The US dropped more bombs on North Korea than we dropped on all of Europe and Japan during WWII. Proxy wars between superpowers never work out well for the actual people affected, and we should not be so forgetful of that.
Number of Americans killed in the Korean War: 36,000
Number of Americans wounded in the Korean War: 105,000
Number of South Koreans killed in the Korean War: 415,000
Number of South Koreans wounded in the Korean War: 429,000
Estimated number of Chinese and North Koreans killed in the Korean War: 1,500,00013
I would like to hear more from historians as to what would have happened had the war never occurred. My guess is a united Korea would be in line as a periphery of China with their level of technology... with Kim Il Sung and his family long gone and irrelevant.
I would also like to add that Americans know nothing of modern war never actually having had to live through it or having to deal with its consequences on their livelihoods, economy, or psychology. War for Americans is stuff that happens to other people... where they send oblivious young men to fight who are usually forgotten as soon as they are sent off to protect "freedom".
However the JCS denied all such requests and remarkably there were only two or three violations during the entire war, such as the August 1950 strafing-attack on Antung airfield. The USA offered compensation afterwards despite that being the home of over 100 MiG-15s engaged in the war.