ABSTRACT
The UN became heavily involved in Korean affairs from the beginning of 1948 as a consequence of the acceptance by the UN General Assembly of the American proposal that elections should be held in both parts of Korea to achieve a national assembly and then a unified government. The American military government resented the presence of UN Temporary Commission on Korea (UNTCOK) since it was bound to inquire into many features of the political scene, some of which were better not pursued from the American viewpoint. This chapter considers the establishment of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and the character of the state as it developed between 1948 and 1950. The leading members of the government of the DPRK were Kim Il Sung and Pak Hon-yong; Pak was' simultaneously Foreign Minister and leader of the South Korean Workers Party (SKWP). The chapter describes the brief consideration of the state of the South Korean armed forces in 1950.
