WI the Korean War drags on another year

[dsp19]

Say the political will was present in the United States and South Korea, and they decide to keep the Korean War going into 1954. Is it possible, with a POD no later than the Chinese entry into the war, for the United States/UN/ROK to win and for Korea to be unified under Rhee, with a buffer zone near the Yalu administered by the Chinese?

I've read that the Soviets and Chinese were getting sick and tired of Kim Il-Sung by late 1952 and wanted the war over. Stalin's death also played a role since Malenkov (the next Soviet premier) was not too fond of Kim

 

[TxCoatl1970]

Well, IMO there's basically two ways Korean War goes:

Either the USSR keeps backing Kim's attempt to unify Korea or they cut bait.

If they keep backing Kim, the thumb-wrestling continues, and UN participation drops with the sense that the front is stabilized and there's no longer an existential threat to ROK. Lots of allied troops leave, US gets them to leave their gear to equip the ROKA and either pay for replacements or replace it with new American materiel.
Kim's got no incentive to seek lasting peace, so pretty much OTL.

If the USSR cuts bait, Kim's forced to take half a loaf in a lasting peace deal or get clobbered.
If a peace deal's floated, PRC breaks with USSR a lot earlier for selling them out with the capitalist hegemonists on their doorstep.
Ironically, this might do the PRC a lot of international good b/c they could get American recognition and other goodies a lot earlier for splitting the Communist monolith.
YMMDV whether Dean Acheson or US Congress is willing to go for that.
No Red Scare post WWII might help with that.

 

[LeX]

As it was, the decisive part of the war was actually over after the PLA made their big push and kicked the UN out of North Korea. The DPRK, US, and USSR all wanted to called it quits but the PLA kept fighting much longer than necessary, mostly because Mao wanted an excuse to keep getting new weapons from the Soviets.