On June 25, 1950, at the encouragement of the Soviet Union, military forces of the North Korean People’s Army invaded South Korea in an attempt to unify the peninsula under communist rule. In November 1950, again at the urging of the Soviet Union, the military forces of the People’s Republic of China entered the war to push the United Nations forces further south. The Soviet Union provided military advisors and weapons, but no military forces. As surrogates for the Soviets, North Korea and China suffered over three million casualties. The Soviets suffered less than 5,000. Communist military casualties of the Korean War included 406,000 killed and missing and 1,500,000 wounded for North Korea, and 600,000 killed and missing and 716,000 wounded for China.