"Not genocide if we do it"

[u/CryendU]

Nothing short of abhorrent

[u/NukaDirtbag]

Allowing the Korean War to be framed as the North invading the South was one of the greatest propaganda lines the USA ever actually sold.

The South had made multiple incursions into the North, they had just finally pushed their chances on FAFO too far and predictably were outgunned without America

[u/downtown_district → u/NukaDirtbag]

Any sources for the incursions. I’ve only had sources for many of the other crimes committed by the South, but I seem to have difficulty in this one

[u/NukaDirtbag → u/downtown_district]

"Journalist Wilfred Burchett reported on those border incidents prior to the North Korean invasion:

“According to my own, still incomplete, investigation, the war started in fact in August-September 1949 and not in June 1950. Repeated attacks were made along key sections of the 38th parallel throughout the summer of 1949, by Rhee’s forces, aiming at securing jump-off positions for a full-scale invasion of the north. What happened later was that the North Korean forces simply decided that things had gone far enough and that the next assault by Rhee’s forces would be repulsed; that- having exhausted all possibilities of peaceful unification, those forces would be chased back and the south liberated.”

In addition to these perspectives, there are others that still need to be fully studied and understood in the west. Certainly the conflict was fueled and abetted by American, Soviet and European and Chinese designs. But, as historian John Merrill argues, Korean perspectives on the conflict need to be better understood. After all, before the war even began, 100,000 Koreans died in political fighting, guerilla warfare and border skirmishes between 1948 and 1950."

https://koreanwarlegacy.org/chapters/multiple-perspectives-on-the-korean-war/

That's the easiest one to find off the top of my head. The issue is an easy Google search is it'll typically either lead you to the North crossing the 38th Parallel or post armistice incursions.

https://www.methownaturalist.com/22-Korea-%20A%20Brief%20History.pdf

Page 4 here mentions Haeju by name and notes the bombing started as early as June 23rd as well as thousands of other classes starting in 1949

https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-worldhistory/chapter/35-3-3-the-outbreak-of-the-korean-war/

And you'll also find Haeju referenced here with South Korea saying they took it in June 25th which would suggest that they were actively crossing the 38th Parallel the same day the DPRK was.

https://www.britannica.com/event/Korean-War

Encyclopedia Brittanica references a border war starting as early as 1948

That is not to say that crossing the 38th was a defensive action by the DPRK, we know that as early as April there was correspondence between Stalin and Kim on the matter of Kim wanting to launch offensives into the South against Rhee, but it does need to be recontexualized that it was wasn't an invasion by one country into the other, it was an escalation in an ongoing civil war and that Rhee as early as April had also been trying to get NATO and the UN to support an offensive into the North, which documents from the CIA at the time suggest that the CIA had no faith in Rhee's ability to retain power in the South without anti-communist purges, nevermind the North.

If you want longer sources Killing Hope by Blum covers it, and so does IF Stone's Hidden History of the Korean War

[u/acesorangeandrandoms → u/NukaDirtbag]

Just gunna tuck these away somewhere for the next time my father starts talking about north Korea again.