ABSTRACT
Relations between North Korea and the USA got off to the worst possible start. In June 1950, less than two years after being officially founded, North Korea invaded South Korea. Within two weeks of the invasion, US and North Korean forces were engaged in the first of several battles that took place during the Korean War. The enmity engendered by the Korean War and the inconclusive end to the conflict, together with the realities of the Cold War, had a negative effect on relations between Pyongyang and the USA. Kim Il Sung had been a division commander for the Korean communists fighting Japan in North-East China during the Korean independence war. North Korea signed mutual defence treaties with both countries in July 1961. Alignment with China and the Soviet Union provided North Korea with a strong deterrence to a possible attack from the USA and South Korea.
