From Combat To Construction:Chinese Assistance To North Korea’s Railway System,1950-1955

After the outbreak of Korean War,China offered to assist North Korean.The material assistance of China and the Soviet Union were delivered to North Korea by way of northeast China.After the Chinese People’s Volunteers had took part in the war,in order to repair the railway transportation and improve the supply conditions of Chinese and North Korean armies,in November 1950,China began to send railway personnel to Korea to support the war.After that,Chinese railway troops continuously entered North Korea,thus provoking the contradictions between China and North Korea on the issue of Korean railway transportation.Through the intervention of the Soviet Union,the two sides agreed upon the establishment of a Joint China-North Korea Command of Railway and exercised military control on the Korean railways.The conditions of Korean railway transportation were gradually improved.When the war came into the stage of stalemate,China began to build the railways inside North Korea and continued to do it in the postwar era.The first chapter of this paper introduces the background of Chinese assistance to Korean railways,which includes pre-war linkage between Chinese and Korean railways and the historical reasons,the network of Sino-Soviet-Korean railway transportation after the outbreak of the war and the decisions of China to assist North Korea after the latter asked for help.The second chapter describes the Volunteers’assistance to North Korea’s railway transportation,including Chinese railway personnel’s entering North Korea,the realization of military control on North Korea’s railways and the Chinese assistance to North Korea’s railway transportation.The third chapter discusses China’s aid in building North Korea’s railways and the return of the right of management of Korean railway,including China’s wartime and postwar aids in repairing and constructing the railways,assistance in locomotives,and the negotiations on the return of the right of management and termination of military control.The conclusion section summarizes the nature of Chinese assistance to North Korea’s railway and the sacrifices of China,and explains that the wartime fierce contradictions between China and North Korea on the railway issue reflect some characteristics of the relations of Communist bloc countries.In order to repair and consolidate the Sino-North Korea relations,China continued to provide railway assistance to North Korea.Against this background,China’s railway assistance to North Korea has changed from assisting the war to assisting the construction.