Re: Korean-War:UN Peace Keeping

[<Jhk789@aol.com>]

In a message dated 5/8/2002 6:56:30 AM Pacific Daylight Time, ralph_chua@yahoo.com writes:


> Hi! I'm just curious, scholars says that the korean
> war is one of the successful Peace keeping enforcement
> of the United Nations. However, some scholars says
> that the Peace Keeping enforcement is a failure in the
> Korean War. Why is this so?


Ralph,

It seems to me that you are confused about the
term UN "peacekeeping" operation. The UN action
in the Korean War was not a peacekeeping operation.

UN peacekeeping operations are authorized by the 
Security Council with the consent of the host government,
and usually of other parties involved. Soldiers of the UN peacekeeping
forces have weapons, but in most cases can use them only in
self-defense. Its operation is directed by the UN.

Thus, the UN involvement in the Korean War was far
different from the UN peacekeeping operations.
The UN Command was directed by US Commander, instead of
UN Secretary General. It was merely an international force
commanded by the US, flying UN flag. The legality of the
Security Council is still debated because two permanent
member states--Soviet Union and mainland China--did not
approve the action.

John2