Why the Korean War was actually two separate conflicts – Ep. 275

North Korea News Podcast

When North Korea invaded the South in 1950, it triggered a brutal three-year war that killed hundreds of thousands and displaced millions. But David Cheng Chang argues that the Korean War was in fact two separate conflicts. The first ended in 1951, when both the North and South Korean front lines became more or less static. The second and far less studied conflict ran from 1951 to the armistice agreement in 1953, focusing primarily on the fate of prisoners of war (POW) held in both communist and allied camps. Chang joins the NK News podcast to discuss his perspective on the war, the staggering number of Chinese volunteer army personnel that fought on North Korea’s side, why it insisted POWs be returned to their home countries, brainwashing of prisoners by both U.S. and communist forces and more. David Cheng Chang is associate professor of history at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. His book “The Hijacked War: The Story of Chinese POWs in the Korean War” was published in Jan. 2020, and you can find him on Twitter @DavidChangCheng. Watch David’s interview with Yang Shuzhi (楊樹芝) here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUj3pfqcGY8 About the podcast: The North Korea News Podcast is a weekly podcast hosted by Jacco Zwetsloot (@JaccoZed) exclusively for NK News, covering all things DPRK — from news to extended interviews with leading experts and analysts in the field, along with insight from our very own journalists.