A/HRC/25/CRP.1 sending up to 90,000 Korean People’s Army troops over the 38th parallel in a multi-pronged attack that surprised both the ROK authorities and their United States advisors.28 Kim Ilsung was staking his claim to the leadership of the entire peninsula based on the perceived illegitimacy of the ROK leadership and expectations of insurgency in the South. Initially, the Korean People’s Army easily overwhelmed the forces of the ROK, which numbered fewer than 100,000 men. The capital Seoul fell in three days. 103. United States President Harry S. Truman interpreted the attack by the DPRK on the ROK as the first major test of the Cold War. He quickly ordered the deployment of United States troops while seeking endorsement of his actions from the United Nations Security Council. The Security Council had initially adopted a United States-led resolution calling for the immediate cessation of hostilities and the withdrawal of North Korean forces to beyond the 38th parallel with a vote of 9 to 0 with three abstentions.29 The Soviet Union was not present to exercise its veto as a Permanent Member of the Security Council. The Soviet Union had been refusing to participate in the Security Council since January 1950 over the issue of the accreditation of China. China’s seat in the United Nations was still held by the representative of the Republic of China, based in Taiwan, despite the defeat of Nationalist forces on the mainland.30 On 27 June 1950, President Truman ordered United States air and naval forces to support the ROK. Security Council Resolution 83, adopted on the same day, determined that “the armed attack upon the Republic of Korea by forces from North Korea constitutes a breach of the peace”. It recommended that United Nations members “furnish such assistance to the Republic of Korea as may be necessary to repel the armed attack and to restore international peace and security in the area”. On 7 July 1950, the Security Council further recommended that all members providing military forces and other assistance do so under the unified command of the United States and authorized “the unified command at its discretion to use the United Nations flag in the course of operations against North Korean forces concurrently with the flags of the various nations participating.”31 Fifteen states, in addition to the United States, contributed combat units to fight in the “international field force” under the United Nations Command. In August 1950, the Soviet Union returned to the Security Council and vetoed all further resolutions 28 29 30 31 24 From Stalin to Kim Il Sung: The Formation of North Korea, 1945-60 (London, Hurst and Company, 2002), p. 61. The DPRK has always claimed that the Korean War was initiated by an attack by ROK forces. However, archival material from the Soviet Union confirms the stated sequence of events. For example, see “Top Secret Report on the Military Situation in South Korea from Shtykov to Comrade Zakharov”, 26 June 1950, History and Public Policy Program Digital Archive, Collection of Soviet military documents obtained in 1994 by the British Broadcasting Corporation for a BBC TimeWatch documentary titled “Korea, Russia’s Secret War” (January 1996). Available from http://digitalarchive.wilsoncentre.org/document/110686. In favour of Security Council Resolution 82 (1950) were the United Kingdom, the Republic of China (Taiwan), Cuba, Ecuador, France, Norway and the United States. The Kingdom of Egypt, India and the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia abstained. The Soviet Union had assumed that the Security Council would not be able to discharge its functions under article 27, paragraph 3 of the United Nations Charter: “Decisions of the Security Council on all other matters shall be made by an affirmative vote of nine members including the concurring votes of the permanent members”. The other members of the Security Council decided that a member’s absence could not prevent the body from carrying out its functions. Security Council Resolution 84. Those States contributing forces included: Australia, Belgium, Canada, Colombia, Ethiopia, France, Greece, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the Philippines, South Africa, Thailand, Turkey and the United Kingdom. Five States contributed medical support: Denmark, India, Italy, Norway and Sweden.