ChinaandAND⤬THE JUNCTION
5 SHARED EVENTSNorth Korea

Entangled histories

5 events in which either nation’s sourced chronicle names the other — including under earlier names of the same state. Each is the same record, with the same sources, as on its own chronicle; nothing here was written for this page.

ONE SPINE OF YEARS · TWO WALLS OF EVENTS · CHN LEFT · PRK RIGHT

1. 668 CE

   Silla unifies the peninsula

   Allied with Tang China, Silla conquers Baekje in 660 and Goguryeo in 668, then expels the Tang, achieving the first unification of Korea under native rule.

   War & Rupture · from the North Korea chronicle · Shared Korean Heritage · REFS 2 — Korea (history), Three Kingdoms period

2. Late 1950

   China enters the war

   After UN forces push deep into the north, the People's Republic of China intervenes and drives the front back toward the 38th parallel, producing a stalemate.

   War & Rupture · from the North Korea chronicle · The Korean War · REFS 2 — The Korean War and Japan's Recovery, NSC-68 and the Korean War

3. 21 November 1950

   US troops reach the Yalu

   Troops of the US 7th Division's 17th Infantry reach the Yalu River at Hyesanjin, as Chinese armies mass along the river in Manchuria and an unknown number have already entered Korea.

   War & Rupture · from the North Korea chronicle · The Korean War · REFS 1 — Policy and Direction: The First Year, Chapter XIV, The Threshold of Victory

4. 27 July 1953

   The Demilitarized Zone is defined

   The armistice, signed at Panmunjom by Lt. Gen. William K. Harrison Jr. for the UN Command and Gen. Nam Il for the Korean People's Army and the Chinese People's Volunteers, fixes a military demarcation line and has both sides withdraw two kilometres from it, making a buffer zone about four kilometres wide. The line follows the positions held at the end of the fighting, not the 38th parallel; the coast-to-coast length is given as 238 kilometres by National Geographic.

   War & Rupture · from the North Korea chronicle · The Korean War · REFS 2 — Armistice Agreement for the Restoration of the South Korean State (1953), Why the Korean DMZ is not the 38th parallel

5. 1994-1999

   The Arduous March famine

   A famine driven by the loss of Soviet support, reduced Chinese aid and flooding kills an estimated several hundred thousand or more North Koreans, a defining national trauma.

   Catastrophe · from the North Korea chronicle · Famine and the Second Succession · REFS 2 — History of North Korea, North Korea: A Country Study