50 free Korean War trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Korean War trivia for history readers, veterans' families and anyone who knows M*A*S*H better than the war it was set in. The quiz starts in 1945, when two American colonels drew a line along the 38th parallel in half an hour, and follows the split into two states, the June 1950 invasion, the UN vote the Soviets missed by boycotting the Security Council, and Truman's 'police action' that was never a declared war. The middle rounds cover the fighting: Task Force Smith at Osan, the Pusan Perimeter, MacArthur's gamble at Inchon, the drive to the Yalu, China's entry, the frozen retreat from Chosin Reservoir, Ridgway's revival of the Eighth Army, MacArthur's dismissal, and the MiG-15 versus F-86 duels over MiG Alley. Later questions cover the two-year armistice talks at Kaesong and Panmunjom, the prisoner exchanges, Stalin's death, the 4 km wide DMZ, the Swiss and Swedish observers still on duty, the bombing that flattened North Korea's cities, and the war's afterlife in the Korean War Veterans Memorial and the most-watched finale in TV history. Questions run from easy to expert and every answer was checked against a reference page and carries its source. See also our Cold War, Vietnam War and South Korea quizzes.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01On what date did North Korea launch its invasion of the South, starting the war?
25 June 1950
South Koreans still call it the '625 War' after that date; the armistice came on 27 July 1953.
Q 02Korea was divided in 1945 into Soviet and American occupation zones along which line of latitude?
the 38th parallel
Two US colonels, Dean Rusk and Charles Bonesteel, picked the line in Washington on 11 August 1945.
Q 03Which future US Secretary of State was one of the two colonels who drew Korea's dividing line in 1945?
Dean Rusk
He said the aim was to make sure the capital, Seoul, fell within the American zone.
Q 04For how many years had Korea been a Japanese colony before its liberation in 1945?
35
Japan annexed Korea in 1910 after making it a protectorate in 1905.
Q 05Who led North Korea from Pyongyang at the outbreak of the war?
Kim Il Sung
His communist forces had fought the Japanese in Korea and Manchuria; his southern rival was Syngman Rhee.
Q 06Which veto-wielding member's boycott let the UN Security Council condemn the invasion?
the Soviet Union
Moscow had walked out in January 1950 in protest at Taiwan holding China's permanent seat.
Q 07How many countries contributed to the UN Command, with the US supplying about 90% of personnel?
21
The war was never formally declared by the US; Truman called it a 'police action'.
Q 08President Truman initially described US involvement in Korea as what?
a police action
It is often called 'the Forgotten War' for the little attention it received compared with World War II and Vietnam.
Q 09By what name is the war officially known in North Korea?
the Fatherland Liberation War
China calls its part the 'War to Resist America and Assist Korea'; South Koreans say '625'.
Q 10At which town was the 540-man Task Force Smith beaten on 5 July 1950, the first US engagement of the war?
Osan
The men had no weapons capable of stopping North Korean tanks; the 24th Division's commander was later captured.
Q 11By August 1950, UN and South Korean forces held only a small south-east pocket known as what?
the Pusan Perimeter
The breakout came on 18 September, three days after the Inchon landing.
Q 12MacArthur's amphibious landing at Inchon on 15 September 1950 had which code name?
Operation Chromite
Some 75,000 troops and 261 ships took part despite extreme tides; Seoul was retaken two weeks later.
Q 13Within a month of Inchon, roughly how many North Korean troops had the Americans captured?
135,000
The KPA collapsed so fast that UN forces were in Pyongyang by 19 October.
Q 21The US Air Force claimed an F-86 kill ratio against MiGs of better than what?
10:1
The figure is now regarded as inflated; the ratio was closer to even against Soviet pilots but dominant against Chinese and North Korean ones.
Q 22Armistice negotiations began on 10 July 1951 in which town, then in the North?
Kaesong
The talks later moved to Panmunjom; Kaesong had been in pre-war South Korea and is now North Korean.
Q 23The autumn 1951 battles of Bloody Ridge, the Punchbowl and Heartbreak Ridge aimed to do what?
shorten and straighten the lines
The aim was better defensive terrain against the Chinese 'active defence'.
Q 14Chinese forces entered the war on 19 October 1950 by crossing which river on the Korean border?
the Yalu
They fought as the 'People's Volunteer Army', with Peng Dehuai as field commander.
Q 15Who was field commander of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army?
Peng Dehuai
Mao named Zhou Enlai overall coordinator of the war effort on 13 November 1950.
Q 16At Chosin Reservoir, about 30,000 UN troops were encircled by roughly how many Chinese?
120,000
The survivors were nicknamed 'The Chosin Few'; frostbite and frozen weapons were as deadly as the enemy.
Q 17After Chosin, X Corps was evacuated by sea from which North Korean port, which it razed before leaving?
Hungnam
The evacuation was complete by Christmas Eve 1950.
Q 18Which general took over the Eighth Army in December 1950 after Walton Walker's death?
Matthew Ridgway
He launched Operations Thunderbolt and Killer, and later succeeded MacArthur as supreme commander.
Q 19On what date in 1951 did Truman relieve MacArthur of his command?
11 April
MacArthur had considered using nuclear weapons and believed the decision should be his, not the president's.
Q 20Which advanced Chinese jet fighter was countered by the American F-86 Sabre?
the MiG-15
The war saw the first large jet-versus-jet battles, mostly over 'MiG Alley' in the north-west.
Q 24Which president-elect travelled to Korea in December 1952 to find out how the war might be ended?
Dwight Eisenhower
The death of Stalin in March 1953 and the US test of a nuclear artillery shell that May also moved the talks along.
Q 25Which country proposed the December 1952 UN armistice plan that created the Neutral Nations Repatriation Commission?
India
The thorniest issue was prisoners who did not want to go home.
Q 26Which leader's death on 5 March 1953 helped move the armistice talks into a new phase?
Stalin's
The armistice was signed less than five months later.
Q 27Which party refused to sign the 1953 Armistice Agreement?
South Korea
President Syngman Rhee would not accept having failed to unify Korea by force; the UN Command signed on the South's behalf.
Q 28The armistice created a Demilitarized Zone along the front line roughly how wide?
4 km
It runs about 250 km across the peninsula, with the Joint Security Area at Panmunjom near its western end.
Q 29Officers from which two countries make up the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission at the Korean DMZ?
Switzerland and Sweden
The armistice has never been replaced by a peace treaty, so technically the war remains a frozen conflict.
Q 30The famous huts at Panmunjom's Joint Security Area are painted what colour?
bright blue
The buildings were designed so their blue roofs and white sides would stand out from the border.