflict that claimed the lives of over 33,000 American troops. To a considerable extent, the bitterness of the war was down to its ideological edge. This wasn’t just a conflict between different nations, but a struggle between two rival, incompatible ideologies: Western liberal democracy and Communism.

There was also a nationalistic edge to the Korean War on the part of the North Korean Communists. They believed that the divided Korean peninsula should become one country, united under Northern leadership. In their propaganda, they and their Chinese allies portrayed the Americans as imperialists hell-bent on using Korea as a launchpad for further territorial expansion.

When General MacArthur drove North Korean forces back over the 38th Parallel, it seemed that the Americans were going to unite the peninsula by force, using their allies in the South Korean government as proxy rulers. However, the intervention of the Communist Chinese in support of their North Korean allies totally wrecked this offensive strategy. Instead, the United States had to remain satisfied with keeping the North Koreans out of the South.

In the event, the more limited defensive strategy was successful, not least because Truman had fired MacArthur for insubordination, making a long, destructive war with the Chinese less likely. With MacArthur out of the way and the war descending into a stalemate, it finally became possible to envisage some kind of peace treaty to end the conflict. It duly came on July 27, 1953, and though the South Koreans gained extra territory as a consequence of the treaty, the Korean peninsula looked remarkably similar at the end of the war to what it had been at the start.

When Did The Korean War End?

Most historians say the start date of the Korean War began on June 25, 1950. The date is when North Korean troops began their assault on South Korea and penetrated the border. The end of the Korean War is less clear, and historians continue to debate if the conflict has technically ended.

Historians who fall into the camp the Korean War has ended believe the end date was July 27, 1953. The major powers of China and the United States, along with North Korea, signed an armistice agreement. The armistice agreement technically ended the fighting for the most part. The treaty divided Korea into North and South, separated by what today is the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). Prisoners were exchanged between the two countries, and since that time there has been peace more akin to a nasty divorce than actual peaceful coexistence!

The only problem is that South Korea did not sign the armistice agreement. No formal peace treaty has been approved. Nearly 20,000 American troops continue to occupy and monitor the border between the two countries. Many of the North Korean generals, as well as North Korea's leader, do not acknowledge the war ended. Frequent skirmishes and provocations from North Korea and South Korean activists keep the two countries on edge, though in recent years, some cooperation between the countries has occurred. In the mind of other historians, technically, the Korean War has not ended.

The answer to your question depends on your historical perspective as to when the Korean War is over.

When Did The Korean War End?

The Korean War has never ended, the farthest the two sides got was a negotiated cease fire in 1953.  Officially and legally, a state of war still exists between the two Koreas.  The border is heavily militarized on both sides, and there have been numerous incidents over the years.  South Korea has repeatedly destroyed tunnels under construction from the north, some of which were massive railway tunnels for the movement of tanks and heavy equipment.

The cease fire has held pretty well, but there has never been a treaty of peace of any kind between North and South Korea.  The links below detail the current state of affairs between the Koreas.

When Did The Korean War End?

The Korean War ended on July 27, 1953.  This was the year I was born so I remember it.

When was the Korean War?

Since the end of World War II, the Korean Peninsula had been divided along the thirty-eighth parallel between Communist North Korea and non-Communist South Korea. Communist North Korea was allied to its northern neighbor, the People’s Republic of China, while the South was allied to the United States.

Tensions that had been rising between North and South finally exploded in 1950 with North Korea’s invasion of South Korea. The United States immediately responded by coming to South Korea’s aid. American forces joined with UN troops in an attempt to drive back the North Korean invasion. Even so, Northern forces still managed to capture the Southern capital Seoul. But thanks to an audacious pincer movement orchestrated by General MacArthur, the North Koreans were driven back across the thirty-eighth parallel.

MacArthur wanted to go further and take the war into the North, but President Truman didn’t want to antagonize the Chinese. But MacArthur went against presidential orders, for which he was eventually relieved of his command by Truman. In the event, the Chinese intervened on the side of the North Koreans anyway and pushed back successfully against the Americans.

Eventually, after three years of fighting, a peace treaty was concluded between the warring sides that returned the Korean Peninsula more or less to its pre-war status.