Soviet-made IS-2 heavy tanks on rail transport supplied to North Korean armor units, these tanks were top of the line in 1950s and gave formidable firepower to Communist forces. Compared with Chinese Communist PLA forces, a clear distinction existed between the Korean modern army and Chinese peasant army. Josif Stalin Tank - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IS-2

Rollover : Close-up of NKPA T-34/85 armor crewmen, displaying its unit banner. T-34 was a Soviet WW2 tank design with up-gunned armament to 85mm gun. T-34 tank - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-34

Chinese characters written on Korean tank banner is read via Sino-Korean Hyangchal method of using Korean phonetics to approximate Chinese sounds. Other Sino-Korean reading formats include the Idu and Gukyeol methods. Omniglot Korean Language - http://www.omniglot.com/writing/korean.htm

Kim Il-Song was the North Korea leader during the war, trained and indoctrinated by Soviets for 10 years before groomed for party lead. In early-1940s, Japanese Colonial forces were able to completely wiped out Korean resistance cells in Korea and partially in Manchuria with assistance from Korean defectors. Situation became so bad that no Chinese resistance cell would trust any Korean resistance member. Hence, with majority of Korean leadership killed or arrested, Kim Il-Song and surviving entourage fled to Siberia. Soviets saw potential of using Kim's forces for postwar political alignment. As with most Koreans from the northern region, he was also a fluent speaker of Chinese-Mandarin. Kim Il-Song - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Il-song

Kim died in 1994, at that time I was working for Nortel : a Canadian telecom transnational, a South Korean colleague of mine was so elated at this news that he ran throughout the halls of Nortel celebrating his death. I had to warn him that there may yet be North Korean agents masquerading themselves as common citizens in US, hence it was better to celebrate cautiously.

Soviet interest in Korea was a geopolitical desire to control its Pacific frontier, notion forwarded since the Czarist imperial era. With China and North Korea under Soviet leadership, South Korea and Japan would be the next target. Successful conversion of Japan to Communist rule would push US defense perimeter back to Hawaii.

Korea War was a result of misinterpreting foreign intent. US heavily leveraged its influence in China's civil war, attempting to forge a Nationalist-Communist alliance for nation state building. Unfortunately for the US, diametric forces in China was not a conflict of mere political parties, but a clash of ideology and civilization. Communist Chinese victory in 1949 forced a Nationalist Chinese evacuation to Taiwan, whereby the latter condemned the US Truman Administration for betrayal. In retaliation, Truman Secretary of State Dean Acheson testified during US Congressional hearing stated that US East Asia defense interest ran from Japan - Philippines - Indonesia - Indochina. Taiwan and its surviving National Chinese forces were deliberately left out, US anticipated Chinese Communists conquest of Taiwan by 1950.

Unfortunately, Soviets noted South Korea was left out of US perimeter, hence executed a forced unification with North Korea in Summer 1950. US was caught completely off-guard, she assessed fall of South Korea would endanger stability of Allied-occupied Japan. US forces was in lack-luster stated after 5 years of military demobilization, US Army, National Guards, and its Japan occupation troops were emergency deployed to Korean front. Lacking heavy weapons to fend-off NKPA armor, South Korean and US forces suffered continuous defeats until it was squeezed into the Pusan Perimeter by Fall 1950.