Inchon landing and invasion of N.Korea.

United Nations Medal

The United States led X Corps, commanded by Major General Edward M Almond and consisting of US and South Korean forces, landed at Inch’ŏn near Seoul on Korea’s western coast, some 150 miles behind the Korean People's Army (KPA) that was besieging the US Eighth Army around Pusan in the south of the Korean Peninsula. This audacious plan had been conceived by the United Nations Command's (UNC) commander, General Douglas MacArthur, and ten days later Seoul, was liberated.

A week later, after bitter battles, the Eighth Army, commanded by Lieutenant General Walton Walker, broke out of the Pusan perimeter and scattered the KPA forces as it advanced. Five days later, Eighth Army and X Corps linked up. Two days after that, on 29 September, President Syngman Rhee was restored to power in Seoul.

The following day, the US Secretary of Defense told MacArthur, 'We want you to feel unhampered tactically and strategically to proceed north of 38th Parallel'. The advance was not swift as the remnants of the KPA offered stubborn resistance, and the UNC forces, supplied across a battered line of communications running through Inchon, suffered chronic shortages of materiel. On 19 October, however, the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, fell and
preparations began for an advance northwards.

This final attack northward took weeks to prepare. X Corps had been withdrawn from Inchon (a move that tied up the port for some time and thus aggravated Eighth Army’s already serious supply problem). After delays in clearing mines from the North Korean east coast port of Wonsan, X Corps began landing there on 26 October and slowly moved into position for the final offensive.

Although MacArthur was authorized to conduct operations north of the 38th parallel, US President Harry Truman's caveat placed a limitation on operations in the event of USSR (Russian) or Chinese intervention. MacArthur ignored signals intelligence that indicated 260,000 Chinese troops were massing in Manchuria, and turned northwards with the aim of destroying the KPA and occupying North Korea.